Hapatra's Mark

A combat trick built for a deck that intentionally poisons its own board. The hexproof half reads as generic protection, but the counter-removal clause is why the card exists: stripping every -1/-1 counter off the target undoes accumulated shrinkage that no other one-mana green protection spell can address. Where those counters come from is what tells you which deck wants this. Most often it is your own doing, the snake-and-counter aristocrats shell this color built around Hapatra herself, where spreading -1/-1 counters is the engine rather than a hazard. But opponents can pile them on too, through wither and infect creatures or their own effects, and the mark peels those off just as cleanly. The two halves cooperate at instant speed: hexproof turns off targeted removal and the targeted abilities feeding an opponent's plan, while the counter removal restores toughness a creature has already lost. Timing matters here, and the card is honest about its limits. A creature already at zero toughness has died to a state-based action before you ever get priority; you cannot cast this in response to that death. The window is the moment before the counters would finish the job, restoring the body while it is still on the battlefield. That narrowness is the design: the rider is dead text in any deck that never touches -1/-1 counters, and fully live in the exact archetype that treats those counters as a resource.