Infernal Contract

The pure expression of black's foundational deal: knowledge for life, paid in proportion rather than a flat sum. Where most black draw names a fixed price (Sign in Blood asks for two life, Night's Whisper the same), this one scales the bill to whatever you have, so the absolute toll grows as your life total climbs and shrinks as it falls. That percentage clause does the balancing work no flat number could: four cards off a single sorcery is a deep dig, but a proportional payment means you never escape the symmetry. Cast it high and the cards are great while the cost bleeds a fortune; cast it low and the life is cheap, but you are already on the edge, and a second copy halves you again from there. The effect descends from black's life-as-resource philosophy, the principle that the color can buy anything if it is willing to bleed for it. The triple-black cost reinforces black's claim to the effect rather than gating power, since the mana value is modest; the real toll is always paid out of the life total, not the pool. What you are weighing is a payment that compounds the worse your position gets, and the card asks you to read exactly how much refilling is worth when half of everything you have left is the entry fee.