The new poll is up. I actually see quite a few good choices for this one: FFQ, Flying Weapon, OE, Unstable Gas, Wings...
Will be writing the Hope analysis in a moment.
Hope | Hope
What shield has such ludicrously strong defensive power that it can block up to 23 damage from every single attack? Hope is such a shield. Its defensive power is equal to the number of light-emitting creatures you control at the end of each turn, making it potentially the most powerful shield in the game. This card is immune to permanent destruction, too, and in some situations it can render you completely invulnerable.
First of all, you may ask "what are light-emitting creatures"? Light-emitting creatures are, quite literally, creatures that emit light; they have the ability Light, or bioluminescence, that produce Light quanta each turn. The unupgraded Firefly and the upgraded Ray of Light have this ability naturally, and you can use Luciferin to give bioluminescence to all creature on your field with no abilities.
Hope, by itself, is quite useless, blocking only 1 damage when upgraded. However, its power increases drastically as soon as you have two or three light-emitting creatures on your field. The shield with the second highest defense points is Diamond Shield, which blocks 3 damage from every source; but as soon as you summon 3 light-producing creatures, Hope instantly becomes better than Diamond Shield. And as you summon more creatures, Hope becomes stronger still, its defense increasing with every creature you bring forth. You can have up to 23 creatures on your field, so the maximum defense Hope can achieve is 23, or 24 when upgraded. Such defensive power is massive, because it literally stops all opponent creatures from attacking: the creature with the highest ATK is Ruby Dragon (15|2), and even that cannot penetrate Hope; only creatures with Growth or Ablaze can even dream about punching through your defense. And on top of that, Hope cannot be targeted by permanent control, which means your opponent cannot remove it by any means.
The above combo sounds epic, but you need lots and lots of light-emitting creatures to get it to work.
One way to achieve that is to use Fractal to create numerous copies of a light-emitting creature, such as Ray of Light. Ray of Light is the ideal candidate for this combo, because it costs zero to summon; no matter how many copies of it you create in your hand, you can summon them all instantly. This combo will also generate massive amounts of Light quanta, enough to summon a few Dragons at once; near the end of the game, you can use your Fractal on a Light Dragon for a devastating final attack.
Another way to get a really powerful Hope is to use the unupgraded Firefly Queen, which generates light-emitting Fireflies. This combo is slightly slower than Fractal-RoL mentioned above, but you'll have a renewable source of light-producing creatures in case they're destroyed by creature control. You'll also need the element of Life in that deck, which means you can put in a couple of Empathic Bonds for massive healing.
A third method, perhaps the slowest, is to summon a swarm of vanilla (no abilities) creature, and then use Luciferin to make them light-producing. This combo is rather dependent on good draws, making it not as effective as the previous two combos.
Having read all of the above, you might think that Hope can make you invincible; that is not true. Just like every other card in the game, Hope can be countered in several ways. The first and most obvious way is to remove the light-emitting creatures: a simple Rain of Fire, or even a Thunderstorm, can instantly annihilate an entire field of Rays of Light. Another way is to give a creature Momentum, so it can ignore shield effects; however, most Fractal-RoL-Hope decks carry Lobotomizers, which can remove Momentum from a creature. A third way is to use spells, as Hope cannot block spell damage; no matter how high your defense is, I can still win by slamming four huge Fire Bolts in your face. A fourth way, similar to the third, is to use poison; Hope cannot block poison that targets the user directly.
However, there is one thing about Hope that might not be obvious: Hope's defense only updates at the end of each turn. That means if your entire field of Rays of Light get decimated by a Rain of Fire, you'll still be safe as long as you can summon some more Rays before you end your turn. For example, when I wipe your field, you summon 6 more Rays and end your turn, your defense will be 6 instead of 0, and I probably still can't do anything to harm you.
Quick Facts:- Hope's defense is equal to the number of light-emitting creatures you control. So if you have many creatures, you have ridiculously high defense.
- Hope is Immaterial, which means it cannot be targeted by permanent control.
- Hope's defense only updates at the end of each turn, giving you a chance to get back up if you're hit by mass creature control.
Synergies:- Photon | Ray of Light
- Firefly Queen | Elite Queen
- Luciferin | Luciferase
Decks:- Fractal-RoL-Hope FG deck
- FFQ-Hope deck
