a question about a couple of cards...
Limited forum
Posted on Jan. 16, 2015, 1:14 p.m. by abenz419
what are you guy's thought about Lightning Shrieker and Sandblast, from a limited standpoint. I see Sandblast as being very playable removal, even though it's conditional. 5 damage will take out a lot a creatures. I even think there will be some brewers who try it out with Soulfire Grand Master in constructed because it takes out Siege Rhino, polukranos, etc. and Stoke the Flames doesn't.
Lightning Shrieker I'm not too sure about. I know it's not constructed playable. The shuffle into library effect is just too much of a set back. However in a sealed event with a 40 card deck (and where you see 1/4th of your deck by turn 3) I could see this coming in and potentially swinging for big damage multiple times in a game. Is the shuffle effect even too much of a set back for sealed???
Hootiequack says... #3
Lightning Shrieker seems pretty good to me. Yes, he gets shuffled. But hopefully he isn't your only threat. With only 1/6 of the pool being guaranteed from Khans, if you look at the FRF pool, there's not a lot of creatures to stand up to it. Trample means it should push something through and likely kill a flying creature at worst. And he is a common, so you could see multiples of him which lessens the effect of the shuffle ability to an extent.
And yes, play Sandblast unless you just pull a lot of other awesome removal.
January 16, 2015 1:44 p.m.
Yeah, I was coming at this purely from a limited standpoint originally with the pre-release this weekend. I know it's a playable card for sure, I think it was just standing out in my mind when I made the post because I think there is constructed play-ability potential there.
January 16, 2015 2:55 p.m.
Lightning Shrieker seems okay at first glance, but at a high CMC and no permanent board presence, it is very limited in it's playability.
It's like a Lava Axe... but slower... and vulnerable to removal... and able to be blocked to have damage reduced/stopped. - Heck, it turns your opponent's Pressure Point into a removal spell.
If I open one, and I'm playing red, I may consider siding it in when I think my opponent is vulnerable to flying, but I wouldn't main board it unless I really needed to fill a creature slot at the 5-drop.
I could also see some use with Collateral Damage or Rite of Undoing (Delving 4), etc. but for the most part... no.
January 16, 2015 3:50 p.m.
AngryBearTony says... #6
I think I would need to have a seriously bad pool to consider playing Lightning Shrieker. Chances are you'll barely get any damage through, and you lose a board presence that cost you 5. I could have used some other combo of cards to add up to the same to make my position better.
Can I see him being conditional and used? Sure. It's hard to kill, it's hard to protect much against, but I can think of a few other cards I'd rather see than Lightning Shrieker when turn 5 comes up.
January 16, 2015 4:36 p.m.
Lightning Shrieker won me most of my games, i went 4-0 at prerelease! I had three in my pool so it came out a lot, and with dragon triggers he was amazing. No one can block a 5/5 flying haste it is just like a mini Stormbreath Dragon that leaves. Amazing in limited, despite the draw back. BETTER IN NUMBERS.
January 17, 2015 10:53 p.m.
I didn't play it, but I will say the more you have of those the better. I didn't see a lot of people playing it, however most of my match ups were against people who chose either Jeskai or Abzan so that may have suede their deck building decisions a little.
Sandblast was as good as expected
January 18, 2015 1:10 a.m.
AngryBearTony says... #9
Sandblast was certainly a good choice if you ran white. Pulled 2 Lightning Shrieker, but it was a moot point for me since I ran Abzan colors all night.
January 18, 2015 11:12 p.m.
Rhadamanthus says... #10
I picked Sultai, but splashed red for 1 Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest, 1 Kolaghan, the Storm's Fury, and 2 Lightning Shriekers. All of the noncreature spells I chose to include did Manifest, so my strategy was basically to keep playing creatures until my opponent stopped moving. I went 4-1, losing round 1 mostly to repeated blowouts from my opponent's face-down creatures.
There were at least 3 games that ended with me first playing Kolaghan normally, then on the following turn playing a Shrieker and getting 2 triggers for my team, one-shotting my opponent (21 damage in Limited is a thing now, I guess). Kizmetto's earlier comment touched on this, and I agree: Lightning Shrieker really shines if you have one of the Brood Leader dragons to trigger with it.
Rhadamanthus says... #2
Sandblast is good in limited. 3 mana isn't a whole lot of mana to hold open in later turns of the game, and it can kill some really good stuff.
Lightning Shrieker is basically a Lava Axe that has a small chance to come around again. If you would play Lava Axe in limited, then you'll like Lightning Shrieker. If not, then maybe you should pass, unless the fact that he's a Creature and a Dragon does something good for other cards in your deck (ETB triggers, ferocious effects, dragon brood leader triggers, etc.)
January 16, 2015 1:22 p.m.