Tariff

A removal spell that taxes instead of destroys, and the design is sharper than the gentle name suggests. Most white edict effects leave the choice with the defending player, who hands over their least valuable body. This one inverts that: it forces each player to lose the creature with the greatest mana value unless they pay that creature's cost during resolution, with whatever mana is already open. Because it makes every player sacrifice rather than naming a victim, it does not target, so hexproof and shroud offer no shelter. That parameter is the whole card. Against a topdecked bomb it works like a Mana Leak landing a turn late, demanding a second full payment for a threat already on the battlefield; against a wide board of cheap bodies it does almost nothing, since the tax scales with mana value and a one-drop is trivially re-bought. The friction lands hardest on the player who committed early to a single large threat. It is symmetrical, so it hits your own board too, but the asymmetry is decided before it resolves: cast it tapped out on your own turn and you let your largest creature go, while the opponent either has the mana untapped to keep theirs or simply does not. There is no scramble during resolution, only the bank you brought to the table. A tax-as-removal idea white has returned to in softer forms since, but rarely this bluntly.