Pointed Discussion

Keranos, member of the Gods of Theros... can't quite figure out how to Lightning Bolt effectively.

Strictly more flavourful than Searing Spear.

Somewhere between Lightning bolt, Shock, and incinerate they are gonna get that popular burn spell balanced and perfect. Not yet though. I don't like this.

Searing Spear apparently couldn't make the cut. But at least this explains why we didn't see it in M14.

I feel like the sweet spot is somewhere between Pillar of Flame and this. Exiling hits that nice spiky level, without randomly hosing a cool ability like regeneration in the way Incinerate does.

Was it that hard for them to just reprint Lightning Bolt, like literally everybody who plays Magic wanted them to?

This is embarrassing when searing spear literally exists, flavor be damned.

Lightning Bolt blows, as does any card that you practically can't not play if you're in that color. Way too powerful.

OH BOY, LIGHTNING B-

Wait... S... T... R... that's not how you spell bolt!

I know, I know, it would have been cool to see Lightning Bolt with Greek myth flavoring, but this is just one of those problems with Magic the Gathering.

Shock isn't strong enough, but adding 1 damage makes it too strong at . Adding for that 1 extra damage creates a spell that isn't strong enough.

We see the same thing with Counterspell, which is too strong at , but then Cancel, at 1 mana more, is hardly playable.

Balance is a tricky subject, guys :/

I'm happy to see this, and I'll be picking them right up in limited.

Uh I hate function reprints, they should have changed it up abit, like increased it to 4 damage, at 2r with sorcery speed and an uncommon.

Searing Strike or Lightning Spear?

@ XTwistedsoulx:

Master Bolt {1}{R}

Sorcery- Mythic Rare
Master Bolt deals 4 damage to target creature or player.
Scry 5.

"There's a reason nobody flies ornithopters on Theros" -- Seaweed Brain, son of Neptune



There, I fixed it. :P ^_^

I dunno about this.
Wizards got the perfect balance with dissolve, but I still feel like this card and Searing Spear are kind of underwhelming as the go-to burn spell. I feel that it needs an extra effect.
I know Lightning Bolt is too powerful and Incinerate makes regeneration much less potent, so I would like something like this...
Two Mana Burn Spell
Instant 1R
Two Mana Burn Spell does 3 damage to target creature or player. If that creature entered the battlefield this turn, Two Mana Burn Spell does an additional 1 damage to that creature.

I rate this half a star not because it is worth half a star, but because this card makes me seethe more than any other spell in Theros. Did we need a functional reprint of Searing Spear when that card had just as much, if not more, flavor than Lightning Strike does? They seem to have no problem slapping on 'Scry 1' to every spell in this set and pretending its a brand new card. Why couldn't they do that with this card and possibly make it playable outside of a very slow, removal-wanting Limited?

Man, Keranos is such a noob! He doesn't even know how to conjure a proper Lightning Bolt!

So... Everyone is claiming that this thing is terrible when Lightning Bolt would made red far too powerful in this set.

Now, what everyone seems to be ignoring is the potential of the flavor text here. It takes about Keranos, the god of the storm, but have we seen him yet? Nope. What if he's waiting in the remaining 2 sets with his Legendary Artifact card...that is Lightning Bolt on a stick? Pay a red, tap it, deal 3 damage. Infinite uses.

You think Searing Spear / Lightning Strike isn't strong enough? Even Volcanic Hammer saw plenty of play. Three (unconditional) damage for two mana is the perfect place.

You see, we just scaled back from a ridiculous power creep for a few years. First there was Lightning Bolt, then then came Goblin Guide, Steppe Lynx and Searing Blaze, and to match that kind of speed, we had Path to Exile, Jace, the Mind Sculptor and Bloodbraid Elf, and you simply can't keep up with stuff like these without the game becoming degenerate. Return to Ravnica was the first block where Standard started to feel a bit more balanced. Rakdos Cackler is strong but Voice of Resurgence and Boros Reckoner stop it, which in turn are overpowered by the likes of Blood Baron of Vizkopa. Which falls prey to Aetherling and Sphinx's Revelation, and finally these can lose to a Rakdos Cackler swarm. For a good Standard enviroment I'm glad we don't have Lightning Bolt anymore. Its power level is too "up there", it can warp judgment of both players and developers.

I'm lost on how people can not like this card.
The power of a burn spell is damn near irrelevant, Shock, Lightning Strike and Searing Spear are all perfectly priced in my opinion, hell, I even dig Geistfire, Spark Jolt and Gut-Shot. The only grief I've ever come across in burn spells is finding enough DIFFERENT 1-2 drop instants that can hit either the player or creature in the current standard.

"why am I shooting lightning through my own arm oh gods I am not very good at this"
- Keranos

Hey, it's not GREAT burn... but it'll do in a pinch. Here's my (perhaps unnecessary) break-down of the burn we have in Standard.

It's actually interesting how many 2-mana DD spells we have at the moment. Let's see what else we're working with.

There's this... Magma Jet... Skullcrack... the new (and seemingly, quite powerful) Searing Blood with the potential to hit creatures AND players... then, it isn't exactly DD but is definitely still a great red burn spell -- Mizzium Mortars. And let's not forget the one-mana Shock... and I won't leave out Spark Jolt in the interest of being fair. And -- back to the 2-mana burn, if you're splashing white, there's the excellent Boros Charm for a whopping *4* damage to the face.

In fact, splashing white for burn seems like a very good idea right now, since it allows you to play Aurelia's Fury as well -- one of the best instant speed, and infinite target, burn spells in the history of the game. Especially since it does not even need to kill the creatures it hits to take them out of the picture, instant speed.

So, my suggestion? This is good for mainboarding, as it is more versatile for hitting either creatures OR your opponent's face. Sideboard both Skullcrack and Mizzium Mortars, so you can bring them in when the priority needs to shift in favor of either DD or removal. Skullcrack also does an excellent job stopping the lifegain from Sphinx's Revelation -- which can be a big problem for a burn deck against the control matchup!

Why not just put a different flavor text on Searing Spear? Because then you could have x4 copies of older cards to play in standard...? Only reason I can think of.


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