[Official] Skull Shield | Skull Buckler

[Absol]

What Chapuz said, but I do like the idea of all creatures upped or unupped turning into unupped skeletons. That's enough of a buff, I think.

+1, lower casting cost offset by stronger Skeletons on opponent's field sounds more UP than unupped. Just like how there's no upped mutant, there should be no upped Skeleton from this.

EDIT: except if the Skeleton can die again and trigger death effect. But it can't.

[EvilDeathX]

I do not believe this card needs a buff at all. I play an Aether deck and my favorite card in that deck is my Elite Phase Dragon. Many-a-time has my "Unkillable" Creature been killed by three specific cards. Those cards being Fire Shield, Thorn Carapace and Skull Shield. While I do see why you would say that creating an Elite Skeleton would be unfavored, I also see(and have experienced) why they create Elites and not regulars. You see while the Elite is better for the opponent because it has a two attack, it is also better for you because of the same reason. That two power, means that it CAN damage you, meaning that it CAN die again. Giving you the opportunity to completely rid the field of said creature. Also allowing you to expliot two death effects from killing the same creature twice. Therefore my final opinion is that no, it whould not be buffed, because of:
1. Can kill annoying Immortal creatures.
2. Can kill the already killed creature again if creature is upped. (It has been a while since it happened to me, they may have changed this.)
3. It is an automatic death effect,(Not damage) one of only two(I think) in the game.

What Chapuz said, but I do like the idea of all creatures upped or unupped turning into unupped skeletons. That's enough of a buff, I think.

+1, lower casting cost offset by stronger Skeletons on opponent's field sounds more UP than unupped. Just like how there's no upped mutant, there should be no upped Skeleton from this.

EDIT: except if the Skeleton can die again and trigger death effect. But it can't.

The Upped shield itself does not create the elite skeletons, it only happens if it kills an upped creature.

[Pella]

I play mono-Death upped A LOT.  I play it because I like Death, it's fast, and it can kill AI3 almost every time and AI4 reliably.  In the Arena, it works well against Bronze & Silver, decent against Gold, and occasionally against Plat.

My mono-Death upped deck contains 2 Skull Bucklers.  I can't count the number of times those shields have saved my a$$, especially against mono-Aether.  I don't really care about the Elite Skellies because they do only 1 dmg through the shield, and I'm rushing anyway, so 1 = 0, more or less.

Leave it alone.  It's fine.

[Heric the Dark Lord]

Is it really that used? Hmm...every death user seemed to use bone wall instead.

You see while the Elite is better for the opponent because it has a two attack, it is also better for you because of the same reason. That two power, means that it CAN damage you, meaning that it CAN die again. Giving you the opportunity to completely rid the field of said creature. Also allowing you to expliot two death effects from killing the same creature twice.

1: No, I don't think it can kill the elite skeles. It might, but I'm pretty sure it doesn't.
2:A plague(Which I KNOW is run with death.) on a regular skele will do the same thing, and you take no damage.

[CuCN]

You see while the Elite is better for the opponent because it has a two attack, it is also better for you because of the same reason. That two power, means that it CAN damage you, meaning that it CAN die again. Giving you the opportunity to completely rid the field of said creature. Also allowing you to expliot two death effects from killing the same creature twice.

1: No, I don't think it can kill the elite skeles. It might, but I'm pretty sure it doesn't.

Testing in trainer confirms that it cannot.

[Shantu]

I believe there are many that would say the shield actually requires a +1 cost nerf instead of a buff.
I believe it requires neither, it's fine the way it is. Keep in mind it can kill even Elite Armagios, and I have seen that happen.

As for its usage, I have no idea. But I know that often Bonewall isn't the optimal choice because you either can't keep it up or it's too expensive in the deck. In those times comes Skull Shield to save your rear.

I agree upgraded skeletons are annoying, but if they annoy you that much, you can use plague or something (in a stall) to get rid of them. In a rush, it shouldn't matter.

[Fireleaf]

To me, this shield is way cheaper than Ice/Permafrost and can take cards out of play for the entire game, not just a couple turns. I know the odds aren't as good, but still. This guy creates death effects too, which are always useful in Death.

[ColorlessGreen]

To me, this shield is way cheaper than Ice/Permafrost and can take cards out of play for the entire game, not just a couple turns. I know the odds aren't as good, but still. This guy creates death effects too, which are always useful in Death.

The odds of skull shield triggering are actually quite high against really low-hp creatures, which are pretty much exactly the type of creatures you'd be playing against early game if you're playing against a rush most of the time, and early game is where you'd generally get the low-cost skull buckler in play (hopefully).

It tears up pretty much everything in fire, for example, as well as graboids/shriekers, most freshly-played growers, and as was mentioned above, it's one of a very small number of counters to immortal creatures.

I'd support making every killed creature turn into an unupped skellie regardless of their original upgrade status, but that's about as far as I'd go.

[Heric the Dark Lord]

I actually only support unupped skeles across the board. I put the other options for those who thought they would be good.

I seriously never knew so many people used the Skull shield. I thought all death players used bone wall.

I might make a point, though, that on average, the shield will activate no more than twice per game. Odds are higher against fire, and lower against earth and gravity. Permafrost protects against more damage, and has a much better chance of activating. While I, in no way say this shield is weak, I do say it is(Or seems) underused, and is less useful in upgraded play than any other shield. That said, it's also one of the cheapest...

[ColorlessGreen]

I might make a point, though, that on average, the shield will activate no more than twice per game. Odds are higher against fire, and lower against earth and gravity. Permafrost protects against more damage, and has a much better chance of activating. While I, in no way say this shield is weak, I do say it is(Or seems) underused, and is less useful in upgraded play than any other shield. That said, it's also one of the cheapest...

For the purposes of discussion (and someone please correct me if this got modified without my noticing), the chances of skull shield triggering are (0.5 / HP), so:

50% - 1 HP monster
25% - 2 HP monster
16.67% - 3 HP monster, etc.

That's per attack (naturally) so that's a lot more than two triggers per game against fire rushes, graboid rushes, and other high-att-low-hp things.

[Heric the Dark Lord]

For the purposes of discussion (and someone please correct me if this got modified without my noticing), the chances of skull shield triggering are (0.5 / HP), so:

50% - 1 HP monster
25% - 2 HP monster
16.67% - 3 HP monster, etc.

That's per attack (naturally) so that's a lot more than two triggers per game against fire rushes, graboid rushes, and other high-att-low-hp things.

You don't know how much the RNG hates Everyone, do you? It took me forever just to confirm that it wasn't the buckler that made upped skeles, and that it was the upped creatures.

Against Fire rushes, true. That is probably higher than two, probably more around three or four.
Against golem rushes, the HP raises constantly, so the RNG hates you more. I guarentee you will (Almost) never see a summon sick golem die from the effect.
Against Shrieker rushes, that is a 12.5 chance on the shriekers. You'd think it'd happen more. Nevertheless, the equation is right, more or less. Also remember that High-ATK, Low HP also means they kill you quickly, giving it less chance to activate.
Is a hard counter to forest scorp rushing. for the same reason as half the shields in the game
Has about the same likelyhood as a fire rush should you encounter a munchkin/frogtosis rush.
Phase Dragon rushes suffer very little to this shield.

I could name dozens of other decks of how you describe, where the shield activates on average, exactly as many times as I said.

[UnderneathTheLens]

Well, the main problem is that if we raise the percentage, then the people with the creatures are going to start raging.

Have you ever been on the receiving end of a skull shield lucky kill? Ex. the phase dragon you took forever to get the quanta for gets killed on its first turn. It's a very potent rage inducer.