Ruinous Waterbending

Symmetrical sweepers have always split the room: the caster eats the same board wipe as everyone else, so the format-shaping question is whether you can turn that symmetry into an edge. This one hands you a lever. The base spell is a clean -2/-2 that clears tokens and small aggressive boards no matter what else you do, but the optional waterbend clause bolts a conditional payoff onto the top end. Fund the however you can spare (an outright payment, or the tap of whatever artifacts and creatures you have on hand), and every death that turn feeds you a point of life, converting a wrath into a drain against decks trying to race under it. The tension worth naming is that the bodies you press into service to cover the cost are the same ones about to take -2/-2: cheap survivors and fodder that dies anyway make the best batteries, which is where the card earns its identity rather than reading as a strictly-better wrath. The Lesson subtype changes how a black deck reaches for it, treating a scaling sweeper as toolbox tech held in reserve rather than a card you have to draw. And because the waterbend payoff is additional and optional, the small version stays live when you are short on fuel for the big one. Build a board willing to sacrifice itself and the spell pays you back in the currency that matters most against the aggressive decks a sweeper exists to answer.