(I suck at Photoshop, so I did mine in Paint.)
My hatred for the Upgrade card systems for Elements is well documented. It's also a losing battle on my part. So I figured, if I can't get rid of it entirely, might as well even the odds:
Best Weapon Card Entry:Other Card Ideas:I started with the Evolution card idea, remembered about the Best Weapon Competition, and kept going from there.
One of the best things I like about Elements is the way it takes advantage of it's electronic media -- it's not tied down like paper, physical card games are. Elements can do things like mutation, fate egg, carrying over quanta to the next turn (with it automatically calculated), percent shield effects, and randomizing shield effects in general. Physical card games can't do these things or they do them very poorly. The Upgrade System is another resource that they can't take advantage of. It's also (I think) an underutilized resource.These cards also give newbies a chance to play around with upgraded cards without having to grind for the Electrum.Note that you could use the Staff of Evolution on itself and change it's ability (and vice versa).Also note that newbies with completely "downgraded" decks will be completely immune to the downgrade ability.I was going to include a spell that upgraded and downgraded the cards in your hand and in your opponent's hand, but I think it gets starts to get a little complicated.
Discuss.