Fiery Conclusion

Five damage at instant speed for two mana would be an absurd rate, so the design pays for the ceiling not with mana but with a body: every cast costs a creature, which converts the spell from a clean answer into a tempo exchange. That additional cost does double duty. It takes a creature you no longer want (a chump blocker, a token, something already dying in combat) and turns it into a kill spell that outsizes nearly anything in its weight class, and it ties the card to sacrifice-fodder strategies that were already manufacturing disposable bodies. The friction shows up the moment you have nothing to spare: cast it then, and you have spent two cards to kill one, which is precisely the corner an opponent wants you backed into. Where it earns its slot is the deck that treats creatures as ammunition before threats, the build with a token to throw away every turn and a use for instant-speed reach that punishes a block or finishes off a midrange body. This is removal contingent on a board state rather than a card that resolves a problem in isolation, which is also why it never escaped the role of a build-around for the sacrifice archetypes that could keep it fed.