Intrepid Tenderfoot

A 2/2 body with a mana sink bolted to it, built so a curve-out never becomes a dead draw. The activated ability is the whole pitch: three mana buys one +1/+1 counter at sorcery speed, a rate that will never be efficient in a vacuum but never wants to be. This is a floor-raiser, the kind of two-drop that trades poorly early and then refuses to stay a 2/2, quietly climbing every turn you have mana left over. The sorcery-speed restriction is what keeps it fair: you cannot pump it in response to a block or a burn spell, so it cannot ambush combat or dodge removal by growing at instant speed. That pushes the card firmly toward the beatdown role, where the counters are permanent and the growth compounds across a game the aggressor is trying to end anyway. It is a design green has returned to often, handing early creatures a way to spend flood without needing another card: a body up front, a threat late, and no reliance on a payoff you might not draw. Nothing flashy, and the counter accrual rewards a board state where you are already ahead rather than one you are trying to stabilize.