Pointed Discussion

I looked at the text first, and thought this was really cool. And then I looked at the mana cost...

Barbed Lightning has already shown us that in order to get three damage to two different targets unconditionally, you need 5 mana.

That being said, it is 6 damage for 5 mana. This is by no means a terrible card, friends.

@ThisisSakon: The thing about Barbed Lightning, though, is that it's just better by way of flexibility. Plus we have Searing Blaze already. This is playable in Limited, maybe, and that's all.

Anyone notice that the guy that Aurelia is slashing is Jarad?
(Look at that guy's belt)..

Your opponent can't be targeted? Well, you have to burninate yourself.
Your opponent has no valid creatures as target? You have to kill your own.
If that wasn't good enough: don't forget to spend five times as much mana for it compared to good old lightning bolt.

I like barbed lightning more. I think the extra initial mana investment should do a little more. like, idk, 4 damage to one of the targets. Or something.

Overcosted by 1.

This would win most generic name ever but I think it has to split it with...whatever the new Armadillo Cloak is called

Think I'd rather run Chandra's Outrage in most decks over this. Maybe Lash Out depending on the deck build/how lucky I feel/

5 mana will get you, at most, 6 damage. That said, I would rather have this be two instances of "deal 3 damage to target player or creature", much like how Common Bond works.

Fantastic in limited. Games tend to go a turn longer than they did in triple Gatecrash, so this seems priced just fine.

Searing Blaze has shown us that Barbed Lightning and this can suck it. :P

But actually seriously, I think the guy that said 'Overcosted by 1' is pretty close to on it. Searing Blaze was double-colored, triggered on landfall (a semi-tough hoop to jump through with perfect consistency- like Metalcraft and Threshold, if you build for it, it happens, usually, and when it's not on, the card sucks) and when all was said and done, was a little pushed. Searing Blaze is fair to call 'way better than Incinerate' and 'about as good as Lightning Bolt'

I think I'd like to see this at {1}{R}{R} and uncommon...at sorcery speed?

for Limited and Standard, 'Overcosted by 1' is a perfect comment, but I like things that are good enough for Casual and Modern :) (Yes, 'good enough for casual' is a thing. Control decks need to be slower and softer, with good Defender creatures, and Aggro decks need to be faster, like Bolt and Nacatl, without getting near the 'Goyf or Combo range, to be ''Good Enough for Casual"- Good for Limited is not always Good for Casual. IE you want your burn deck to actually work and your blue-black and blue-white control deck to actually work and you want to actually get to see all the colors do their thing.)

Are any of the guilds closely alligned? I could see Boros and Azurious coming to some kind of grudging respect through their shared love of order but it's hard to see any of the other guilds having any kind of give in them.

A spell that does more than one thing is always valuable in limited.

A spell that deals damage to a creature AND player is fantastic in limited.

Clearly, this isn't any Warleader's Helix, but you're never going to be hurting for a kill spell.
But watch out. Play this only when your opponents life is >=3 or when they have a creature. If they don't have one, you're hurting your own creature.

@odee

This is just my imagination, but I think guild alignment can work a bit like

Boros + Azorius + Selesnaya (Orders)
Simic + Izzet (Technology / Science)
Gruul + Golgari + Rakdos (True Nature / Morbid Nature / Insane Death cults)
Dimir + Ohrzov (Teysa talking to Lazav in Urbis Protector? Who ever talks to Lazav?!)

I still can't really see Rakdos aligning, but I let them play with the cults still. JUND!

Sometimes I wonder if people don't really read the cards. The only way I could see someone rating this less than 3 is that they think there's an "or" in there.