Spoiler Highlight: Redirect Lightning on Competitive Formats

No Rest for the Wicked. Edge of Eternities has barely come out, we're in the middle of the long-running debate about banning Vivi Ornitier from Standard and calling it Magic: The Gathering's biggest mistake in 2025, Spider-Man had a few cards revealed a few weeks ago and is yet scheduled to release next month, and we're already talking about Avatar: The Last Airbender — the hype train, it seems, just can't stop.

Avatar Aang, Katara the Fearless. Fire Lord Zuko, Toph, the First Metalbender, and Sokka, Bold Boomeranger—the whole gang is here (or almost, for now), and Avatar: The Last Airbender boasts some very intriguing mechanics for each of the game's Elements. But while these characters generate hype among fans, there's another card that deserves the attention of both competitive and casual Constructed players.

Redirect Lightning is another in a series of effects that have gradually been appearing in red more frequently: the ability to redirect spells and abilities to other cards was first in this color in Standard with Bolt Bend and was recently reused in Return the Favor and Untimely Malfunction.

Unlike other cards, Redirect Lightning costs only , but at the cost of an additional five life or , putting it in a similar league to Divert, but with the control of the additional cost for its controller instead of the opponent.

The five life cost is easy to ignore in formats like Commander, and this will easily be a staple for almost any red deck, especially for those who don't want or can't afford a Deflecting Swat, but the extent of this card's potential can reach competitive formats, especially against archetypes that need to target something to win games or direct specific hate against the player.

While it's too early to talk about Standard (we still have Spider-Man in the pipeline, and the metagame currently seems unfavorable for much speculation before a new banlist), there are already some common situations where having a copy of Redirect Lightning makes sense — however, in most of them, Untimely Malfunction can be more efficient due to its versatility in redirecting targets combined with removing blockers or destroying artifacts, especially useful against Agatha's Soul Cauldron.

Similarly, while there are some relevant targets in Pioneer, the five life cost might be a bit too high if the goal is simply to delay Greasefang, Okiba Boss, or redirect All That Glitters to a creature you control if it doesn't win the game the next turn, and most red decks in the format today are too proactive to want a card which demans one open mana for an occasional situation. Just like in Standard, Untimely Malfunction ends up being more attractive due to its proactive utility.

Where Redirect Lightning shines is in eternal formats as a multimodal tool for just one mana and five life (or , depending on the game's state).

Common examples in Modern include the ability to retarget Goblin Charbelcher after the card's activation, reversing damage that would otherwise be lethal to you against your opponent. For decks that require the graveyard for some reason, Redirect Lightning also "counters" Endurance and cards like Nihil Spellbomb for cheap, in addition to bypassing some targeted discards and Counterspells on key turns, including free spells like Force of Negation and Force of Will.

Speaking of Force of Will, Legacy has other essential functions for the new card, and one of them may involve a recurring dilemma regarding All Spells lists with Balustrade Spy and Undercity Informer, allowing variants of Red Stompy, for example, to not take an insta-loss on the dice roll against it if you have a Redirect Lightning and a Simian Spirit Guide in your starting hand since you can target these cards' triggers to mill cards from your deck instead of your opponent's, thus "locking" their combo kill.

This function may also apply to cards like Pyroblast or Hydroblast, whose text allows you to target a spell even if it's not blue or red, but this loophole would be easily fixed with Red Elemental Blast and Blue Elemental Blast.

We can also delay or completely prevent other combos with the new card for just . Using your opponent's Reanimate to return something other than a primary target isn't the most optimal play, but considering the card's other potential uses, it should be considered a viable option.

On the other hand, the Grindstone and Painter's Servant combo can be repurposed to mill your opponent's entire deck, but with Tezzeret, Cruel Captain becoming the new staple of Legacy artifact-based archetypes, it's also important to consider whether your opponent can simply untap Grindstone with their Planeswalker and activate the ability again to win the game.

Last, but not least, there might be a few fringe moments where targeting a Wasteland against your opponent's land rather than yours might just lock the game in your favor or avoid being locked out if you need a specific color or Ancient Tomb to cast your next spell.

That's all for today!

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

Thanks for reading!