The power of this spell should be self-evident.
One mana to kill any creature up to three
toughness. It's not uncommon for creatures to
have three or less toughness even after costing
five mana or more. Having your opponent drop a
5/3 on turn five, only to have you Bolt it with
one mana and spend the other four on a threat of
your own? To say nothing of the fact that as
long as this card exists, a single untapped
Mountain and a card in hand will put paranoia
into anyone's mind, whether or not you even have
it in your deck! That's a powerful card.
Magic The Gathering Card of the Day: Lighting
Bolt
Welcome back readers today’s card of the day
is Lighting Bolt a powerful card whose revival
in 2009 helped prompt a powerful tool for almost
any decks utilizing red and in need of powerful
removal. With the return of Lighting Bolt to
standard is a definite boost to red mages as it
is one of the most if not the most efficient
burn spell printed since the beginnings of
Magic. In standard its powerful removal and its
good point and fry a creature or deal damage to
a player easy and fast. In extended, casual and
multiplayer, limited and eternal formats it
mostly gains keeps its usefulness providing a
cheap and powerful card. This card is one of the
top cards of 2009 and hovers near the top of the
list because it provides the power necessary to
deal with a vast amount of creatures and provide
power to decks using red. Simple yet elegant
card. Near Perfection.
Today's card on the countdown is the classic
Lightning Bolt from the days of Alpha through
Fourth edition which made a big return in the
core set this year. Not much really needs to be
said about what is quite possibly the best
single target burn spell ever printed in Magic.
One mana for three damage to a creature or
player is as good as it gets as even two mana
for three damage or one mana for two damage
cards are very much playable.
In Constructed, Casual, and Multiplayer if
you are playing anything related to burn this is
an automatic four of inclusion in your deck.
Needing only one mana source untapped to be able
to eliminate a three or lower toughness creature
from being a threat is extremely efficient in
any format. While having the option of just
dealing the damage directly to a player or
Planeswalker also makes it far more versatile
than creature only removal. The only real
concern are creatures with four or greater
toughness, but at one mana this can be played
early to gain the advantage before such threats
enter the battlefield. Even against a four
toughness creature this can be used as a sort of
Giant Growth by using a 1/1 creature of your own
to block or attack into that four toughness and
then finish their creature off with the three
extra damage. It is a two for one exchange, but
it should regain field advantage which can be
more valuable. This strategy even works without
having a Lightning Bolt against a savvy opponent
by attacking with your
1/1 while holding a dead card in hand, such as a
Mountain. Your opponent may presume the card is
a Lightning Bolt and not block allowing you to
chip away at their life total.
For Limited this is the kind of card you want
to see in abundance as removal or burn can and
will win games for you. In Sealed if your Red
selection is playable every copy of Lightning
Bolt should be played without exception. In
Booster this should be drafted as a top choice
and highest priority whenever passed to you and
there is basically no such thing as running too
many copies. Whether it is used to clear the
field for your own creatures or as a final
strike on your opponent's life points this is
almost always great to topdeck or have in your
opening hand.
Lightning Bolt is undoubtedly the reprint of
the year, if not the decade. The official line
on this card used to be that it was just too
efficient; evidently times have changed, and a
new generation of players will grow up learning
to love, hate, and fear the Bolt. Gotta love
that flavor text, too.
