Hornet Harasser

Death triggers are how black launders its removal: the body trades or chump-blocks, and the creature pays out a second time on the way to the graveyard. Here the payout is a -2/-2 shrink you steer at will, which turns a 2/2 into a piece of removal you deploy on your own schedule rather than the opponent's. Block a 3/3 and you have a choice: aim the dying trigger back at the attacker and both bodies fall together, or let the 3/3 live and point the -2/-2 somewhere it matters more. The death-trigger packaging is what keeps the effect honest: you cannot fire it at instant speed on a whim, and you have to spend the creature to collect, so it rewards builds that want their bodies in the graveyard anyway. Sacrifice outlets weaponize that timing directly, releasing the -2/-2 the moment it would be lethal, but even without one the card asks the combat question black has always liked asking: trade up, then shrink whatever survives. The -2/-2 also reaches past lethal arithmetic, switching off toughness-dependent abilities and clearing the way for a follow-up attack. It is the unglamorous engine piece in a long line of expendable black bodies that double as targeted removal, valuable precisely because the removal is stapled to a creature you were already happy to lose.