Spoiler Highlight: Boltwave on Standard, Pioneer & Modern

If there were a bingo of cards and effects that we would see in Foundations, “Lava Spike with power creep” would certainly not be among them. Even so, the new Core Set, which already surprises with the high amount of quality reprints and powerful exclusive cards, draws attention again with Boltwave.

Boltwave is a simple card to explain (three damage to the opponent for one mana), but very hard to believe that it made it to Standard: Lava Spike was never reprinted in Standard, being limited to supplemental sets and Lightning Bolt has not appeared in the format since M12, where it was considered that the scope of three damage limits the viability of many creatures in the competitive scenario.

Its inclusion, along with other cards, is a significant change for the Standard format and could make a difference in Pioneer, as well as being a relevant addition to Modern. In this article, we will delve into how it can fit into each of these environments.

Boltwave is not coming alone to Standard: some other reprints will make a significant difference in the return of a deck long forgotten in the format and replaced by the famous Red Deck Wins: Burn, complemented by Boros Charm.

What Burn offers in place of the famous Prowess lists today is a mix of increased scope and interaction at the same time. Cards like Lightning Helix and Burst Lightning serve both to increase the clock and to hold back your opponent's Heartfire Hero or Caustic Bronco, making it a more malleable archetype, for example, in Aggro mirrors.

Burn has gained a lot with Foundation: from Boltwave as an improved Lava Spike and Boros Charm as a timeless staple that is worth a splash for white in Modern and even Legacy, there is Burst Lightning in the middle, a card whose scope grows if the game goes on.

The current creature shell, with Monastery Swiftspear, Slickshot Show-Off and Emberheart Challenger also benefits Burn from Prowess triggers, and Screaming Nemesis can be used as a permanent Skullcrack with any of our damage spells, preventing one of the common hates against this type of strategy.

I'm very optimistic about the potential of Foundations in Standard, and I'll probably start exploring the set with a deck like Boros Burn in its first week on MTGArena.

Boltwave faces the challenge of making Burn a better deck than the Prowess variants in Pioneer, which seems like a huge challenge in the current Metagame due to the combo-kills enabled by Callous Sell-Sword and the interaction of Heartfire Hero with pumps, not to mention that Turn Inside Out and Monstrous Rage are pseudo-Lava Spikes that interact well with creatures.

It comes with a benefit that could make a difference in decks like Boros Wizards, which are more oriented towards direct damage with Wizard’s Lightning and Skewer the Critics: Boltwave is a direct damage facilitator for Spectacle triggers, making spells like Light up the Stage and Skewer the Critics a bit better than they are today.

I’m not sure if this will be enough to make Burn the best Aggro deck in Pioneer today: Heartfire Hero is a very threatening clock in the right build and Emberheart Challenger offers card advantage while pressuring the opponent - these two are creatures that are too efficient for Red-Based Aggro.

Not using them for deckbuilding concessions can consequently mean having a worse deck, especially when the main motivator for doing so is a spell that doesn't interact with them, while Rakdos Prowess can handle everything you throw at it with Fatal Push or Thoughtseize.

Burn is such a Tier 2 deck in Modern 2024 that I honestly don't know if Boltwave will make any difference. Between Guide of Souls in the best deck of the format and The One Ring present in more than five different archetypes, where 3 of them are at the top with some frequency, the most traditional Aggro in the history of Modern has problems keeping up with the Metagame and effectively winning games in a timely manner.

However, we cannot ignore that this is a new “one mana for three damage” card and will naturally find its place in Burn in all formats. In fact, Boltwave bypasses Leyline of Sanctity or other Hexproof effects for the player.

In Legacy, there is a debate that the new spell should replace Rift Bolt in Burn. Modern has a different structure and does not have staples like Fireblast to increase the damage range, and it is likely It is possible that the most conditional piece will be removed from the deck: either Rift Bolt, which cannot be used in sequences with Boltwave, or Skewer the Critics, whose first-turn play is worse.

I am inclined to believe that Rift Bolt will be the card excluded from most lists: Skewer the Critics interacts positively with all Burn spells in Modern, and the only situation in which it is bad is when we draw it in the topdeck, where it is comparable to Rift Bolt in the same situation.

That's all for today!

If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment!

Thanks for reading!