Vampiric Dragon

The on-board ping is the engine here, and it changes what the eight-mana flyer is actually for. That repeatable jab does only one damage, so on its own it picks off X/1s and chips toughness; the payoff is the conversion clause that turns every kill into permanent growth. Anything this Dragon damages that then dies feeds it a +1/+1 counter, and the two abilities are built to feed each other: peck a creature with the activation, swing into it, and the death you caused leaves the body bigger than it started. Against a board of small creatures it snowballs into something a 5/5 never threatens alone, ticking up one counter per casualty per turn. The cost is the catch. Paying full freight for a creature at this rate means it lands late, and the growth only compounds if it survives a turn cycle to keep dealing damage. It reads as a finisher that doubles as a board-control valve, grinding the ground while it climbs out of burn range in the air. That dual function (removal that pays you back, and a clock that gets harder to race the longer the game runs) is a tidier package than the splashy tribal name suggests, and it rewards a grind far more than a sprint.