Scapegoat

Cast in response to a sweeper, this rewrites the math of a Wrath of God: you spend two cards (the spell and a single creature fed to its additional cost) to negate their one, but the creatures that would have died come back as cards in hand instead of corpses in the yard, so a wide board converts into a pile of regrowable threats. The sacrifice is the structural pivot. It reads like a drawback and functions like the engine, turning a board you are about to lose into a board you choose to keep. The instant-speed window is the load-bearing part: it defends your investment at the moment of attack, lifting a whole team out of removal range while still cashing in any death trigger the sacrificed creature carries. The "any number" clause does quiet work too, since this is a selective bounce rather than a forced full reset; you can leave attackers committed and rescue only the pieces that matter. It is fragile by design, asking for both fodder and a reason to want creatures back in hand, but against a board wipe the swing is enormous: the more creatures it saves, the further ahead the trade leaves you, all paid for with the cheapest body you control. The card looks like a combat trick on the spine and plays like an insurance policy on the board.