Flip the Switch

The tax-counter template has always had an honesty problem: pay the tax and the answer accomplishes nothing, leaving the caster three mana poorer for a spell that resolved anyway. Soft counters survived that problem by handing the caster a parting gift, and this one leans harder into the give-back than most. The pay- clause is the trapdoor: when it fails, your counter has failed too, and the decayed Zombie is all that keeps the trade from being a full blank. That token is deliberately hobbled, a body that cannot block and eats itself after a single attack. It is a clock, not a wall, which pulls the whole card toward tempo rather than control. The intended line is to interrupt something early and leave a two-power beater behind to finish a game you were already racing to win. The math also cuts against you: an opponent holding open mana pays the tax without flinching, and you have spent three mana to let their spell through while gifting yourself a suicidal 2/2 that swings once and dies. This is counter-tax design that only balances when you are the aggressor, an answer whose economics assume you are the one setting the pace and just want to buy a beat while the pressure lands. Play it as a control piece and the token becomes a liability that dares you to attack into a board you were trying to hold off.