Hazard of the Dunes

A 4/4 with reach and trample for four is a fine early attacker, a wall against fliers, a body that trades up in the midgame. The interesting part is what the creature becomes once the mana is there: for it detonates three +1/+1 counters at once, jumping to a 7/7, and then the option is spent for the rest of the game. That one-time cap is what lets a green fatty carry an oversized late-game payoff without the pump spiraling into a repeatable engine, the failure mode that has warped so many mana-sink creatures over the years. The counters are not incremental value you drip out turn after turn; they are a stored second act you spend when the board or the clock demands it. The reach-and-trample pairing shapes how the sink pays off, letting the finished creature hold a flying attacker at bay on defense and punch through chump blockers on offense with the same activation. Capping the loop at one is a cleaner solution than a rising cost or a summoning-sickness gate: it keeps the top end honest by making the payoff a single decision rather than an ongoing threat. The result is a creature that reads as a plain body until the turn it stops being one.