lightning bolt and shock.
General forum
Posted on Sept. 1, 2012, 5:33 a.m. by miel94
Lets take a look at these 2 cards: Lightning Bolt and Shock .
Now they both cost one red mana, so identical mana cost, however one dos 3 damege, one dos 2 damege.
So why? I was quite shocked to find a card that is 100% better to use than the other, no matter for what purpose. Black on white, its better to have Lightning Bolt in ur deck than Shock .
That kinda shocked me, how come this can happen?
OnlyaWerewolfonTuesday says... #3
Different power levels appropriate for different formats. Shock is appropriate power level for standard, whereas Lightning Bolt fits for formats like Modern and Legacy. Galvanic Blast and Burst Lightning are also strictly better than Shock and Lava Spike and Rift Bolt are both strictly worse then Lightning Bolt .
September 1, 2012 6:27 a.m.
September 1, 2012 7:53 a.m.
Counterspell or Cancel ? Control Magic or Mind Control ? If you're playing Casual or EDH or Legacy, you're probably not ever going to want Cancel in your deck, but if you're playing Standard, there ain't no Counterspell s available.
September 1, 2012 8:53 a.m.
Rhadamanthus says... #6
MTG Q&A is intended to be for rules-related questions. This is a topic more suited to the General area of the forums.
Lightning Bolt was printed in the very first set of the game, and it stayed in all the way up to 4th Edition. It was around here that Wizards did another re-evaluation of the power levels of various cards, and decided Lightning Bolt was just a little too good (part of that was actually because creatures were a lot worse back then). After making that decision, Lightning Bolt was left out of 5th Edition, and was eventually replaced by Shock , first printed in Stronghold.
Shock stayed in the game as the staple 1-mana burn spell for 10+ years, until Wizards decided that the overall power level of other cards in the game was such that it was safe to bring back Lightning Bolt for M10. Lightning Bolt got to fly around in Standard for a couple years, and then got a break when it was replaced by the combination of Shock and Incinerate in M12. Now, in M13, Searing Spear is holding down that role.
September 1, 2012 9:24 a.m.
And that, my children, is all you need to know about the history of Lightning Bolt .
whitecow says... #2
Lightning bolt is a card from M11 and shock is from M12 - in standard format you can only play cards from the most recently released expansions. In other words Wizzards realized that bolt was overpowered and introduced shock. In casual play you can play all cards you want (except banned) so bolt is strictly better but in tournaments that are played in standard you will not be able to do that.
September 1, 2012 6:25 a.m.