Mistfolk

A creature that pays its own protection bill. The body is fragile by design: a 1/2 that any decent burn spell erases, except that when removal is pointed at it, you can spend a blue mana to counter that spell outright. That single-target clause is the whole point. The ability does nothing against board wipes, edicts, or anything that does not target the creature itself, so it survives the spells aimed at it and dies to the spells that ignore it. The result is a self-contained loyalty test for the opponent's removal suite: every targeted answer they cast either gets countered (sent to the graveyard for nothing) or forces them to overload with a second spell, while sweepers and sacrifice effects walk right past the shield. The card stakes out the "hard to kill, easy to ignore" axis of blue creature design, the same friction that later Illusions would lean on with downside triggers and bounce effects. The counterspell is stapled to a body rather than held in hand, which means the protection is only as good as the mana you keep open turn after turn. Keep one blue up and the creature is annoyingly sticky; tap out and it is just a 1/2 hoping nobody draws a removal spell.