Photon, Mighty Marvel

Combat damage that turns into mana is an old trick; the persistence clause is what actually distinguishes this design. A ritual like Dark Ritual hands you a burst that evaporates the instant the phase ends, so connecting this flyer instead produces mana that stays live through every subsequent step, ready to spend in a second main phase after combat has already resolved. That timing window is the point: a two-power evasive body converts each unblocked swing into two mana of any single color, and because that mana survives the emptying of pools between steps, you can hold combat open, land the hit, then dump the proceeds into a post-combat bomb or a hand of spells the opponent thought was out of reach. The color flexibility (any one color, not just red) pulls the card outward toward decks that want a repeatable, evasion-gated mana source rather than a red beatdown threat. Four toughness matters more here than the modest power: it keeps the hero alive across a turn cycle, which is exactly what a compounding engine needs, since a two-mana trickle only pays off if the source keeps connecting turn after turn. It is a Voltron-adjacent payoff wearing a ramp card's job description, rewarding the same evasion investment a damage-triggered engine has always asked for while sidestepping the usual sting of temporary mana draining away unused.