Puncture Blast

The interesting friction here is what wither does to a burn spell aimed at a creature. Three damage from a normal Shock-style effect heals off at end of turn; three damage in the form of -1/-1 counters is permanent, which turns this into something closer to a shrink ray than a burn spell when it points at a body. A 4/4 you hit becomes a 1/1 that stays a 1/1, and a 3/3 dies outright with the counters never coming back. That permanence is the whole reason wither existed as a keyword: it reframed combat and removal math around erosion rather than the temporary damage red usually traffics in. The cost is that wither only matters against creatures; a player taking the three damage takes it the ordinary way, and at this rate red has always had cheaper, cleaner ways to throw three to the face. So the card pulls in two directions at once: priced and worded like a flexible "any target" burn spell, but built to reward you for spending it on a creature you want to dismantle for good rather than the one you simply want dead. It is a removal spell that prefers to wound rather than kill, and the games where that distinction matters (against indestructible bodies, against regeneration, against anything you would rather neuter than trade with) are where the wither line earns its slightly inflated cost.