Pendrell Flux

Most removal answers a creature on the spot: kill it, bounce it, lock it down. This one attaches an upkeep tax instead, turning the enchanted creature into a recurring bill its controller has to pay each turn or sacrifice. The design is taxation as removal, a soft lock rather than a hard one. Against a fat finisher the practical effect is a kill, since paying full freight on a top-end threat every upkeep starves everything else the opponent wants to do; against a cheap creature it is closer to a nuisance, an extra cost the opponent absorbs and works around. That sliding scale is the whole point. The tax is flat (the creature's printed mana cost, charged again each upkeep, never escalating), so the same two-mana investment is a death sentence on a seven-drop and a shrug on a one-drop, rewarding a player who reads the board over one who wants a blanket answer. What makes it more interesting than a straight Pacifism is that it never disables the creature: the enchanted body keeps attacking, blocking, and tapping while the controller decides each turn whether the threat is worth re-buying. The decision it forces lands entirely on the other side of the table, which is a rarer thing for removal than the rate suggests. The friction is paid by the opponent, turn after turn, instead of priced once into a spell on your side.