I Keep Trying to Write About Lightning Bolt

I really should have gone with my gut from the jump.

For the better part of a few weeks, I've been trying to write a blog post about the Magic: The Gathering card Lightning Bolt, and until now, it just hasn't come together. The attempts I've made up until now have been half-baked and unfocused, not knowing what they want to be. Vacillating between simply presenting a decklist centered around Lightning Bolt and waxing philosophical about it, I had been unable to find a satisfying mark to shoot for.

I've been overthinking it. It's Bolt. You just point and zap.

I imagine myself as a wizard standing atop the summit of a mountain. Grey clouds swirl across the sky, obscuring any sense of when. A tingling manifests at the tip of my fingers, then up my arm, across my shoulder, scaling up my neck and into my head, roiling behind my eyes. I gaze out into the endless air in front of me, then extend my arm and finger outward. A deep breath, steady. I open myself to the primordial energy around me, enveloping my will around it as it passes through my body. It knows to coalesce within, building and building. Then, at critical mass, within an instant: A blinding flash of precision violence shoots through me and across the sky, crackling the air like a whip snap, leaving behind only ringing thunder and a vague burning scent. Three to the dome.

I built this deck a few weeks ago. It's a mono-red Burn and Prowess aggro deck that intends to simply blast face, then subsequently smash it. I went through a couple of drafts before settling into this list, and ended up with landing on this build based on helpful feedback from folks on Bluesky (big kudos to David, Rose, and mweepigeon for steering me in a workable direction). I occasionally enjoy playing more complicated Magic decks, but sometimes I just want to burn my opponent down as fast as possible, letting luck and the primate brain take the wheel. No gods, no masters, only dazzling fury.

Sometimes I just want to cast Lightning Bolt.