Like somebody already said, this is underpower and Lightning Bolt is overpower. I'm glad for the return of this card, because with the Bolt you didn't have any choise about which burn spell play, because the Bolt was the best. If the best is Bolt, why bother to play another burn? Now, we have Shock and a lot of other burn spells slightly better than Shock, so you have to choose between those spells the one that suit your deck the most. With Shock, Wizards has some design space to make a burn spell not overpowered and playable. There are surely better spells, but a basic one is always welcome. Like vanilla creatures... I'll give it 3.5/5, that for me isn't a bad rating. If a balanced vanilla creatura (for example Nessian Courser) is the standard, why not give it 2.5/5, that's the mean of the rating...? 3.5 because this is here to teach to a lot of people the values of basic spells, something that everybody always forget...
Posted By:
leomistico
(11/20/2011 3:18:49 AM)
Why not something that does 3 damage to a player OR 2 to a creature?
Posted By:
dingophone
(12/28/2011 1:20:10 AM)
@Pigfish99 There will be an in-between for Shock and Lightning Bolt it. It will be in the next Un-Set.
It will read:
Taze 
Instant
Taze deals 2½ damage to target creature or player.
"Don't Taze me bro!"
Posted By:
SquirePath
(3/16/2012 11:36:01 AM)
it should be renamed as Delver Remover. R to destroy target Delver
Posted By:
Travis44
(4/13/2012 9:17:38 AM)
You should run Galvanic Blast over this even if you don't play a single artifact. If you play this over Blast you're essentially telling your opponent that you're not playing artifacts, and why would you want to give him that information?
Posted By:
Rainyday2012
(5/13/2012 4:27:54 PM)
Notchism, you shouldn't be playing singular cheap burn in EDH.
Why?
They have 40 life, you can only have 1 of each non-basic-land card, and burn is a quick, aggro strategy. There are very few good aggro strategies in EDH, like Voltron (get lots of Auras/Equipment and attach to your general for quick general damage win).
Lastly, if I were in your situation, I'd play Curse of the Pierced Heart or something that is a consistent damage dealer for your opponent, and one that you don't have to waste a card draw on. Maybe Honden of Infinite Rage, Magmatic Force or Staff of Nin.
Posted By:
Ferlord
(10/14/2012 5:58:26 PM)
Well it kinda sucks compared to lightning bolt, It is much more balanced.
4/5 Stars
Posted By:
Hunter06
(2/3/2013 2:45:39 PM)
@red-white Strictly better means it accomplishes the same thing for a lower mana cost or does more for the same. It doesn't take into account what the opponent responds with.
Posted By:
atemu1234
(2/22/2013 4:17:45 PM)
After reading some articles, I have changed my opinion on limited cards to needed for the game. Shock is still very playable and deadly, well done R&D
Posted By:
TheWrathofShane
(3/5/2013 3:33:45 AM)