Lightning Bolt

Instant

Lightning Bolt deals 3 damage to target creature, player or planeswalker.

Discussion (51)

LadyZ on Nicol Bolas & Dragons, Inc.

2 days ago

I'd think about adding Kokusho, the Evening Star and Scourge of Valkas for more powerful dragons. If you want your dragons to cost less, Dragonlord's Servant and Dragonspeaker Shaman . For cuts, I'd reccomend Shock , Lightning Bolt , and Censor

hungry000 on Nicol Bolas, God - Pharaoh

2 days ago

Well, here's what I would do:

-all 15 creatures

-2 Sorin's Thirst

-2 Insult / Injury

-2 Kari Zev's Expertise

-4 Cancel

---

+4 Inquisition of Kozilek

+4 Fatal Push

+4 Lightning Bolt

+4 Opt

+4 Rune Snag

+1 Mana Leak

+4 Mission Briefing

opt. -2 Murder , +2 Terminate

opt. -2 Sweltering Suns , +2 Anger of the Gods

You can switch out Fatal Push and Lightning Bolt for some other removal spells if they don't fit in your budget (though they're actually pretty cheap atm), but they're a good investment if they do.

hungry000 on Nicol Bolas, God - Pharaoh

2 days ago

Bolas in modern, huh. The only way you're gonna be getting to 7 mana in this format is by going all-in on the control plan, so a Spirit subtheme probably won't work out too well as they're more for tempo/aggro decks. Instead, I'd go for a good ol' grixis control shell, like this: Grixis Control. Lots of removal, usually 4-6 hand disruption spells, and some counterspells.

Your most important cards are Fatal Push and Lightning Bolt , which are two of the best removal spells in the format. If you're willing to buy I suggest that you make getting playsets of them a top priority since they're used in pretty much every deck with their colors. Next, I should ask how you want to play: do you want to focus more on killing creatures, countering spells, or be proactive and make your opponents discard cards? I only ask this because I assume you don't want to shell out your entire fortune on buying cards like Snapcaster or Liliana, which let grixis decks do all of those things equally well. Your answer will help with card choices and also with mana base building, which is kind of tricky in budget 3-color control decks. I suggest going more counterspell/removal heavy since there are good, cheap counterspells like Mana Leak that make it easier to build a decent deck for less money and it'll stack up better against what you face locally (except maybe the UR control deck) if you focus on those.

Basic advice is this: focus more on removal and counterspells, less on spirits and you're pretty much good to go. If you're willing to spend money on this deck, all the cards you need to know of are in the deck I linked above. Recommended budget spells for the main: Mana Leak / Rune Snag , Terminate , Mission Briefing , Cry of the Carnarium / Anger of the Gods , Inquisition of Kozilek (not budget but if you're buying them anyway you should put them in), Opt .

Sarkhan420X on red black minotaurs

5 days ago

you certainly don't want Anger of the Gods in a creature based deck. the only creatures here that even survive it are the ones that aren't even minotaurs. Rakdos's Return isn't very good either. 3 mana to make an opponent discard a card and take 1 damage is a horrible exchange. theres lots of better removal you could be using like Lightning Bolt , Terminate , Fatal Push , or Cast Down . you can upgrade your lands with fetchlands like Bloodstained Mire and checklands like Dragonskull Summit . Felhide Petrifier combos really well with Rageblood Shaman . if an attacking creature has both deathtouch and trample, you only need to assign 1 damage to each blocker before the rest can be

M_Malcom: Dead of Winter would kill his own creatures as well.

legendofa on red black minotaurs

5 days ago

I recommend Ragemonger . You have a lot of 3+ cmc Minotaurs here, and you can get a huge discount on them. An additional trick with this is to add Rakdos, Lord of Riots : if you deal 3 damage with these two out, your Minotaurs cost 1 or even 0 mana. Also, look for some more turn 1-2 plays, since this deck has virtually no options before turn 3. Lightning Bolt is a classic.

One last point: this deck is marked as Standard. It should probably be Modern or Casual.

Sarkhan420X on Modern Monoblack Vampire Tribal Aggro Competitive

6 days ago

26 lands is too many. it reduces your chances of Vampire Nocturnus ' effect being active.

BR vampires can be just as fast as monoblack, and still be good against combo. right now, the only thing you have to really combat combo is Duress , but Thoughtseize or Inquisition of Kozilek would be better.

mardu or orzhov vampires are also an option. the first strike from Stromkirk Captain works really well with the deathtouch on Vampire Nighthawk and Gifted Aetherborn , and Blade of the Bloodchief with some removal (like Terminate ) means more life from their lifelink. Legion Lieutenant is another really good buff. Lightning Bolt is also strictly better than Bump in the Night .

babushkasara on LANDS ABLAZE

1 week ago

I don't love Gyrus in here. He just doesn't work with the rest of the theme. Same with Disentomb and Stitch Together. Actually, have you considered cutting black all together? Using Wrenn and Six would let you focus more on land shenanigans at a much lower costed Oathbreaker. I would cut Fling, replace Lightning Strike with Lightning Bolt , and toss in a Return to Nature . Zendikar's Roil is good landfall as is Evolution Sage like suggested above. I also would consider Ayula's Influence as it's a free way to get lands to the graveyard which you can immediately bring back. Finally, I recommend removing Forge of Heroes for a basic land. Getting your colors is really important and the second ability of the land isn't all that helpful here.

DemonDragonJ on Core 2020 spoiler thread

1 week ago

The first day of previews for Core Set 2020 are not too bad, but, after the double whammy of War of the Spark and Modern Horizons, this set will almost certainly be underwhelming, at least to enfranchised players, such as myself.

I shall immediately state that I dislike how angel of vitality says “25 or more life;” did WotC not learn anything from Serra Ascendant ? Would it really have been that difficult for the cad to say “5 or more life greater than your starting life total?”

On a more positive note, Seb McKinnon’s artwork on scheming symmetry is again amazing, and I especially appreciate the resemblance to the artwork of a traditional playing card. Whoever Kethis is, I do hope that they (although the name sounds masculine) eventually have a card. As for the card itself, a Vampiric Tutor that costs no life is quite awesome; it does assist an opponent, and is only a sorcery, but those are small prices to pay for such amazing card advantage. I also am very pleased to see that WotC has not completely phased out "tutors," as those have been an essential aspect of the game since its very beginning.

It is nice to finally see a red/white/green angel, but I am not certain that I can make room in my EDH deck of those colors for her, unfortunately.

I very much like cavalier of flame for its first ability, which is slightly more expensive than that of Moonveil Dragon , but also grants haste and is on a creature that is not specific to any plane, increasing its options for reprints in the future.

Dread presence is very nice, a perfect embodiment of black’s philosophy; I wish that it had higher toughness, to survive a Lightning Bolt , but it likely would have needed to have had a higher mana cost, in that case.

Why did WotC choose Chandra as the face card of this set? Is there something special about her?

Corpse knight should gain its controller life equal to the life lost when its ability triggers, because there is nothing white about it otherwise.

I fail to see any reason for which ironroot warlord’s toughness should not be variable, as is its power.

Wow, that new Ajani is awesome, but I thought that his color identity was settled on green/white by this time.

Atemsis is nice, but her (the name sounds feminine) ability definitely feels more black then blue, in my mind.

Cryptic caves is also very nice, essentially a colorless version of Horizon Canopy , albeit with a stricter requirement for activating its ability.

I see that Yanling shall be in this set, so I am pleased to see a planeswalker who has not been in a core set, before. I really hope that Sorin is both black and white, but that is not likely, since core sets usually have one planeswalker of each color (with an exception being made for Chandra, in this case).

I dislike the fact that Negate is being reprinted, again; why must WotC continually reprint such a mediocre card? I would much have preferred Countersquall , Condescend , or Mana Leak .