Leatherhead, Swamp Stalker

A 5/4 trampler for four with built-in protection sits at or above the format's curve ceiling on rate, and the hexproof counter answers the specific problem BG Midrange and GU Goodstuff hit when they land a four-drop into open mana: Stomped by the Foot and Grounded for Life both pick off bare threats before they connect. Leatherhead can't be touched by either on the turn she arrives, then converts that protected tempo into a permanent kill the first time she swings through.

P1P3 in any green seat, climbing toward P1P2 over most non-bomb commons once you're committed to green. BG Midrange wants her highest: the deck is built to grind, and spending a combat step on a Naturalize for Dimensional Exile or a parked Bespoke Bō is exactly the rate it needs to crack open stalled boards. GU Goodstuff treats her as a curve-topper that incidentally answers the artifact half of UR, which leans on its equipment and artifact creatures to win damage races. An RG splash values her lower: she's a fine body, but the question of whether to spend the counter is a midrange one, not a racing one.

Maindeck in every green deck that can cast on four. The constraint is exactly that double-green: a heavy splash shouldn't take her over a card it can cast on curve. The real tension is the pilot's, not the opponent's. The hexproof counter that keeps her safe is the same resource each kill consumes, so every artifact or enchantment she destroys strips a layer of her own armor. In a removal suite this light, holding the counter is often the right line; the conversion is a choice, not a reflex.

The counter does double duty here, but the math is the thing to internalize before slotting this anywhere: one hexproof counter means one guaranteed removal trigger, then she's a vanilla 5/4 with trample. That ceiling caps the engine. The card is a green attackers shell piece more than a value-engine staple, which means the commanders that want it want repeatable combat steps and a way to put counters back.

Hamza, Guardian of Arashin and similar +1/+1 counter commanders are the cleanest fit, since proliferate and counter-doubling effects refill the ammunition and turn a one-shot Naturalize into a recurring one. Klothys-style or aggressive mono-green builds also use her as the curve-topper that punches through and answers a Smothering Tithe or a key equipment on connection. This is Bracket 2-3 material: too synergy-dependent and too slow for cEDH, where artifact and enchantment hate is run as instant-speed disruption, not a four-mana creature that has to survive a turn and then connect.

Budget-wise she sits in the sub-$5 to $5-15 range as a recent printing, comfortable in casual builds that aren't optimizing every slot. Against Reclamation Sage and Acidic Slime, the comparison is honest: Sage is better when you want the removal now and don't trust the creature to connect, while Leatherhead is better in a deck already committed to attacking, where the body and the removal both earn their keep over multiple turns.

The multiplayer read matters. Spending the counter strips her own protection, so the trigger is a real decision, not free value. In a four-player pod, holding the counter as armor against a removal-heavy opponent is sometimes correct over killing a treasure rock. She's invisible in decks that don't attack.

A four-mana 5/4 trample with artifact and enchantment removal stapled to the body, for a midrange green Modern deck that wants its kill spell to attack. Reclamation Sage and its variants fire on entry without making you connect first, and a green beater is usually wanted to push damage, not to spend down its hexproof counter for a one-shot Naturalize. Legal, but it has not shown up in tracked Modern play this season, and no green deck in the format is built to want this exact bundle.

A fringe card this season, registered in a small slice of tracked Standard decks and usually as a one- or two-of rather than a centerpiece. The shape explains the placement. A 5/4 trampler for four that doubles as repeatable artifact and enchantment removal reads well on paper, but the conversion only fires when she connects, and the decks that want a green four-drop body this aggressively (the various Mono-Green and Gruul builds) already have threats that pressure the board without asking the pilot to spend their creature's own protection to answer a permanent. Where she does appear, it tends to be as a flex slot in those green-based midrange shells, valued more for the hexproof counter surviving the turn she lands than for the removal trigger, which is matchup-dependent: against an artifact- or enchantment-light field, the second clause sits idle. The trample and the optional "may" keep her from being a dead draw, but the rate is built for a slower, more permanent-heavy metagame than the current one rewards.

Leatherhead was released in March 2026 and rotates with her parent block in the fall 2027 cycle, the exact date pending Wizards' announcement, which puts her on one of the longer clocks in the legal pool. Nothing on the announced schedule changes the structural problem: she needs a format where artifacts and enchantments are dense enough that the conversion trigger pays for itself across multiple turns. If a slower, more grindy Standard emerges before rotation, the value-engine read improves; until then she stays a fringe inclusion.

A four-mana green beater for midrange decks that want artifact and enchantment removal attached to a body they were already going to play. The problem is that Pioneer green has cleaner answers: Reclamation Sage hits on entry without needing to connect, and most lists would rather run a real threat than gate their removal behind combat damage. Legal, but it has yet to register in tracked Pioneer play this season. Reasonable in budget mono-green stompy where the alternative is a worse five-drop. Cut once you have a curve worth defending.

A 4-mana 5/4 in a format where Black Lotus and two Moxen put a real threat on the table turn one, and Force of Will and Mental Misstep answer the curve below it. The naturalize-on-damage clause is a fair-creature rate; Vintage's artifact problems are solved by Hurkyl's Recall, Ingot Chewer, and the like, not by connecting in combat over multiple turns. The card pays the Power tax without offering anything the equilibrium asks for. A blip in the tracked data this season, not a fixture; noise.

A 4-mana 5/4 in a format where the most-played green creatures cost a fraction of this or do far more for the rate. The artifact-and-enchantment removal is gated behind combat damage, which is the problem: Legacy answers permanents at instant speed for one mana or less, with Abrupt Decay, Force of Will to stop them landing, and Wasteland clearing the way before this ever connects. A 4-drop pays the Force of Will tax going in, and the removal only fires on the turn after it survives a swing. Legal, but yet to register in tracked tournament play. Does not clear the bar.