Stinging Shot

Green's relationship to flying has always been adversarial rather than evasive: the color cannot carry the keyword in any volume, so it answers what it cannot have by pointing spells straight up. This is that instinct in its most literal form, a one-mana instant that simply will not look at anything on the ground. The three -1/-1 counters are doing real work: enough to kill most fliers outright, shrink a larger one into uselessness, or pile onto something already damaged, and because the counters stick rather than wear off, the shrinkage persists past the turn. The restriction is the whole bargain. Narrow the target to creatures with flying and green earns a removal rate the color is not otherwise allowed, the same trade that has powered every "destroy target creature with flying" effect in green's history. What separates this from those older hosers is the cycling clause: a card that does nothing against a grounded board would ordinarily be a dead draw, but here it can be pitched for two mana to dig deeper instead of sitting inert. That is the quiet sophistication of the design, a color-pie enforcement piece that refuses to be a true blank. The floor is a cantrip; the ceiling is a permanent answer to the one thing green fears most in combat.