makes a cool combo with spellweaver helix. check it out... otherwise is is a poor substitute for shock. It is not standard either, so that is no fun...
JackP
★☆☆☆☆ (1.5/5.0)(5 votes)
Good Card. Not a great substitute for shock considering its sorcery.
SavageBrain89
★☆☆☆☆ (1.0/5.0)(1 vote)
At least the flavor text is amusing.
PaladinOfSunhome
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.9/5.0)(8 votes)
Handy card, but it's flashback cost is overpriced. Your better with more burn spells in your deck.
2.5
VirtueVsVice
★☆☆☆☆ (1.2/5.0)(4 votes)
Blah, it's a sorcery...
Gezus82
★★★★☆ (4.5/5.0)(3 votes)
this cards useful for it's ability to sit in your graveyard, unnoticed until your opponent is down to 2 life. and BAM to bad, game over
allmighty_abacus
★☆☆☆☆ (1.1/5.0)(9 votes)
Awful card. No self-respecting red burn spell should be a sorcery unless it deals upwards of 5-6 damage or is named earthquake.
KarmasPayment
★★★★☆ (4.8/5.0)(4 votes)
Kids don't realize that it's recursion, If things don't end up going the way you want and the games still going at 5 lands and no hand you can still hit them for 2 instead of sitting there with a dumb look on your face and saying go. Far better than shock.
skew
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(3 votes)
What Karma and Gezuz said.
This card is not bad at all. In a late game, anytime you draw a land, you can fry another weenie of theirs, or utility creature, instead of just doing noting. What's not to like so much ?
DespisedIcon
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(2 votes)
CARD ADVANTAGE, folks. This bolt can take away 2 critters with one card.
Faildini
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(7 votes)
5/5 for having a bad pun in the flavor text
The_Cheat420
★★★★☆ (4.0/5.0)(1 vote)
This card is great. It was a staple of red decks for quite some time. Yea it could be an instant or it could do 3 instead of 2, but back then Lightening bolt was a $15 card so things like shock and firebolt were heavily used.
Guest1523717482
★★★☆☆ (3.7/5.0)(3 votes)
I like that this was printed with the new frame. I really enjoy this.
Arachibutyrophobia
★★★★☆ (4.5/5.0)(10 votes)
ok, I've HAD IT! WHY IS EVERYONE OBSESSED WITH INSTANT SPEED! THIS THING IS BETTER THAN SHOCK 95% OF THE TIME!
Shadoflaam
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! I HAVE HAD IT WITH THESE MOTHAFUCKIN TROLLS ON THIS MOTHA FUCKIN SITE!
sonorhC
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
@DarthParallax, the primary reason nobody plays decks of 20 each Fireball, Lightning Bolt, and Mountain is the four-card rule. Though granted that there are a lot of other Fireball-like cards you could use, too.
lorendorky
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
Arachi is totally right. Once Spikes say something about a concept in Magic it ends up being gospel. Instants are usually more versatile than Sorceries but have less power.
In my experience playing mono-red in different formats sorceries actually hose counterspell decks because they let you drop mountain after mountain while they sit on that mana-leak doing nothing.
Once they finally tap some lands to play something you get to cast something like a Koth of The Hammer to bait a counterspell then have enough mana up to simply cast a 2nd Koth or browbeat etc.
Every time I beat control decks with mono red control they call me a noob and worse names. I just laught at their useless open islands. Blue is SO BORING!
DarthParallax
★★☆☆☆ (2.8/5.0)(2 votes)
I've been trying to figure out how to balance my very wierd 'Vorthos-Spike-Johnny' alignment. Basically I want all my decks to look like movies. Green for epic monsters, White for epic heroes/battes for the end of the world, Black for villains, Blue for 'Xanatos Gambits', Red for Blowing Up The World.
In my quest to try to somehow find cards that do the maximum power of things that also look cool, I decided to look up the Red Cards, and figure out why anyone wouldn't play 20x Lightning Bolt, 20x Fireball, 20x Mountain .dec
The answer is most clearly shown on cards like Hammer of Bogardan or this. Flashback, and a few other powers, are usually not found on the 'Spike' Max Power cards- because they aren't about power plays. they're what you thank R&D for giving you to fall back on AFTER your power play.
If a Kicked Molten Disaster or Multi-kicked Comet Storm is your Super Saiyan 4 Gogeta, then you better have some Flashback in your graveyard like Firebolt, or your tapped out lands better include some basic Mountains to sacrifice to Fireblast for when your Fusion Time runs out. Until you figure this out, your power level can only ever reach 8,999. that's UNDER NINE THOUSAND!!!! (does this joke work in reverse?)
EDIT: I wasn't being clear the first time: by '20x Bolt' '20x Fireball', I meant '20 3-spells and 20 X-spells'. All the Bolt and Fireball look alikes like Comet Storm and Shock. These are 'vanilla spells'- all they do is damage. All-Damage.deck isn't as good as changing it up with Flashback, Buyback, Cycling, etc., even though the number of points of damage your deck does will probably be a little smaller, you'll be able to actually use the cards together in better ways.
divinewind08
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
This is a great card because it is value. Most often, you shouldn't be hitting them with it. You should be hitting their creatures. This card is recurring removal, which is nice. If you care so much about instant speed, here. That is still better than Shock most of the time.
ToastRecon
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
So you're telling me I can have silent departure in red burn? Well that... that's just a wonderful thing.
If it were instant speed, it'd be strictly better than shock. As is, shock is better. And shock is awful.
SAUS3
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
@Lifegainwithbite Why do you think shock is better? Instant speed is good, but getting a second use out of this can be really important. And shock isn't that bad, it just got shutout by multiple strictly better cards. It was still effective at what it did, just not AS effective, so why would you run it anymore?
@lorendorky Totally agree. I'm glad wizards is now printing more stuff to beat counterspells like cavern of souls and abrupt decay because you can't get around counterspells otherwise (without either dropping stupidly fast creatures, or countering their counterspells with your own...).
Hunter06
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Who let ChuggaConroy into the Flavor Text department....
Seriously, while there are times that you would like to shoot something as an instant, it feels so bad to counter this that it almost always resolves. Unless they do spend a counterspell on it then you just get to cast it again.
If it was an instant it would be better. Then again if it was an instant it would actually vie for deck spots with lightning bolt, so yeah. This card is fun, powerful, and a great use of the flashback mechanic.
Comments (26)
2.5
This card is not bad at all. In a late game, anytime you draw a land, you can fry another weenie of theirs, or utility creature, instead of just doing noting. What's not to like so much ?
In my experience playing mono-red in different formats sorceries actually hose counterspell decks because they let you drop mountain after mountain while they sit on that mana-leak doing nothing.
Once they finally tap some lands to play something you get to cast something like a Koth of The Hammer to bait a counterspell then have enough mana up to simply cast a 2nd Koth or browbeat etc.
Every time I beat control decks with mono red control they call me a noob and worse names. I just laught at their useless open islands. Blue is SO BORING!
In my quest to try to somehow find cards that do the maximum power of things that also look cool, I decided to look up the Red Cards, and figure out why anyone wouldn't play 20x Lightning Bolt, 20x Fireball, 20x Mountain .dec
The answer is most clearly shown on cards like Hammer of Bogardan or this. Flashback, and a few other powers, are usually not found on the 'Spike' Max Power cards- because they aren't about power plays. they're what you thank R&D for giving you to fall back on AFTER your power play.
If a Kicked Molten Disaster or Multi-kicked Comet Storm is your Super Saiyan 4 Gogeta, then you better have some Flashback in your graveyard like Firebolt, or your tapped out lands better include some basic Mountains to sacrifice to Fireblast for when your Fusion Time runs out. Until you figure this out, your power level can only ever reach 8,999. that's UNDER NINE THOUSAND!!!!
(does this joke work in reverse?)
EDIT: I wasn't being clear the first time: by '20x Bolt' '20x Fireball', I meant '20 3-spells and 20 X-spells'. All the Bolt and Fireball look alikes like Comet Storm and Shock. These are 'vanilla spells'- all they do is damage. All-Damage.deck isn't as good as changing it up with Flashback, Buyback, Cycling, etc., even though the number of points of damage your deck does will probably be a little smaller, you'll be able to actually use the cards together in better ways.
Why do you think shock is better? Instant speed is good, but getting a second use out of this can be really important. And shock isn't that bad, it just got shutout by multiple strictly better cards. It was still effective at what it did, just not AS effective, so why would you run it anymore?
@lorendorky
Totally agree. I'm glad wizards is now printing more stuff to beat counterspells like cavern of souls and abrupt decay because you can't get around counterspells otherwise (without either dropping stupidly fast creatures, or countering their counterspells with your own...).
4/5 Stars
Are automatic 2-for-1s good? YES.
Seriously, while there are times that you would like to shoot something as an instant, it feels so bad to counter this that it almost always resolves. Unless they do spend a counterspell on it then you just get to cast it again.
If it was an instant it would be better. Then again if it was an instant it would actually vie for deck spots with lightning bolt, so yeah. This card is fun, powerful, and a great use of the flashback mechanic.
4.5/5