Clinging Darkness

The -4/-1 split is shaped to gut creature-based aggression at exactly the weight class it lives in: the two- and three-power attackers padded by a single point of toughness, the X/1 token swarms, the utility one-drops that want to keep swinging. Against those, this functions as removal at two mana. Against anything with genuine toughness it only leaves a diminished body on the board, so it answers the curve rather than the top of it. Holding the toughness reduction at a single point is the deliberate choice: push it deeper and the card slides toward true removal; capping it at -1 keeps the effect as a tempo play that neutralizes attackers without trading up. The Aura framing weighs less here than it would on a buff, since an opponent who sacrifices the enchanted creature has still lost it, so the card does its job either way. The real fragility is narrower than the usual two-for-one fear: a bounce or blink resets the body and refunds nothing. But the -4 is its own quiet form of damage control. A trampler wearing this spills almost nothing past a blocker, because the power reduction does precisely the work a toughness reduction cannot. This is the cheap black answer that earns the most against decks built on small efficient bodies, and the least against the very creatures it would most like to stop.