Another total newb question - Hard case lipos

[FullMetalGrave]

So when I started getting into brushless and better batteries, I went with Apogee Limn packs. I found a very cool find of someone taking a cordless drill and drilling right through a charged pack and no fire, no explosion. This to me was very cool and seemed safer than normal lipos so I have been using these.

Lately I have been seeing more and more hard case lipos popping up and I'm wondering if these are safer than regular lipos. Do the cases contain the fire if the battery lets go? Do the cases protect the packs from harder crashes then non-hard case lipos (provided the battery stays in the car, where it is supposed to)?

My question comes up because I am looking at getting an emaxx and I know I am going to go brushless with it at some point and the problem with Apogee packs is that there are limited versions of mah ratings and cell ratings. For example, the 5800mah pack only comes in 2 and 3 cell and the 3800 pack goes up to 6 cell. The other issue is they don't restock as fast when they run out so there is usually a couple month wait for certain packs.