Dromoka's Gift

Five mana at instant speed buys exactly one thing: four +1/+1 counters, dropped onto whatever creature you control has the least toughness. That selection rule is the whole personality of the card, and it is a selection, not a target. Bolster chooses rather than targeting, so hexproof and shroud on your own creatures never matter and there is nothing to redirect; when several creatures tie for the smallest body, you break the tie yourself. The intended read is a generosity engine: a fat token or a mana dork suddenly becoming a threat. But the rate asks a lot. A permanent +4/+4 you can only steer onto your weakest creature is a steep price for the privilege of doing it at instant speed. The combat math is where it earns back some of that cost, held up through an attack step to turn a chump into a survivor and flip a trade, since the counters stick rather than wearing off the way a Giant Growth would. The friction is structural: bolster's auto-selection routinely disagrees with what the board wants, forcing the counters onto a 1/1 you would rather sacrifice while your real attacker sits untouched. This is a green pump spell built around a mechanic that prizes the meek, and the tension between "reward your smallest creature" and "win the game" never fully resolves in the caster's favor.