Bushi Tenderfoot // Kenzo the Hardhearted
A 1/1 that stays a 1/1 until a creature it has damaged actually dies that same turn: that is the whole gamble, and it is a sharp one, because attacking into open air does nothing for it. Something has to take damage from the Tenderfoot and then perish before the turn ends. That single requirement underwrites the back face, because Kenzo the Hardhearted is a 3/4 with double strike and bushido 2, and the two abilities compound viciously in combat. A blocked Kenzo swells to 5/6 from bushido, and double strike adds a first-strike damage step: the blocker eats 5 in that step, and if it survives to fight back, the regular damage step finishes the job for another 5. The puzzle is getting the front face there. The 1/1 dies to nearly any removal, yet it must secure a kill to flip, so the deckbuilding question is how to guarantee a death from something this fragile: a pump spell to survive a block and bury the blocker, granted first strike to land damage before the blocker can retaliate, or a ping to put away a creature the Tenderfoot has already wounded. It is among the cleaner specimens of early flip-creature design, where the front face poses a problem and the back face rewards solving it. The payoff does not end the game on the spot, but it turns a one-drop most opponents would trade with into a threat they have to route their combat math around.
