Apothecary Stomper

A modal enters-the-battlefield trigger that splits cleanly between offense and defense, and never dead in either direction. The counters mode plays forward: two +1/+1 counters dropped onto an already-attacking board, or piled onto a creature that already carries counters, pulls a game's clock a turn ahead of schedule. The lifegain mode plays backward: four life is a real cushion against the fast starts that otherwise make a six-drop feel like it showed up late. Because the counters can land on the 4/4 itself, there is no board state that leaves a wasted choice; the Elephant can fatten itself or stabilize on the way down. Vigilance is what stitches the two halves together, letting the body swing for tempo while staying back to defend the life total it just padded. What results is a common-rarity green fatty engineered to be forgiving: no window to misread, no build-around, just a creature that tilts whichever way the game is leaning and costs nothing beyond its six mana to run.