Spineless Thug

The two-mana 2/2 is the rate Grizzly Bears set, the baseline every common gets measured against. Black's version pays for itself by selling off a piece of that baseline: the stats and cost hold, but the option to hold the line is gone. The accounting is the lesson. A creature's offensive and defensive jobs are priced separately, and a beater that can never block has surrendered exactly the half of its value an aggressive black deck was never going to spend. The deck that wants this is already racing, already swinging every turn, already treating its creatures as clocks rather than walls. To that deck the restriction is invisible, so the rate stays clean rather than pushed. It is the same separation that justifies haste-only attackers and every can't-block aggressor black has shipped over the years. The flavor seals it: a spineless thug throws the first punch and bolts the moment the fight turns, a body built to attack that will not stand its ground. There is no hidden upside to find. The drawback is the entire transaction, and the deck that runs it has to be the one applying pressure for the math to come out ahead.