Reiterating Bolt

Replicate reframes Lightning Bolt's damage math as an energy-spending decision. The base spell is a familiar three-to-the-face-of-a-creature-or-walker rate at two mana, but the additive cost is not paid in mana at all: each replicate payment of three energy stacks another copy, and every copy can pick a fresh target. Replicate is one of Magic's oldest scaling mechanics, and it always answered the same tension: how do you let a spell get bigger without pricing the small version out of playability? The answer here is to divorce the scaling entirely from mana, so the card stays a clean two-mana removal spell against a lone threat and becomes a multi-target sweep the moment your energy reserves run deep. The copies are made on cast, before the original resolves, so the whole payload goes on the stack together and clears a board of small threats in a single click. The consequence is that this card is only as good as the energy engine feeding it: with nothing to spend, it is an awkwardly-costed burn spell; with a stockpile, it is a repeatable removal package that never touched your mana. The ceiling lives in the deck around it rather than the card itself, which is exactly where a scaling mechanic wants to hide its power.