Makindi Griffin

The defensive griffin, built to block rather than race. The 2/4 body inverts the usual flyer math: where most evasive creatures stack power to apply pressure, this one stacks toughness, trading the threat of attacking for the certainty of holding the skies. Four mana for a 2/4 flier reads as curve filler, and it is, but the body is doing deliberate work. It survives the small burn of its era, walls smaller ground attackers, and trades up or holds even against most aggressive flyers it will meet. A slow white deck wants exactly this: a roadblock with wings that buys the turns a controlling plan needs to reach the cards that actually close. The single keyword keeps it French vanilla rather than a true blank, and that lone word of text is the entire pitch, since the toughness only matters if the flying lets it choose its fights in the air. The flavor of a griffin as a guardian over open ground fits the stat line exactly, which is about all a creature with one keyword at common rarity sets out to do.