Walking Sarcophagus

A 2/1 that grows into a 3/3, but only after the whole game has bent your way for three of your own turns. The engine here climbs at most one step per turn, and only when opponents are bleeding life, so the +1/+2 payoff sits behind a cumulative aggression tax rather than a single explosive burst. That gating is the design's spine: the reward flows to shells already piling on pressure and skips slower decks that hoard their life total. The Zombie Cat participates in its own condition, chipping in two damage each combat, but it cannot rush itself to the ceiling; the rest of the board has to be doing the same work, or the counter creeps. What you get for the wait is a creature that arrives fragile and hardens into a durable attacker precisely as the race tips in your favor, which is both the appeal and the ceiling: the upgrade is a trophy for winning the tempo battle, not a lever to win it with.