That's really going to depend heavily upon what you've already picked. In limited, the number of creatures with 3 toughness versus 2 for a one-off kill with either of these cards isn't significant enough to justify losing the 2 scry, which will make your deck much more reliable. But in general, I agree with you.
To approach the whole Magma Jet over Lightning Strike pick: I know that Strike gets rid of a lot more creatures in this format than Magma Jet but I think the reason Stark chose Magma over Strike is the fact that the ability to Scry is especially more important in a Draft having 20 less cards in your deck (:>_
I prefer aqueous form over fate foretold any day. evasion + free scry. Also combos well with the blue emissary. also when you have things like fnatic of mogis that have pseudo evasion like burns it becomes that much better.
money drafting doesnt matter to these guys. you think he's gonna pick up a $30 card for the value when there's thousands on the table for winning? no, he's gonna draft a card that will help him win. second, anti-drafting is one of the worst strategies in existence (if you can even call it a strategy), not to mention it's just super lame. the only time you should ever do that is in ben stark's position of there is absolutely nothing that could help you.
Perhaps Ben believes that he will play a second Annul over the possible splash of Xenagos. Personally I couldn't ever see playing more than one Annul, even out of the sideboard, so I would have taken Xenagos as a possible worst case scenario plan to splash For me it isn't about hate drafting. The opportunity cost is just so low. It would simply be about which has more upside possibility and likelihood to play it, but I wouldn't be one to question Ben Stark's draft strategy so I don't know...
I'm not Ben Stark but I personally would have started drafting the green stuff a pick or 2 earlier than the Xenagos showed up. A third colour as a splash in Theros is quite fine, especially when you're getting shit all in your current 2 colours.
I was addressing the issue of choosing one card over the other. The reason I decided to comment on Stark's decision was because multiple people(not in the comments) have been saying that it would have been a better for him to choose Lightning Strike over Magma Jet, but obviously he was going for the Scry ability because Scrying is more important in a Draft having such a low number of cards in the deck, so I did not just read the cards to you, but also explained the reason for Stark's draft pick.
I really wish they would have scooted them over to the left more, because that seem on the right side is very unprofessional... I am a digital media guru, Wizards should hire me!!
Yes, you have succinctly identified the differences between the cards. lightning strike does hit for 1 more, and Magma Jet Scry 2. Your analysis does nothing except read the cards to us...
