Decomposition

Color-hate enchantments from this era usually punished a hue with static taxes or pings; this one instead bolts a self-destruct timer onto a single black creature. Cumulative upkeep was a designer's lever for cards that should not stay on the battlefield forever, and grafting it onto an opponent's creature inverts the mechanic's usual function: instead of asking its own controller to ration resources, it forces the opponent to bleed life on a curve that steepens every turn (one, then two, then three) until they drown or let the body die. Dying carries its own penalty, costing two more life on the way out. So nothing leaves the battlefield immediately; the meter starts running and the creature's controller has to choose between hemorrhaging life and conceding the body, with a tax on both doors. Narrow by construction, since it only enchants black creatures, but a clean illustration of how a marginal upkeep keyword can be repurposed from a balancing cost into an aggressive clock pointed at someone else.