Zealot's Conviction

A one-mana Aura granting +1/+1 reads like a modest flash trick, the kind that steals a block or shoves a point through. What separates this one is the payoff gated on the opponent's poison total: once they sit at three or more counters, the enchanted creature picks up an extra +1/+0 and first strike. That upgrade ties to a resource you have to build somewhere else entirely, so the Aura scales with a poison-aggro plan rather than with anything printed on itself. That is a genuine deckbuilding requirement, not a rider: outside a deck actively pushing poison, the second half never arrives, and the card stays a plain flash pump. Flash does the connective work. Held at instant speed, it can ambush mid-combat, handing a first-striking body the edge exactly as the poison clock crosses three, turning a would-be trade into a clean kill. The countervailing cost is the standard Aura exposure: a single removal spell answers both the enchantment and the creature it improved, so any pressure the upgrade generates evaporates for one card in reply, and that fragility keeps the ceiling grounded. This is a support piece tuned to a specific clock, and the poison threshold is the line between a throwaway trick and a finisher.