Lich's Caress

Black has paid for "destroy target creature" with no rider since the earliest sets, and the ledger has always been about how much of the tax comes off. Murder shaved it to three, Doom Blade and Go for the Throat carved out exceptions (nonblack, nonartifact) to reach a sharper price, and the truly clean premium versions still cost more than an aggressive deck wants to spend. Here the tax is paid flat, in mana, and the three life is the tell about who the card is built for. That gain never decides a single removal trade; it is a concession to attrition, the nudge that pushes a grindy black shell across the math against burn or another midrange deck swapping bodies one-for-one. The word that governs everything is "target": this answers any color, any toughness, any keyword that does not shield a creature from being pointed at, but hexproof, shroud, and protection still turn it off cold. Nothing about the effect exceeds what the oracle text advertises, which is exactly the assignment. This is the deliberately overcosted, deliberately unconditional kill spell that exists so any pool or any casual table always has an out for the opposing bomb, whatever color it happens to be. The premium it pays over tournament-grade black removal is simply the cost of stripping every condition away.