Big Bolt?
Custom Cards forum
Posted on March 7, 2018, 10:52 a.m. by WizardOfTheNorthernCoast
Hey guys,
So I love red. Obviously, the most iconic Red card is Lightning Bolt. It's been a while that, being mainly a modern Burn player, it's been lacking reach against those high toughness dudes (hi, Eldrazis...). So I just figured: why not have a bigger bolt for a higher cmc?
Big Bolt deals 4 damage to target creature or player.
OR
Big bolt deals 6 damage to target cretaure or player.
Do you guys think it would be too OP? Or in the contrary, do you think a similar card could one day see the light?
I'm not saying that Burn needs to be pushed here, just that I'd love to see more cards with multiple in their CMC and that Fated Conflagration is an insult to us Red mages.
The two drop is op. The 3 drop is fine are these for edh modern casual?
March 7, 2018 11:53 a.m.
Flame Rift Flame Slash and Lava Spike are good cards to look at
March 7, 2018 11:57 a.m.
Agusdakilla says... #5
If you use Shock and Lightning Strike as the template for burn spells, then it might be correct to say that would represent 2 damage, and would represent 1 damage. If this is true, then 5 damage for would be reasonable. Just my way of reasoning this.
March 7, 2018 5:53 p.m.
Damage is not the only consideration when designing a cardyou must also consider the space that card takes up in a deck. You cannot equate a card with the two and cardsthe former takes up less space in your precious sixty cards, which needs to be factored. Theres a reason so many burn spells not only deal 4 damage, they also have some form of downside.
March 7, 2018 6:17 p.m.
WizardOfTheNorthernCoast says... #7
Nice inputs guys! Glad to see it's a subject that can lead to a discussion :) I am indeed aware of all the cards you mentionned, but I really like the fact that you get 'rewarded' for going mono red. Hence the (multiple) only in the cmc.
Flame Javelin is a bit underwhelming when you think of it. Not strong enough for 3 for burn purposes (with Boros Charm around) or removal purposes (Flame Slash everybody), and it's clearly a scam for ...
Though I fully understand that balancing this must be a real nightmare since it would mess up with their lately designed creatures, I still think it could be a great spell to allow more red controlly builds to exist. I've tried some stuff other than Skred Red to have a control red deck in Modern but all my attempts went to sh*t because there is no actual decent burn spell that's versatile enough to both take out big dudes and close out the game. It could also be lots of fun for mono red EDH!
- deals 5 to target creature or player would be the most balanced solution, I think. Heck, it could even be a sorcery I wouldn't care!
Caerwyn says... #2
Making a bigger bolt has a couple problems.
First, Wizards clearly designs cards with Lightning Bolt in mind. A number of powerful or legendary creatures are given 4 toughness--I suspect specifically to make them immune to Lightning Bolt's kills. Adding a hyper-efficient 4 damage removal spell would be disastrous for 25 years of card design, and would make future card design more difficult as Wizards struggles to find a new balance of toughness, utility, and mana cost.
If we make a "target creature or player" spell that is both efficient and powerful enough to take down Eldrazi, that will heavily skew the meta toward burn. These cards would never be used for taking down large creatures--their incredible ability to burn an opponent would be so broken that targeting a creature would be a waste of the card.
If you make the card costed such that it dissuades burning a player, then no one will run it for creature removal.
If you make the card only target creatures, no one will run it, since it cannot be used toward the primary win condition.
March 7, 2018 11:33 a.m.