Ant-Man, Colony Commander

The clever structural move here is the once-per-turn clamp on the token engine. Green-blue counters decks have always wanted a payoff that turns each individual counter into board presence, but the obvious version of that ability (a token per counter, no limit) would explode the moment you added a proliferate effect or a way to distribute multiple counters in a phase. The gate keeps the second ability honest: no matter how many counters you scatter this turn, you make exactly one Insect. That reshapes how you sequence a turn, because the first counter you place is worth a body and every one after is just growth. The attack trigger's optional payment is what makes the whole thing tick without needing external counter sources: swing, pay one, grow a creature, and the second ability fires off that same event. What you get is a self-contained loop where the commander's own attack feeds the token maker, so a single 2/2 that has no evasion and no protection still generates a steady stream of blockers and future attackers. The counter target is any creature, not just your own, which matters less as a political tool than as a way to keep the engine online when your only good attacker is the one you most want to grow. It is a counters-matter engine built to survive its own best-case scenario.