Weed Strangle

The clash text is the tell: this is unconditional creature removal taxed for a flavor of variance that rarely changed what you actually wanted. Five mana for a clean kill prices the base spell well above the era's bargain rates, and the lifegain rider only repays that premium when you win the clash and the dead creature carried enough toughness to make the gain worth counting. The catch is that clash resolves a comparison of top-of-library mana values, something you can nudge but never lock in, so the upside is precisely the part you cannot bank on. Where removal that demanded a payment usually charged something the controller could see and plan around (a life total, a discarded card, a sacrificed permanent), this hands the decision to whatever sits on top of two libraries, then folds the reward into the same roll. It belongs to the stretch when clash was being explored as a low-stakes way to bolt a maybe-bonus onto otherwise straightforward effects, and this is the version where the base spell stands on its own and the rider is gravy you are not entitled to count on. Strip the clash text and you have a plain, slightly overcosted unconditional kill spell; the mechanic is what lifts it past that, and also the reason it never asked to be taken too seriously.