Oketra's Avenger

A 3/1 for two mana lives and dies by combat math: it trades down to almost any blocker and dies to a stiff breeze of incidental damage. Exert is the lever that rewrites that math. By choosing to exert as it attacks, this Warrior turns its own combat-damage prevention on, so it swings through a blocker that would otherwise eat it and walks away clean. The cost is paid in tempo, not mana: exerting means the creature skips its next untap, so the prevention is a one-shot you ration rather than a permanent shield. That tension is the whole design. A 3/1 wants to attack every turn to pressure life totals, but the survival mode demands it sit out afterward, forcing a real read on the board each combat: punch in safely now and stay tapped a turn, or hold the exert and risk the chump. It is also a strictly attacking ability, with no defensive application, which keeps the body honest as a beater that must commit to the red zone to matter. The shape suits a deck already committed to pushing damage and willing to accept the attack-then-pause rhythm, rather than one hunting for a stable blocker.