Samite Alchemist

A textbook case of damage prevention designed by someone afraid of its own protective ability, defending a creature by half-killing it. The cost structure tells the whole story: two white mana plus the tap, then the creature you shield taps as well and skips your next untap step. Four damage prevented is a real number for the era, but the card charges for it twice (once in mana, once in the protected creature's availability) and stacks a delayed tax on top. Where a clean prevention effect like Healing Salve trades mana for damage and nothing else, this one mortgages two creatures' turns: the Alchemist sits there tapped, and so does whatever it just protected. That makes it a defensive engine that cannot defend an attacker or a blocker for long, because the act of protecting taps the protected creature and keeps it tapped through your next untap step. The 0/2 body is no accident; it is built to crouch behind the activation, not contribute to it. The friction valve is set so tight that the protection rarely earns its own setup. It reads as a designer hedging against repeatable damage prevention being too strong, then over-correcting until the safety becomes the limitation.