Seize the Initiative

One white mana buys a one-point bump and first strike, two effects that mean little apart and reorder the damage step together. First strike on an unblocked attacker does nothing; the +1/+1 on its own rarely changes which creature dies. Stapled together in combat, though, they convert a fair trade into a one-sided one: your creature deals its now-larger damage before the opposing body can answer, so a clash that should have killed both ends with theirs in the bin and yours still standing. That conversion is the entire reason these two riders ride together rather than being sold separately. The same logic runs through white's whole line of combat tricks, but this one stays cheap by keeping the boost minimal: just a single point and the timing advantage that point unlocks. The leverage lives in the threat as much as the resolution; a held white mana taxes the opponent's combat decisions whether or not the card ever resolves. A low-rate trick for any deck whose creatures expect to be in combat and whose pilot is willing to leave a mana open.