Lightning Javelin

Sorcery

Lightning Javelin deals 3 damage to target creature or player. Scry 1. (Look at the top card of your library. You may put that car on the bottom of your library.)

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Arena	Legal
Block Constructed	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Gladiator	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Historic	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Modern	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Pauper	Legal
Pauper Duel Commander	Legal
Pauper EDH	Legal
Pioneer	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (12)

Ziusdra on Card creation challenge

4 years ago

Ral, Bolas' Errand-Boy

Legendary Creature - Human Wizard

Haste

Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery that targets Ral, Bolas' Errand-Boy, you may exile Ral and return him to the battlefield before that spell resolves. Copy that spell. You may choose new targets for the copy.

When Ral, Bolas' Errand-Boy becomes exiled for the second time in a single turn, return it to the battlefield transformed.

2 / 2

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Ral, Izzet Guildmaster

Legendary Planeswalker - Ral

+1 Search your library for a card named Lightning Bolt , Lightning Strike , Shock , Spark Jolt , Rift Bolt , Lightning Javelin , or Rhystic Lightning , reveal it, and put it into your hand. Shuffle your library afterward.

-5 You get an emblem with, "Whenever an instant or sorcery you control deals damage to a player, copy it. You must choose new targets for the copy."

3

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Pretty straightforward. Burn your opponent to death. Actually functional as a commander.

Wildcard or ninja'd challenge

Ballzanya on

6 years ago

Needs one more Chandra, Torch of Defiance and i'd also replace the four Lightning Strike with the four Fatal Push from your sideboard. Add one more Collective Brutality and a couple Nihil Spellbomb to the sideboard, as well as two Anger of the Gods. the mainboard could use a Damnation. I'd add one Liliana, the Last Hope to the main and get rid of the Vraska and Angrath. (The five mana Angrath, Angrath, the Flame-Chained is better and worth trying, as I'm doing in my black/red modern deck.) Lightning Javelin is not a good card for modern. I'd take those out. Take out the Never//Return and replace them with either Hero's Downfall or Dreadbore. The Surgical Extraction should be in the sideboard. I know it's not cheap, but you should work on getting another one so you have two of that in your sideboard. Combined with a couple Nihil Spellbomb, and maybe one Slaughter Games, you'd have some hate against graveyard shennanigans.

Guftders on Product Changes

7 years ago

ChiefBell Not entirely my point there, but we have evidence in the past where, because Wizards tacked on an additional mechanic, they've upped the cmc. Scry is possibly the worst offender, where the vast majority of new cards with scry, tended to be more expensive, simply for having scry. eg: Lightning Javelin.

I'm just saying that they're not exactly going to put Dark Petition style cards in every deck (ie: do this amazing thing, then add planeswalker). Whilst we could expect to get Lightning Bolt + add planeswalker, but the cost might be 4-6, at sorcery for red; Or for Blue, it might be Counterspell + add PW, at 4-7, Instant (obv).

We might instead get Geistflame (no flashback) + add pw at 3-5, or Force Spike + add PW at 3-5.

And then because they reference the specific planeswalker, the planeswalker itself has to be at least playable, or the tutor effect is then worthless and you're paying 3 for a ping/force spike/insert-on-colour effect.

So regarding the planeswalker, the reason I'm sceptical, is because the complexity level has to be simple enough for new players to understand, AND not be too powerful so that existing players don't go wild and thus leaving new players unable to find them. So for these two reasons, I find myself doubting their success.

But I really do hope I'm wrong.

Cragon18 on The Man with Four Brains Dimir

7 years ago

Thanks for the feedback and the +1 darleen. I have been meaning to add some dual lands to the deck, but have not gotten around to it. I don't have any Wandering Fumarole, but I will add the Shivan Reef for sure.

Thanks dragonjeesh. I agree, that Sphinx of the Final Word is much better. I will look into acquiring one for the deck. I am really close to removing all the creatures entirely in favor of more sorcery and instant spells, but until then I need the best possible creatures I can get. I do like Fiery Temper and have been considering it. I agree about Lightning Javelin. I mostly put it in there to have a 4 drop for my brain in the jar. I will probably add fiery temper while I look for a more effective 4 drop. Thanks again!

TheDracogenius on Draw Deck

8 years ago

Sweet that you want to build a Niv Mizzet deck!

If you truly want this deck to be as good as it can be, you will have a lot of work to do. You have many suboptimal and some generally unplayable cards in your deck and I hope I can help you identify them:

1. Refocus is really weak. It does not have a high upside. Sure you can use it with Arcanis, but that will never be the case. In general this will be draw 1 or 2 ( if you use it with Niv) which is not that great in comparison to other cards with better synergy. Brainstorm, Preordain and Serum Visions all do its job better.

2. Telling Time is worse than every card I just listed and does not even draw the card, but rather puts them into your hand, so it has no synergy.

3. Lightning Javelin is even undesirable in limited play, which usually means that it is unplayable in EDH. Burn spells are very weak in the format because of the massive life total and huge creatures. If you feel like you need extra burn besides Niv Mizzet, just use spells like Comet Storm or Starstorm or even Devil's Play, but not these narrow type of cards. In EDH three things are most important: the spell needs to be scalable,the spell needs to be versatile and has to be very good at what it does. This thing meet none of the categories, so it is most likely very bad.

4. Traitorous Instinct is a one time use Threaten, which is horrible without sacrafice outlets. Taking a creature just for one turn is not worth it, it does not even have any synergy with the rest of the deck, so there is no point in keeping it around.

5. Flameblast Dragon has the same problem. Is it a strong beater? Yes! Does that matter? No! Just vanilla creatures that do not support your theme weaken your deck. Spending your whole turn to pay for its ability is not what you want.

6. Pilgrim's Eye is just worse than Burnished Hart. The Hart is amazing, the Eye not so much. Just use any other mana rock of you want to ramp.

7. Salvage Droneis horribly unplayable in limited, and basically a skipped draw step in commander. Its impact is negledgible, if you can eben call it that. A 1/1 for 1 should better have a freaking powerful ability to make it into your deck, but this thing is just pathetic.

8. Tyrant's Familiar is very strong, but it strenghtens a gameplan that is not support et by your deck. Niv Mizzet is about as synergy heavy as you can get, with every card either drawing cards for burn or removing threats. This thing does neither.

9. Lightning Talons is bad. There are very strong abilities for commander, like Hexproof, Indestructible and Unblockable. First strike is not one of these, and the power buff will make no impact, because your prima win condition is not to beat down.

10. EVERY SINGLE HOWLING MINE EFFECT! The point of the deck is too beat your opponents by card advantage, so why do you want to X for 1 yourself every upkeep? WHilfe you draw one, your opponents are drawing also one. With four opponents you get one card while they get three combined! You see the problem? Just use single mass card draw effects, as they will be mich better. With Howling Mine you just shoot yourself in the foot.

In general you should try to focus the deck. Figure out a way to win, either by combo or other ways and only include cards for that strategy. Look for a way to stream line it. I did not want to be mean or say that all of these cards are unplayable, they just do not fit into a deck like this. Using the same staple cards can get boring, but there are still underused cards that are better than these.

Feel free to look through my Niv Mizzet Primer if you want to get some more inspiration for cards to use in the deck!

Have fun tinkering with and playing with the deck!

DroseraC on

8 years ago

To me, it seems like your attempted central theme is +1/+1 counters. I will guess that your "budget" is to stay under $50 total cost, so I'll try to suggest things that aren't expensive. And I'll also try to keep the color scheme, but I'll suggest things you may want to consider splashing for. I'm also going to avoid Khans/Fates cards because they're rotating very soon.

Loam Larva is not great for constructed. It puts the land on top of your library and kills your tempo. I would remove all 4. Mage-Ring Bully might make it in a Prowess deck, but you aren't that. Ditch him. Prickleboar, Rhox Maulers, Tajuru Pathwarden and Valeron Wardens aren't optimal, but aren't terrible. I'd suggest removing them, though. Territorial Baloth probably isn't the best either since you're not trying to abuse landfall. Removing all of these gives us 10 open creature slots. For your non-creatures, Act of Treason can be good but is typically a side-board card. Having it in your mainboard means it'll just sit in your hand against a control deck. Demolish isn't that great either, and there are better cards for what you're probably doing with it. Lightning Javelin and Touch of the Void are really bad burn choices, they should go. Ruin in Their Wake isn't a good choice unless you have a lot of Wastes - of which you have 0. Out it goes. Zendikar's Roil is like the Baloth, it's not awful but you're not really bringing the right cards to support it. It should go. This gives us seven noncreature slots.

I'd suggest looking in to running 4x Saddleback Lagacs. They're a pretty good Support creature. Bump up your count of Goblin Freerunners because getting a 3/2 Menace for 1R is pretty great, even if you have to surge it.

So, budget creatures you could look in to to fill those 10 slots above could be Servant of the Scale, Rot Shambler and Baloth Pup. They all interact with +1/+1 counters which you're getting from Support spells like Lagac, Nissa's Judgment and Gladehart. Some rares that could work, but are still pretty low cost, would be Undergrowth Champion, Oran-Rief Hydra and Outland Colossus. And of course, more Mana gorger Hydras wouldn't be a bad thing.

Noncreature spells that might work well are Inspiring Call which doubles as a combat trick and a draw spell. Natural Connection or Explosive Vegetation are better ramp spells, respectively because they're Instant or because they dig up more land than Ruin in their Wake does. Retreat to Kazandu might be nice, too, since it gives you a repeatable source of +1/+1 counters to distribute as you'd like. Finally, Sunbringer's Touch might give you a game-ender spell by allowing you to bolster, then swing through with a board of tramplers. Your burn spells would probably be better off as Fiery Impulse. Even if you're not reliably getting Spell Mastery quickly, the fact that they're instant is a huge bonus and it's easy enough to get 4x of them. And, of course, more Nissa's and another Chandra or two wouldn't be terrible.

Obviously, I understand that you're posting what you currently have. I'm just trying to suggest things that are inexpensive and would work with the kind of cards you seem to already be trying.

FoodMonger7342 on Chandra Red Werewolf splash

8 years ago

It seems fun, but I have to question the Lightning Javelin in the list. I just think the Exquisite Firecraft in the sideboard would serve better in the maindeck, and maybe add in a couple of Outpost Siege to better serve your late-game.

Speedmew223 on Scry (Budget)

8 years ago

I'm confused, how does this deck work? Is the wincon Thassa, God of the Sea? Why run Lightning Javelin instead of Lightning Bolt or at least Bolt of Keranos. Condescend instead of Dissolve or Mana Leak? I mean cards like Electrolyze seem way better b/c you actually get the card, not just look at it.