Last Week of DTK/DTK/FRF draft and you want to force something silly?
Might I suggest the GU Conifer Strider / Taigam’s Strike deck for this FNM?
For those that have used this synergy, you’ll know how awesome it is. For those that haven’t, you’ll soon know how great it feels to deal 14+ damage over the course of turns five and six, and likely win the game at that point.
The Synergy
Conifer Strider is an okay card by itself; with hexproof, it is very hard to kill outside of combat. Due to its 1 toughness, it’s also a great bolster “target”, adding some resiliency once a big bolster spell has gone off. However, you aren’t aiming to do that. You just need the Strider by itself, and at common, they will be plentiful enough that you can likely get it before anyone else gets to since there will generally be “better” green cards in the pack.
Taigam’s Strike is not a good card by itself, which means you’ll have almost no competition getting it. At common, you can just grab them all, even catching it on the wheel if you decide to grab the support cards first. 2-3 copies of both cards are a good minimum.
What’s the damage?
Since both cards are at CMC 4, you’ll hopefully have dealt a bit of damage in the first four turns of the game, drop the Strider, then cast Strike on turn five. With the rebound on turn six, you get 14 damage through without them being able to do anything.
Support
Because the Strider can only do 14 damage (unless you draw multiples, which hasn’t happened to me yet, sadly), it’s important to deal some damage ahead of time.
Elusive Spellfist plays a few roles here. With Taigam’s Strike and the Strider, that means 18 damage by turn six, unless your opponent wants to use removal on a two-drop. Any other noncreature spells you cast can also help to get that extra damage in earlier before you surprise them with the Strider Strike. Defensively, it also blocks early game small creatures and morphs to make sure you can comfortably perform the Strider Strike.
Gudul Lurker can be acquired pretty easily; they are usually not a high priority for other blue players. However, as an uncommon, you might not get a chance to see these. The extra evasion here just helps you get more damage in, but if you have the Strider Strike in hand, you might not even megamorph it until turn six for the finishing blow.
Ojutai Interceptor is just another card that has an evasion option if you haven’t drawn the Strider Strike. Just like the Lurker, you will probably play it as a 2/2 just to get it out. If you don’t have the Strider in hand, you will probably megamorph this over the Lurker to deal some damage, or potentially cast...
Hunt the Weak is just useful for removal here. If your opponent hasn’t cast another creature, you can probably use it on one of your morphs to kill their one creature, then bash in for 3. If for some reason you still haven’t drawn the Strider, megamorphing the next turn at least provides a reasonable threat on the Interceptor, or guaranteed damage for the Lurker. With only one pack of Fate Reforged, your focus at this point is mainly on removal or tempo to push through for more early damage, and remove blockers in case your creatures aren’t unblockable for some reason.
Weaknesses
Though you probably won’t see them game one, counterspells give the blue opponent three chances to disrupt your end game. I mean, you might still win anyway with your low curve of unblockable creatures, but that’s not the point of this deck. The point is to kill your opponent with 14 unblockable, nearly uninteractive damage.
Sweepers generally ruin things for any player, but since Conifer Strider has 1 toughness, damage or -1/-1 based Sweepers that would exist at lower rarities like Seismic Rupture or Minister of Pain could come out and ruin your turn six.
Forced sacrifice will only hurt if you don’t have another creature, or in the case of Self-Inflicted Wound, if you have Conifer Strider as your only green creature.
Story Time
I was at GP Montreal this past weekend, playing side events, and I didn’t mean to draft this deck. As a result, I only ended up with 2 Conifer Striders and 1 Taigam’s Strike. But luckily, I also got 2 Hunt the Weak and 2 Whisk Away, and 1 Gudul Lurker and 1 Ojutai Interceptor. Whenever I lost, it’s because I didn’t draw the Taigam’s Strike. But the support cards guaranteed me a fighting chance, and if I drew the Taigam’s Strike, I would kill them and they had nothing to fight me with.
One particular opponent apparently had recently debated with one of his friends about whether or not Taigam’s Strike was a good card. He was anti-Taigam’s Strike, but then I beat him with it, twice. Of course, the card itself it pretty poor. But on a hexproof 5/1, how can you argue with the results? I have never seen another player so soul-crushed, so defeated by a card he thought was terrible. Oh yeah, I went on to split in the finals, so my deck was at least pretty decent.
