Phyrexian Negator

The bargain is the whole design: a 5/5 trampler for three mana in 1999 was wildly above curve, and the cost is written into a clause that punishes you for every point of damage the creature itself absorbs. That damage trigger is the key to the entire interaction. The drawback only fires on damage dealt to the Negator, never on damage dealt elsewhere, which means destroy, exile, bounce, and -X/-X effects answer it cleanly without triggering anything: an opponent who reaches for a Doom Blade or a bounce spell just removes a 5/5 for cheap and leaves your board intact. Damage is where the clause becomes punishing, because each point counts separately. A Shock to the face does nothing, but a Shock to the Negator forces two sacrifices; even nonlethal combat damage costs you a permanent per point, and the Negator can count itself toward the bill. The cheap, damaging answer is the one that makes the drawback cascade, and the logic of the card runs against its controller by design. The play, then and now, is severing the drawback: blink it, give it shroud, sacrifice it on your own terms, or close the game before the clause ever matters. This is the Phyrexian design ethos rendered as a stat line, the same plane that gave us Phyrexian Dreadnought and the broader theme of power purchased with self-destruction. It became the template black returns to whenever it wants a huge body sold at a catastrophic price.