Turn to Slag

Five damage at five mana is a deliberately poor rate for burn, and the second clause is the entire reason anyone tolerates it: this is removal pointed at gear, built for an environment thick with Equipment. Most creature removal kills the body and leaves the sword on the battlefield for the next threat to retrieve; here, slaying the bearer also slags the steel. The 5 damage is sized to clear nearly any reasonable creature outright, while the Equipment destruction routes around indestructibility by hitting the gear rather than the creature, so a suited-up indestructible threat surrenders its kit even when its body lives. The structure is worth noting. The creature is the only thing this spell targets; the Equipment is destroyed without being targeted at all, simply caught by the spell's instructions as it resolves. That is why shroud, hexproof, or protection on the gear offers no shelter: nothing about it is ever chosen, only attached. Against a board with no Equipment in play, you have paid five mana for overpriced damage, and the card makes no apology for it. The two-for-one only materializes when the target is carrying something worth breaking, which makes this less a general removal spell than a tax on the Equipment archetype: an answer shaped for a specific board state rather than for creatures at large. Measured against ordinary burn it looks dull; measured against the decks it was aimed at, it is a scalpel.