Sneak is the format's load-bearing mechanic, and a one-mana deathtoucher works both sides of the math it creates. Cast it early and it gates the ground: any single Sneak attacker has to commit a second body or eat a one-for-one trade it did not want, because no one runs a 2/3 into a 1/1 that kills it. Hold it and the same block tax flips into a clock, since the toughness of the format's commons stops meaning anything once the blocker dies anyway. The clean answer is removal, and TMT's common suite (Stomped by the Foot, Grounded for Life, Dimensional Exile) mostly costs two or three. That gap is the pitch: the deathtoucher does work for a turn or two before anyone spends a card on it.
That pushes the pick band above the body's raw rate. BG Food, where black is a base color, wants it as a recurring sacrifice piece that also polices the ground while you assemble Food. WB Legends, also base-black, wants the one-mana body that screens a turn-three Turtle and routes attackers around the block. Both take it P1P5 to P1P7, ahead of the filler 2/2s. The single black pip is a virtue here precisely because neither deck is splashing it: a one-drop you cannot reliably cast on curve is a dead card, and base-black decks never have that problem.
The Squirrel Mutant line is gravy in a draft shell. It does not hurt, and in a set this thick with legendary tribal payoffs the type box occasionally earns a slot a generic bear would not. Where it stops mattering is the late game in any base-black deck: once both sides have removal up and boards stabilize, a 1/1 with no evasion of its own is the least relevant card on your battlefield, and Bot Bashing Time clears it for one mana the turn the opponent decides it has overstayed.
