Hexdrinker

A one-mana 2/1 that answers a question mana sinks had never quite solved: how to make a slow, incremental investment worth the tempo it costs. Level up is a sorcery-speed money pit, and most creatures built around it were fragile things you had to shield while they grew. This one grows into its own defense. At the second tier it becomes a 4/4 with protection from instants, which is narrower than it sounds but sharp where it counts: the usual answer to a snowballing green threat is a targeted burn spell or bounce at the opponent's end step, and this shrugs off exactly that class of card. It does not stop everything cast at instant speed; a wrath that resolves later, an edict, a sweeper that does not target still gets there. Reach eight counters and it becomes a 6/6 with protection from everything, which locks out targeted removal, damage, and blocks, but leaves the door open to sacrifice effects, board wipes, and toughness reduction. That gap is the whole point of the design: even the top tier is answerable, so the card never crosses into unkillable. The tension lives entirely in the climb. Every counter is a full mana at sorcery speed, so the payoff is gated behind turns you spend not developing or holding up interaction. A mana dork's economy attached to a finisher's ceiling, and the card is only as good as your ability to afford the middle.