Kris Mage

Spellshapers were the Masques-block experiment in turning your hand into an activated ability: a creature that converts cards in hand into repeatable effects, paying with a discard each time. This one channels Prodigal Sorcerer's pinger template into red, and the trade it asks for is the whole design. The body never improves; what scales is your willingness to feed it. Each activation costs a card, so the engine is self-limiting in a way the Tim is not: a Prodigal Sorcerer pings free every turn forever, while this charges you a resource per shot. That makes it less a value engine than a way to turn dead late-game cards into reach and board control. The discard is also a second axis the original pinger lacked, since it feeds graveyard and madness-style payoffs that want cards in the bin rather than the hand. As a one-power ping for one red mana plus a card, it sits at the floor of what red is willing to repeat, and the Spellshaper frame puts a fragile creature on the line for it: tapped, it answers nothing, and it dies to the same damage it deals. The cycle it belongs to spread this template across the colors, but the red pinger is the cleanest read on what Spellshapers were for, paying hand attrition for incremental, on-demand effects.