Angelic Cub

Most creatures that reward being targeted do so grudgingly, offering a small consolation for the tempo you spend pointing a spell at your own board. Here the counter is the whole payoff, and it fires off any spell or ability, yours or your opponent's, the first time it happens each turn. Pump it, protect it, even nick it with a ping: whatever the effect, the first interaction of the turn leaves a +1/+1 counter behind. That once-per-turn clause is the governor on the engine, and it is what makes the flying threshold meaningful. Three counters flips a grounded 1/1 into a 4/4 that clears blockers, so the number reads as a schedule: it takes at least three separate turns of drawing attention before the body gets off the ground. Stacking four targeting effects on one turn does nothing extra; the ability sees only the first target each turn and ignores the rest. The tension is a fragile body that has to survive the climb against a growth rate throttled by the calendar rather than by how many spells you can afford. What it rewards is a deck built to lavish steady, repeatable attention on one creature over several turns rather than one explosive burst, which makes it a peculiar aggressive threat: one whose ceiling is set not by your mana but by your patience.