Jeweled Spirit

Protection-on-demand is the gimmick, throttled by a payment that scales with how badly you want it. The activation is repeatable and instant-speed, so a 3/3 flier can dodge a removal spell, slip a combat block, or shrug off an artifact answer, but every use eats two lands off the battlefield. That self-cannibalizing rate is the constraint that keeps an evasive body with a flexible shield from being oppressive: the more often you protect it, the faster you mortgage the mana that would let you do anything else. It belongs to an era that leaned on land sacrifice as a recurring resource, where Rhystic effects and "give up lands to do something" abilities ran through a whole block, and it slots into that economy as a creature that only gets more dangerous the further behind on mana you are willing to fall. The protection clause is unusually broad for its time, covering artifacts or any one color, which makes it a moving target rather than a fixed answer: an opponent cannot durdle a kill spell behind a known color, because the shield reshapes itself in response. The friction is the whole point. An attacker you can shield against a chosen threat on demand, paid for in the slow erosion of your own board.