Raging Redcap

Double strike on a 1/2 is the cleanest way designers have found to turn a fragile body into a real threat: the printed power is one, but every point of added power counts twice on the swing, so the smallest buff pays double. That is the whole calculus behind this Goblin Knight. Unbuffed it deals two per attack and dies to almost anything; hand it a single +1/+1 counter, an equipment, or an anthem effect, and each added point of power resolves as two during the combat damage step, once for first strike and again for regular damage. The keyword also does quiet work on defense, since first-strike damage lets a 1/2 trade up against attackers that would otherwise get through unscathed. The two toughness is the tax on all of it: the card wants combat modifiers to matter, but it can be answered by the smallest removal or a chump block before the doubling ever pays off. It is a build-around at common rarity, a body that asks for a payoff rather than supplying one, and the Goblin Knight typing gives it a foot in two tribal doors at once.