Harsh Mercy

A board wipe whose efficiency is decided not by the caster alone but by a referendum: every player gets a say in what survives, and everything outside the chosen set dies, regeneration off the table. The design runs on an asymmetry of commitment. The caster, having built around a single tribe, keeps a full board while the value of the sweep comes entirely from how scattered the opponents are. Against a deck that has spread its creatures across many types (a midrange pile where the Wizard, the Beast, and the Soldier share no label), only one survives the opponent's single pick, and the rest fall. That is the dream scenario, and it is rare. The inverse is what undercuts it: the worst targets here are the boards it looks like it should crush. A focused aggressive deck just calls its own type and walks away untouched; a tribal mirror means both players land on the same word and nothing of consequence dies. So the card is weakest precisely where single-minded boards are strongest, and best against decks too diverse to protect everything with one label. The no-regeneration clause is the era-appropriate detail, slamming shut the escape hatch creatures of that period leaned on and putting it on rate with the unconditional wraths it competes against. What it never overcame is the conditionality: a sweeper that hands its opponents a veto and only profits when they cannot agree on what to save.