Ordeal of Purphoros

The whole cycle paid an aggressor for committing to the attack step, and the red entry is the one that ends with a fire instead of a flourish. Two mana buys an Aura that adds a counter every time the host swings, but the payoff is back-loaded: the burn only arrives when the Aura is sacrificed, and the attack trigger only self-sacrifices once the creature is sitting on three or more counters. Note the threshold language carefully. It checks the total counters on the creature, not the number of attacks the Aura has registered, so dropping it on a body that already carries counters from another source can fast-track the sacrifice well short of three combats. That structure is the whole tension: a beatdown subsidy with a delayed reach payoff, three damage metered out across the race rather than handed over up front. The "any target" clause is what makes the back end matter, sending those three points at the face to close a game the attacks alone could not, or at a blocker to clear the lane. The trigger keys off the sacrifice, not the attack that usually causes it, so any other outlet that sacrifices the Aura still books the three damage. The real failure mode is the host dying first: if the creature is killed in combat or by removal, the Aura falls off as a state-based action without ever being sacrificed, so a clean removal spell denies the payoff entirely.