Earthen Goo

Every age counter does two jobs at once: it adds a point of power and toughness, and it raises the rent on keeping the body alive. That dual function is the whole shape of the design. It enters as a bare 2/2 with no counters, and only at its first upkeep does the meter start: a counter goes on, the body becomes a 3/3, and from there size and cost climb in lockstep. A 4/4 is paying two mana a turn, a 5/5 is paying three, and the curve never flattens. The flexible upkeep, payable with either red or green, is the single concession to playability, letting a Gruul base feed it from either half of the manabase. But the cost compounds with no off-ramp, and that is the trap the card is built around: you cannot bank the size and stop paying, because the turn you skip the upkeep the creature is sacrificed, counters and all. The trample is the tell about how it wants to be used, as a swing-now threat you cash in before the rent outpaces your land drops. It inverts the usual growth creature, where scaling up means spending less per point of stats over time, not more. Here the curve bends back on itself, and the real decision is how many turns you can afford the body before it eats the rest of your game.