Weekly Featured Cards poll - Other

[ZephyrPhantom]

Since it's results always change based on what shards you have in hand, I'd be interested in seeing an article about SoIntregity that takes advantage of that variety.

[PlayerOa]

Also, SOB is an acronym for a rather vulgar expression so people might not enjoy having SoB resemble that.

I ~prefer~ it, because of that.

McSod in a nutshell.

[Laxadarap]

Vote Sofo, get the entire thing about how OP it is 

[Kuroaitou]

Shard of Readiness now posted.

Spoiler for For in-forum article:

Overview

Shard of Readiness is a relatively cheap card for what it does. For a simple cost of 5 random quanta unupped and 3 random quanta upped, Shard of Readiness allows you to change a creature's skill cost to 0, effectively saving you quanta in the long run.


General Use

• Shard of Readiness sets any skill cost to 0
• Time creatures can immediately cast their skill twice when Shard of Readiness is applied to them.
• Deja Vu's ability is not affected by Shard of Readiness

Shard of Readiness is an other card that allows for much smoother bridging between elements. If one wanted to run a Firefly Queen deck for example, but didn't want to use any  quanta, then Shard of Readiness can easily make a hard to balance duo into a very easy to balance mono. In addition to this, some creatures, such as Purple Nymph, Arctic Squid and Steam Machine often have very expensive costs to their abilities, but with Shard of Readiness, a few quanta can relive that problem for the rest of the game. In just a few turns, Shard of Readiness' ability to conserve quanta in the long run becomes apparent.


Synergies

Mitosis is a card that grants a creature a skill that can vary from no quanta at all, to 10 quanta for expensive creatures like dragons. Shard of Readiness changes that skill cost to become 0 regardless what it was before. A dragon with mitosis is pretty good, but a dragon with mitosis that costs 0 quanta is just excellent. When used with mitosis, every turn a new expensive creature can be produced. When coupled with time creatures, Mitosis and Shard of Readiness become an insane combo for fast damage.

Butterfly Effect allows small creatures to destroy permanents, but the upkeep cost is not cheap at all. Butterfly Effect requires a huge 3  each turn to keep destroying permanents. However, just like Mitosis, Shard of Readiness can make that cost instantly disappear, allowing a creature that can freely destroy permanents each turn, becoming even more powerful than Shard of Focus. When used in conjunction with cards like Deja Vu and Scarab, this combo can instantly destroy 2 of the opponent's permanents in one turn, along with continued permanent destruction after that.

Pharaoh is known for its notoriously long time to set up, with such a heavy  investment, and slow build up of Scarabs. However, using Shard of Readiness with Pharaohs greatly alleviates the quanta strain as well as the slowness of the deck. A Pharaoh that can create two scarabs the moment it hits the field, and new scarabs for free each time, greatly speeds up any Pharaoh deck. When used in a Pharaoh deck, Shard of Readiness can also be used on the scarabs, for quick, free, immense gobbling and devouring.

Other Synergies

Fate Egg is another slow starter, but when paired up with the shard, it allows for instant hatching of two identical creatures, allowing more than double the speed and potential of Fate Eggs. Anubis has an expensive and awkward skill cost, but Shard of Readiness can fix that as well. Perhaps one of the most deadliest combos, Golden Nymph when used with Shard of Readiness allows for a powerful creature that also allows you to speed through your deck for no cost at all. A flying Eternity also benefits greatly from this, as without any limitations, a flying ready Eternity can keep casting Reverse Time on the opponent's creatures, locking down the field and gaining control.


Conclusion

Shard of Readiness is one of those cards for players who feel the need to pack in useful creatures but have difficulty balancing their skill costs. Shard of Readiness also allows the element of time to truly live up to its name, allowing double the casting of their skills and abilities. Shard of Readiness is a powerful and variable card, and deadly when used right.


Popular Deck

Instosis

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Deck import code : [Select]

6rq 6rq 6rq 6rq 6u3 6u3 6u3 6u3 6u3 6u3 74g 7ap 7n9 7q0 7q0 7q0 7q0 7q0 7q0 7q5 7q5 7q5 7q5 7q6 7q9 7q9 7q9 7q9 7q9 7q9 8pj

Other decks

• Need a Parka?
• Silence is Golden
• Your eggs are ready, Sir!
• Ghostosis
• Eternal Gold

In order to continue this project in a timely manner, I have personally hung up the 'featured card writer' title and passed it to furballdn.

PLEASE vote here for your featured card(s) of the week! And thank you to all who kept this going when it did.

Weekly Featured Cards Poll (III):
http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,43980.0.html