Springjaw Trap

The cost is split across the turn structure in a way most burn spells cannot manage: one mana to deploy, four more and a tap to fire. Flash is what makes that stagger pay. You commit a single generic mana while your opponent is tapped out or overcommitting, and the artifact sits there reading as harmless clutter until it isn't. Three damage arrives at instant speed for five mana total, a poor rate on paper, but the rate isn't the point; the point is that the payment lands on two separate clocks. That split is the whole design lever. It lets a deck bank the cheap half when spare mana would otherwise sit idle, then settle the expensive half once the target reveals itself, whether that's a creature, a planeswalker, or a face. Because it resolves as an artifact rather than a red instant, it answers to a different set of enablers: it can be tutored, recurred, or fed to sacrifice engines that never ask what it does. This is removal wearing a permanent's clothes, priced high but deployable through windows a straightforward burn spell slams shut.