4th Trials - Phase 1 - Proving of Worthiness

[kev]

Phase 1 - Proving of Worthiness
Phase 1 has ended

See the tasks here (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,29093.0.html).

Post your screenshots, links, shard commentaries, etc here.

Please use "modify" on your first post here rather than adding new posts as you progress through the tasks.  This will help avoid clutter.  Thanks.

[Wizardcat]

TASK I
Battle Prowess - The Arena
Deep Drain (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,29196.0.html).

by Wizardcat

Hover over cards for details, click for permalink

Deck import code : [Select]

7t4 7t4 7t4 7t4 7t6 7t6 7t6 7t6 7t6 7t6 7t8 7t9 7t9 7t9 7ta 7ta 7tb 7tc 7tc 7tc 7tc 7tc 7tc 7td 7td 7td 7td 7td 7td 7um 7um 7um 7um 8pt

TASK II
Card Design - Shards
My entry. (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,28846.msg399866#msg399866)
Link. (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,28846.msg399520#msg399520)Ignoring the misspelling of the word 'healing' in the card's text, the wording of this shard's effect is ambiguous at best. Which cards, exactly, are considered to be 'healing cards' and thus blocked by the effect of the shard? Are only the cards that restore HP directly upon cast, such as Heal, Miracle, Holy Light, Luciferin, Shard of Divinity, or Stone Skin unable to be cast? Drain Life, Nightmare, and Black Hole are interesting cases in that their healing is a result of their cast, but not directly so. Other cards that heal and could be included by the effect of the shard are Empathic Bond, Druidic Staff, Shard of Gratitude, Sanctuary, Vampire Stiletto, Minor Vampire, Purify... As an alternate but similar effect, this shard could just prevent healing effects from restoring HP. This removes the ambiguity behind exactly which cards cannot be played during its duration while keeping the anti-healing theme of the card.

This shard provides absolutely no benefit towards the element it is aligned with and even seems at odds with it, as Darkness has more methods of recovering health than any other element, beating out Light's five and Life's three with a grand total of six cards (Minor Vampire, Vampire Stiletto, Drain Life, Nightmare, Liquid Shadow, and Black Nymph). As such, the effect would be much more fitting in an element with no healing, possibly an aggressive element such as Fire or Air. Also, the Shard is currently categorized as a Spell despite behaving like a Permanent; in-game, Spells have one-time effects while Permanents have infinite or, in some cases, set durations.
Link. (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,28846.msg396314#msg396314)I find that this shard would be fitting as a Darkness card, if somewhat overshadowed, with an effect that is reminiscent of both Dusk Mantle and Cloak. Shard of Caution's effect provides a bonus to its associated element just as the new versions of the shards are supposed to... However, it does nothing beyond that. In its current state, the Shard of Caution is effectively a Darkness card that uses random quanta to play instead of darkness quanta, since there is no reason to use it in a deck that doesn't possess any Darkness creatures, despite it being an Other card. To remedy this, the card needs to provide a benefit to decks that don't use Darkness cards. One way of doing this is to extend its protection to creatures other than Darkness'. Including a lesser version of the effect for non-Darkness creatures keeps the shard superior at protecting Darkness creatures but still provides a benefit to the non-creatureless decks of other elements.

There is also some ambiguity in the wording of the effect in regards to spells that target multiple creatures, such as Rain of Fire or Pandemonium. According to the card, there is a 50% chance the spell will fail; this could be interpreted as there is a 50% chance the entire spell will fail or that there is a 50% the effect itself will not affect each individual creature.
Link. (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,28846.msg394283#msg394283)In comparison with the Shard of Modesty, for both unupgraded and upgraded forms, the card Cloak results in invisibility that is more cost-efficient, lasts longer, and only appears on your side of the field. It's also already in-element for Darkness, which makes this shard of barely any use to the element it is supposed to be the most useful for. The only reason for Darkness to use this card over Cloak is for its healing, which will only slightly prolong the healing provided by Liquid Shadow by healing creatures a small amount of damage done. Even then, Nightfall/Eclipse is also in-element, extends Liquid Shadow's effective duration an additional turn, and simultaneously increases the amount of vampiric damage done. All in all, the card needs a change in effect.

As the stated intention behind the shard was to bolster Liquid Shadow, the card's effect could be changed to focus on the healing creatures aspect of the idea, of which there are many possible applications. If invisibility as part of the card is still desired, it could provide an extra benefit to invisible creatures in addition to the healing effect instead of competing with the already existent Cloak. Thinking of HP, increasing it has a similar effect to restoring it, as far as creature life spans go. Outside of healing, removing infection from creatures, or negative status effects in general, is an another way to create a situation where combining the card with Liquid Shadow makes the recipient of the combo live longer.
Link. (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,28846.msg394671#msg394671)Instead of being categorized as a Spell, the card should be considered a Permanent, as it apparently has an infinite duration and isn't single-use like any of the in-game Spells.

As this is a shard associated with Darkness, I'm going to assume that it was not the intent behind the card that cloaked or otherwise invisible creatures and permanents would become target-able as a result of the shard's effect. As such, I would suggest adding the word 'visible' just after the word 'all' in the description. Darkness has the CC and PC to make use of such a card and the shard and Cloak seem to have an interesting relationship: the Shard of Humility makes Cloak the only functional protection for both creatures and permanents and the Cloak protects the shard. The shard is missing a trait directly affecting its associated element, however, which is something the new versions of shards are meant to have and such a thing would prevent the card from being a waste of space when there are no immortal or immaterial cards for it to affect.
Link. (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,28846.msg394482#msg394482)The unupgraded and upgraded forms of this shard are identical, right down to the misspelling of 'creature' in the last line. As there isn't a single card in the game that follows this example (Not even Relic!), I highly recommend changing one of the two in some manner. Increasing the buff granted or lowering the cost of the upgraded version is a simple way of doing this.

An example of a mass buff card, the only existing one currently in the game is Nightfall/Eclipse. Comparing the two, the shard's effect doesn't affect as many, but has a higher buff, can affect creatures of any element, and won't boost enemy creatures if you don't want them to be. Its unique mechanic, where the adjacent creatures of the targeted one are the ones to receive the buff, can technically multiply the effect of what would otherwise be a plain buff card up to six times with six adjacent creatures. However, because of the way creatures are placed onto the field when played, you need at least four creatures on the field before the card can actually be used since the first three creatures will not be adjacent to any of the others.  At least eight creatures are needed to affect three, at least thirteen to affect four, at least seventeen to affect five, and, finally, at least twenty to affect the full six. These numbers don't consider creatures that die, however. Thus, The Shard of Courage can only be used to its fullest potential in decks that with plenty of creatures or ones that have means of generating more, such as Mitosis or Fractal.

Despite being somewhat awkward to use and applying only +2/+2, as an Other card, this shard can give elements without buff cards one, making certain strategies usable in a Mono, such as Time's Dune Scorpion. This card currently lacks a benefit to Darkness cards, but there are several possible ones that have potential. An increase of the buff to either or both of the stats on Darkness creatures wouldn't be unappreciated by Vampires or anything with Liquid Shadow. However, I would suggest that if a Darkness creature is the one directly targeted by the shard, it would also gain the benefit of the card.
Link. (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,28846.msg394881#msg394881)The following descriptions should fit within the allotted space on the card and retain the intended effects of both the unupped and upped versions of the Shard of Kindness: "Any damage you deal heals you instead.  Lose 2 of each non-Darkness quanta per turn. Lasts for 3 turns." "Both players heal themselves instead of dealing damage and lose 2 of each non-Darkness quanta per turn. Lasts 3 turns." Either or both could be used instead of the current ones.

By converting what would be damage to the enemy into HP for yourself, this shard provides its owner with a fast and unique way of regaining health. Fittingly, as this shard is associated with Darkness, all damage can be thought as vampiric, without damage actually being dealt, and vampires will actually heal twice the usual amount. Since you cannot reduce the opponent's HP while the shard is active, it naturally lends itself to being used in stall decks. The upgraded version takes it a step further by applying the effect to both players. A Mono-Darkness deck with Siphon Lives, a set of these shards, and possibly with Novas to fuel them could be a viable deck. The Siphon Lives can be used as a win condition by hoarding quanta, staying alive through the use of shards, and then using them on the opponent when a shard's duration ends.
TASK III
Deckbuilding

Link. (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,27440.msg373268#msg373268)
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[Onizuka]

TASK I
Battle Prowess - The Arena

Deck: The most unoriginal deck this trials (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,29149.new.html#new)

Win:
Score:

Win:
Score:
Win:
Score:
If this doesn't count, then I'll try again. If this counts, I'll still try again with something more creative. But as it stands, I rather have a disqualified entry in trials than just present absolutely nothing. If I do find something else that works, I'll replace it.

TASK II
Card Design - Shards

Shard Entrant:Shard of Discretion (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,28846.msg399346#msg399346)
Shard Critiques:
Shard of self-respect (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,28846.msg399520#msg399520)
First off, would this card prevent healing from already played cards? Would it negate things like SoGs or a druidic staff's regenerate ability? But I bet it would become another card that Sanctuary blocks of Darkness's. One thing that turns me off about this card. Another thing about this card that puts me off that even though it is meant to be a Darkness shard, this card does more against Darkness than for Darkness. Since Darkness has the most healing cards in the game, and often enough using vampires to survive in my case seems like this card is meant to hurt Darkness more than help it. I feel like this card could fit better as a fire shard, since fire as an element is about going all out. Otherwise, I feel this card could be a valuable card against large healing decks that appear frequently in arena or even against FGs like Miracle, Rainbow, Eldinis, and Ferox.

On a side note, you should probably fix the obvious errors (healing, cards, and Self-Respect). 
Shard of Control (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,28846.msg394133#msg394133)
This card seems massively OP when you first look at it. For a few quanta every turn, a PA'd shard could prevent all attacks from occurring on the opponent's side of the field. It would become a card that would essentially eliminate rush decks since a PA'd one of these could essentially mean they would have a zero percent chance of winning.  If it was lowered to something like one or two creatures a turn, multiples of this would still be pretty OP. While the unupped one would be harder to get darkness quanta outside of a mono/duo or even a trio, the upgraded with a darkness mark and Quantum Towers already makes stopping creatures pretty easy. However, I like the idea of stopping creatures. I would probably use it with a parasite deck, since I could poison them and use Liquid shadow to kill them off with no damage to me. I'd actually use a deck like that fairly often.  Shard of Detachment (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,28846.msg394227#msg394227)
I really like this card. Its soft permanent control in the sense that they still have the permanent, but hard permanent control since they can't ever use the card again. I really like the idea of stealing abilities, adding another element of Darkness's ability to use the enemy's resources against them. This would probably be a good card to include if I was playing arena, since I could steal a permanent of those dreaded timebows without allowing them to play another.  It could also even steal something like the mutant steal ability, which it would be pretty cool to be able to have a permanent that could steal other permanents. The fact that you wouldn't be able to steal the abilities of multiple items or creatures justifies this card's fairly low cost, having a lower unupped cost than the comparable Steal card. This is probably one of the best shard entries, since to me it is already very balanced and would add a new dimension of stealing to Darkness's repertoire.   Shard of Modesty (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,28846.msg394283#msg394283)
This shard is tremendously UP, especially the unupped version. You're paying too much to just have cloak, and you're also paying too much to heal creatures. The only card I can see that this would work against is plague, and it only holds off plague for one turn. Cloaking the opponents field hurts your deck more than it helps yours, since all your creature control and permanent control is useless for awhile. Healing creatures in this game isn't all that effective either, since its usually easier to just play another creature than to heal it. I could possibly see this deck working in an Acceleration/Overdrive deck, but then again it would probably just be easier to bring Guardian Angels or buff cards like Blessing or Chaos Power since it also increases attack. This card is really just a very weak cloak paired with substandard healing and is just a very ineffective card that does not currently have a place in the game in either the PvP environment or the PvE environment.
Shard of Courage (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,28846.msg394482#msg394482)
Right off the bat, I don't really see thematically why this card fits darkness. Darkness doesn't invoke courage, it invokes terror. Quanta cost wise, I could see it going from 5 cost unupgraded to 4 cost upgraded, seeing as upgrading this card doesn't give any benefit at all. It could possibly be overpowered in fractal decks that get the full benefit of a card like this, or even speedbows since they can usually dump multiple creatures. It costs 1 more quanta than blessing (but is using any quanta) and uses 1 less card, so the unupped should probably become a little costlier. Using this card in a deck like devtal would be strong, since the vampires would give extra healing and the devourers would deal more damage than the 0/1/2 damage they do. All in all, this is an interesting concept that while I don't feel that it fits darkness, would be a good addition to the game if it was correctly balanced and based on an element that focuses more on many creatures (Life perhaps).
Shard of Humility (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,28846.msg394671#msg394671)
Off the bat, I do not like this card. Immortality shouldn't be removed so easily as just dropping a shard. It negates the high playing cost of the Immortal and Phase Dragon, which is pretty bad in my opinion. This card would also negate the effects of cloak for your permanents, since it would allow all permanents to be targeted. While it does give Steal a boost by being able to steal cards like Morning Glory, I do not believe steal needs a power increase where cloak would be hurt.  It also lacks a bonus for darkness cards when this card would be rendered useless. Going back to the rendered useless part, this card just seems to be an anti-aether card that you would only pack if you know they have aether cards, not something that could be used by many people. It would mostly become a card that would be thrown into decks during war against Team Aether, not a card you would ever consider using for PvP or PvE.

TASK III
Deckbuilding


Deck help I: http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,29095.new.html#new
Deck help II: http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,29009.new.html#new
Deck help III: http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,28777.new.html#new
Deck help IV: http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,27783.new.html#new
Deck help V: http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,28531.new.html#new
Deck help VI: http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,28089.new.html#new

[YoungSot]

TASK I - Completed.
Battle Prowess - The Arena

Deck: Turn the Tables (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,29172.msg398195#msg398195)

Plat Rings:


Same score:


Silver Rings:


Score:


Bronze Rings:


Score:


TASK II - Completed.
Card Design - Shards

Shard of Curiosity (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,28846.msg398236#msg398236)

Shard of Control by powdergame99 (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,28846.msg394133#msg394133)
First impression: The ability needs some clarification. As is, it seems it would allow you to stop enemy creatures from attacking at all, which is too powerful as a repeatable ability.
Zanz has stated that the new shards are going to function with all elements, but each be optimal for one particular element. Currently the SoC only works if you have darkness quanta, so it'd be nice to rework it so that it better fits what Zanz wants. Perhaps remove the darkness ability cost, and add a secondary effect that only applies to darkness creatures (though it can be hard to fit additional effects in without making the card too complicated). Alternately you could try to rework the main ability so that it benefits from being in a darkness deck, such as allowing additional uses of the ability if you have a darkness mark.
When comparing this shard to some of the cards already in game, Sundial and Warden both come to mind. To help balance the Shard's ability and to make sure it's not too similar to cards already in the game, we can compare it to both of those.
Minor decreases in power (such as limiting the ability to only one creature per round, or making the card temporary) would tend to make it too similar to the Sundial and Warden. Perhaps some sort of "lateral" change, such as making it affect your own creatures instead? That's a bit too niche by itself, but it leaves room for other abilities. If it could prevent your creature from attacking but somehow "save up" that attack, that would have a lot of nice implications for OTK'ing to bypass healing or dangerous shields.

Shard of Detachment by majofa (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,28846.msg394227#msg394227)
I like this card. It's fun (and very powerful). When I first started brainstorming about creating a Darkness shard for trials, the only reason I didn't create a card like this myself was that I saw you beat me to the punch. I was thinking it might benefit from being aimed more towards creature abilities rather than perms, since darkness already has steal. Just to throw out an alternative, you could have it act closer to a SoR, which you play on a creature, and when it's played pick another creature's ability to steal?
The one area I think could be improved is the shard's connection to Darkness. As is it's not too bad, but Zanz has indicated that the new shards will work with any element, and simply work better with their own. Making the new ability cost to use means that, especially for the unupped version, it's not really useful if you don't have  quanta, while at the same time it still works fine in a rainbow. The upped version can at least act as soft PC. I think the goal would be to allow it to fulfill it's primary function in any element's deck, but to simply do a better job if you are using a Darkness heavy deck. Some ideas toward that end:
- Have the stolen abilities always cost the same as your mark, or free with mark of Darkness. (makes it more powerful, so it might not be the best solution unless the shard was already nerfed by being restricted to creatures or some such.)
- Have both versions steal the ability, and differentiate upped and unupped some other way (perhaps have the ability cost change to a set 2 , and only 1 upped?)
Anyway, those are my thoughts. Good luck in the competition majofa!

Shard of Modesty by Gumbeh (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,28846.msg394283#msg394283)
I can appreciate what you're trying to do, but this card strikes me as pretty UP. We already have cloak for mass protection, and the Liquid Shadow/Acceleration focus seems too narrow a niche. Just having additional high hp creatures in your deck would probably be better than using this card + low hp creatures. Some brainstorming on how to buff the ability:
- Make the healing effect work regardless of cloaking, but with a further bonus if cloaked. This is the most important change imo, as it makes this shard more available to other elements.
- Possibly increase the base healing effect to something like 3 (5 if cloaked). This helps it counter plague, fireshield, etc.
- Alternately, make the amount healed a percentage of total health instead of a set number. This gives the card some potential synergies with voodoo, grav pull, basilisk blood, Armadilgo, etc.
- Another possibility: What if the healing could increase the creature's max health? That way if your opponent doesn't kill your creatures quickly, they'll become too hard to kill.
Hope this was at least a little bit helpful. Good luck in the competition Gumbeh!

Shard of Fear by Rainbowninja (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,28846.msg394482#msg394482)
(Note: Rainbowninja appears to have completely changed his shard since this review.)
I assume this stops lowering attack at 0? An interesting form of soft CC, the effect fits the concept nicely. I almost think it's underpowered at the moment though. It could theoretically deal with high attack creatures nicely, but it would require lots of  to do so, and in the critical early game it will often lower the attack by less; maybe 5 or so I'm guessing. late game it can easily drain even the most powerful creatures to 0, but I'm not sure how well that compensates for it's inability to stop creatures with abilities. It might be worthy of a small buff or cost reduction
It's my understanding that Zanz wants all the shards to be neutral, and simply work better if used by the appropriate element. Perhaps it could drain either 5 attack or an amount = to their  , whichever is higher? That way it'd work for all elements but better for Darkness focused decks.
Lastly it needs to have some sort of difference between the normal and upped versions. That could just be a lowered cost for the upped, or something unusual like if the upped version gives you  equal to the amount of attack it drains.
Hope some of this was helpful, and good luck in the competition!

Shard of Humility by Terrilocks (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,28846.msg394671#msg394671)
One quick note: If this cards remains "in play" it should just be made a permanent, rather than a spell.
Personally, I think this might work better as a single target effect. You would make a particularly obnoxious creature vulnerable, without completely countering all protection. It's use is very niche, which means that it's not too terribly powerful and you could add in some sort of additional effect without breaking the balance. If you add something that improves the usefulness of the card in Darkness decks, that might make the Shard better fit Zanz's template for new shards (useable for all elements, better for one). Perhaps the shard gives the option to either remove protection from a card or add some buff to a darkness card? That way it performs it's main function no matter what deck you're using, but if you've got it in a darkness deck it gives you additional options.

Shard of Caution by Pkmn337 (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,28846.msg396314#msg396314)
Considering the large amount of creature control in this game, an additional anti-CC card like this could definitely be worth adding. This shard is comparable to cloak. While it's less effective, it doesn't disappear after a few turns either. It also should probably work for non-darkness creatures, otherwise it doesn't really function as a neutral card at all. Perhaps just make the ability stronger for darkness cards?
While the cost for "other" cards is generally slightly higher due to the ease of acquiring random quanta, I think you could still lower the cost by a point or two and be balanced. Cloak costs 4 normal and 3 upped, and I think the effects are close enough to cost about the same. I'd say multiply the cost of cloak by 1.5 since SoC uses random quantum, and use 5|6 as the final costs. Final note: I like the way you differentiate between the upped and normal versions. Having actual mechanical differences is much more interesting than just changing cost.
Good job Pkmn337, and good luck in the competition.


TASK III- Completed.
Deckbuilding

Provide constructive criticism to six Deck Help (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/board,56.0.html) posts:

Vampire power (entropy/darkness AI3) (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,26622.msg399879#msg399879)
Want to reduce my Deathstalker/Nightfall deck size. (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,25600.msg400396#msg400396)
Darkness - Earth Quantum Denial (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,25153.msg400451#msg400451)
Unup Pvp Anti Rush-Rush Darkness/Grav (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,27619.msg400558#msg400558)
Help with darkness deck (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,27440.msg400578#msg400578)
Accelered Voodoo Dolls (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,29009.msg400618#msg400618)

[TheonlyrealBeef]

Task I (3/3)
Parage Dolls (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,29130.0.html)



Task II (1/1); (6/6)
Shard Idea (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,28846.msg397739#msg397739)
Shard feedback:

• majofa's Shard of Detachment (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,28846.msg394227#msg394227)
  Personally I think this card is quite overpowered, especially for it's price.
  At first it looks like it's kind of a TU for permanents, but better, since you get to use quanta, but the upgrade mentions the old permanent to be lobotomized as well!
  
  If you take for comparison, Improved Steal, you spend 3 specific quanta for taking the opponents' permanent while you might not even have the proper quanta to use it, while Shard of Detachment costs 3 random quanta, makes sure you have the right quanta to use it (only a fool would use this without having excess ) and wastes the opponents' permanent space at the same time.
  
  As for the unupgraded version it basically just makes a "better" copy of the target permanent, allowing you to have 12 of one kind of permanent while it's at it.
  
  The mechanic also makes me ask certain questions: how does it work on permanents like SoG that don't have a cost? Does it just copy it or kind of fail? What about Pillars? Stacked Pillars shouldn't all be lobotomized by a single card.
  
  I would personally either suggest a major cost increase, or a mechanic change.
• Gumbeh's Shard of Modesty (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,28846.msg394283#msg394283)
  The first thing that pops my mind is how long the card will last. The fact that both players' field shall be cloaked for 2 turns kind of suggests the card to last only 2 turns, since I don't know of any permanent up to date that loses it's ability after a set amount of turns by means other than destruction. Since healing all creatures for 1|2 while cloaking yourself for 1|2 turns seems well worth it for the cost, it's not explicitly mentioned and would not encourage the use of cloak, on the contrary, since this thing already cloaks stuff on itself cloak is usually less useful in rainbows. The only downside is that you cloak your opponent, but this shouldn't be much of a problem since your deck should count on that to happen, while your opponents' probably isn't.
  
  Thus I would suggest it to exist only for the duration that it cloaks. The cost is low enough and it makes sense with how current permanents work.
• Bloodshadow's Shard of Cunning (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,28846.msg394877#msg394877)
  While looking at the card I thought for a while about several ways to use this card, and found some to seem disturbingly effective. Basically, this creature is a quinted, has high hp but can still be buffed, the combination of being quinted and being able to be buffed being unique and powerful, since common buff counters like Antimatter, Reverse Time or Mutation will not work. You could throw a lot of BBs and a GP on it and your only way to get rid of it is by sheer force (though that doesn't stop you from getting around it). You could also accelerate it and there's nothing to stop it. Being able to switch places with other creatures is another, totally different but viable strategy, unless the opponent has ways to use it against you (it could easily use the ability again for example). Assuming you somehow manage to prevent that it would be twice as useful as TU (though both unlikely and slower).
  
  My suggestion to make it balanced it to reduce the amount of HPs it has.
• Terrilocks' Shard of Humility (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,28846.msg394671#msg394671)
  First of all I think this card should be a permanent. The current lightning icon on the bottom right suggests it is a spell, please change this if it's meant to stay in play rather than be an instant effect.
  
  There has always been huge controversy about removing immortality, and this card does it really cheap. For just 3 quanta all quintessences are ignored and the upgrade needs only 2 more quanta for rendering PA useless, and even being capable of stealing Morning Stars, which has excellent synergy with Darkness' Steal.
  
  I cannot help but think this card to be OP, even though the drawback is obviously that you can't immortalize your field either, a decent deck using this will take that into account. You only need one turn really, to destroy half of your opponents' protected stronghold and then you could even choose to destroy your own shard to ensure the drawback doesn't happen.
  
  Hence I would like to suggest, on top of a cost change, a limited duration.
• powdergame99's Shard of Control (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,28846.msg394133#msg394133)
  At first impression it seems like an elaborate, but most of all OP mechanic to "choose which of your opponents' creatures may attack". How would I have to imagine this? Selecting creatures one by one and then pressing "ok" after I have chosen which of the opponents' creatures will attack, meaning the rest won't? Does this mean immaterial creatures are affected or not? Currently it seems like an improved (you can choose for certain creatures to attack you anyway, in your benefit AND your own creatures are unaffected) Sundial on a stick, which is terribly powerful. The upgrade is also unproportionally better, either decrease the summoning cost or the skill cost, not both in my opinion.
  
  The only way I could imagine this to be potentially balanced it to let it last about 2 turns. That way it only gets to activate twice before you have to use a new one, and the usual one turn delay will still allow your opponent to deal with it before it activates.
• Pkmn337's Shard of Caution (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,28846.msg396314#msg396314)
  The first unclarity about this shard for me is whether abilities count as well in having a chance to evade, otherwise it seems UP. It's an expensive shard that is easily destroyed, but with only a chance for it to work.
  
  So I would personally suggest lowering the cost and/or letting it have a chance to evade abilities, too. Additionally the chance to evade could be increased.
  
  I do not exactly see it working well for Darkness specifically though, I understand the evasion and Darkness link, just like Dusk Mantle, but the effect seems somewhat redundant with Cloak. Although this card lasts longer, provides some protection vs mass CC as well (great in case of Pestal), I don't think it makes up for the fact that it protects only your Darkness creatures, has only a chance of protection and doesn't protect permanents. So even though the random quanta would seem make the shard to work better for Rainbows, Cloak works better there.

Task III (6/6)
Deck feedback

• CrazyJay94's Fire/Darkness deck. (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,17118.msg398058#msg398058)
• Amphetryon's Voodoo Rage deck. (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,28465.msg398068#msg398068)
• noryb330's Fractal/Vampire deck. (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,28280.msg398073#msg398073)
• Gandora's Gargoyles Healing. (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,27713.msg398082#msg398082)
• lizard99's Massing Darkness. (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,28494.msg398089#msg398089)
• risingPhoenixes' Devtosis with Vamps. (http://elementscommunity.org/forum/index.php/topic,29016.msg398104#msg398104)

[DevilLoss]

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