Crux of Fate

Black has accumulated a long shelf of undifferentiated "destroy all creatures" effects, and the modal split is what pulls this one off that shelf. Choosing between wiping every Dragon or wiping everything that isn't one folds a tribal payoff into a five-mana wrath: a Dragon-heavy list can clear the ground and leave its own flyers airborne, which is the tension the whole design turns on. The non-Dragon mode is the one most players actually cast, and it does the classic wrath job with a caveat written into the choice: it spares opposing Dragons by definition. The extra mana over the standard four-mana wrath (Damnation costs ; this costs , a single generic more, same two black pips) buys the option itself, not a stapled rider. You are paying for the fork, not for a tacked-on effect. The flavor earns its keep, framing the sweep as the clash that settles a war of dragons and letting the modal choice stand in for which side walks off the field. The Dragon-destroying mode is rarely the reason to run the card, but it exists as a release valve for the mirror: a clean answer to the exact archetype the other mode is built to protect. That fork, and not the wrath template underneath it, is what makes the card worth reaching for over the flatter sweepers around it.