Underdark Explorer
No combat clause, no attack trigger, no card that needs to connect: the creature hits the battlefield and the initiative changes hands, full stop. That directness is the whole pitch. The initiative feeds the Undercity venture, a self-advancing engine that makes its holder venture into the Undercity every upkeep, triggering that room's effect, until an opponent takes it back by dealing them combat damage, so the real work here is not the 5/3 body; it is the delivery vehicle, and this is the least ceremonious one available. The catch is that entering the battlefield is only half the job: keeping the initiative means winning combats, and menace is offensive evasion built for exactly that, forcing two blockers to gang up if the opponent wants to trade. That is how a modest attacker keeps threatening opponents rather than getting chump-stopped by a single body. The three toughness is where it gets fragile: a resilient attacking shape stapled to a soft frame, so a burn spell or a favorable double-block cashes the whole plan, and the moment the initiative slips away the engine starts working against you. Cheaper initiative creatures exist and often hit harder for the slot; what this one offers is a bigger board presence in black, where the removal to clear a path already lives.
