Green is my favorite color and I have no idea what to say about this its just weird good flavor though many casual games will start with this killing birds I'm sure.
OutlawD1
★☆☆☆☆ (1.9/5.0)(5 votes)
Should have given it a secondary effect. Like tapping the creature. Or putting a 1/1 green flying insect creature token.
DonRoyale
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.6/5.0)(5 votes)
Boop.
Temple_Garden
★★★★☆ (4.4/5.0)(4 votes)
An odd card, direct damage being unflavourful for green. It would be interesting to see if there will be a lot of 1 toughness threats in standard in this cards time, it could become a very important side-board card.
Laguz
★★☆☆☆ (2.1/5.0)(4 votes)
As a green mage, i find this extremely interesting, but i don't know what to say about it yet. I feel like an extra effect would have been helpful (perhaps a cantrip). I feel like i need to playtest this before i rate it.
Brixton
★★☆☆☆ (2.2/5.0)(3 votes)
Ha!
dudecow
★★★★☆ (4.4/5.0)(4 votes)
Inefficient, but I could actually see this seeing play in sideboards to kill mana elfs. Cool flavor as well.
@nammertime Because the cost of green direct-damage spells increases as the square of the damage dealt, or so it seems. Coming up in M12: Sting: 8G Instant: Sting deals 3 damage to target creature or player.
GruesomeGoo
★★☆☆☆ (2.5/5.0)(3 votes)
They should've reprinted Killer Bees to go along with this card.
Jake1991
★★☆☆☆ (2.8/5.0)(2 votes)
Losing to this card by hitting you for 1 while having one life left must feel pretty bad. :/
Eternal_Blue
★☆☆☆☆ (1.2/5.0)(3 votes)
someone actually mentioned giving this a cantrip effect--really? G, deals 1 damage -and- draws a card? that would be better than anything RED has.. or had. now that green is also getting haste, i'm beginning to wonder if red will not just be swallowed up completely by green.
MrBarrelRoll
★★★☆☆ (3.6/5.0)(6 votes)
C-C-C-COLOR WHEEL
Ragamander
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(3 votes)
This card is critical for mana dork killing in mono-green. The fact that it comes at instant speed is also a critical asset. It will see play in some sideboards as long as there are a good number of tournament-level decks that rely on the Mythic manabase.
Ruminite436
★★★★☆ (4.5/5.0)(8 votes)
awesome flavor text
Silverware
★★★★☆ (4.7/5.0)(8 votes)
I like this card a lot. Not because it is a good card, but because it helps new players realize that you pay for 3 instant damage, then if you pay you can get 1 instant damage.
It is a spell that is in the wrong color, and thus is only a 1/3rd as strong as the same spell in the right color. It makes it clear that certain colors need to be played to certain strengths.
Very important for a core set like M11.
Kryptnyt
★★★☆☆ (3.2/5.0)(5 votes)
The return of the MIGHTY BEE STING. 2 damage for 4 mana was hilarious. This... is actually better than a bad red burn spell
but it doesn't sting as much as LeBron ditching us in Cleveland. Seriously dude? Seriously? After all you've seen us go through, you are going to make Art Modell look like a kind human being? WTF!?
Chosen_of_the_Dark_Sun
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(5 votes)
Honestly, it should have just been 2 damage and a sorcery. 1 damage is basically unplayable, but 2 damage can actually kill things while the sorcery speed would have kept it far inferior to anything that red has. It still would have been worse even than Shock and way worse than Lightning Bolt, but 2 damage would have actually made it playable. Even making it 2 damage for 1G and Sorcery speed would have been better.
ToidiDiPuts
★★★☆☆ (3.5/5.0)(2 votes)
Allow me to point out: Scorching Spear. I would say this card should be red, but it saved my life a few times in a mono green deck. it would have even won me a game if i had drawn it 1 turn earlier (out of time and down to 5 turn rule, turn 4, opponent at 1 health, my top card: this, opponent plays... Platinum Angel! so close...)
Johnald
★★★☆☆ (3.7/5.0)(3 votes)
Guys. Green/Blue deck. Use this with Diminish.
SoulReaverDan
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
It's a little bit odd, but it works in Green. While each slice of the color pie is unique, there are times they can cross over into each other. Planar Chaos in particular took various effects and shifted them, and changed the flavor to reflect that (Mana Tithe was an arbiter demanding extra payment for the spell, rather than a mage disrupting the spell's flow, Brute Force represented a sudden surge of chaotic rage rather than nature's fury). Also said, this is... potentially useful. I'm still not sure about it, but it can do wonders in a color that has absolutely no spot removal. It fixes what I always was upset about, when a turn 3 Ball Lightning with myself on the draw just throws down at you because there's nothing green can do about it. It's weak, and extremely circumstantial, but may be useful.
Also helps against Lotus Cobra combo decks, some white weenie variants, RDW, and a nice pecker at the mirror match. It's in there for, what I imagine, is to give green at least a small tool for matches where, simply by nature of the color they're playing, some players are at an almost unreasonable disadvantage.
Also, remember Gutteral Response
chazashley
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(3 votes)
this is actually something I really wanted for my mono-green decks. Some type of weenie creature removal. using an elves deck or eldrazi spawn deck against a vampire deck with blood seekers can be a huge problem, but this gets rid of that 1/1 quickly. not over powered, not totally useless. 3/5
Selez
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
This card is, simply put, a flavor card. It wasn't created to be powerful, it was created to be resonant. And it still isn't utterly useless; as many have pointed out, it has plenty of mana excel dorks to kill. It won't be played because there are too many better options in standard (like a LOT of better options), but it's not useless.
The most degrading game finisher ever. Oh, you're at 1? Hornet Sting!
Of course, any deck with this in it would probably never come close to winning.
cmdrsils
★★★★☆ (4.0/5.0)(1 vote)
C'mon. Ovinize, Diminish, or Snakeform, with this card is fantastic G/U removal, especially in M11 limited where I pulled it off nicely, much to my opponent's chagrin.
MDStrawHat
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.8/5.0)(4 votes)
Greens pu$$y-A$$ed answer to lighting bolt
ddde
★★★★☆ (4.2/5.0)(3 votes)
They should put this in an unset costing 1/3 of a point of mana.
f_fivefiftyseven
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
In limited this is a fairly good card. Most games you play in limited you will see at least one target for this card, and it can help finish up that creature which you are just one damage short of being able to kill.
drakattak
★★★★☆ (4.9/5.0)(7 votes)
This card helped in the prerelease. Turn two my opponent cast Nantuko Shade and didn't have the mana to save him from my pesky hornets.
BlackAlbino
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Aside from kamahl and steel overseer it doesn't really do much
Troutz
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Only use this card would see in constructed would be sideboard vs. RDW to kill Ball Lightning. But even then...
stratoscythe
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Adding Injury to Insult
Beastlygreen
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(2 votes)
I'm a green enthusiast (If you couldn't tell from the username), but this card SUCKS!!! Sure, it gives green "burn", but what's it gonna kill? When will it win you the game? the only real use I see is to stop a Luminarch Ascension for an extra turn. It ain't really good for anything else. Especially with Lightning bolt out there, this is completely useless.
willyb_11
★★★★☆ (4.5/5.0)(2 votes)
Anyone think this is the best flavor text ever? Cuz I do :). And I like how it shows new players the comparative power levels of red vs green direct damage spells.
TDL
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Oh, how I wish there was a place for this in Constructed. 2/5, because I love green burn.
TOF1000
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
it's amazing in limited
HairlessThoctar
★★★★☆ (4.7/5.0)(14 votes)
Make for a very interesting comparison to Lightning Bolt.
This is extremely playable much in the same vein as why Harmonize is good. Harmonize is the green version of Concentrate which isn't a great card because blue has so many other card drawing spells available to them, whereas in green it's fantastic because it's one of a kind.
This is the same thing. In red this would be a 0/5, easy, but because green is the worst color when it comes to creature removal, this card actually has practical applications.
Great flavor text also.
Edit: this card has helped me to realize my philosophy of the color pie. To me, it's not so much the tradition that is most important when it comes to preserving the color pie, but rather the resonance. So while green hasn't had any sort of effect like this in something like a decade, and by all strictly mechanical identity accounts, should not have been printed, stop and think about the flavor of what's going on here. This card gets across exactly what it wants to, and it makes sense with green's slice of life.
tcollins
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
AHHHHHHHHHHH! BEES!
Chamale
★★★★☆ (4.5/5.0)(4 votes)
Two of them to kill Phyrexian Crusader, since red and white burn aren't very helpful there.
mrnubnub
★★☆☆☆ (2.8/5.0)(2 votes)
Is Gork the cunningest or the sneakyest? I cant remember. Anyways, ass card
Is it thaaat hard to splash red into your green deck if you absolutely neeeeeeeeeed burn removal? Not really.
DacenOctavio
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
{T} for {G} Teach goblin a lesson.
angelheartvial
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I judge cards as follows: can it defeat a Storm Crow?
djflo
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
These cards I think are misplaced in today's environment. It is far, far too easy to run multicoloured decks these days to bother putting stuff like this in. I'm a casual player, so I don't have access to really top class lands, but even so very few casual players want to put such a meh card like this in.
Saikuba
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
I'm going to stick an "H" on this card so we remember that there's a hornets on it.
iSlapTrees
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Me horny sting yeah?
Piedmont
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Great spell for green. One of very few direct damage green spells, and as mentioned instant speed. Another is Unyaro bee string. Although not green one can play flame javelin in a mono-green deck for 6 colorless (it doesn't require red mana if you pay 2 colorless instead). Practically everyone plays with 1/1's with powerful abilities and this is nice to take out a wellwisher.
Angry_Puppy
★★★☆☆ (3.9/5.0)(4 votes)
Very inefficient compared to other green removal spells. There's a few somewhere, someone help me look.
I swear to God, if I hear someone say "run this in EDH" one more time...
2pcsofcandy
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
The fact that it's green still isn't really that impressive. There are plenty of artifacts that do this job better. Add to that the Phyrexian mana solutions in Gut Shot and Dismember and I can't see why you would think of even sideboarding this.
RuscoJames
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(2 votes)
@eak1801 Congratulations, you have created a cheaper version of Rod of Ruin
Hemming
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Cuz your big wurm cant get around that annoying little 1/1 creature
Shadoflaam
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(13 votes)
Okay, so a hornet sting equals a spear through the chest (Gut Shot), half a blast of electricity to the chest hitting twice (Staggershock) or a third of getting stuck in the face by a Lightning Bolt. One badass hornet.
kajillion
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Looks like Gork grokked something new today.
mexikalifool
★★★★☆ (4.2/5.0)(6 votes)
I vote for spamming all 1-toughness creature articles with "Dies to Hornet Sting. 0/5 stars." Purely for the lulz.
Gabriel422
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
If Lotus Cobra becomes a big problem, you'd probably be better off with artifact-based sting effects like Mortarpod or Contagion Clasp.
I like the design though.
Gelzo
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Though it'd be a bad idea from the standpoint of making an effective deck. I'm tempted to put this in my mono-green Commander deck just because:
1. It's hilarious to have such a small effect in EDH.
2. It would have been a hilarious finisher against the guy who pulled himself down to 1 with Necropotence and established a board position I couldn't attack through.
3. There's plenty of 1/1 creatures worth killing in the game.
4. No one expects it.
Drewsel
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(4 votes)
INSECTOMANCERS REJOICE!! Fits right into my suck your blood, leave you with itchy sores, stab you with butt harpoons, inject you with venom bug deck.
'Infinite sorrow' seems like an overreaction to a hornet sting. Even if you don't get honey.
TheWrathofShane
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
This does have a role it fills. Its not a bad sideboard choice, if you see some 1 toughness creatures, well this will kill them.
I feel gut shot has obsoleted this, it fills that role for 2 life. A good tempo and developmental advantage, that can give any color this sideboard choice for a minor drawback.
Arachnos
★★★☆☆ (3.5/5.0)(3 votes)
@Shadoflaam: you obviously haven't seen Hornet Queen. THAT's a badass hornet.
Trygon_Predator
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(2 votes)
Play with Godhead of Awe in decks. "What's that? ... NOT THE HORNETS! AARGHLUBLGAHA"
Tiggurix
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
On the upside, at least Gork can channel all that INFINITE SORROW into a kickass SHIIIINIIING FIIIINGEEEER!!!
Tackman
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(8 votes)
That's the face MaRo made when this card got printed
DarthParallax
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(1 vote)
Hairless Thoctar: so basically, you're argument for this is 'we shouldn't go by whether or not we want it reprinted in the next 5 or 6 Core Sets, but by whether we want MAGIC, the whole game, to have this card made at least once'. Yeah, I could sorta see that. I don't think this card should get reprinted more than once, ever, and only in some future Green Duel Deck because it would just happen to be perfect and necessary. (Duel Decks: Birds Vs. Bees anyone? xD)
Harmonize's Garruk Wildspeaker art from the Duel Decks is I think the single-handed reason why Green now gets regular card draw- simply at weaker than Blue. The original card was a Planar Chaos mash, meaning it *wasn't* considered Green at all, but rather where Green *could* have gone if the first sets after Alpha were different. Garruk's art, I'm willing to bet $5 on, reminded everyone of the scene in Two Towers where Aragorn does his Indian thing hunting Uruk-Hai. And that's when it clicked. That really is Green. But direct damage really, really I mean REALLY feels like Burn in MTG. So much so, that now that 'fight' has been keyworded I'm sure Development would never let Hornet Sting see Standard again.
This wouldn't be 0/5 in Red actually. Here's the funny thing about Red. It has things in it like Worldfire, Gut Shot, and Needle Drop.
As long as it is hitting "target creatures or players" and is instant-speed, Red can find a use for any amount of damage at any amount of mana. I mean ANY. Let's test this theory: 1 damage for 5 mana sounds AWFUL right?
3RR
Instant
Big Dumb Spell does 1 damage to each other player.
Combos with Worldfire! See? Red likes damage THAT much.
CorkBulb
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
This card is very irritating. It gives green the ability to deal direct damage to creatures/players. I hate it when they cross-color spells, and this one has definitely done it. Green has never had much of an ability to deal direct damage. However, since it is very inefficient compared to the master of disaster (red), it is *slightly* acceptable. Still, it should not be an instant. This gives green too much of something it shouldn't. I would have much rather it had been a sorcery and did 2 damage to target creature.
Besides, there are far better mono-green removals. Lignify and Mercy killing are good green removals. Now they have Dismember, arguably the best green removal ever, and I hate that more than anything. Green should *NOT* be given the ability to use such powerful removal. For 4 life and , green can take out a freakin Phyrexian Obliterator! That's scarier that the obliterator itself! At least lignify fits the theme of green. There is nothing green about spells dealing damage.
On the bright side, green has another way to kill a Wellwisher! And poor Kamahl. Oh well.
1.5/5 for usefulness -1/5 for screwing up the color pie
However, I badly wish this had storm. It would be dripping with flavor.
ToAsTy42o
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
i actually use this in a R/G bloodthirst deck for the lols. literally won a game casting this for the final 1 point of damage. hilarity ensued.
Axelle
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
Maro's nemesis.
NewEtherium
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(2 votes)
Horrible Card If Your Looking For Burn Then Play Red
Moxxy
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Some new guy must have pulled this out of the Planar Chaos file without realizing that set had a broken color pie theme.
psychichobo
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(3 votes)
I think everyone is forgetting one important thing about this spell.
Sure, you can gut an enemy creature with Beast Within, Dismember, or splash red for hitting players too...
But when you die to this, you don't just die. You pack up your cards, go home and think about what you've done.
Because you just got your ass handed to you by a bee.
tankthebest
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I have very mixed feelings about this card. I don't agree with the fact that it can hit players; yes, it's only 1 damage but the ability to directly damage players with a spell feels like something that should be kept to red.
Historically the only way mono-green has been able to directly damage players is through giant wind-based spells that hit each player as well as all creatures with flying, and a couple overcosted bee-sting spells. Even these feel a little out of place, but back in the day wind was associated with green rather than blue. They also fed into green's flyer hate.
Prey Upon, in my opinion, is the quintessential green removal spell. Green is the color most associated with giant, high-costed creatures, and Prey Upon capitalizes on this. Also, Prey Upon can only be used to remove creatures, leaving the player's creatures to win the game.
Flavor-wise though, I think it makes perfect sense and is also a pretty innovative use of the color pie. If a red mage can throw a lightning bolt at something, why couldn't a green mage order a swarm of hornets to sting something?
Gameplay-wise, though, this eventually goes back to the original boon cycle: each color has their specialties. If one color can do what another can, in a lesser way or with a cost, should it be able to? There are arguments both ways, but I'll leave you with this thought: think about Black.
personsunknown
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
@MDstrawhat all profanity aside, red and green are very different. were this a red card, it would suck and never be used. But, seeing as it's a green card, it can be much more valuable. This and Prey Upon pretty much make up all green creature removal. However, creature removal is not what green is about. green's domain is fat cratures, mana ramp/accel, and some life gain. Red on the other hand, has a multitude of removal spells. As you mentioned:lightning bolt, shock, Galvanic Blast, etc. However, i challenge you to find an 8/8 in red for 6 mana (besides the practically 4/4 grief tyrant). My final point: each colour is good at what it does. If you want to be a hater, go beat up on Ember Shot.
Put it in a RG deck if you're playing someone who uses Harsh Judgement
Salient
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
"Dear MaRo, I hate you and want you to be unhappy. XOXO, Hornet Sting"
hozacrend
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
@Shadowflaam Japanese hornets kill like 40 people a year in Tokyo. They're actually quite dangerous.
jk44
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Because we all know that Scorching Spear burns only with the intensity of a cigarette.
The only value of this card is that a player who loses to it will most likely start reconsidering some of the life choices he or she has made. "Where did I go wrong to lose to such chaff?"
Comments (92)
Because the cost of green direct-damage spells increases as the square of the damage dealt, or so it seems.
Coming up in M12: Sting: 8G Instant: Sting deals 3 damage to target creature or player.
It is a spell that is in the wrong color, and thus is only a 1/3rd as strong as the same spell in the right color. It makes it clear that certain colors need to be played to certain strengths.
Very important for a core set like M11.
2 damage for 4 mana was hilarious. This... is actually better than a bad red burn spell
but it doesn't sting as much as LeBron ditching us in Cleveland. Seriously dude? Seriously? After all you've seen us go through, you are going to make Art Modell look like a kind human being? WTF!?
I would say this card should be red, but it saved my life a few times in a mono green deck. it would have even won me a game if i had drawn it 1 turn earlier (out of time and down to 5 turn rule, turn 4, opponent at 1 health, my top card: this, opponent plays... Platinum Angel! so close...)
Also helps against Lotus Cobra combo decks, some white weenie variants, RDW, and a nice pecker at the mirror match. It's in there for, what I imagine, is to give green at least a small tool for matches where, simply by nature of the color they're playing, some players are at an almost unreasonable disadvantage.
Also, remember Gutteral Response
Of course, any deck with this in it would probably never come close to winning.
2/5, because I love green burn.
This is extremely playable much in the same vein as why Harmonize is good.
Harmonize is the green version of Concentrate which isn't a great card because blue has so many other card drawing spells available to them, whereas in green it's fantastic because it's one of a kind.
This is the same thing.
In red this would be a 0/5, easy, but because green is the worst color when it comes to creature removal, this card actually has practical applications.
Great flavor text also.
Edit: this card has helped me to realize my philosophy of the color pie.
To me, it's not so much the tradition that is most important when it comes to preserving the color pie, but rather the resonance.
So while green hasn't had any sort of effect like this in something like a decade, and by all strictly mechanical identity accounts, should not have been printed, stop and think about the flavor of what's going on here.
This card gets across exactly what it wants to, and it makes sense with green's slice of life.
Teach goblin a lesson.
Oh wait... right...
5/5
Yes, you read that right. MULTIPLE HORNET STINGS!
I like the design though.
1. It's hilarious to have such a small effect in EDH.
2. It would have been a hilarious finisher against the guy who pulled himself down to 1 with Necropotence and established a board position I couldn't attack through.
3. There's plenty of 1/1 creatures worth killing in the game.
4. No one expects it.
Royal Assassin your days are numbered.
I feel gut shot has obsoleted this, it fills that role for 2 life. A good tempo and developmental advantage, that can give any color this sideboard choice for a minor drawback.
Harmonize's Garruk Wildspeaker art from the Duel Decks is I think the single-handed reason why Green now gets regular card draw- simply at weaker than Blue. The original card was a Planar Chaos mash, meaning it *wasn't* considered Green at all, but rather where Green *could* have gone if the first sets after Alpha were different. Garruk's art, I'm willing to bet $5 on, reminded everyone of the scene in Two Towers where Aragorn does his Indian thing hunting Uruk-Hai. And that's when it clicked. That really is Green. But direct damage really, really I mean REALLY feels like Burn in MTG. So much so, that now that 'fight' has been keyworded I'm sure Development would never let Hornet Sting see Standard again.
This wouldn't be 0/5 in Red actually. Here's the funny thing about Red. It has things in it like Worldfire, Gut Shot, and Needle Drop.
As long as it is hitting "target creatures or players" and is instant-speed, Red can find a use for any amount of damage at any amount of mana. I mean ANY. Let's test this theory: 1 damage for 5 mana sounds AWFUL right?
3RR
Instant
Big Dumb Spell does 1 damage to each other player.
Combos with Worldfire! See? Red likes damage THAT much.
Besides, there are far better mono-green removals. Lignify and Mercy killing are good green removals. Now they have Dismember, arguably the best green removal ever, and I hate that more than anything. Green should *NOT* be given the ability to use such powerful removal. For 4 life and
On the bright side, green has another way to kill a Wellwisher! And poor Kamahl. Oh well.
1.5/5 for usefulness
-1/5 for screwing up the color pie
However, I badly wish this had storm. It would be dripping with flavor.
Sure, you can gut an enemy creature with Beast Within, Dismember, or splash red for hitting players too...
But when you die to this, you don't just die. You pack up your cards, go home and think about what you've done.
Because you just got your ass handed to you by a bee.
Historically the only way mono-green has been able to directly damage players is through giant wind-based spells that hit each player as well as all creatures with flying, and a couple overcosted bee-sting spells. Even these feel a little out of place, but back in the day wind was associated with green rather than blue. They also fed into green's flyer hate.
Prey Upon, in my opinion, is the quintessential green removal spell. Green is the color most associated with giant, high-costed creatures, and Prey Upon capitalizes on this. Also, Prey Upon can only be used to remove creatures, leaving the player's creatures to win the game.
Flavor-wise though, I think it makes perfect sense and is also a pretty innovative use of the color pie. If a red mage can throw a lightning bolt at something, why couldn't a green mage order a swarm of hornets to sting something?
Gameplay-wise, though, this eventually goes back to the original boon cycle: each color has their specialties. If one color can do what another can, in a lesser way or with a cost, should it be able to? There are arguments both ways, but I'll leave you with this thought: think about Black.
all profanity aside, red and green are very different. were this a red card, it would suck and never be used.
But, seeing as it's a green card, it can be much more valuable. This and Prey Upon
pretty much make up all green creature removal. However, creature removal is not what green is about. green's domain is fat cratures, mana ramp/accel, and some life gain. Red on the other hand, has a multitude of removal spells. As you mentioned:lightning bolt, shock, Galvanic Blast, etc. However, i challenge you to find an 8/8 in red for 6 mana (besides the practically 4/4 grief tyrant).
My final point: each colour is good at what it does. If you want to be a hater, go beat up on Ember Shot.
I hate you and want you to be unhappy.
XOXO,
Hornet Sting"
Japanese hornets kill like 40 people a year in Tokyo. They're actually quite dangerous.
The only value of this card is that a player who loses to it will most likely start reconsidering some of the life choices he or she has made. "Where did I go wrong to lose to such chaff?"