Nice idea.. I'm back
First things first, as for the T50, perhaps the game will just replace all 'shard' based cards with random cards.
To all who said GC:Eternity was hard? Noobs
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And now back on topic, really like this idea. Maybe there can be a quest, parallel to the false gods in which you have a higher than average chance of winning a 'shard'. The 'shard' being the lowest level, needing to be combined with another shard, into a crystal. Seems to make sense to me.
This will also make people cry out for some card-trading/auction house etc... Imagine trying to get x6 Gem of Sanguinius (made up)... This Gem is fire all through out, so requires, 2x Crystal of Sanguinius to be made. So, each crystal requires 2 Shards, that's let's see... 24 shards to make 12 crystals to make 6 Gems...
The idea's seem spot on, as for what the cards actually do. I do particularly like the idea of strengthening poison or adding an ability which affects 'MAXIMUM Hp'. Particularly handy against miracle spam... empathic bond and creature spam... shard spam...
Crippling is usually what something does if it affects your Max HP, as opposed to Poisoning which affects your current HP. But, then again, maybe Shard of Disease/Shard of Fatigue could also convey this idea. Maybe, 10, 15, 20hp from Maximum removed per Shard/Crystal/Gem.
Or if it were to be a creature, then -1, -2, -3 max hp per attack. Maybe Immortal or just affectedness by Adrenaline (like Puffer-Fishes are currently). The -Max HP ability will be blocked by shields, and of course, maybe there will be a shard which works in the opposite way, sort of like a combination of a Shard of Gratitude and a Shard of Destiny (+5hp per turn and +20 MAX HP on turn played), so it works like a sort of gradual max hp increase over time...
Anyways, I'm rambling, nice idea... Surprised no-one else really thought of it until now
Back to my bat-cave... lurking around the forums, spying on you all!