Cycle of Life
A grow-engine bolted onto a counterspell vulnerability, and one of the stranger pieces of design from a set that loved fiddly enchantment text. The return clause sits before the colon, which makes it the cost of the ability, not a result: bounce the enchantment to hand for free, shrink one of this turn's fresh creatures to a base 0/1, then wait a full turn to cash that delay in for a +1/+1 counter. The friction is entirely in the timing window. Targeting must hit a creature you cast this turn, so this is a deployment-phase tool, not a combat trick, and the 0/1 it imposes once the ability resolves is a real liability against anyone holding a way to ping or shock the now-fragile body before your next upkeep arrives to bail it out. What you get for accepting that risk is repeatability: the enchantment is already back in hand the moment you pay the cost, so it functions as a reusable counter-factory rather than a one-shot pump, drip-feeding a single counter onto a new creature each turn you recast it. The math is deliberately slow. A card built to reward a board that develops steadily rather than one that wants its threats large and online immediately, with that self-inflicted 0/1 the price exacted to keep an otherwise free, repeatable counter source honest.
