How in the world can they bring back LB? Is Dark Ritual coming back too?

Hehe was just coming here to post that. Guess I'm a little slow. Ball Lightning and Lightning Bolt coming back yay!

These are not even close to comparable. That's like saying "Jesus they reprinted Dark Rit. Are they reprinting Ancestral Recall!?"

LIGHTNING BBOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLTTTTT TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT TTTTTTTTTTTT

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_ekugPKqFw

I think Lightning Bolt is pretty fair given how much better creatures have gotten since the old days. Shock can barely even kill anything now.

currently in a 8-4 acr draft where I have 3 walls of denial

edit - got another 6th. how can I lose with 4 superwalls

3rd draft. Lost in the finals to an exalted deck 2-1 which punished my slow starts if I didn't have 2/3 drops. Lighting talons wasn't in my main deck. Beacon Behemoth was, but I sided it in because 7/4 first strike is kind of awesome, though not optimal.

Hellkite overlord only got cast once in 8 games, but it was FTW. Opponent 8 life - 2/2 Prot Red Guy and 3/3 flier. Me 8 life - 7/7 firestoker. He sat w/ the 2/2 to protect against burn/removal. Gave me the extra turns necessary to draw my 8th land for Hellkite.

2nd draft was terrible - I tried a WG deck that got shutdown by protect green and a 4/4 Manaforce mace. Probably should have won game 1 in that matchup.

Feel free to mock - off to watch burn notice

Ancestrall Recall hasn't been in like 10 different sets smart guy, so thats a horrible response.

doesnt quietus spike read combat damage?

RTFC

lolololololol what?

who cares.

1x bolt is 15% of your life total while 1x shock is 10%
2x bolt is 30% of your life total while 2x shock is 20%
3x bolt is 45% of your life total while 3x shock is 30%
4x bolt is 60% of your life total while 4x shock is 40%

Also given that we have magma spray and terminate (unless you're playing MonoR or R/G) there are more ways to kill creatures.

I'm just saying from the point of view of making a core set that is supposed to sort of be the base line cards, it makes sense that Shock would get replaced by Bolt. I'm not really sure what point you're even trying to make tbh. Yes I know that Lightning Bolt does more damage than Shock, but thanks for the in depth mathematical demonstration.

here's a video of me playing an extended premier event vs kenji tsumura some months ago:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGIF_YYg8aA

Yeah but if you vengeful rebirth back shock then cast it, its the same amount of damage as lightning bolt.

It's concerning power level. Who gives a **** that they haven't been in 10 different sets? Dark Ritual got banned and Lightning Bolt never has been, because cards like Dark Ritual are generally big mistakes; Wizards took awhile to figure this out.

Explain how Dark Ritual is a big mistake? I haven't played since before it was banned, so yea.

Its an amount of mana acceleration that leads to "unfun" games due to degenerate combos and the like.

It certainly was used in a lot of combo decks. I heart ProsBloom.

Dark ritual was a card used in a "first turn win" I thought of when I was first starting to play magic. That was a legitimate brag for a 10 year old, I think, even when I found out someone else had thought of it a couple months prior when I read a Scrye that had it.

Slightly off topic story, but in round 3 of Worlds 1999, I won both games on turn 1. I went first and combo'd my opponent out in game 1, game 2 he played a Forest, a Llanowar Elfs, then died before untapping. The match next to us was getting deck-checked and we finished before they started! Story is vaguely related because I had four Dark Rituals in my deck

To some extent the power of Dark Ritual depends on what sick combo pieceyou can get out with it, whether that be a Memory Jar, a Necro/Bargain, or just the colorless mana on an Illusions of Grandeur, say.

I'm not sure what there is in current standard that would be broken with ritual, but tbh it's better to be safe than sorry. It makes every 'combo' card that would ordinarily be too expensive, perfectly within reach.

You didn't really need Dark Ritual in ProsBloom, did you?

I don't think most people played ritual in ProsBloom. Mike Long's pro tour winning decklist definitely didn't. I guess squandered resources is a satisfactory way to get a turn 3 bloom (and combos better with Natural Resources, ofc).

i knew i was missing something. Deathtouch.

-JP

Hmmmm, Its possible it didnt. I based my ProsBloom deck off of Long's and made some alterations, so I'm actually not sure now that you mention it. I do know that deck was sick before it got banned.

Anyone remember the Blue Artifact 1 Turn win deck that came out right after ProsBloom maybe a year or two later?