This cycle is so mathy. How about:

Buckshot deals 1 damage to target creature or player. If RR was spent to cast ~, it deals 3 damage to that creature or player instead.

Shortened wording:

Buckshot deals 1 damage to target creature or player. It deals an additional 1 damage to that target for each spent to cast Buckshot.

This does change a fringe case but I think it is worth it since we went off of the Renegade theme in . (The fringe case being damage triggers (Only 1 trigger instead of 3) In this case, a creature with Absorb 1 would soak the entire original version but with the new wording would take 2.)

I believe absorb 1 would would actually absorb the whole spell even under your wording. As I understand it (though I may be wrong. I could not find the exact rule), each instance of the words "deals damage" is a different instance of damage, unless it is a replacement effect. If you really want to avoid the absorb edge case, the wording I think would work best is something like so :

Buckshot deal X damage to target creature or player, where X is 1 plus the amount of spent to cast Buckshot.

>>>Buckshot deal X damage to target creature or player, where X is 1 plus the amount of spent to cast Buckshot.

This is the version we had in the original Archester. We switched to the current wording b/c it confused newbies in testing.

Yeah, I can see why. I do not like the math in the X version.

We could just word it like our new Contemplate.

~ deals 1 damage to target creature or player for each spent to cast it, then deals 1 damage to that creature or player.

Not sure if that's any better though.

Buckshot (Common)
­
Buckshot deals 1 damage to target creature or player. If was
spent to cast Buckshot, it deals 3 damage to that creature or player instead.

Can change the wording to make it shorter. Not doing the X version to keep all of the wordings similar.