Brain Maggot

Hand attack repriced as a board-state problem, where the smallness of the body is the feature, not the cost. Tidehollow Sculler walked the same path with a 2/2 that gave its hostage back the moment a blocker or a removal spell traded with it. This one stretches the body thinner still, down to a 1/1 that any aggressor ignores on its way to a real threat, and that neglect is exactly what keeps the stolen card buried. A creature with no combat relevance rarely dies in the natural flow of a game; opponents have better things to point removal at, so the exile holds by default rather than by your protection. Every turn the Insect survives is a turn the opponent's plan stays one card short, and that arrow runs both directions: the durational nature of the lock means the moment it dies, they get the card back whole. The enchantment-creature type line widens the surface they can answer it through (creature removal and enchantment removal both reach it), and there is no clever sacrifice trick to make the exile permanent: the oracle text is a single clause tied to the creature's presence, so the card returns the instant the Maggot leaves. The disruption is targeted and temporary by construction, which is what separates it from the permanent stripping of a true discard spell.