"Utilized mana burn to punish opponents who had too much excess mana that was just floating."
Mana burn came up so infrequently that they removed it from the rules. It basically only happened when it was forced upon you, with something like magus of the vineyard
If something is infrequent, increase the number continually until it does become frequent and ingrained. Horsemanship is a bad mechanic because it was so infrequent with future cards as nothing else cared for it and it was dropped alltogether, same with Shadow. Flying could have easily been the horsemanship we know today if it didn't see as much printing on cards and their weren't as many cards to counter flying. The Arcane subtype could have been expanded on in Time Spiral Block and Ravnica Block, but they didn't which turned it into a parasitic mechanic. Arcane itself could easily have been continued as its not exactly a Japanese/Shinto/Kamigawa word.
WotC is partly to blame when we have a parasitic mechanic that is not continued in future sets as they love to wholesale drop them and never want to touch them again. Which is in itself bad design philosophy.
"No more ability to punish players with untapped lands."
There are maybe, what, two cards in all of magic that did this? Citadel of pain and a creature, right? Maybe a third?
An alternative method to flat out land destruction where it would burn the player for having unused resources instead of destroying said resources.
"A good chunk of its worth comes from planeswalkers now."
They didn't introduce a card type for it to not get used. These cards drive up people's interest, so they make them good.
Yet they feel like they must have a planeswalker every set now. In their ORIGINAL introduction in Lorwyn, you got all five and no spreading them out over the sets. The rest of the three sets in that block had zero planeswalkers. Do you know why the Lorwyn group worked? They were merely visitors, onlookers. The inhabitants of that plane fixed the problem for themselves. Now its always got to be the Jacetice League swooping in to save some plane and we also have the villains who keep wanting to mess with the planes who are also planeswalkers by the way.
I'm honestly sick of seeing planeswalkers. We already have 93 of them now and a HUGE amount of them are just different versions of the same characters. Also if we want to consider this even more, Timespiral Block was meant to be an entire buildup to planeswalkers as a type until we hit future sight in which we would have planeswalkers, yet because they couldn't hammer out the rules in time for planeswalkers they got delayed.
It was also in Lorwyn when planeswalkers were Rare and not Mythic Rare because that rarity was not invented yet. Mythic Rare is to yesterday as Invocations are to present day. Frankly pointless additions to the rarity system that has just made itself become like Yugioh in that respect. Ultra Rares = Mythic Rares, Secret Rares = Invocations. Should I point out how the most expensive card in all of Amonkhet are also invocations? That the most expensive non-invocation card is Liliana, Death's Majesty and she only sits at $13-20 depending on what website you shop? Seriously.
"Goblins nowhere to be seen."
There are other creature types in magic that people like to see. Not every plane should have goblins on it. Not every set with goblins in it needs to have a tribal thing, either.
Then lessen the number, not outright ignore them. Goblins are a staple of MTG just as much as Elves or Merfolk or Humans. A single Goblin card wasn't going to break the bank in Kaladesh, as heck, it could have slipped through the planar bridge when it was being worked on and tested.
Goblins don't always need to be tribal, sure, I can dig that.
"No hate spells or counterspells."
Honestly, good. I don't like caring about the color of my opponent's cards. It's "thematic" but makes for swingy gameplay.
Indestructibility and hexproof also lead to pretty swingy games and the only reason those two have gotten so much overuse is that they don't want to utilize Protection from [Color]. Also you don't care what color your opponents cards are that they are playing? I certainly do.
"Its burn spells got weaker."
It's kinda hard to outdo lightning bolt, man. Also, Drafting is significantly more dynamic now that removal is mostly worse than it used to be.
Dude there isn't even a Searing Spear in standard. An instant speed burn spell that is just 2 mana and deals 3 damage to creatures or players. That is just awful. The best we can apparently have is Shock. Harnessed Lightning only hits creatures and thus can't deal with planeswalkers or provide reach when hitting players.
Blew up your lands efficiently in a multitude of ways.
Punished you for having untapped lands
Utilized mana burn to punish opponents who had too much excess mana that was just floating.
Used Burn spells that dealt more damage than they costed and were often instant-speed.
Had some of the best artifact removal in all of the colors.
Goblins and Goblin Tribal.
Is very fast in trying to take down opponents to the point it even created an archetype called "Sligh" named after its creator Paul Sligh.
Could be run mono or multicolor with great efficiency.
Had a feuding relationship with to the point where it not only had hate cards for it but also even counterspells designed specifically to fight it.
Never had help from planeswalker cards.
Was very good at clearing the board with various damage sweeper spells.
Had many tools to prevent life gain.
New-School RED
Sorcery speed artifact removal that only works in targeting instead of sweeping.
Goblins nowhere to be seen.
Its burn spells got weaker.
No hate spells or counterspells.
Isn't good at destroying lands anymore by itself and is limited to a singular way of destroying lands, 4cmc sorceries and instant that only blow up a single land.
Stole 's trick with land denial by "Tap target land. It doesn't untap during its controller's next untap step" in order to try and make up for its weakened land destruction capabilities.
It has more powerful creatures to make up for its other shortcomings.
Can only be run in multicolor decks for the sake of efficiency.
Its tribal cards are not up to snuff in the current standard meta.
A good chunk of its worth comes from planeswalkers now.
No more mana burn to use against opponents.
No more ability to punish players with untapped lands.
Can't prevent life gain.
Its like looking at the difference between an athlete at their peak and then fast forwarding several years and seeing how they just let themselves go. Seriously. I blame all this "pruning" they have been doing in the past like decade where its just "take away this, weaken that" instead of actually trying to come up with side-grades that are actually interesting for a change.
This isn't just "Give us one mega-overpowered card" for Red in order to fix its situation. Red's problems are the Design & Development's philosophies going on that are putting a huge damper on Red.
How many times do I have to tell you guys we are NOT GETING ELFS IN THIS!!!
It is merely an example of a way to use Eminence that showcases how it could vary and why it would not be purely just cost reduction. Don't get your birch trees in knots.
So thinking about the possible likely tribes and colors...
Angels - WBR OR WUBRG Dragons(Confirmed) - WUBRG Demons - BR OR UBR
??? - ???
Seems the brunt of the colors is going to be B/R/X followed by W/X.
Added Swaider and Macabre's sugggestions. Along with a few utility lands that I feel work well with Ramos.
EDIT: Added Fated Return to the list. If Ramos died, it becomes 7m instead of 8m to return Ramos to the battlefield, possible scry 2, and permanent indestructibility on Ramos until it leaves the battlefield? Seems very annoying for opponents to deal with.
From my playtesting experience with it, Paradox Engine reminds me somewhat of a Staff of Domination. Not every deck is exactly going to want a Staff of Domination if its by itself which may sound weird to some. However if you are willing to make room in your deck to add other cards that have strong synergy with it, then that is when it actually starts seeming to be very strong. Yet this Paradox Engine isn't exactly meant for every deck either and the talk of it reminds me of how people were certain Panharmonicon was going to get the axe initially.
WotC is partly to blame when we have a parasitic mechanic that is not continued in future sets as they love to wholesale drop them and never want to touch them again. Which is in itself bad design philosophy.
An alternative method to flat out land destruction where it would burn the player for having unused resources instead of destroying said resources.
Yet they feel like they must have a planeswalker every set now. In their ORIGINAL introduction in Lorwyn, you got all five and no spreading them out over the sets. The rest of the three sets in that block had zero planeswalkers. Do you know why the Lorwyn group worked? They were merely visitors, onlookers. The inhabitants of that plane fixed the problem for themselves. Now its always got to be the Jacetice League swooping in to save some plane and we also have the villains who keep wanting to mess with the planes who are also planeswalkers by the way.
I'm honestly sick of seeing planeswalkers. We already have 93 of them now and a HUGE amount of them are just different versions of the same characters. Also if we want to consider this even more, Timespiral Block was meant to be an entire buildup to planeswalkers as a type until we hit future sight in which we would have planeswalkers, yet because they couldn't hammer out the rules in time for planeswalkers they got delayed.
It was also in Lorwyn when planeswalkers were Rare and not Mythic Rare because that rarity was not invented yet. Mythic Rare is to yesterday as Invocations are to present day. Frankly pointless additions to the rarity system that has just made itself become like Yugioh in that respect. Ultra Rares = Mythic Rares, Secret Rares = Invocations. Should I point out how the most expensive card in all of Amonkhet are also invocations? That the most expensive non-invocation card is Liliana, Death's Majesty and she only sits at $13-20 depending on what website you shop? Seriously.
Then lessen the number, not outright ignore them. Goblins are a staple of MTG just as much as Elves or Merfolk or Humans. A single Goblin card wasn't going to break the bank in Kaladesh, as heck, it could have slipped through the planar bridge when it was being worked on and tested.
Goblins don't always need to be tribal, sure, I can dig that.
Indestructibility and hexproof also lead to pretty swingy games and the only reason those two have gotten so much overuse is that they don't want to utilize Protection from [Color]. Also you don't care what color your opponents cards are that they are playing? I certainly do.
Dude there isn't even a Searing Spear in standard. An instant speed burn spell that is just 2 mana and deals 3 damage to creatures or players. That is just awful. The best we can apparently have is Shock. Harnessed Lightning only hits creatures and thus can't deal with planeswalkers or provide reach when hitting players.
Its like looking at the difference between an athlete at their peak and then fast forwarding several years and seeing how they just let themselves go. Seriously. I blame all this "pruning" they have been doing in the past like decade where its just "take away this, weaken that" instead of actually trying to come up with side-grades that are actually interesting for a change.
This isn't just "Give us one mega-overpowered card" for Red in order to fix its situation. Red's problems are the Design & Development's philosophies going on that are putting a huge damper on Red.
So thinking about the possible likely tribes and colors...
Angels - WBR OR WUBRG
Dragons (Confirmed) - WUBRG
Demons - BR OR UBR
??? - ???
Seems the brunt of the colors is going to be B/R/X followed by W/X.
There would need to be a U/X, G/X or U/G/X deck.
As its written like:
And less like:
As we could see an Elf have:
EDIT: Added Fated Return to the list. If Ramos died, it becomes 7m instead of 8m to return Ramos to the battlefield, possible scry 2, and permanent indestructibility on Ramos until it leaves the battlefield? Seems very annoying for opponents to deal with.
EDIT: Added Experiment Kraj.
EDIT 2: Added TubbyWanKenobi's suggestions.