Lattice-Blade Mantis
Two oil counters set a hard budget on this body: two attacks that untap and grow, and then a plain 4/3 that taps out like anything else. The untap-on-attack clause is the design's spine. Because it lands without haste, the first fuel-burning swing comes a turn after it arrives, and each removed counter buys a 5/4 attacker that stands back up ready to block. That is pseudo-vigilance grafted onto a growth effect, and green almost never gets both on the same creature: the color reaches for static keywords or one-shot pump, rarely a stapled combination that lets the same body press damage and hold the ground behind it. Routing it through a depleting resource rather than a keyword is the interesting choice. The mantis is at its strongest across its first two combat steps and diminishes from there, a front-loaded curve that runs opposite to a creature designed to scale upward the longer it survives. The oil-counter mechanic that runs through this style of design offers a way out of the budget: adding counters turns two swings into an open-ended engine, and the card is clearly built with that refuel in mind rather than as a self-contained threat. Left alone, it is honest about what it is: a green midrange attacker with two turns of extra reach and pseudo-vigilance, and a plan for the turn the fuel runs dry.
