Orcish Cannoneers

The arithmetic is the whole problem. Two damage out, three damage in: every tap costs you three life while dealing only two, so the engine cannot simply grind value the way an untaxed pinger would. To profit, you have to convert that self-inflicted three into something the opposing two cannot answer, whether by closing a race you were already ahead in or feeding effects that reward bleeding yourself. The 1/3 body exists to keep the machine alive: defensive enough to survive a swing and tap again, never meant to attack. That self-damage clause is what stops a repeatable tap-for-burn outlet from being trivially oppressive; there is no free reach here, only a clock you have agreed to point at your own face. Ice Age leaned into this kind of asymmetric, painful activation across several of its red creatures, where the friction is deliberate rather than an oversight. Think of it as a removal-and-reach outlet whose currency is life rather than mana, a Goblin Sharpshooter that demands you pay for every shot in blood. Whether the trade clears depends entirely on what else in the deck is laundering that life loss into advantage, and managing that ledger is the entire game with the card.