Sickle Ripper

Wither rewrites what a fragile body is worth in combat. Read the damage as permanent attrition, not the temporary kind that washes off at cleanup, and a 2/1 stops being a creature that trades and becomes one that disfigures: block it or block with it, and whatever lives walks away with two -1/-1 counters carved into it for keeps. The single point of toughness is what balances the deal, since this is a creature designed to perish in the exchange it ruins, spending its life to shave the opposing board down on the way out. The strategic axis is defensive math rather than tempo: it gains ground a point at a time instead of in a swing, taxing every block the opponent considers. Wither shares its accounting with infect, which later bolted the same -1/-1 logic onto a clock that also kills players; here the mechanic stays purely subtractive, with no poison and no path to the face. The whole appeal is the asymmetry between an expendable frame and damage the opponent can never repair.