Rusting Golem

Fading creatures of this era almost always traded permanence for a discount: pay below rate, take a body that quietly counts down to zero before the upkeep clause sacrifices it. This Golem rewrites that bargain by making the counters do double duty. They are not just a timer; they are the entire stat line. Each upkeep removal shrinks the creature, so the body that lands as a 5/5 becomes a 4/4, then a 3/3, marching down the count. The end is the clever part: when the last counter comes off, toughness hits zero and it dies to state-based actions on the spot, never reaching the upkeep where the Fading clause would have done the job for lack of a counter. The decay is written into the combat math rather than buried in a rules footnote. Fading and the variable power/toughness pull on the same rope: attacking does not change the count, and nothing in the card touches the counters except the upkeep removal that diminishes it, so the clock only runs one direction. What lands is most threatening the instant it arrives and feebler every turn it survives, a beater that rewards spending it early, before the arithmetic turns against you. It is fading taken to its literal conclusion: lifespan and size are the same number, ticking down in lockstep.