Pit Automaton

A 0/4 wall that taps for mana no other spell can touch, and that is the first hint at what it is really for. The colorless it produces is spendable only on activated abilities, which pins the Automaton to a single job: fueling the steep, once-per-game activations that the exhaust keyword prices so high precisely because they never recur. The second ability is where the design gets pointed. Spend two, tap the construct, and the next exhaust ability you fire that turn gets copied, with new targets allowed. That quietly hands back the reusability the keyword was built to withhold, if only for one turn: a mechanic designed to give you one shot suddenly gives you two. The sequencing is a same-turn decision rather than a telegraphed one. You pay and tap, then fire the exhaust activation you want doubled, so the cost measures which single ability is worth the setup, not a commitment made a turn early. Because the copy takes new targets, the ceiling is a redistributed effect and not just a repeated one: a removal exhaust reaching a second creature, a token maker split across two boards. The Defender body keeps it an engine piece rather than a clock, which is the honest frame for support this specialized. It is scaffolding for a keyword that lives and dies on how much you can wring from activations you only get once.