Rimeshield Frost Giant

Ward reframes the old blue tempo problem. A 4/5 blocker for five was never going to survive on stats alone; the ability charges a toll on removal instead. Point a spot answer at this and you are paying its cost plus three, which turns a clean one-for-one into an awkward decision about whether the trade is still worth the mana. That is a defensive body wearing an offensive rider: it protects itself the way a hexproof creature does, but without the play-pattern problem of being unkillable, because the opponent always retains the option to just pay. The distinction matters. Ward sits between shroud-style untargetability (feels bad, warps games) and no protection at all (dies to any two-mana spell); it prices the answer rather than forbidding it. On the ground, that toll bites hardest when the opponent is mana-constrained, precisely the midgame window where a five-drop lands and a bounce or kill spell is the natural response. The body itself is unremarkable: a wall that occasionally attacks. What earns the slot is the tax, a reminder that a creature's real toughness is often measured in how expensive it is to answer rather than how many points sit in the corner.