why Lightning Strike?
General forum
Posted on March 11, 2014, 6:06 p.m. by Ruric
my question is if Searing Spear was created and does the same for the same value at the same speed, why WOTC created Lightning Strike ?
couldnt they just reprint it?
nighthawk101 says... #3
Also so Modern/Legacy/Vintage/etc decks can run essentially 8x Searing Spear .
I've never seen a deck that does. :)
It may be good in burn EDH, so you can have two copies.
March 11, 2014 6:18 p.m.
thataddkid says... #4
Good
Burn EDH
Maybe you're being a bit too optimistic :P
March 11, 2014 6:22 p.m.
nighthawk101 says... #5
Burn EDH seems like an... interesting strategy, but probably would not work :) But who knows, maybe somewhere out there someone is winning games with a burn EDH...
March 11, 2014 6:24 p.m.
They already had a card planned called Lightning Strike but its mechanics didn't work out. The art was done. Since it was so late in the game, the saw little harm in just making it a functional reprint of Searing Spear .
March 11, 2014 6:30 p.m.
I've seen mono-red Kamikazi burn decks. The whole concept of "Kill you before I kill myself".
March 11, 2014 6:32 p.m.
Technically modern burn can run 16x Searing Spear (Searing Spear , Lightning Strike , Volcanic Hammer , Incinerate ).
March 11, 2014 6:42 p.m.
Yeah, you need to add Lightning Bolt , Shard Volley , Lava Spike and Rift Bolt if you want it to do well.
March 11, 2014 7:13 p.m.
Quadsimotto says... #11
So what is earliest turn in which one could deal 20 damage from burn spells? What is the optimal starting hand? For say modern?
March 11, 2014 7:25 p.m.
Probably turn 3, with 2x Mountain , 3x Rift Bolt , 2x Lightning Bolt as opening hand, draw into one Mountain and two Lightning Bolt s (going second).
No, it's not a consistent turn 3, but a deck full of 3 damage spells could consistently do turn 4-5 wins.
March 11, 2014 7:29 p.m.
Wait, my math's off. It's turn 3 if they play Thoughtsieze or a shock land.
March 11, 2014 7:30 p.m.
The story goes Lightning Strike was a card that proved too good in testing, but it was otherwise finished. Rather than risk last minutes changes, which has lead to many of the most powerful cards in magic like Umezawa's Jitte and Tarmogoyf , the card was instead changed to something they already knew wasn't going to upset balance.
March 11, 2014 7:33 p.m.
Cobthecobbler says... #16
Because (ONE), it's a functional reprint of Lightning Bolt already, and Searing Spear is already a reprint of Volcanic Hammer . So this is a series of Lightning Bolt functional reprint. And the only reason it was a copy of Searing Spear , was because of the Flavor.
Searing Spear was printed in a set where the flavor was "A Horror Story", which wouldn't go with Theros.
I really hope everything I wrote is understandable. Don't ask about the why...
ryuzaki32667 says... #2
They could have , but made lightning strike for Flavor reasons
March 11, 2014 6:09 p.m.