Diabolic Edict

The answer to hexproof and indestructible, written years before either keyword became a problem. Targeted removal asks the caster to point at a creature, and any creature worth removing has spent the last two decades acquiring ways to dodge that point: protection, shroud, ward, regeneration, the indestructible static. The edict effect routes around all of it by inverting who chooses. The caster names a player, not a permanent; the defender sacrifices, so no targeting touches the creature itself and no resilience clause ever triggers. The cost of that universality is precision: against a board, the opponent feeds you their worst body and keeps the threat, which is why this is a tool for the empty board, the single big thing, the commander sitting alone. Instant speed is doing quiet work here, letting the sacrifice resolve in response to an attack declaration or on the opponent's own end step rather than at sorcery speed. The template has been printed and reprinted under many names since (Chainer's Edict, Geth's Verdict, Liliana's Triumph all run variations on the clause), but the two-mana, no-strings instant remains the clean version of the effect, the one against which the others measure their riders and discounts.