Pointed Discussion

Amazing card and I love it, and loved playing it...it almost feels hampered by the boring art and lame flavor text though.

actually i really like this and most other "simplistic" art pieces

A fun gold card that feels EITHER red or white. Unlike Lightning Helix which was both. ie black. I like the art.

Compared to Lightning Helix this is a pretty sad card. Sorcery speed as opposed to instant speed, and not being able to hit a creature really limit Energy Bolt's versatility. Lastly to achieve the six point life swing that helix does, you would have to spend 6 for your X cost, making it laughably more expensive to achieve similar results. How this was rated over a 4 is beyond me and is criminally misleading. Although i find the flavor and art to be lackluster, they are in fact the highlight of this travesty of a card, so i will give it a generous 1 rating.

Modularity is key here. This is not the most efficient card there is, but neither is anything printed with cycling, or morph, or anything else that allows you to play it as one thing or another. The fact that you CAN do either is more important than doing either WELL.

Don't like this card. It does nothing to affect the board in any way. If your opponent is winning with creatures he will still be winning with creatures after you play this card.

Don't compare it to Helix, compare it to Death Grasp.

If only it said "and" instead.

So... it's a Blaze stapled to an Alabaster Potion, more or less?

Is there any situation where Fireball isn't better?

Seriously bad. For 2 mana now you can get instant speed life gain of 8 points, and with spells since alpha you can deal far more damage for the mana. Sunspring Expedition, Rest for the Weary are each roughly 5x the power level of this card (mana per life.)

Now, consider a fireball or something where you get an extra point of damage. You'll never use this for life gain really because it's atrocious lifegain for the cost.

Think of it like this, Alabaster Potion is a FAR better version of this card in terms of life gain but is 2ish stars. Blaze is three stars, and is also better (and fireball is WAY better.) Now, combine the two and you could sort of get a little more value, but it's also worse versions of each, at best this guy could be 3.5 stars.

But I contend this is SO much worse than the alternatives that the combination is worth nothing, and that the extra cost is enough of a detriment to actually make it lose stars.

1.5 stars.

Sorcery timed lifegain based on = 1 life is pointless, because if they response with burn you're toast before you can gain the life. That's really what I hate in the new rules.

@Laguz
This card sucks.

Death Grasp is a much better version of this card, and printed around the same time. This card was rare too, don't let the set symbol fool you. Either way its an expensive player only blaze or an expensive stream of life. Both bad options, but it could technically win or save the game, so I will give it some credit for that.

1/5

If it was an instant like some other 2CMC+x like Vitalizing Cascade it would have a place. Looks cool a heck but almost no use.