Shambling Swarm

Most -1/-1 counter effects are permanent: the shrink sticks, the creature stays smaller, and the math is settled the moment the counter lands. This one rents its counters instead. The death trigger distributes three -1/-1 counters across one, two, or three creatures, then claws each one back at the next end step, which collapses a permanent stat reduction into a single combat or a single window of opportunity. That timing is what the whole card is built around. As a removal proxy it can only kill creatures already low enough that three points of temporary shrink reach lethal toughness this turn, or it can split the trigger across several small bodies to clear a path for one swing. Anything that survives to the end step comes back whole. The black-heavy cost (one generic and three black pips) marks it as a card for a committed mono-black shell rather than a splash, and the death-trigger framing means the 3/3 body is meant to be traded or sacrificed, not protected. The restraint is the notable part: this is a counter effect deliberately defanged so its value lives in the timing rather than the permanence, an unusual bit of discipline for an effect that otherwise reads like a board sweeper waiting to happen.