Scourge of the Throne
The extra-combat Dragon usually comes with a punishing rider: Aggravated Assault costs five mana every turn, Combat Celebrant wants to exert and skips its own next untap, Hellkite Charger demands a fistful of mana to repeat. This one bills the privilege not to its controller but to the table, gating everything behind two conditions that have to line up at once. The engine fires only on its first attack each turn, and only if that attack points at the player with the most life (or tied for it): satisfy both and you collect a bonus combat phase with every attacker untapped, on top of the Dethrone counter. The gate is self-correcting in a way that reads almost diplomatic. Connecting tends to knock that player out of the lead, so the extra phase wants to be aimed at whoever is climbing and then loses fuel once the crown changes hands. The untap is the quiet half: it refreshes not just this Dragon but every creature that swung, so a board of attackers gets a second alpha strike rather than a lone flier poking in twice. A 5/5 flier is an unremarkable rate at six mana on its own; the design loads all of its power into the requirement that someone is sitting out ahead. The tie clause keeps it live in a duel, firing whenever an opponent leads or the totals are level, but a clean hit pushes you in front and shuts the engine off until they climb back, so the recursion always compounds for whoever is chasing rather than closing.
