Non-Basic Land Soft Hosers

[RowanKeltizar]

Two of my favorite fetch punishers are Ankh of Mishra and Zo-Zu the Punisher.

[3drinks]

Two of my favorite fetch punishers are Ankh of Mishra and Zo-Zu the Punisher.

Tunnel Ignus, Harsh Mentor, and Archon of Emeria do an exquisite job of specifically this. Mentor specifically hates on a lot of random ancillary effects most people take for granted.

[RowanKeltizar]

Cleansing Wildfire is fantastic. Yes, I wish it were instant speed, but it's honestly good enough to run anyway.

Scorched Earth or Raze are both situationally quite good in my opinion. Scorched Earth can be absolutely devestating and is borderline MLD but typically it's "1R, discard a land: destroy target Cavern of Souls or Cabal Coffers. etc..."

[Persiflage]

Hate cards suck in commander honestly. Not just because sometimes they're dead or not very effective, but also because you can't decide who gets screwed. If someone with a ton of nonbasics is way behind, nonbasic hate isn't really going to help the situation.

[...]

It's a very feast-or-famine dynamic and it doesn't create good play experiences.

[...]

I think @ISBPathfinder was on to something with cards that get extra benefits for you when opponents play nonbasics, rather than hating on that player. People are a lot more likely to want to play those sorts of cards I think.

Hard agree.

How about something like...

Levy Excess - Enchantment 1ww

Whenever an opponent taps a nonbasic land for mana, you may place a storage counter on Levy Excess.

w, remove a storage counter from Levy Excess: Add ww to your mana pool.

Sacrifice Levy Excess: search your library for a number of basic Plains cards up to the number of storage counters on Levy Excess and put them onto the battlefield tapped.

Levy Excess can have more more than three storage counters on it at any one time.

I'm no designer, at all, but I like the idea of White having some more-explosive form of punishment-ramp that isn't as extreme or persistent as getting an extra land every time someone taps a nonbasic, but also has the potential to leave a lasting benefit. I like the idea above because it synergises well with catch-up ramp until it's sacrificed. The final line is to prevent Proliferate abuse and to make it less-desirable for White-splash decks.

Caveat: I don't have the first clue how to balance a card and have little or no idea how something like this would impact Limited.

Is this the sort of thing we're talking about?