Jetting Glasskite

Removal spells aimed at this Spirit hit a wall: the first one each turn simply fizzles, countered before it resolves. That phrasing is the whole design. It is not protection (which would shrug off colors and let the creature ignore auras and equipment), and it is not hexproof (which would forbid targeting outright). It permits the targeting, then punishes the opponent for spending the spell, taxing their first attempt and forcing a second commitment in the same turn to actually break through. Against a control deck holding a single Doom Blade, the body sticks; against a deck that can stack two removal effects in a turn, the second one lands clean. The "first time each turn" clock is what keeps it from being oppressive: it resets, so a determined attacker is never permanently locked out, only made to overspend. As a 4/4 flier, it also does enough on the board that the opponent cannot simply ignore it and wait, which is what gives the counter clause teeth. This is the soft-protection idea that blue has returned to in various shapes since: a creature that does not deny interaction but makes the cheapest, most efficient interaction inefficient, converting a one-mana answer into a two-card problem.