Ridgetop Raptor
Double strike on a four-mana 2/1 is a keyword stranded on the wrong body. The mechanic exists to double whatever raw power stands behind it, and this Dinosaur arrives with two power and one toughness: enough to clear small blockers in the first-strike step (anything with one or two toughness dies before it can swing back) but nothing the keyword can leverage on its own. The four damage it would deal unblocked is respectable and almost never collected, because a single removal spell or a blocker with three toughness erases it in either step. The Raptor's real value is as a target rather than a creature. Every aura, anthem, or pump effect counts twice through double strike, so one +X/+0 buff swings the combat math harder here than on a comparable vanilla beater, and a trample enabler turns the surplus into a kill. That reframes the card from an on-curve four-drop into a payoff waiting for a Voltron shell to commit to it. The instructive contrast is with plain first strike: first strike kills the blocker before it bites, but double strike means the second hit lands too, doubling whatever you have layered on top. Cast bare, it is a fragile beater; handed a single well-timed buff, it doubles its output in front of an opponent who was pricing it as a 2/1.

