Rampaging Cyclops
The drawback inverts the usual gang-block math. Most beaters reward you for forcing an opponent to commit multiple blockers; this one punishes exactly that, shrinking to a 2/4 the moment two or more creatures step in front of it. A single blocker leaves the full body intact, so a lone defender still eats four damage or dies trading; only the doubled-up wall saps the offense. The intent is to keep a cheap red four-drop honest on a stalled board. It presses an open or lightly defended flank at full size, but it cannot bulldoze a fortified line the way a vanilla 4/4 would, because the instant the ground clogs and multiple blockers gather, the threat deflates. That makes the debuff a lever pointed at the exact situation aggressive red wants to avoid: the grindy midgame where nobody can profitably attack. Nothing about the body distinguishes it; the conditional -2/-0 carries the entire design, a deliberate governor on a color that usually does not want to be slowed down. It reads as a product of an era when red beaters were routinely handed a downside clause tuned to the ground stall, trading raw pushing power for a stat line that behaves differently depending on how badly the defender wants to gang up.
