Tread Upon

The trample rider is the whole argument for this pump spell over a flatter boost. Green's history is thick with tricks that hand a creature a bigger number for the same or less: Giant Growth grants +3/+3 for a single mana, and Titanic Growth pushes to +4/+4 at this same cost. What those baseline pumps leave on the table is evasion. Here, the +2/+2 is only half the payload; the trample reroutes where the damage lands. Against a chump block or a wall, the excess power spills over as life loss the opponent cannot fully soak. Against a creature a point of toughness short of trading, the boost converts a trade into a kill while whatever they throw in front still bleeds through. That reframing makes this a tempo tool wearing a combat trick's clothes: it wants a board you are already attacking with and a reason to accelerate the clock, and it rewards the aggressor converting presence into pressure rather than the defender scrapping for a favorable block. The size of the number is unremarkable next to green's other options. The destination of the damage is the pitch.