Haze of Pollen

The Fog effect is one of Magic's oldest defensive primitives: spend a little mana, erase a combat step, live to untap. The problem with a Fog has always been the dead-card turns, the ones where nobody swings for lethal and the spell sits inert in hand. Most attempts to make the effect maindeckable staple value onto the front of the spell (draw a card, gain life, scry) so it is never fully blank. This design goes the other way. The prevention stays pure, a total wipe of combat damage with nothing bolted on, and the escape hatch lives on the back: cycle it for when the wall it represents is no longer needed. That cost split is the point. On any given turn the card poses a real read: hold it as a combat answer, or spend three and swap the brick wall for a new draw when the board no longer threatens you. A Fog you can only draw and pray is live becomes a Fog that never fully rots in hand. It also explains why the prevention is total rather than capped: a partial version without the cycling clause would be weak on both counts, while a complete blank paired with a release valve keeps the spell honest across the widest range of board states. The rate on both halves is deliberately modest, because the value is not in either mode alone but in getting to pick between them.