Phantom Whelp

The drawback here is purely combat-flavored: this 2/2 attacks or blocks, then returns to your hand at end of combat, after damage has already resolved. That timing matters more than it looks. The bounce does not save it from a trade: it takes combat damage in the normal step like anything else, and if that damage is lethal, it dies before the end-of-combat trigger can rescue it. What the return actually buys is sustained reach. A body you can swing or block with, then replay turn after turn, paying the mana again each time to redeploy rather than committing a permanent presence to the board. The mandatory, combat-locked bounce is the cost: you can never simply leave it out as a stable threat, so every aggressive or defensive use becomes a recast next turn. That repeated return doubles as an engine, since each combat re-triggers whatever rewards a creature leaving or re-entering play, turning a humble body into a recurring source of enters-the-battlefield value. As a member of the broader return-to-hand vocabulary, it sits closer to a recurring threat than a fixed one: a 2/2 you keep cycling back into play rather than one you trust to stay put. The protection it offers is partial and conditional, undamaged after combat only if it survived combat in the first place, which is a more honest read than calling it untouchable.