Subtle Strike

The modal "choose one or both" clause is doing more than it looks. Each half is a familiar black instant on its own: a small shrink, or a counter for the targeted-pump tradition. The card's leverage comes from stacking them on different targets at instant speed. You can swing combat math with a single card, weakening an attacker by a point while fattening a blocker, or split the modes to remove a one-toughness creature outright while growing a threat of your own. The -1/-1 reads as combat shrink but functions as removal against the right body, and folding both effects into a two-mana instant means the card answers two questions where most cards at the price answer one. That flexibility is what justifies it: each half, sold separately, would be filler, but the optional-both clause lets the card flex toward whichever job the board demands. The second mode's counter also leaves a permanent mark when the rest of the card is until-end-of-turn, a small asymmetry that rewards aiming the buff at something you intend to keep rather than something you only need this turn. It is a quiet utility card built on the principle that two narrow effects, made optional and independently targetable, add up to one that earns its slot.