Evolved Spinoderm

A 5/5 for four mana sits above green's fair rate, and the counter clock is the invoice. Entering with four oil counters, the body has hexproof while it holds three or more of them, which means two upkeeps of protection from targeting: through the removal that ticks it from four to three and on until the removal that drops it to two. On that upkeep it drops to two, hexproof flips to trample, and the beater that was safe becomes exposed just as it starts pushing damage through blockers. Two more upkeeps and the last counter comes off, at which point the card sacrifices itself. This is a lease, not a purchase: a single window of protected, unanswerable pressure with a hard expiration built into the same mechanic that grants it. The sharp part of the design is that the protective states never overlap the way you would want them to. You get evasion or you get safety, never both, and the state you occupy is dictated by a clock you would have to work to pause or reset. Oil counters elsewhere are a resource to accumulate; here they are a self-inflicted countdown, spent down rather than built up. It rewards a plan that closes the game inside a handful of turns, where a disposable five-power body that shrugs off targeted removal for its first turn on the board is a fair trade, and it punishes any deck hoping to lean on it as a durable presence. The trample tail is the consolation prize, arriving right as the creature is already on its way out.