Imoen, Mystic Trickster

A blue Wizard whose whole clock runs off a keyword-mechanic borrowed from the dungeon-crawl era: hold the initiative, and each of your end steps refunds a card, doubling once you have marched a dungeon to completion. The 2/3 body is small on purpose because the payoff is not combat math but duration, measured in how many turns you can refuse to hand the crown back. Ward buys that duration along one axis only. It triggers when the creature itself is targeted, so it taxes the point-removal or bounce that would kill the engine and reset the plan, but it does nothing against what the initiative actually invites: an opponent stepping across to reclaim the crown in combat, or an edict that forces a sacrifice without ever naming this Wizard. That is the honest shape of the protection, a deterrent against removal and a shrug against everything that comes at you sideways. The Background slot is the deckbuilding half, grafting a second commander's identity onto a card too small to cover its own weaknesses: bodies to survive the assault the initiative provokes, extra card flow, or the aggressive footing needed to contest the crown in the first place. Every choice points one direction. Seize the lead, insulate the engine from targeted removal, and let the end-step draws compound while you hold on.