Common artifact creature?

Not sure how I feel about this. Basically, you pay 2 life to make it a good blocker until end of turn. I guess I'd prefer to have a creature with more simple utility than one with significant costs like life in order to function.

This could simply be a 3/3 with defender

How about make it an artifact creature with cycling? That way it'd reflect our mechanics and themes better, and kind of bring cycling back in because Deserted Manalith was taken out.

Was thinking about making the cycling cost to kind of fit in with the single mana cycling cycle but we have 1 card that makes colorless mana at common so thats not going to work. just feels too powerful.

Don't know if it'd be considered pushing it, but it'd feel perfectly symmetrical if the P/T was 2/2. And I like symmetry when practical.

Would be pushed hard. A colourless bear with upside in Common? Better not, I like symmetry too, but that would push it hard.

This can't be better than what blue gets for 2 mana, and blue doesn't gets bears. Blue barely gets Curio Vendors with minor upside.

Well, there also was Narnam Cobra in the same set, which is better than Curio Vendor most of the time. Like the Cobra, this gets hit by more Removal than other creatures in this set. If it's still too good you might want to make it unable to block.

The Cobra isn't better in a blue deck though, only in a green deck. And green gets better creatures than a 2/1 deathtouch, so that's fine. My point is that this can't get any better, not that it's too good already.