Yes, this will often draw unfavorable comparisons to Lightning Bolt. But that's like saying Steve Nash compares poorly to Michael Jordan - he's still a very good player and Lava Spike is a very efficient card - 1 mana for 3 damage is about as good a cost-to-damage ratio as you can get in the game. And from the cards I've seen it seems like this is probably one of the best "Splice onto Arcane" options available, being cheap, but with an effect that you'd never be unhappy with and one you should almost always be able to cast.
Posted By:
nemokara
(12/14/2012 1:32:07 PM)
Not Lightning Bolt, but still very very solid. 5/5. Lightning Bolt is basically 6/5.
Posted By:
MagicCritic
(5/5/2013 11:39:36 AM)
Being a sorcery and unable to target creatures,this card is still notably inferior to Lightning Bolt. On the other hand, back then nobody supposed this card to show up in Standard ever again, and on top of that this card is a good cheap base to splice on some other Arcane spells.
Posted By:
Mode
(8/7/2009 3:26:29 PM)
This was a pretty decent burn spell at the time. But like Mode said that was when no one expected Lightning Bolt to come back in standard. This plus Glacial Ray was 5 damage for 1RR which isn't bad.
Posted By:
person1234
(8/17/2009 1:37:51 PM)
I've spent basically the entire day on gatherer looking up 'Red + Damage + high community rating'
As you can expect, I've seen a bazillion comparisons to Lightning Bolt. Of all the comments I've read, I've seen that more often than not if your complaint is 'this isn't as good as Lightning Bolt' then you are more likely to be a newer poster than an older one -posted 2009 or later, which coincides, coincidentally, with M10's re-release of Lightning Bolt.
I say this with confidence because I see a lot of cards like Hammer of Bogardan which look terrible by comparison get their just respect from the old vets, and oftentimes reading what they say shows me something I missed. In the case of Hammer, it was the value of being able to 'regrowth' the Hammer in the late game. Don't get me started on the jaw drop I did when Fireblast finally 'clicked'. (even if I still think its ugly and needs an art update)
In general, I think people who immediately jump to 'this isn't Lightning Bolt' ... (see all)
Posted By:
DarthParallax
(3/19/2011 12:03:50 AM)
Bump in the Night
Posted By:
MattLynn
(1/18/2013 9:50:52 AM)
i dont get how this combos with desperate ritual and izzet guildmage.... can someone explain please?
Posted By:
Tezz
(6/19/2010 2:35:21 PM)
@Tezz- the mana from desparate ritualis used for the copy ability ofizzet guildmage to copy the lava spike
Posted By:
Colossus_of_Darkstee
(7/21/2010 3:54:44 PM)
Sounds suspiciously like Lightning Bolt....
Posted By:
divine_exodus
(8/21/2010 10:22:11 AM)
At first glance, I thought this was cool, then I realized I've already been playing with this kind of power, with better options and at instant speed. I can't believe I forgot Lightning Bolt existed.
Posted By:
DacenOctavio
(1/29/2011 12:02:21 AM)