Implement of Malice
Discard that leaves you even on cards: that is the trade this artifact runs. Drop it for two, spend a black mana to sacrifice it, and the very act that fuels the discard also fills the graveyard trigger, so the same permanent that strips an opponent's hand refunds you a fresh card as it dies. Ordinary hand attack leaves a dead spell in the bin and you a card behind; here the sacrifice does double duty, buying disruption without a card deficit. The catch is timing on both ends. The activation demands black and works only at sorcery speed, so it cannot snipe a card off the top in response to a draw step or bluff as an instant-speed threat sitting on the table. And because sacrifice is a cost of activating, an opponent hoping to blank the cantrip has to bounce or exile the artifact before you ever tap that black mana; once you pay and the ability goes on the stack, the artifact is already dead and the draw is guaranteed. What you buy, then, is hand disruption that charges its price in tempo rather than card economy, an artifact happy to spend a turn on the battlefield waiting to be cracked. It also quietly rewards decks that want their artifacts dying for reasons of their own, feeding sacrifice engines and death triggers while paying you a card for the privilege.


