Mossdog

Punishing your opponent for interacting is the whole pitch. The trigger keys off any spell or ability an opponent controls that targets it, and because triggers go on the stack above the spell that caused them, the counter lands before that effect resolves: a bounce spell sends back a 2/2, a tap effect taxes a card and grows the body anyway, and even a "helpful" pump from across the table swells it. That ordering matters more than it looks. Against a damage spell, the counter resolving first can save the creature outright when the damage exactly matches its pre-trigger toughness; a one-damage burn spell aimed at it as a 1/1 finds a 2/2, and the damage no longer kills. The design discipline is in the body. A 1/1 floor keeps the upside earned rather than free, and the growth only ever happens on the opponent's clock, not yours; left alone it stays a 1/1, which is precisely why it works as bait. The flaw is just as plain as the pitch. A disciplined opponent declines the bait, answering it with combat or a sweeper that hits the battlefield rather than the creature and sidesteps the trigger entirely. It taxes the player who reaches for spot removal by reflex and does nothing to the one who waits, which makes it less a threat than a referendum on how patient the opponent across the table is willing to be.