Putrid Goblin

Persist on a chassis stripped down to nothing but the recursion. This is a creature designed to die twice: it comes back one size smaller the second time, which turns a 2/2 into a component rather than a threat, something that feeds a sacrifice outlet, blocks and blocks again, or produces two death triggers from one investment. The catch is the counter it returns with, and that counter is where the deckbuilder goes to work. Pair the mechanic with any effect that removes -1/-1 counters (a way to move or clear it) and the second body stops arriving diminished: it comes back clean, ready to die and return again, with the loop only closing when something else does. That interaction promotes this Zombie Goblin from curve-filler to combo piece. Left alone, it is a durable two-drop that trades up and lingers; slot it alongside a counter-remover and a sacrifice engine and it becomes an infinite-death subroutine, the kind of small black creature aristocrats and drain builds have always wanted between their payoffs. The design lineage runs older than the card: persist first showed up attached to bigger, splashier creatures where the recursion was a bonus on top of a real body. Shrinking the mechanic down to a bare cheap frame is the move that matters here, since there are no wasted stats to pay for, just a creature that keeps showing back up until you tell it to stop.