About Shard of Bravery and card advantage

[Klatu]

I've been using Shards of Bravery a lot lately and came to the following conclussions about card advantage:

• It costs you one card to play Shard of Bravery (obviously)
• You can get a more favorable (or less unfavorable) card advantage (or disadvantage) by playing Shards of Bravery in a way that they fill the eighth slot of your opponent's hand, since she won't be able to draw the next turn
• If you are playing against an arena deck that has double draw, you can get a more favorable (or less unfavorable) card advantage (or disadvantage) by playing Shards of Bravery in a way that they fill the seventh slot of your opponent's hand, since she won't be able to draw her second card the next turn.
• Card advantage-wise, there is no point in playing more than three Shards of Bravery in the same turn.

Therefore, assuming you have enough slots in your hand to draw the same cards that your opponent draws, you gain the following card advantage when you play the amount of Shards of Bravery indicated by the rows and your opponent has the amount of cards indicated by the columns against an opponent with single draw:

	0 cards	1 card	2 cards	3 cards	4 cards	5 cards	6 cards	7 cards	8 cards
1 Shard of Bravery	-1	-1	-1	-1	-1	0	0	0	-1
2 Shards of Bravery	-2	-2	-1	-1	-1	-1	-1	-1	-2
3 Shards of Bravery	-2	-2	-2	-2	-2	-2	-2	-2	-3

And against an opponent with double draw:

	0 cards	1 card	2 cards	3 cards	4 cards	5 cards	6 cards	7 cards	8 cards
1 Shard of Bravery	-1	-1	-1	-1	0	1	1	0	-1
2 Shards of Bravery	-2	-1	0	0	0	0	0	-1	-2
3 Shards of Bravery	-1	-1	-1	-1	-1	-1	-1	-2	-3

I don't know where should I post this. Feel free to move to somewhere more appropriate :)

[Vindilos]

The value of shard of bravery can only be explained in a context. I believe its true value comes from speeding up rushes and finding combo cards. Examples of decks that use it are voodoo bravery, debauchery, dazzling dolls and golem rush decks. You can find all these decks on the forum.

Shard of bravery is used when you think that drawing cards is more important for you then for your opponent. A reason for this could be that you play a fast deck while your opponents deck is slower. Rushing is a strategy and shard of bravery fits that strategy.
Pillarless debauchery is an example of a deck that uses it this way. Your deck tries to chain cremate damselflies and minor phoenixes into serpahs and rush your way to victory. Your opponent will not be able to get his entire hand into play, which implies the oppnents didn't get to make use of all his cards. The extra drawn cards had less value for your opponent.
If you used the bravery shard on the final turn the bravery shard has a one sided effect. You also create an advantage when you combine silence with shard of bravery.
Other phoenix rushes and air decks can also use bravery shard for similar reasons.

The ultimate is a shard golem deck. It tries to rush people down, but bravery shards also grow the golem. The value does not come from card advantage.

Voodoo doll decks use a combo and they need to find all the combo pieces. Voodoo bravery needs to find its combo in time and doesnt deal any damage until enough combo pieces are found (doll+pull+blood). Dazzling dolls needs to draw almost its entire deck to find all 8 combo pieces. Without shard of bravery its almost impossible.

The point I'm trying to make is that the value of bravery shard is useful for rushing and finding combo pieces. I don't think it should be played for card advantage.

[Mr Muffin]

Would probably fit in the Shard of Bravery topic. http://elementscommunity.org/forum/fire-70/shard-of-bravery-shard-of-bravery/