Judge's Familiar

The lineage runs back to Daze and the soft counters that preceded it: a body that doubles as a tax, payable at a price the caster can clear if they care enough. Where its ancestors bounced a land for the privilege, this one trades that flexibility for a flying clock and a hybrid cost that lets either half of an Azorius shell run it. The counter is a sacrifice, not a tap, and that detail does the real work: the bird sits on the board as a one-power flier applying pressure, then converts into a Force Spike the moment an opponent reaches for removal, a sweeper, or a key combo piece. That conversion happens at instant speed on their turn, so the threat is live even while you are tapped out and even after combat, something a creature you merely attack with can never offer. The tax is modest, so it rarely hard-counters anything past the early turns; its window is the curve, when one extra mana strands a spell in hand instead of resolving on time. A flier that demands an attention check every time the opponent casts an instant or sorcery, then cashes out for a stumble at the worst possible moment, is doing two jobs from a single mana: the menace it presents while alive is worth as much as the counter it eventually becomes.