Bitter Triumph

Two mana for unconditional removal that answers a creature or a planeswalker with equal ease is a rate black has rarely been trusted to hold cleanly, and this design doesn't cheat that history so much as tax it. The tax is the whole idea: discard a card or pay 3 life, chosen when you cast rather than baked into the effect as a downside. That distinction carries weight. Paying life keeps the spell live when your hand is empty and this is the last card you're holding; pitching a card protects your life total when you're racing or facing down your own aggression turned back on you. The two costs fail in opposite situations, which is exactly why both are offered. Black has long sold power at a life-total discount (Sign in Blood and the old pain lands are the same bargain), but wiring that discount to removal this flexible sits at the aggressive edge of the tradition. The friction worth noting is that the cost lands whether or not the spell does its job: a whiffed target still burns a card or 3 life, so loose sequencing gets punished rather than absolved. This is removal built for decks that treat their own resources as ammunition, where three life or a spare card is a currency they were always going to spend.