Pointed Discussion

This is one of my favorite cards, since I got this and Quietus Spike pretty much at the same time, and I quickly realized their potential in my death deck.

@Studoku: This guy's ping ability doesn't trigger Quietus Spike since it is not combat damage.

An Unearth Tim has great utility. More than once I was able to ping something twice in a single turn from the same Vithian Stinger!

Again, this is strictly better than Prodigal Sorceror, yet it is currently rated significantly less.
@Pantheon - voltmaster was likely referring to Quietus Spike's insta-kill pinging with deathtouch, not its halving life ability.

Not a bad pinger- the unearth ability has won me games before.

More importantly, look at the artwork. It's a wizard using a magitech bionic arm to shoot lightning at a zombie. How is any of that not awesome?

Almost strictly better than Prodigal pyromancer. Except that one little power...

I tend to dislike the use of "Strictly Better" on this site. Occasionally, yes, something is better in every way. However, people usually do it for stuff like this. Technically this is NOT strictly better than Prodigical Pyromancer because the power is less. It's a trade off but it should be looked at as such. Depending on how your deck functions you'll want to choose one over the other. It's not like one is inherently better than the other.

That all being said, I personally would consider this the better of the two. I would NEVER attack with Prodigical Pyromancer his power is equal to his ping, so I might as well ignore blockers and do the same damage. In special cases something like, "Counter target activated ability" come up, but in general that just hoses this card anyways so it's time to change plans. With this I get mostly the same stuff but the added ability to ping for 1 from the grave to catch my opponent off guard.

@reapersauras:
This is probably rated lower than Prodigal Sorcerer because Vithian Stinger doesn't have the same nostalgia value. Also, this is in a different color, so "strictly better" isn't the right way to put it.

I wish he had flavor text so I could understand exactly who these interesting Vithians were.

I once was in a situation where I had brought my opponent down to 8 life but he had amassed an army and I was stuck with just this guy on the field. Thankfully, I drew into Predator Dragon, and he had no flyers. So, I pinged my opponent, devoured the stinger, swung with predator, and then unearthed the stinger for the perfect win.

It felt good.

Well Prodigical Pyromancer can trade with a X/2 creature when blocking unlike the stinger, and that can be a pretty big deal, so not strictly better.

The important difference between this and Pyromancer is that Pyromancer can block and shoot to take out 2-toughness attackers. Sure it's not much, but the extra 1 damage during combat can be highly relevant in the right circumstance.

Absolutely love the art. 0/1 isn't a drawback since you're not attacking with him anyways, and having unearth means that you can bring him back from the grave to really mess up somebody's day.

Dies to Murder

@TheWrathofShane: Only for a little bit, you dumb troll. Come up with a relevant comment for once in your life.

Actually, ddong, this can trade with an x/2 creature when blocking, as long as you have open. Block and ping the x/2, then Unearth the Stinger during your second main phase and ping it again for the kill. (This assumes that x>0.)

@DacenOctavo
http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/stf/5