Lava Storm

The choice clause is the whole engine: you deal two damage to all attackers or two to all blockers, and crucially you choose after combat is declared and the math is locked in. That makes this an ambush against a decision your opponent has already committed to. Against a board of small creatures, either move becomes a trap: swing in and watch the team evaporate, or hold back and leave the wipe sitting in your hand for the turn they finally commit. The five-mana price tag exists to tax that timing. Two damage to an entire combat slice would be punishing at three or four; the heavy cost is the toll for an instant-speed sweeper that only fires on a combat your opponent walks into. It also leaves creatures at home untouched, which marks it firmly as a reactive answer to aggression rather than a button you can press into an empty board. That narrowness is what dates it. Later red sweepers learned to deal their damage to everything regardless of whether it was swinging, blocking, or idle, and the combat-only restriction here reads now as an artifact of an era when red was still being rationed on how much unconditional instant-speed damage it was allowed to sling. A snapshot of red removal before it was given the keys.