Venomthrope

Three keywords doing three different jobs, layered onto a body kept deliberately small because the keyword density is the entire cost. Flying is the only one of the three that moves the creature past a ground stall: it puts the 2/2 in the air, where it can trade with fliers or apply pressure over the top. Deathtouch turns that small attacker into a combat deterrent that no amount of toughness answers; a blocker of any size dies to it, so the creature patrols the skies out of proportion to its stats. Hexproof is the piece that makes the pile stick, closing off the single targeted removal spell that would otherwise dismantle a fragile keyword creature for one card. The interplay is what matters: deathtouch and hexproof are not evasion, they are protection and a combat threat, and together they answer the two problems a defensive flyer normally cannot solve at once. How do you profitably block or attack into something bigger, and how do you survive being picked off before you get there? The deathtouch-flyer is a recurring design across colors whenever a set wants a cheap blocker that also holds the air, but stapling hexproof onto it converts the archetype from disposable speed bump into a persistent nuisance that must be answered with combat math or a board wipe rather than a spot answer. The plan it rewards is chip damage and favorable trades, not brute attrition.