Take the Bait

Goad, in its ordinary form, is a redirect on a timer: it forces creatures to attack someone else next turn, buying a round of peace by pointing the danger elsewhere. This collapses that delay into the combat already underway. You cast it during an opponent's declared attack, wall off all the damage aimed at you and your planeswalkers, then untap those same attackers, goad them, and grant a second combat phase in which they must swing again, now compelled to attack someone other than you if able. A lethal alpha strike pointed at your face gets fired sideways into your enemy's own allies, on your enemy's own turn, with your enemy's own creatures. The restriction to instant speed during combat on an opponent's turn is what keeps this from being a proactive tempo play: it functions only as a reaction to an attack that has already been committed, which is exactly when the boomerang stings most, since the attacker has already tapped its intentions onto the battlefield. Red-white has long owned the goad space, but most goad effects are one-way nudges, a suggestion about where to point next time. Redirecting a committed swing away from you, in a single instant, is the more theatrical expression of the mechanic, and the one most likely to recalibrate who a table decides to attack in the first place.