Shard Remnant | Shard Remnant

[ZephyrPhantom]

NAME: Shard Remnant ELEMENT: Other COST: 5 TYPE: Creature ATK|HP: 2 | 2 TEXT: 2 : Shard Remnant turns into a copy of the next shard played. This copy goes to your hand and costs any quanta.	NAME: Shard Remnant ELEMENT: Other COST: 4 TYPE: Creature ATK|HP: 2 | 2 TEXT: 1 : Shard Remnant turns into a copy of the next shard played. This copy goes to your hand and costs any quanta. Other.

ART: shadow303 IDEA: Zblader NOTES: "So their god has returned..." She tossed her dark blue hair lightly in the wind, watching the joyful cries of elementals as they gathered around the elemental rift, emitting waves of power. She'd expected this. After the Shards had become the dominant weapons of battle, it was clear too many casualties were being inflicted. Something would have been done, even if it took eons and eons of conjuring to do so. But it mean a loss of materials. Her students would return from their celebrations only to find themselves frustrated at being able to conjure new contraptions. Elementals in the Arena system were already reporting to her that the Arena Overseers were having issue with controlling the system, and the very nature of the Shards seemed to be no longer the same. Well. it wasn't bad to borrow a trick from the past, wasn't it? She stood at her workbench, eveying the rejected creation with contempt. She wondered why she still oversaw this particular factory - she could've easily stepped down from the position, her mandatory term was over, the immortality bestowed by the insignia was no longer something she needed to rely on... "But it still doesn't feel quite right..." She mused aloud, looking at the old battered wood bench with nostalgia. Gia had come a long way since she'd discovered the Quantum Forge, starting as a nobody and creating an industry that now ran itself. Outside of her personal forge, she could hear the gears turning and the electricity crackling as the more vigilant workers attempted to replicate a new type of machine introduced recently into the world. Shaping a large blaze of fire quanta into a round ball, she began her work. .... The new 'Shard Angels' were received with joy by some mages, who voiced their obvious joy at being able to tap into the identity of their old shards. Others grumbled in distaste, saying that what was gone should stay gone. "But nothing can disappear forever." The Quantum Forge's Director would always say when she heard such a complaint, "It is their duty to remember, so we do not forget." Welcome to the new era of 1.32 elemental shards! In it's wake, I believed it was time for another attempt at a relative to them. This card copies the next shard played by any player as a - costing copy, so an opponent can potentially 'hijack' the ability by playing a shard you don't want. Its a bit expensive for a 2/2 creature, but this is intentionally done to balance it out costing and copying a shard - you pay 7 | 5 total for each shard copy you want. In the case that you don't want a shard, it can still help as a small damage source. Card is also Airborne. SERIES:

[Anarook]

Mixed feelings about this.
I felt like placing shards in their respective elements was a great move and shifted them away their ridiculous splash-ability as well as how easy they were to make use of in rainbow decks(I'm anti rainbow)
This on one hand returns some of that power to rainbow decks which may be a smart move given the current change to re-balance things out.
On the other hand I hate giving more power back to rainbow decks, as that's obviously where this is going to be most effective.

[OdinVanguard]

Fractal + Nova + this ... and pick a shard of choice...

For that matter, creatures with cost tend to be difficult to balance in general...

...I shudder to think what this thing would do if used with shards of Void and Gratitude... or even the now nerfed shard of focus.

Right now, this card will give too much power to rainbow and quanta splash decks.

As a permanent or spell, I could get behind this, but its too easy to abuse as a creature.

If you're set on keeping it a creature, then it might work ok with a fused cost (e.g. cost can only be payed with quanta of a single element)... at least then the fractal combo would take work to pull off.

[ZephyrPhantom]

Spoiler for Anarook:

Mixed feelings about this.
I felt like placing shards in their respective elements was a great move and shifted them away their ridiculous splash-ability as well as how easy they were to make use of in rainbow decks(I'm anti rainbow)
This on one hand returns some of that power to rainbow decks which may be a smart move given the current change to re-balance things out.
On the other hand I hate giving more power back to rainbow decks, as that's obviously where this is going to be most effective.
I do think shifting shards to their element was a correct move; the concept of 'mono-splashing' is a good one but the effects used to 'mono-splash' weren't.
This is effective in rainbow decks but it is slow (1 turn wait) compared to most creatures you would throw in a speedbow w/shards - I would rather have an actual shard or another useful creature in a Novabow than this since 1 turn can make a big difference. A stallbow might be able to use this viably but if 6 copies of the shard they need aren't cutting it sounds like the deck should be thinned down instead. Stalls with SoG, and SoI probably would make the most efficient use of this card - SoG if you're running mono and can't access other element stall cards and SoI since it is heavily reliant on finding certain shard combinations or just having more shards to add to the Golem. Even then, both decks would probably need to build around the shard and this card.

Spoiler for OdinVanguard:

Fractal + Nova + this ... and pick a shard of choice...
That's going to take a lot of work to pull off, especially since you have to wait a turn to actually copy the shard and most of the time 4-6 are more than enough to cover a deck (Copying a shard itself will probably cost you the whole Nova). Is 'shard overload' really a viable win condition?
For that matter, creatures with cost tend to be difficult to balance in general...
1.5(Normal Cost) + 1.5 = Rainbow Cost.
1.5(2 for base creature + ~1 for ability?) + 1.5 = 6. I upped the overall cost to 7 in exchange for making it a slightly better creature.

Alternatively, you can think of this as "Wait one turn, copy a shard".

Shards on average cost 2.67 (Including SoFo).
1.5(3) + 1.5 = 6.

Keep in mind the above calculation acts as if the Shard was directly copied like Parallel Universe and not put in your hand.

...I shudder to think what this thing would do if used with shards of Void and Gratitude... or even the now nerfed shard of focus.

Void and Gratitude are on the weaker end of the power spectrum (Even with the mark bonus - better alternatives like Sanctuary and Poison are still generally easier to acquire and more effective to use.) I don't think this would make them ridiculously stronger than they already are.
Regarding the shards:
- SoFo, SoSe, and SoSac copies would heavily limit your quanta base
- Waiting for SoBr copies slows down your draw tempo (which SoBr decks are heavily reliant on)
- SoD has the HP cap to deal with
- SoW and SoR need another creature present to work
- SoP doesn't stack.
- SoV needs to be played like Poison - you either lay it on early game or draw it late game with almost no impact. Extra copies of SoV that cost more defeat the 'poison rush' strategy it's meant to be used with - a stall might have slightly more utility for it in a Purify-heavy meta but Purify exists only in one element and Death has better stalling with cards like Bone Wall, IMHO.
- That leaves Shard of Gratitude and Shard of Intregrity. As I stated above, I feel these are the closest to viable but you're going to need to build around them - Fractal + Remnant + SoG sounds unlikely to win by damage and Fractal + Remnant + SoI is slow to set up and risks not being able to deal early damage. Including a fourth card for win condition/defense respectively is likely a must, and I doubt the resulting deck is 30 cards.

Right now, this card will give too much power to rainbow and quanta splash decks.

As a permanent or spell, I could get behind this, but its too easy to abuse as a creature.

Why would I Fractal an extremely expensive other creature or a spell that costs more than half a Nova when I could just kill you with a Speedbow or Fractal Recluse deck? Replication would actually be more expensive overall than most Mitosis/Fractal decks that kill quicker simply because their strategy isn't centered around spamming a shard (no shard can win on their own), but on an efficient creature that can actually kill the opponent much faster. Fractaling Shard Remnant is also much slower because 1) You have to replay the Remnant, 2) You then have to replay the shard itself, and 3) You need to wait a full extra turn to trigger the ability. It's pretty easy for an opponent just to play a shard and fill your hand with something you don't want.

If you're set on keeping it a creature, then it might work ok with a fused cost (e.g. cost can only be payed with quanta of a single element)... at least then the fractal combo would take work to pull off.

I do not think this needs a Fused/Mirror cost to be balanced. See my below statement.

I think you guys are overestimating this card simply because Fractal exists. If you want a Fractal - Shard army, you need to wait 3 turns to get it as opposed to a normal fractal deck's 2, and the shard itself needs to be actually useful - the only shards I see that -really- work with such a deck without wrecking your quanta base or clogging your hand are SoG or SoV. If you don't have a Shard ready, you're stuck with a bunch of 2 | 2 attackers when you could've just targeted a Giant Frog or Graviton Merc for a much more effective beatdown.

Is this card able to break decks on the same level as any rainbow with the old Shard of Focus or -at least- Instosis? I do not think so, and feel this card should be given a chance.

[ZephyrPhantom]

Bump for additional feedback.

[Zaealix]

Well calculated Zblader.
Perhaps Shards will one day be a commonplace tool, with ideas like this to bolster their effectiveness.