Lots of upside with this little cowgal
While you could likely save some amount of money by trying to buy each card at its low point, this would be way too much work for the average Magic player (and also way too much work to calculate)
It can be cast at any time for its mana cost, plus an extra two mana for each time youve cast your commander from the command zone
But at the end of the day, it's always going to have value because this is a game about creatures attacking and blocking, and this will do so very nicely, either as a 4/4 flying haste-ed one, or just a 5/5 flying that can also shoot stuff if properly en-countered (say, by putting the counter on and not immediately swinging)
2010-06-15 Totem armor's effect is applied no matter why the enchanted permanent would be destroyed: because it's been dealt lethal damage, or because it's being affected by an effect that says to "destroy" it (such as Doom Blade)