Pointed Discussion

4 stars for one of the best burn cards of its day. Sure there's no creature that powers it up when its in the graveyard like its Oddssey counter part...but no one used that creature in the first place. 4 Kindles does 20 damage for 8 mana...in otherwards it does 2.5 damage per mana spent. So its *almost* a lightning bolt. In many ways, its better since it does more total damage despite doing less damage per mana.

Realllly wish they would reprint this. When I first got into magic this was one of the first cards I ever got. So much fun. Simple yet effective.

maybe its just me but i kind of feel that you should be allowed to have as many these as you want in your deck. or at the very least be allowed to have twice as many as your normally allowed to have. but maybe having 8 kindle cards in a deck would just make it too broken.

Sue Amazon.com for copyright infringement!

1 Lightning Bolt = 3 Damage, 1 mana
2 Lightning Bolt = 6 damage, 2 mana
3 Lightning Bolt = 9 damage, 3 mana
4 Lightning Bolt = 12 damage, 4 mana.
1 Kindle = 2 damage, 2 mana
2 Kindle = 5 damage, 4 mana
3 Kindle = 9 damage, 6 mana
4 Kindle = 13 damage, 8 mana

So you're going to have to play AT LEAST 3 of these to get the same damage efficiency as Lightning Bolt, and all four to make it better, with the first one being less damaging than a lightning bolt and the third being more, all the while costing more than the bolts. MAYBE with some card-copying effects this could be made more playable, but I doubt it. Probably alright in it's time.

Flame Burst and Kindle:

In terms of raw damage, Lightning Bolt is far more efficient mana wise. In terms of card advantage though, Kindle shines better late game. In late game when bigger creatures come out, Lightning Bolt by itself may not be able to kill as well. Any creature with more than 3 toughness cannot be one-shot by Lightning Bolt later on, whereas Kindle can kill 4~5 toughness creatures at 1-1 exchange. In late game Kindle also hurts more when targeting your opponent. I think Lightning Bolt still wins out overall but Kindle is certainly a solid card.

Hypothetically, massive damage potential...that is if your opponents are all running four of them and they are in their graveyards respectively. As pointed out by thedarkheathen, just run Lightning Bolt and if you REALLY need filler in your burn deck, there are better cards out there.

Kindle is amazing in team-based multiplayer. :D

the number chart guy got it wrong.
its 2 + X, X= Kindles in grave.

1= you have dealt 2 (2+0 in grave) damage.
2= total 2+3 (2+1 in grave)= 5 damage
3= total 2+3+4 (2+2 in grave)= 9 damage
play all 4, with no tricks, and its 2+3+4+5= 14 damage

4 Bolts = 12 damage. 4 Kindles = 14.

he was only off by one, but in RDW, 1 is a big difference.

all the tricks that work on Bolt work on Kindle,
and many more work on Kindle that dont work on Bolt.

it is not raw efficiency incarnate, so I would not take it to a tournament.

for a casual group though, who probably give Lightning Bolt more fear/hate than it deserves, they would be a good target to surprise with something different like Kindle.

Context is everything. Remember that Tempest saw the introduction of Shock as a 'fair' Lightning Bolt. This was also the era of Incinerate as the 3 damage spell of choice.

Why debate which is better between two solid cards?
Both are certainly better than Rod of Ruin, nuff said.
Play both, and for a total of 12 mana spent, you get 26 damage to whatever roaming around in you deck.
Fits nicely in just about any burn style I can think of.

Back when this was released, I only played casual, so I actually really enjoyed this card in my CounterBurn deck. As Equinox523 pointed out, this was released in Tempest so it wasn't all that bad compared to Shock. But also, Tempest was the set that contained Intuition, which worked quite well with Kindle.

Offer humanity and kindle card?
Y/N

Plays nicely with Intuition. Not a superb combo, but good synergy.

I foresee transmuting and tutoring to find all four, then replicating and using spell raise on the final one after you get the rest in your graveyard. Would probably work better with Flame Burst, accounting for the synergy with Pardic Firecat.

according to mark rosewater's tumblr, this is his favorite burn spell! :o

Kindle damage is 2 + X, X= Kindles in grave

So why are you guys saying that 2 Kindles = 5 damage, 3 = 9 damage and 4 = 14 damage?

The correct is:
First Kindle = 2+0 (none in graveyard)
Second Kindle = 2+1 (one in graveyard)
Third Kindle = 2+2 (two in graveyard)
Fourth Kindle = 2+3 (three in graveyard)

4 Bolts = 12 damage indeed, but 4 Kindles = 5

kindle + Pyromancer ascension =)
hopefully if you can get 2 staggershock's to set off pyromancer ascension

Kindle damage is 2 + X, X= Kindles in grave

So why are you guys saying that 2 Kindles = 5 damage, 3 = 9 damage and 4 = 14 damage?

The correct is:
First Kindle = 2+0 (none in graveyard)
Second Kindle = 2+1 (one in graveyard)
Third Kindle = 2+2 (two in graveyard)
Fourth Kindle = 2+3 (three in graveyard)

4 Bolts = 12 damage indeed, but 4 Kindles = 5

by otherwisee

its a commutative total.... you comparing the total damage dealt by all 4 lightning bolt vs the damage dealt by 1 kindle after you already cast 3.... think about the total damage dealt not just that one card. so effectively after 4 lightning bolt are cast without any combo's your dealing 12 damage for 4 mana where kindle is dealing 14 damage for a total casting cost of 8 mana

card for card lightning bolt is way better than kindle but combo'd kindle is superior.

without any mana ramping assuming you play a land every turn for 5 turns which isnt hard. turn 1 blistercoild weird. turn 2 isochron scepter imprinted with kindle. turn 3 intuition. turn 4 kindle you got from intuition and enchant blistercoil weird with dual casting. turn 5 you can hit for 20 damage with 5 mana. all this without mana ramping. play this as a main combo and add things like guttersnipe or fire servant to increase your damage and some defense.

All this debate about Kindle vs (insert burn spell here), yet nobody has mentioned Flame Burst, which is basically strictly better than this thanks to Pardic Firecat!