Open Fire

Three damage to any target, at sorcery's price but instant's flexibility, and that gap is the whole tax. The Lightning Bolt template (three damage, any target, one mana) set the rate every red removal spell since has been measured against, and Open Fire pays for the same effect by tripling the cost. What those extra two mana buy back is nothing: no upside clause, no scry, no spectacle discount, no death trigger. It is the flat, undecorated version of the most-printed effect in red, the floor against which the conditional cheaper burn spells (Skewer the Critics, Play with Fire, Searing Blood) define their restrictions. The honesty is the point. A spell with no rider is also a spell with no failure case: it always hits, it always deals exactly three, and it can be held up across a turn cycle and pointed at a face, a creature, or a planeswalker without ever going dead in hand. Reliability is the whole pitch here, not excitement; this is the burn spell you reach for when your efficient options are spoken for and you simply need three damage with no strings attached. Red has printed dozens of these baseline-rate fillers over the years, but Open Fire is the one that strips every clause away and demands nothing in return from the shell around it.