Stonehands

A repeatable pump aura built on a clean split between its two halves: the static bonus runs along the toughness axis, and the activated half feeds power for as much red mana as you can pour in. By parking the permanent buff on +0/+2, the card hands the enchanted creature durability for free, making it a better blocker the moment it resolves, while the ability lets the controller spend mana to convert a defensive body into an offensive one on the turn it needs to attack. Nothing about the activation is gated by sorcery speed, so the power can be pushed up during combat, after blockers are declared, while an opponent's removal sits on the stack, whenever a red mana is available. The cost is the obvious one for any aura: it commits two cards to one creature and falls off entirely if that creature dies, which caps how far an open-ended pump can run. This is an early stab at the mana-sink aura, the kind of permanent that wants extra mana to do something rather than sitting inert, and the structure (cheap floor, expensive but uncapped ceiling) is a shape red has returned to many times since.