Plasma Bolt

Two damage for a single red mana is the older, tamer rate: below Lightning Bolt, the tax red pays for a spell that asks nothing of you. Void changes the contract. Clear the threshold (a nonland permanent gone this turn, or a warped spell earlier in the turn) and the same mana buys the third point, closing the gap to the historical benchmark. The design works because that extra damage isn't a build-around; it's a condition most red decks satisfy incidentally. A creature traded in combat, a token fed to a sacrifice outlet, an opposing permanent killed on your own turn: any of it flips the switch. Sequencing becomes the lever. Hold the bolt until something has already died, and you've quietly upgraded a subpar removal spell into a premium one, all inside the same one-mana slot. It's a mechanically honest way to print a conditional Lightning Bolt without keeping the ceiling always available, and it rewards the aggressive, expendable-permanent decks that were going to meet the requirement without trying. The floor is a card you'd rather leave in the box; the ceiling is the rate red has wanted at one mana for its entire history. Which one you get is decided by the board state you build toward, not a keyword you have to service.