Lightning Bolt

[Amyth]

yay or ney.

[Kenjiblade]

I say nay, personally. As I was playing with 3-4 copies of it, I noticed during my games that it was almost always being used to destroy an ally.

Being that it might as well have said "destoy target ally", I decided to replace it with 3x "Vanquish". Even though its resource cost is 1 higher, it is balanced out by being able to destroy allies with more than 4 health, which is extremely useful when a late-game bomb like "King Magni Bronzebeard" or "Warchief Thrall" hits the board.

Then again, your milage may vary; if you're still undecided, then further playtesting is always an option. This is simply my own opinion of "Lightning Bolt"'s playability.

[Sovelin]

I've ran into the same situation. Vanquish is just more useful than lightning bolt 9 out of 10 times.

[Amyth]

Thanks for your comments. i will try vanquish over lightning bolt

[LynxFF7]

Well I love lightning bolt, and I have finished many a game with copies of it. Something vanquish can't do.

[FacelessTyrant]

It really depends on your Shaman build. If you're playing a more controlish deck than vanquish is superior. If you play an aggressive rush deck, then lightning bolt is far superior.

[ll BRS the OWA ll]

More so, it comes down to if your shaman deck abuses the power that is Elemental Focus...True a 3 cost 4 burn card is...Meh, to say the most, but packed with 2 elemental focus...a 1 cost burner, is always ok in my book. (Take that Ta'zo >.>)

[FacelessTyrant]

But Elemental Focus is just a bad card. It takes up space in your deck that you could use to fit in the vanquish that you wanted to use alongside the bolt. Focus is Horrid!

[ll BRS the OWA ll]

Haha, you underestimate the card, my deck abuses 4 bolts and 3 focus to dominate the field. I, personally, dislike bolt of all the shaman cards, but I use it now for being an elemental ability, until a future card replaces it (and it won't take much to be honest) as for Focus:


3x Guardian Steelhorn
3x Ophelia Barrows
3x Panax the Unstable
1x Zy'lah Manslayer

4x Chain lightning
4x Frost Shock
4x Lightning Bolt
4x Healing Wave
3x Searing Totem
3x Elemental Focus
3x Shattering Blow
2x Ghost Wolf

4x Counterattack
4x Zapped Giants
4x It's a Secret to Everybody
4x In Dreams
2x Blueleaf Tubers

3x Annihilator
2x Helmet of Ten Storms



The most consistent of all shaman builds...it says "I won't kill you, but you won't kill me." It counters all the top tier decks today, and has splash in hate for all other decks. (The deck is naturally anti-rush, due to the nature of shaman abilities, but my chain lightnings usually cost 3 to play, I play panax, so there goes warlock/heavy ally decks, and the Shattering Blows + Annihilators help against heavy equip decks...And Healing Waves allow me to set every single one of these decks back enough turns to not be able to kill me...and I can outlast/heal/burn Mages) And, you are right...Vanquish is easily a viable choice (I happen to side out Lightning bolts in most cases for Vanquish, when necessary) but in actuality...Vanquish only works really well against Heavy ally decks, revolving around guys like Medoc, where as a Lightning bolt (which would cost me 2 or 1 depending on what turn it is) is likely to kill any rush card in the game. But it's all on how you play shamans.