Plasma Bolt – Edge of Eternities
Date Reviewed: August 27, 2025
Ratings:
Constructed: 3.58
Casual: 3.50
Limited: 4.17
Multiplayer: 3.30
Commander [EDH]: 3.25
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is bad. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
It can be hard to make direct damage variants that feel meaningfully different. You tend to see the differences come out most in limited formats, where you can’t rely on grabbing every relevant card in the format that activates your damage spell’s extras. Plasma Bolt, however, has a couple of things helping it along in any setting. One is the openness of the void ability, as we’ve discussed in past reviews – it’s obviously intended to combine with warp, but most decks have creatures that might die in combat, if nothing else. Another is flexibility. I didn’t read it carefully the first time I saw it, and was excited to find that it hits players and planeswalkers, unlike some recent appealing cards like Judgment Bolt. It can also be hard to make direct damage variants that feel genuinely exciting, since the ability is such a staple in red and you have to get to really ridiculous numbers before they pop the way a big green creature can. But there’s always an audience that gets excited regardless, and that excitement might draw in even more people in this card’s case.
Constructed: 3.5
Casual: 3.5
Limited: 4
Multiplayer: 3.5
Commander [EDH]: 3.5
Plasma Bolt may have a cool name, but it’s a fairly stock-standard burn spell: sorcery-speed Shock that upgrades to a sorcery-speed Lightning Bolt under a particular condition. That said, void is easy enough to meet thanks to tokens and the like, and a bad Lightning Bolt is still capable of doing the job you need it to. 3 damage has long been a sort of “gold standard” in terms of what lives and dies, and in formats where Lightning Bolt is prevalent, that 3 toughness bar is an important one. I’m not sure if Plasma Bolt will reach those heights…but, like I said, a bad Lightning Bolt can still do the job of Lightning Bolt, and 3 damage will always be a nice number to hit in a direct burn spell.
Also, always remember that you can aim this at the face, and when you’re in a late-game scramble, the surety of vaporizing them directly can’t be underestimated.
Constructed: 3.75
Casual: 3.5
Limited: 4
Multiplayer: 3
Commander [EDH]: 3
Thijs
Over the years, red has had a ton of lesser cousins of the good old Lightning Bolt. Plasma Bolt is one of those cousins.
There are loads of burn spells that get better with a condition; think of Searing Blaze and Electrickery. Plasma Bolt deals 2 damage as is, but can deal 3 if the void condition is met. A nonland permanent leaves the battlefield or a spell is warped, and there you go. The magic word again is any in it’s oracle text. You can hit any target you want. Suddenly a simple 1 mana sorcery dealing 2 becomes a Lightning Bolt Junior.
I recently picked up 3 Plasma Bolts in a draft and I couldn’t have been happier. Will it make its way into Standard? Who knows…
Constructed: 3,5
Casual: 3,5
Limited: 4,5
Multiplayer: 3,4
Commander [EDH]: 3,2
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