Pointed Discussion

2/5. At one point I loved using this card...probably a mix of the art and flavor text. Definately worse than Ball Lightning, but less expensive in terms of dollars and cents. Plus its been reprinted quite a bit. Its ok against enemies who don't use any creatures...otherwise it usually just swings and either gets killed by combat tricks or a 1/1 chump blocker...

Compared to Tempest's other red creature options this card was not horrible. It Firefly but not even in the same league as it's common brethren Mogg Fanatic and Heart Sliver.

It is just not that useful. I think it either needs trample as TreeTrunkMaster said or it needs Flying. With trample it would be almost as good as Giant Solifuge. With flying it would be one of a kind. In fact, I wonder why a red 4/1 flyer for four has never been printed. It seems like it could fit especially with a hybrid mana cost. Plus, I've always thought of lightning as flying which is something Magic developers don't agree with me on.

Or you could add one to the cost and make it a Crested Craghorn which is undeniable a OK card.

5/5 for flavor text

"When lightning elemental leaves play you may search your deck for a lightning bolt and put it into your hand."

Now 5/5!

@Mr. Hendry:

Flying would be interesting, though four power in the air is a bit of a tight clock for four mana, don't you think? The closest we get to something like that (that actually sticks around in play) is Sewn-Eye Drake. Remember, Red isn't big on fliers that aren't dragons, especially at common. So lightning doesn't fly on a colour pie level- red is the second most grounded colour, after green.

Lightning also doesn't fly on a flavour level. Electricity as a natural phenomenon always seeks the shortest path to the ground. It's always looking to be grounded, in fact. The only real horizontal movement of lightning in nature is the 'ball lightning' (not to be confused with the card) phenomenon, that that has yet to be proven a real thing, as far as I know. There's movement of electricity through storm clouds during a storm, but that's static buildup, not lightning. So an elemental made of the stuff would probably behave in much the same way. Though I do get the resonance of lightning as an entity born of storm clouds, which is certainly a sky-based image.

But I agree with your 'good, but not great' assertion. I don't really think it 'needs' anything, per se - adding abilities to make cards more comparable to other, better cards makes the better cards less unique. Giant Solifuge is good because there's really nothing quite like him. If this was "Giant Solifuge, just a little less good", I think that would cheapen the impact of both cards.

But yes, good but not great. It's got lots of flavour value in its embodiment of the red ideals: attack right out of the gate, be reckless and passionate, and leave a big corse. Oh, and the red ideals of "fire and lightning are awesome". So its seen a lot of reprints, sure. It's just, like so much else, lost value to the modern eye.

neeeds... trample!
I would rather play Viashino Cutthroat anyday otherwise.

This is the best art for this card by far.

@DoctorKenneth: Most lightnings travel from cloud to cloud. I suggest that you read some meteorology.

...There's lightning coming out of that guy's nose.

Reminds me of porcelain legionnaire. Obviously has its differences, but they fill the same sort of slots in a deck, and the legionnaire shows how much better the newer cards are at doing it.