Formless Nurturing

Manifest answered a structural problem green had circled for years: how to put a body and a hidden card in the same spell without committing to either being a creature. A face-down 2/2 hedges the question. If the top card is a creature, the manifest is an option you can cash in later for its mana cost; if it is a land or noncombat spell, you have still paid four mana for a 2/2 that this spell happens to grow to a 3/3 with the +1/+1 counter. That counter is the small concession that makes the rate readable: it gives the buried card a fixed floor so the spell never whiffs into a bare vanilla body. The interesting wrinkle is the timing freedom on the unmorph side. Because a manifested creature card can be turned face up at instant speed, the counter rides along onto whatever you reveal, so a creature flipped up later keeps the extra stat permanently. The unmorph also dodges a sorcery-speed window: you can leave the 3/3 down through combat, then turn a real threat face up during an opponent's turn at the cost of the printed mana. None of this changes that the spell is, on its face, a 3/3 for four mana with a lottery ticket attached; the design is honest about being a value piece that asks you to know what is on top.