Hydromorph Guardian

Protection from removal, packaged as a creature you can leave on the battlefield until the threat actually comes. The trade is narrow and deliberate: this can only counter a spell that targets a creature you control, so it does nothing against board wipes, sacrifice effects, or edicts that pick the target for the opponent. What it answers is the targeted kill spell, the bounce, the steal: the single-target interaction aimed at your best creature. Holding up the blue mana and a willing sacrifice turns a two-power body into an insurance policy, and the insurance only costs you the body once the claim is filed. The design lives in that conditional clause; restrict it to your own creatures and the counter becomes a defensive tool rather than a generic Negate on legs, which is exactly the seam Wizards wanted to thread. It also rewards a board state worth protecting: with one creature out, the Guardian is mostly a 2/2, but stack a few threats and the threat of the sacrifice quietly taxes every removal spell your opponent draws, since they have to read the open mana and the spare body as a possible blowout before they commit. A patient card, built for the player who would rather keep a key creature alive than answer the opponent's plan head-on.