Obviously, an excellent card for Limited. I believe that I would take this over any card but WoG in a Core Set, and I might even take this if the signalling were good enough.
In Constructed, this isn't as good, obviously. There are more efficient burn spells, though few that are as explosive. Plus, there are some cards like Fireball and Demonfire that are much better.
I like the flavor a lot, though, since Blaze is almost guaranteed to kill something--or someone.
Oh, and, first post. I like the new Gatherer so far.
Aaron_Forsythe
★★★★☆ (4.8/5.0)(18 votes)
Aaron's Random Card Comment of the Day #30, 11/5/10
Blaze, with its simple generic name and streamlined text box, was created for the Portal sets as the most basic possible X-spell, the perfect teaching tool for variable costs. It was used in all three Portal sets and then put into the Core Set in Sixth Edition where it lived until Tenth Edition.
I replaced it with the much more complicated Fireball in M10, a decision that I wrestle with even to this day (because it is a decision that gets remade every year). Whereas Blaze is a thing of beauty for making the rules of Magic digestible, my claim is that Fireball makes you want to digest them in the first place.
I could be completely overselling the resonant flavor of Fireball, or glossing over the downside of its baffling text box. It’s very hard to tell what impact individual decisions on mundane cards like this have on people. Do today’s new players react to the idea of a Fireball card the way I did in 1994 (with some degree of awe)? They probably haven’t grown up playing Dungeons & Dragons like I did, where fireball was a big part of any self-respecting magic-user's arsenal, but most of the fantasy games kids do play these days have spells called “Fireball” in them, right? And I'm pretty sure that when kids today say "blaze," they aren't thinking magical spell.
Or are they hitting the text box and getting flummoxed; the fact that the card could do, like, a hundred damage to their opponent buried in its arcane algebra? I wish I knew. I’m kind of just playing a hunch.
I do know that older players appreciated seeing the duo of Fireball and Lightning Bolt back again, and that’s worth something. If Fireball got them hooked back in the day, then my belief is that it will do the same for new players today. Which spells bad news for Blaze.
GainsBanding
★★★★☆ (4.9/5.0)(7 votes)
Mr. Forsythe, I can tell you that when I started out playing kitchen table Magic in 1994, I played Fireball as if it were Blaze. I don't think I ever used the additional target clause because I couldn't figure out how it worked. That said, I'd much rather see Fireball in a core set than Blaze.
To add a differing viewpoint from those expressed here, I can't remember ever failing to understand how Fireball works. I've been playing for about 17 years now though so my memories of playing during Alpha are hazy. But I simply can't remember a time when I didn't love Fireball and it always made perfect sense to me how it worked. As such I've always felt Fireball deserves its place in the core set.
Radagast
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I started playing the game in Revised, so I was sad to see Blaze replace Fireball. I understand the concerns over Fireballs relative complexity, but I also don't like stepping the power level of the game down to simplify it. Newer players are going to have to be able to handle more complex spells eventually, and Fireball, while oddly worded at times, is very simple compared to some of the crazier cards out there.
Fireball, Lighting Bolt, and too-often forgotten Disintegrate all had their places in the game, and still do, IMHO.
Comments (6)
In Constructed, this isn't as good, obviously. There are more efficient burn spells, though few that are as explosive. Plus, there are some cards like Fireball and Demonfire that are much better.
I like the flavor a lot, though, since Blaze is almost guaranteed to kill something--or someone.
Oh, and, first post. I like the new Gatherer so far.
Blaze, with its simple generic name and streamlined text box, was created for the Portal sets as the most basic possible X-spell, the perfect teaching tool for variable costs. It was used in all three Portal sets and then put into the Core Set in Sixth Edition where it lived until Tenth Edition.
I replaced it with the much more complicated Fireball in M10, a decision that I wrestle with even to this day (because it is a decision that gets remade every year). Whereas Blaze is a thing of beauty for making the rules of Magic digestible, my claim is that Fireball makes you want to digest them in the first place.
I could be completely overselling the resonant flavor of Fireball, or glossing over the downside of its baffling text box. It’s very hard to tell what impact individual decisions on mundane cards like this have on people. Do today’s new players react to the idea of a Fireball card the way I did in 1994 (with some degree of awe)? They probably haven’t grown up playing Dungeons & Dragons like I did, where fireball was a big part of any self-respecting magic-user's arsenal, but most of the fantasy games kids do play these days have spells called “Fireball” in them, right? And I'm pretty sure that when kids today say "blaze," they aren't thinking magical spell.
Or are they hitting the text box and getting flummoxed; the fact that the card could do, like, a hundred damage to their opponent buried in its arcane algebra? I wish I knew. I’m kind of just playing a hunch.
I do know that older players appreciated seeing the duo of Fireball and Lightning Bolt back again, and that’s worth something. If Fireball got them hooked back in the day, then my belief is that it will do the same for new players today. Which spells bad news for Blaze.
Fireball, Lighting Bolt, and too-often forgotten Disintegrate all had their places in the game, and still do, IMHO.