Strict Proctor
Torpor Orb taught players that enters-the-battlefield triggers are a whole category worth attacking, and this refines that idea into something both wider in reach and gentler in touch. Where the artifact hard-shuts every creature ETB, the taxing clause here is a soft lock: the trigger still tries to fire, but its controller must pay or watch it get countered. That distinction turns a binary hate piece into a tempo tax, one that punishes decks leaning on stacked enters-the-battlefield value while barely inconveniencing an opponent with a single trigger and mana to spare. The scope reaches past creature ETBs, too: any permanent entering that provokes a triggered ability is fair game, so it catches saga chapter-one triggers, artifact and enchantment ETBs, and the token-swarm engines that stack a dozen triggers a turn. The wrinkle is symmetry: the tax applies to your own permanents as readily as the opponent's, which asks the deckbuilder to run a low-trigger shell or accept paying tolls on their own cards. The 1/3 flying body is not incidental. It blocks the early aggressive creatures a prison piece tends to invite onto the battlefield and chips in above the ground on a stalled board, so the card keeps earning its slot after the disruption stops mattering. It is a Spirit Cleric that plays like a soft prison card wearing an evasive blocker's clothes.





