Structural Distortion

Exile is the upgrade that costs you the body count. Red has always had cheap artifact and land removal, but it has historically been the kind that breaks a permanent rather than removes it: Shatter cracks an artifact, Stone Rain levels a land, Smash to Smithereens even throws in three points of reach. What sets this apart is the verb. Exiling sidesteps every recursion line and death trigger that destruction leaves open, which matters most against indestructible permanents, artifact creatures that want to die into value, and graveyard engines built to be broken so they can come back. The price for that clean answer is the rate: four mana for a job red usually pays one or two to do, with the upside narrowed to two damage aimed at the permanent's controller. That reach damage does the work of a signature more than tempo; it is a token of red's identity, a reminder that even the color's utility spells want to point at a face. The design tension is honest: you are paying a premium in mana for permanence of answer, and the small burn is consolation for spending a full turn's sorcery on removing their thing rather than developing your own board.