Clan Defiance
The clever part is how the three modes partition the targeting space: flier, ground creature, face. Because each mode names a category the others cannot reach, "choose one or more" lets a single cast hit three separate objects at once without ever colliding on the same one. And here is what the modal frame hides: X is not a pool you spread across targets, it is the full dose dealt to each. Pick all three modes with X at five and you deal five to a flier, five to a ground blocker, and five to a player, fifteen points off one card, divided only by how many distinct things you point it at. That is a board answer wearing the costume of a burn spell. The fixed buys the modal frame while X buys the payoff, but the floor is real: clearing even a small creature means paying for the damage, so this is no efficient one-mana shock. It earns its keep only when the mana is there to balloon it into a multi-target sweeper. Sorcery speed and the category-exclusive clauses are the restraints: you cannot stack two X-doses onto a single creature, and the spell sits dead during your opponent's combat, no ambush, no end-step trick. It wants a deck that floods mana rather than empties its hand, since every extra point of X compounds across however many modes you chose. Most flexible burn answers one threat. This answers a turn.
