Pointed Discussion

Before there was Blaze, there were the original sister X-burners - Fireball and Disintegrate. Both are strictly better than Blaze, and both were printed at the common rarity. Disintegrate was particularly effective against pesky regenerators like Drudge Skeletons, but was more often used as a game-ender, dealing damage directly to your opponent. A classic combo of the time used Channel and either Disintegrate or Fireball to turn a small lead into an instant win.

This card just works! it's pumpable to X, so it can kill most anything including players:)
Also fun with Urza's lands.

I love the rules text of the German blackborder version.

It literally translates back to:

A target which is disitegrated suffers X points of damage. Should the ensorcelled creature be destroyed in the same turn, it is removed from the game.

Furthermore, taking the English version literally, a player in a multiplayer match is exiled if suffering lethal damage. ;)

Removed from the game entirely! It's not even a Magic card anymore! Your opponent won't be able to use it again!

That's true, I often find if a player dies they won't play Magic with me anymore. v.v

For some reason, this always seemed to play second fiddle to Fireball. People always talked about Channel-Fireball, not Disintegrate. Sure, Fireball could hit multiple targets but I rarely had the mana for that anyway. This card, however, could take out a lot more threats in a time when regeneration was a common ability and there were several common ways to bring cards back from the graveyard. Plus, the art on this card is LOADS better than the original fireball. It truly captures the feeling that you won't be seeing this creature again because there isn't even a corpse left to reanimate!