Flitterwing Nuisance

Ships pre-taxed. A 2/2 flier for a single blue mana would be an aggressive rate, so this Faerie enters shrunk to a 1/1: every point of value from here has to be bought back. The penalty is fuel, not just a brake. Spending to strip the counter grows the body back to its printed 2/2 and simultaneously arms a combat-damage draw trigger that watches your entire board rather than this creature alone, so the more evasive width you have swinging, the harder the activation pays. Both halves pull the same direction: a bigger creature and a card engine at once, but by default only once, and only for the turn you spend the mana. Leave the penalty in place and you keep a stealthy 1/1 flier holding its charge; pay to clear it and you commit to a single refuel window keyed to that turn's connections. It is a battery that fires once per counter you can remove, and the sequencing puzzle (which combat step is worth spending it on) is where the skill lives. The steep activation means this is never an early nuisance so much as a mid-game pivot from beatdown into refuel: a creature whose own stat penalty is the resource, and whose combat step is the payoff.