Stoneshock Giant

Six generic and two red, paid in a single activation on top of the five-mana 5/4 body, buys an alpha-strike trigger: the moment monstrosity resolves, every nonflying creature your opponents control sits the turn out. That is the whole transaction, and the steep cost is the point. Eight total mana on top of the initial cast is not a casual play, which is why the card reads as a haymaker rather than a value engine. The payoff scales with the board you have already committed. A lone Giant swinging through the gap is fine; a stalled red board suddenly clearing the ground lane is a concession demand. The flying clause is what keeps this from being a flat board-clear: only creatures with flying can still block, so reach does not save a defender (reach lets a creature block fliers, but it confers nothing here). And the Giant doing the swinging is no longer the printed body. Monstrosity 3 lands three +1/+1 counters first, so the thing crashing in is an 8/7, and any flier your opponent left untapped has to trade with that, not the 5/4. As monstrosity design, it sits at the punishing end of the spectrum, where the activated cost is built as a late-game mana sink to close a game already tilting your way rather than a midgame tempo lever. Reach the trigger and the math is rarely close.