Call to the Void

Symmetry with a hidden-information twist is a rare axis for black removal, and the secret-choice mechanic is where the real design work happens. Where an edict like Diabolic Edict lets the targeted player hand over their most expendable body, this forces every player to commit blind: you name one creature you control and one you don't before anyone reveals, so the payoff hinges on reading which creature your opponent least expects you to name and least wants to lose. The simultaneous reveal bakes bluffing into resolution. You can sandbag a decoy on your own side, or gamble on the board's most valuable body on the assumption its controller thought you'd play safe. And because the spell neither targets nor demands a sacrifice, an empty board is its own loophole: cast it while controlling no creatures and your own choice is simply void, so you pay nothing on your side while still taking a body from across the table. That escape hatch is what pulls the card out of the pile of unconditional destruction black has stocked since its earliest days. Usually you're feeding a creature of your own into the reveal, a guaranteed cost against an uncertain return; occasionally you engineer the situation where the cost disappears. The effect also scales in a way most black removal doesn't: more players mean more secret choices, more simultaneous casualties, and guessing that compounds with every extra seat at the table.