Elements 1.32

[ddevans96]

He knows that. He's saying we need a whole (complete) patience instead of a shard (incomplete) patience.

[Captain Scibra]

Merry Christmas Everyone!
I am out of town for a few days but I'll be back January the 2nd.

Could this mean more changes are on their way?

The man has holidays to celebrate. Let's have a SoP.

Not just a shard. A whole ... what are these shards of anyway...?

For lore, I'd imagine an ordinary crystal.  When shattered, the shards became unstable, and, to reattain and stability, absorbed elemental energies.  I feel a card idea coming on...

[deidmann]

He knows that. He's saying we need a whole (complete) patience instead of a shard (incomplete) patience.

Too bad they don't stack.
/pun

[eaglgenes101]

Theres a good reason I say, "If it ain't broke, don't wreck it."
My opinion is, although some shards were op, their concept wasn't. Monoing them deprives the game of what shards offered: an easy way to splash an effect, whenever it be healing, mass boosting, or PC, into any deck that needs it.

Note that they are still quite cheap, so a mark could run maybe 3 effectively, more for the 1 cost ones.  The thing that making elements cost adress that while being easily splashable, it was indeed getting out of hand at how easily so.

Also, hoping for a Shard of Integrity redesign.  Running a Nova-Shard deck is rather hard now, and SoI feels off-theme, being the most dependent of other Shards.  Perhaps instead of shards, a regard to the tier value of a card?  It would buff the general shard combo, but allow for a minimal rare use.

There is little trio support in Elements, so if you want to, say, splash SoG into a ghostal, you're going to have to use an unweildy deck in 1.32.

[eaglgenes101]

The problem with shards was cards like Supernova, Nova, Cremation and Quantum towers. The shards would get out of hand too easily, and also gave these cards power and they did not need. IT required one of 2 things to be done. Overly nerf the shards/the cards that let you use them easily and make shards hardly seen, or make the shards op. Since they were Rare, OP was the obvious direction to go instead since then they would see use. They also had 1 fatal flaw. They were balanced towards rainbows. They had to be since otherwise they would be op. In other words they were often times too cheap to use in a rainbow, and too expensive to use in a mono. Now they can all be modified to be more balanced and still give the desired effect.

Edit

BTW Im aware there were solution to this such as making shards require all of 1 element to be used, but this would have to effect ALL other cards and not just shards, otherwise a whole new element would have to be made.

Other cards can be balanced for rainbows, decks using the aligned element, and other decks. I'll take SoG as an example to show.
Rainbows didn't need to use SoG for healing. They could use cards such as Sanct and Bond for their healing, and those cards were often used, as they made up for their quanta cost inefficiency with their capacity.
Life-based decks often didn't need healing, and life decks that did use healing could make an even choice between SoG, bond, and heal. SoG provided something evenly matched with them, and it wasn't more powerful than them, even with the mark bonus.
Other decks that needed healing could stretch SoG's modest healing with cards that stretched the number of turns survived, letting it be worth its cost.
So SoG was balanced in all 3 cases. Similar arguments can be made for most of the other balanced shards.
Comments?

[BluePriest]

Healing is an easy effect to balance (and its still better in rainbows, which are primarily considered to be too powerful even without shards)

Healing doesnt deny an opponent, so an early heal is nothing special (aside from annoying). PC on the other hand, is a denial strategy, and balancing it in    is next to impossible without making it impossible to use in a mono. Cards that influence you alone are prefectly easy to balance in a mono because any speed boost it has from being mono wont matter early game. Making the shards elemental allows them to keep more special effects, without being (as) broken.

Edit
Ultimately, taking them out of other allows them to be more unique. Im not saying they wouldnt work in other, but they have more flexibility with it having an affinity.

[mwaetht]

Rainbows didn't need to use SoG for healing. They could use cards such as Sanct and Bond for their healing, and those cards were often used, as they made up for their quanta cost inefficiency with their capacity.

So they aren't balanced in rainbows; they can't be used in rainbows, because 3 per turn for one card is nothing compared to, say, Sanctuary, which gives four per turn and protection from quanta/hand denial. You don't need to play SoG quickly, so the fact that it can be played more quickly than Sanctuary is irrelevant. Using a life mark for it limits the applicability of this card to life-based rainbows.

SoG is not useful in most rainbows because it doesn't need to be played quickly; that is, the fact that it is other is not a big advantage for its use in rainbows versus non-life mono decks, unlike many other shards.

(Ninja'd)

[BluePriest]

Ultimately people just dont like change. All I heard people say before the notes is that elements such as fire shouldnt have access to healing. Oh, you changed it so that it doesnt? Fire should have access to healing. How dare you take that away Zanz.

Give Zanz a break, this isnt his job he doesnt have to update the game, and even though Im sure he always expects it, he doesnt need constant complaining when HE changes HIS game to a way HE likes more. Especially when it doesnt break it, it just changes it.

[eaglgenes101]

Let me bring back my often-repeated suggestion for SoFo:
5/4. 0|5. Accretion: Destroy target permanent, gain 0|10, and generate a black hole (upped for upped version)
And I'll make the sort of argument I made earlier.
Rainbows can already pack PC without using this card. This card needs a turn's wait to use, and it can be taken down during that turn, counterbalancing the playing speed of the card. Voodoo doll can similarly be packed for a high HP creature without attack instead of this, and black hole can similarly be packed instead of this for denial. A rainbow deck that did all three would be plagued with bad focus, counterbalancing the compactness of SoFo.
Gravity decks don't need PC as much, as they have denial, momentum, and catapult, alternatives for it. Gravity already has high HP creatures and denial, so this card is mostly useful as a card riskily packing 3 things into the same package.
Other decks come in 2 categories:
Some decks are desperate for PC, making the high cost worth it.
Other decks that could make use of the creature already can use PC, so this would be useful just for the 15 HP creature at the end.
Both of those would have to put up with a dead card in the hand.

Comments?

Ultimately, taking them out of other allows them to be more unique. Im not saying they wouldnt work in other, but they have more flexibility with it having an affinity.

No element is complete. Light doesn't have CC. Darkness doesn't have a more efficient rush creature than Gargoyle. Life doesn't have a way to get around a shield already in play. Death can't heal. Fire doesn't have a creature with more resilience than either phoenix or fire nymph. Water can't kill a creature with more than a fifth of the water quanta it has in HP. Air is helpless to denial. Earth can't do much about soft CC. Time is back to square one if the opponent catches up. Aether can't do much about shields. Gravity is easily outrushed. Entropy isn't strong without the RNG's favor.
The shards will be less unique rather than more, as they give something not given by any other means besides loads of more cards. They help complete elements.

Administrator Comment

Please don't double post. Thank you.

[BluePriest]

Ultimately, taking them out of other allows them to be more unique. Im not saying they wouldnt work in other, but they have more flexibility with it having an affinity.

No element is complete.

snip

The shards will be less unique rather than more, as they give something not given by any other means besides loads of more cards. They help complete elements.

No element is meant to be complete. Darkness waits in the shadow and drains you, it doesnt rush out and blitz you. Life brings... well life. Not destruction. There will be 2 types of people. Those that think all elements should be able to do everything, and those that think they should be restricted to fit a theme unless they splash. Only 1 kind will be happy with this change. This isnt an argument about which is better for the game, this is an argument of personal preference.

[Jyiber]

Ultimately people just dont like change. All I heard people say before the notes is that elements such as fire shouldnt have access to healing. Oh, you changed it so that it doesnt? Fire should have access to healing. How dare you take that away Zanz.

Give Zanz a break, this isnt his job he doesnt have to update the game, and even though Im sure he always expects it, he doesnt need constant complaining when HE changes HIS game to a way HE likes more. Especially when it doesnt break it, it just changes it.

Funny misconception. Complaints are always easier to find than satisfaction. The number of people who dislike change is much smaller than the number of people who are happy with it. "Haters" are just louder than the rest of us.

I personally never cared what changes came, because every change that has happened has opened up new strategies. I'm the kind of person who could never do 1000 games with the same deck. I got change it up and try new things all the time. Same reason I spend countless hours in Card Ideas with no hope of getting one through. New is good.

Zanz is the boss, but that's not the only reason he should be in charge. I think he knows what he's doing.

[shileka]

bluepriest is right, no element is suposed to be "complete" and how could they? almost every card effect in elements can be explained in some way, a crusader is a knight, so it's logical that he can pick up a weapon and swing it, water creatures can breathe under water, so it's logical that they survive flooding, and to bring back the "fire should have healing" example, how are you suposed to explain healing wounds with an open flame? last time i checked you can only inflict wounds with fire