Electrickery

A scalable answer to the X/1 problem, priced so the floor stays cheap. For a single red mana it picks off one opposing creature with a single point of damage, a narrow effect that on its own reads like a sideboard footnote. The overload cost is the lever: pay two mana instead and the same point of damage lands on every creature you don't control, which is exactly enough to sweep a board of token swarms, mana dwarves, weenies, and any of the chaff that lives at one toughness. The design is built around the gap between modes. The targeted cast gives the spell something useful to do when the opponent has fielded only a single threat, while overload turns it into a one-sided pinger sweep that leaves your own side untouched. What makes the scaling honest is that overload widens the reach to every creature you don't control without touching the damage, so the spell stays a surgical instrument against go-wide strategies rather than a catch-all wrath. It also sits at instant speed, meaning the sweep can be held until attackers commit or a token engine has just fired. This is the small end of the overload family, the version of the mechanic aimed not at trading up but at trading sideways: one resource spent, an entire board of fragile creatures erased at once.