Deity of Scars

A 7/7 trampler that arrives as a 5/5, dragging two -1/-1 counters in with it from the start: that is where the design knot sits. Those counters are not a tax so much as a fuel reserve. The regeneration ability eats one each time it fires, so every shield against destruction also pops a counter off, walking the creature up toward its printed 7/7 while keeping it alive. That is the whole tension: surviving and growing are the same action, and a player who burns counters to dodge removal is also closing the gap to a full-size finisher. The catch is the counters run out. Two regenerations and it is a 7/7 trampler stripped of its safety net, still able to attack and block but no longer able to weather destruction, so the ability is a clock against itself: every use is a point of survival you cannot spend twice. Outside effects flip the math entirely. Proliferate or counter-moving effects can stack more -1/-1 counters on it, which shrinks the body but reloads the regeneration tank, turning a self-growing threat into something that trades size for near-permanent resilience. The negative counter works here as dual-use currency, the dark mirror of the graft and persist designs of its era, handing the deckbuilder one resource that doubles as both the creature's combat ceiling and its insurance policy.