Touch of Vitae

A pseudo-vigilance trick that pays for itself: the granted ": Untap this creature" effect lets an attacker swing and then untap before the opponent's turn, so it can block, while the upkeep cantrip means the spell replaces itself a turn later. The design reads like an answer to a problem early Magic kept running into: how do you give a creature flexibility without committing it permanently? Rather than printing a keyword, this hands the body a one-shot untap activation that lasts only until end of turn, then expires. The haste rider matters more than it looks, since it makes the card live on a just-cast creature or on something that would otherwise sit out the turn. The "Activate only once" clause is what balances the effect: you get a single untap, not a repeatable engine, so this is a momentary swing in tempo rather than a permanent edge. Green at its most quietly utilitarian, from before the color had settled on stompy beaters and ramp as its primary identities; the card is trying to be a combat-math wrinkle and a cantrip in one, an instant-speed answer to whether your creature can both attack and defend in the same cycle. The delayed draw, deferred to the following upkeep instead of resolution, is the small friction that stops it from acting as a free reload mid-combat.