Consul's Shieldguard

A 3/4 for four mana that arrives with two energy and a combat clause pointing outward, never inward: it can protect anything on the attack except itself. The attack trigger is the part worth reading carefully. When attackers are declared, the trigger goes on the stack and you choose its target then, but the decision to actually pay the energy is deferred to resolution. That split matters. Both players get priority before the ability resolves, so you can watch your opponent hold up mana, watch them tap out, or see whether they crack back with an instant during that window before committing the energy to the creature you already named. Because the indestructible lasts until end of turn, the shield covers more than the combat step that produced it: a destroy-based kill spell aimed at that creature later in combat, or in the second main phase, bounces off it just as a board wipe would. What it does not do is answer threats you never sent to the red zone. The energy only flows when this creature attacks, so a shield spent covering one swing is a shield you cannot repurpose for a topdecked removal spell on a blocker sitting back at home. The two counters buy two protected attacks if nothing else feeds the pool, after which it settles into a plain body. Fed by a steady energy engine, the second ability stops being a finite trick and becomes a standing tax on every blocker an opponent wants to trade into your best attacker. It scales with how much you have invested in the mechanic, not with anything on its own type line, and it rewards building the alpha strike around it rather than holding it back as a reactive save.