Beginning with the end in mind
One of the biggest problems control decks run into in EDH is the classic conundrum of “1 for 1”ing an opponent’s threat being bad. In EDH there is no true “1 for 1” because there are three opponents, and more often than not interacting outside of stopping someone from winning is only really beneficial to the other two opponents. This is because while their opponent (you) is going down an interaction piece, they (the two opponents who were not interacted with) haven’t lost anything in return. Most control decks spec into mass effects such as stax or wraths to remedy this, but I find the play style of wiping the board over and over while a sparse number of value pieces accrue value to be monotonous. I wanted a control shell that can 1. Control the board effectively 2. Not fall into the folly of losing value “1 for 1”ing 3. Be more explosive than your typical control strategy by threatening wins even when the board is not under control. These three things landed me on Taii Wakeen, Perfect Shot.
Drawing from interacting
Taii Wakeen’s first ability lets you draw a card when a creature is dealt damage equal to it’s toughness, which is used to turn our removal spells like Forked Bolt into cantrips. We can turn every Forked Bolt in the deck into a draw spell by using Taii’s second ability to guarantee exact damage. Most of the time these spells will remove two different creatures, and sometimes even draw multiple cards while removing multiple creatures with different toughness by using variants of Forked Bolt like Fury, Pyrokinesis, and Flameshot that allow you to deal different amounts of damage to each creature targeted.
This deck also runs a gross amount of Blazing Volley style spells, which are great for one sided wraths paired with Taii's activated ability, but they can also turn into massive draw spells. Most games people will have dorks or other 1 power creatures out, which Taii will draw a card from when dealt one damage. Killing creatures with 1 toughness is so easy for this deck and such a massive payoff that we even help our opponents make 1 toughness creatures with cards like Forbidden Orchard, Genesis Chamber, Varchild's War-Riders and Alliance of Arms. Giving opponents 1/1's in this deck makes you a huge threat; there have been games I've played where my opponents will use removal on one of these in order to deny me the insane card draw potential they provide. If opponents are removing your synergy pieces, while leaving Taii and your wincons alone, you're sitting pretty well.
Feel the burn
Taii's ability to increase noncombat damage is also really useful when it comes to closing out games, and can lead to some explosive wins your opponents didn't even see coming. Since the deck is already instant and sorcery heavy we can lean into that for how we close out games. Kessig Flamebreather style effects are the go to, since they will damage our opponents consistently as we are interacting with the board. These pings are also noncombat damage that Taii buffs up with her ability, so when you have 4 or 5 mana invested into Taii's activated all your spells are hitting each opponent for 5 or 6. Casting a few spells late game with a pinger on board will more than likely take players out. We further compliment the spellslinger win theme by running various rituals and MDFC's in acceleration and interaction slots just in case our pingers need that extra noncreature spell cast to close things out. There are also a few notable interactions Taii's ability has with specific cards that will close out the game on their own.
Grapeshot will straight up become a player removal spell if you time it right.
Boros Reckoner is a great blocker in this deck, but he can also act as a doubler for Taii's noncombat damage buff if you need a little extra damage to take out a threat. Targeting the reckoner with one of your damage spells applies Taii's buff to it, then the buff is applied again when reckoner goes to deal damage from its own trigger. Not to mention if you can make him indestructible things get stinky.
Goblin Sharpshooter can wipe the entire board with ample Taii ability investment by untapping itself each time a creature dies, but the cooler interaction in my opinion is if you cast a Blazing Volley style effect to wipe the board with Sharpshooter out. For example lets say Taii ability x=4, and you wipe a total of 8 creatures with a Blazing Volley style spell. You then get 8 untap triggers for Sharpshooter. If Taii x=4, that means each time you tap sharpshooter you can deal 5 damage, and with 8 untap triggers youre looking at 45 damage to some lucky opponent's face.
The same principle applies to Fiery Confluence, but this one is nice because it cuts out the middleman of needing to wipe creatures to gain multiple instances of noncombat damage. I've closed out games just by picking the middle path of Fiery Confluence three times with heavy Taii ability investment.
card:Repercussions speaks for itself in this deck; we are dealing damage to creatures, now all that damage is getting another Taii buff and going straight to face. Gross.
Along the same lines but with a little bit more style Toralf, God of Fury
rolls with the heavyhitters of this deck. Having decent Taii ability investment turns any instance of dealing excess noncombat damage to a creature into a chain reaction that you get to direct. It will wipe the board, kill a player, sometimes even both. Each time Toralf re-targets your excess combat damage it gets the Taii buff, and can get out of control pretty quick especially if we are already giving opponents weak 1/1 creatures. It's really hard for your opponents to build a board with Toralf out because they're just giving him more creatures to turn into a gigantic laser beam.
The thing I came to love about this list is that you're not always just tutoring for your one payoff, the win lines in this deck are nonhomogenized and it makes for really fun games. Some of them are pretty unique too, and if your opponents don't know whats coming you could be winning before they even realize it.
Meat and potatoes
The draw package is pretty light in this deck due to the fact that we will already be drawing a ton from interactiong with the board when Taii is out. Most of the draw has other purposes as well in the deck, like The Queen of Dale making 1/1's, Ashling, Flame Dancer dealing damage to creatures and making mana, or Path of the Pyromancer being a part of the only game winning combo I know about in the deck, going infinite with Underworld BreachGC and any ritual like Seething Song.
All of our interaction is speced into noncreature denial, since we have such heavy creature control already. I didn't even label the creature damage cards as interaction since they sort of turn into a hybrid removal/burn/draw spell in this deck. I felt as though they deserved theur own catagory. Indestructible creatures are the hardest thing for this list to deal with, as we only have Darksteel Mutation. The reason I didnt include exile creature effects are twofold: we would have to give up damage spell slots for it since we already are so creature interaction heavy, and there aren't that many good noncreature exile effects in boros for this list. The deck can usually outpace an indestructible beater or board as we have some nasty player removal options with damage tricks and Taii's ability. Notably, if you deal damage to an indestructible creature eaqua to its toughness, Taii will still draw you a card even if the creature doesn't die.
A few protection spells I made slots for, just because it helps one of your crazy synergy pieces like Toralf, God of Fury
stick on board longer, and once your opponents realize how many cards Taii draws they will try to remove her as well.
