Artful Takedown

The "or both" clause is the entire design, and the timing of the tap mode is what makes it more than a bloated removal spell. Cast on a single target, this is a two-color removal spell where -2/-4 kills a fair body outright; the tap half sits idle, wasted overkill on something already dead. The card only earns its four mana when the two modes hit two different creatures: one dies, and one gets locked out of the coming attack. That second half is where the timing detail bites. Tapping a creature is a proactive answer, not a combat trick: a tapped creature cannot be declared as an attacker, but tapping one that has already been declared does nothing to stop its damage. So the tap is spent a step ahead, on an untapped blocker you want gone from combat math or a threat you neutralize the turn before it swings. That is why the flexibility reads richer than the rate suggests. One instant can be split into two answers, or spent entirely on a creature too big for -2/-4 to kill but too dangerous to let attack next turn. It belongs to a long line of blue-black tempo-plus-removal hybrids built to win from behind, where the question is rarely "can I kill it" and usually "can I survive this turn and the next," and the split lets a single card answer both halves of that question at once.