Thallid Shell-Dweller
A 0/5 wall that does its real work three turns out, this is the patient end of the Fungus tribe: a defensive body that quietly stockpiles spore counters until it can spit out a token, then resets the clock and starts again. The defender clause is the toll for that engine. You are paying for a blocker that holds a ground stall together while the saproling production accrues in the background, not for a creature that ever swings. The cadence is what sets the card apart from older saproling generators. The counter ticks once per upkeep and a token costs three, so the natural rhythm is one Saproling every three turns, slow enough that the card asks to sit inside a board that wants bodies over time: sacrifice fodder, a buildup toward a mass pump, an attrition plan that converts the wall's longevity into a growing army. The 5 toughness is what makes the engine credible; it survives long enough to actually pay out, which a fragile token-maker never gets to do. Left alone, it is a one-card grindstone that turns durability into board presence, and the longer a game goes, the more the early investment compounds. It is built for the deck that plans to be standing on turn fifteen, not the one trying to win on turn five.
