Pointed Discussion

Strictly better than shatter

Except you can't play it in a red deck, unlike shatter, will you people ever learn what STRICTLY means?! Arg so aggravating.
(Also, will you people ever learn how to auto-card? It's (autocard)cardname(/autocard) except use brackets (next to the "P" on keyboard) not parentheses. Or you could just highlight the cards' name and push the auto-card button right there at the top, next to your comment box.)


I spent over 30 minutes writing and proof reading this comment, I hope you appreciate it >:O

@Tommy I know what strictly means! It's almost the same as experimental controls - you have to hold everything constant, changing only one variable at the time. This is not strictly better than Shatter because more than one variable is changed. Mana cost is different, and text is different, so one cannot be said to be "strictly" better than the other.
Other examples: Kelinore Bat is not strictly worse than Wind Drake. CMC is the same, text box is the same, but color and size are both different. Different colors do the same thing differently, it doesn't make one better than the other.
Shock is strictly worse than Lightning Bolt. Mana cost, color, and type are all the same, except Lightning Bolt does more damage.
There are times when multiple variables can be changed but two cards can still have a "strict" ranking, such as Volcanic Hammer and Lightning Bolt. Both do 3 damage to a creature or player, but Lightning Bolt is cheaper and faster. This will make it easier to play than Volcanic Hammer in any situation, so Volcanic Hammer is strictly worse than Lightning Bolt.

So, I hope this has been useful to everyone who thought they knew what "strictly" meant and were wrong.

"Except you can't play it in a red deck, unlike shatter, will you people ever learn what STRICTLY means?! Arg so aggravating.
(Also, will you people ever learn how to auto-card? It's (autocard)cardname(/autocard) except use brackets (next to the "P" on keyboard) not parentheses. Or you could just highlight the cards' name and push the auto-card button right there at the top, next to your comment box.)


I spent over 30 minutes writing and proof reading this comment, I hope you appreciate it >:O"
-Tommy9898

Am I Doin' it right?

this is strictly better than shatter. Especially when green has less removal. Plus, the Scry is nice. Scry is always nice.

Volcanic hammer is not strictly worse than lightning bolt. It can be put on a Spellweaver Helix.

@Kryptnyt: It's still strictly better. Yes, the Hammer can be better in certain corner cases, but in any situation that's at least slightly likely to occur in the average game the Bolt is better - that's what strictly better means. It's also possible to engineer a situation where Shock is better than Bolt, but Bolt is still strictly better than Shock.

@Tommy9898: Not to shoot your dirigible, but *proofreading.

Anyway, as for the card, the scry-trip is useful, especially if you don't see many enchantments, but I'd still go with the flexibility of Naturalize.

All the cheap Sorceries and Instants with Scry 2 on them are good cards. You generally get card parity and filtering.

Solid artifact destruction. 2 for 1 is always welcome.

Destroy an artifact and scry? That sounds like a good deal to me. I'd still play Naturalize over this though.

It's pretty good. Like Naturalize, only it doesn't work on enchantments, but you get to scry. Not half bad.

30 minutes?? REALLY???

Green Shatter with card draw, nice.