Aven Liberator

Protection granted at the precise instant a face-down creature flips: that timing window is the whole pitch. The card sits anonymously for , an unremarkable 2/2 that gives nothing away, until an opponent commits to a block or aims removal at one of your creatures. Pay the morph cost in response and the trigger fires, handing the targeted creature protection from the color of your choosing at instant speed. One keyword does the full slate of work: it fogs a blocker's damage, makes a removal spell whiff, or shoves an attacker past a blocker of the chosen color. The crucial design detail is that the protection goes to a creature you control rather than to the Liberator itself, so the blowout can land anywhere on your board, not just on the flyer doing the flipping. With morph paid up it settles into a serviceable 2/3 flyer, but the body is incidental; the value is the ambush. The opponent has to respect a flip they cannot see and cannot price in, which turns every attack into a decision and every removal spell into a gamble. This is morph used as a defensive trap, the deception weaponized: an opponent who treats your hidden creature as exactly what it appears to be is the one who loses the exchange.