Merciless Repurposing

In Commander, Merciless Repurposing occupies a niche that few removal spells fill: it exiles the target (dodging recursion), and the Zombie it hands your opponent is a card they'd rather not have. That combination matters most against graveyard-heavy decks and in metas where commanders recur constantly. In Modern and Pioneer the five-mana sorcery tag is a serious liability — those formats demand interaction that resolves before the threat has already dealt damage, and the Zombie token handed to your opponent can even become a liability if they have a use for it. Legacy and Vintage have better options at every point on the curve, so Merciless Repurposing doesn't show up there outside of budget or casual contexts. Commander remains its natural home, where the tempo loss at sorcery speed is forgiven and the exile rider does genuine work.