Scorpion, Seething Striker

The deathtouch here is not the payoff; it is the enabler. A 3/3 with deathtouch turns every attack and every block into a lethal trade the opponent is loath to make, and each of those trades is a creature dying under your watch. A death on your own turn arms the end-step trigger: a creature you control connives, sifting toward action and growing if you pitch a spell. What makes the loop tight is that the body doing the killing and the engine doing the rewarding live in the same card. You do not need a separate sacrifice outlet or a fragile combo piece; you attack, they block, something dies, and you get paid at the end of your turn. The design leans on the fact that deathtouch makes even a small creature a credible threat in combat, so the "if a creature died this turn" clause is far easier to satisfy than it reads. Connive itself does honest work as the reward: card selection first, a counter only if you had a nonland to spare, which keeps the growth tied to how much fuel you're willing to burn. It is a black midrange engine that wants to be in the red zone, punishing the opponent for engaging and punishing them again for not, then quietly filtering and growing at the beginning of your end step.