Cruel Edict

Edict effects solve a problem that targeted removal cannot: the hexproof threat, the protection-bearing bomb, the shrouded monster that laughs off Doom Blade. By making the opponent choose what dies rather than choosing for them, this sidesteps every "can't be targeted" clause in the game; the creature is never targeted at all, so there is nothing to protect against. That structural trick is the whole appeal, and it comes with a built-in cost: the opponent picks, so a board of tokens or a chump blocker eats the spell before the real threat ever does. The design is at its sharpest against a single large creature and at its weakest into a wide board, which is exactly the tension that keeps it honest. Diabolic Edict and Geth's Verdict took the same one-creature-sacrificed template and added flexibility (instant speed, a life drain), but the bones are identical here: black trading two mana for the certainty that something dies, regardless of what shields it carries. The lineage runs deep, from Chainer's Edict through Liliana's Triumph and beyond, all of them variations on the same load-bearing idea that the cleanest way to kill an untargetable creature is to never target it.