Unfriendly Fire

The line every gunner mutters after fragging a teammate, stapled to the least ambitious burn spell red keeps printing. This is the design floor of the family: a red instant priced high enough that nobody mistakes it for a constructed staple, loose enough in text that any deck willing to run it buys an answer to almost anything. The one clause doing real work is "any target," the same flexibility that earns lesser burn its slot: creature, planeswalker, or face, all live and all at instant speed. The price is the balancing act. Four damage covers most of what a red deck needs dead, but setting it at five means the card never crowds out the tighter spells you would rather be casting; it slots in as late-curve insurance that smooths a deck without ever being the reason you win. It occupies the same structural spot as the long line of vanilla burn instants before it: the reliable, uninspiring backstop against which every set's pushed removal gets measured. The name is the most memorable thing about it, and that is fitting; the card was never built to be remembered for what it does, only to be there when nothing better is.