Vodalian Serpent

Islandwalk's poorer cousin, inverted. Like the old serpents before it, this one stays beached unless the defending player controls an Island to swim toward. That condition turns a mechanical drawback into a metagame bet. Against a blue deck it is a 2/2 (or a 6/6 kicked) that swings freely; against a red-green ground stall it is a wall that paid full price to do nothing offensively. The kicker is the hedge baked into the design: pay the extra two and you get a body that matters even when it can't attack, four counters making it a 6/6 blocker that trades up or holds the fort while you wait for the opponent to fetch the Island that unlocks it. It is a card built around the Invasion block's whole thesis, that you should be allowed to spend extra mana to smooth over a card's worst case, and the serpent's worst case (a board with no Islands anywhere) is precisely the scenario the kicker insulates against. The condition reads as flavor first, swimming creatures need water, but it is doing real work: it prices the card's reliability against an unknown opponent, and the kicker lets you buy your way out of the gamble.