Wings of the Guard
Melee is the keyword that reverses multiplayer's usual penalty: the more opponents you swing at, the larger the attacker grows, since the +1/+1 it gains until end of turn scales with how many players you bloodied this combat. This Bird is among the cleaner carriers of that idea. A single-opponent attack still pumps it to a 2/2 in the air; a wide swing across a free-for-all board can stack the bonus several times and turn a one-drop's worth of stats into a real chunk of evasive damage. The flying is what makes the math pay out. A ground melee creature has its attack steps gummed up by chump blockers and stalls, but evasion means the temporary boost converts directly into damage to faces rather than getting traded away in the dirt. The combination is the whole pitch: a body that wants to be pointed at everyone at once, in a format where spreading your attacks usually invites retaliation. That trade is the design tension melee resolves, paying you in board impact for the political exposure of attacking broadly. On a duel-focused table it is a small flier and little else; in the crowded games it was built for, it is a study in how a keyword can change what a 1/1 is worth depending on how many people sit across from you.
