Tormentor Exarch

Two of the oldest combat scraps in the game, bolted to a body as a single modal pick on the way in: either +2/+0 or -0/-2 on a target, with a 2/2 left behind to keep swinging. Neither half is large by design. The +2/+0 mode adds raw power and nothing else: no trample, no evasion, so it tips a race or reshapes combat math rather than forcing a creature past a blocker. The -0/-2 mode picks off anything with two or fewer toughness, or shaves a defender low enough that a trade swings your way; it fires once on entry and never again. That one-shot timing is the spine of the design, not a limitation grafted on afterward. This sits at the modest end of a long pattern of stapling an instant's worth of effect to a creature so the value outlives the spell: pay four mana, take a small choice as it enters, keep a small body once it has. There is no recurrence, no way to re-fire the choice, no flexibility after resolution. It is built for the deck that wants a creature first and a minor combat lever second, never for anyone asking the effect itself to carry the game.