MTG Salvation

This is going to be fun

It's really depressing that we're excited about it.

It is a powerful effect at that cost in standard with instant speed. 3 toughness has still been the danger zone for creatures in standard but now 3 loyalty is a danger zone too. Gideon, Ally of Zendikar was a monster in this past standard because it could come down and make a 2/2 for no loyalty change. It was hard to deal with the creature and the planeswalker at the same time. Now Huatali, Warrior Poet might be 1 mana more but comes down with a similar ability to Gideon only instead of a 2/2 it's a 3/3 with trample. That almost seems better but Huatali starts at 3 loyalty so a lightning strike now takes care of her and leaves you with just the 3/3 to worry about.

So long story short, hitting creatures and players is three modes now which makes it good enough that I see why wizards didn't reprint it for a while. This set seems to be leaning more towards "answers" though so I'm excited to see how the meta shifts.

I hope this leads to an unbanning of Smuggler's Copter. Between Lightning Strike and Fatal Push, it really is not as hard to deal with as it was when it was banned.

Also, this may push Ramunap Red back into dominance again. Depends on what we get for creatures. Lightning Strike directly replaces Incendiary Flow (the exile won't matter as much since Zombies is basically rotating out), and the only other significant card being lost is Falkenrath Gorger, but that was always the least-powerful creature in the deck anyway. Soul-Scar Mage works just fine. Oh, and Village Messenger needs a replacement as well. I'm sure there will be an option. I expect this deck to surge again.

Quote from tchntm43 »

I hope this leads to an unbanning of Smuggler's Copter. Between Lightning Strike and Fatal Push, it really is not as hard to deal with as it was when it was banned.

I am not sure, with Favorable Winds reprint, an unanswered Copter could grow out of Strike range easily. I doubt they will unban it.