Hope is another shield that's worthy of mention for being troublesome, especially since it usually also brings along
, can't be destroyed, and it seems like every team is making a habit of packing at least one in their vaults for War (even I have a code for a
-based one saved somewhere >_>). When playing
in Trenzalore I would typically either have to predict my opponent to not use Hope at all or find workarounds for it (read: Thorn Carapace) since otherwise it could wall my offense pretty easily with good to moderate starting draws. It's a gimmick for most teams since it oftentimes requires a forced
trio but if RNG is in the other team's favor, the matchup will turn sour pretty quickly. The deck that I used in Trenazlore for combating Hope (and
in general) was a simple mono
with Mitosis Giant Frogs that used Heals to get rid of excess damage while Thorn Carapace got rid of
producers. I didn't use SoGs in these cases because Heals actually are more efficient in the short term and improved survival quite a bit.
Tinkerer is something that I've been considering quite a bit lately and it seems to be the best use of decks with SoG thus far, as most other decks aren't going to want to use a
mark. It also gives us the potential to create a pretty nasty
/
stall using Miracles, Sancs, SoDs, SoGs, etc.
Though my previous experiences with
in War have been that every team's answer seems to be to throw Dims at us even when there are better options, I have a feeling that denial decks are going to be a lot more rampant since Shard of Focus is now fair game for just about every team to use. SoFo's increase in usage is also going to make Gravity Pull increase in usage as well, which can potentially spell ruin for some of our rushes.
While I still expect teams to pack a hell of a lot of Dim Shields, I also believe we have a lot more ways to deal with them now that shards have become an option. Some of these solutions (such as SoFo) are obvious but then there are also other niche options that I would like to look into. For instance, some time ago I was considering a deck which relied on SoV to whittle down the opponent's HP while they hid behind Dims with Drain Life for last minute kills and Heals to help stall out the opponent's damage.
Two other shards worth mentioning are Shard of Freedom and Shard of Patience. While SoFr helps against our common shields reducing damage problem, both of these shards also help reduce the problems that we will have versus creature control.
For the other shards...
Shard of Sacrifice has the potential to be useful if we create a pseudo-Poison Dials type of deck that uses Heals in place of SoDs for giving back HP to use SoSa again. Though I expect most teams to pack Purify specifically for SoSa (and they admittedly may use Purify against us simply because of our ability to use Forest Scorps...), I don't expect most teams to expect us of all teams to use SoSa.
I only see Shard of Readiness being useful if we choose to use Pharaoh and Scarab spam with Feral Bonds or if we somehow can actually use Mitosis Golden Nymphs. Otherwise I've personally found it faster to just use Life's creatures with Mitosis even though SoR allows for double the fun.
I don't see Shard of Bravery being useful. Most of our rushes are consistent enough to where the inclusion of
won't help improve consistency and speed, though I suppose there is a merit to using it to draw Deflags when RNG doesn't seem to want to provide any. The idea of improving our opponent's draws doesn't really appeal to me either.
Shard of Wisdom might be useful if we can somehow get a deck with Immortals (or Phase Dragons though their cost is ungodly), Dims and Heals/SoGs to work. A possible choice for tinkerers.
Shard of Integrity... is probably too unreliable for us to use with our 50% in-element restriction. I actually did create an SoG + SoI deck for last Trials while I was a STANDIN but it's just too unreliable and gimmicky for me to have wanted to use it. It has potential with support from Auburn Nymphs though.
Shard of Serendipity is far too random to make use of it here. We'll want to reduce the amount of Nova taken (because they're expensive as hell) as much as possible anyways.
I'll add more thoughts as more discussion occurs. Though I have been busy this week getting adjusted to my new position as a TA for my university, classes have been cancelled for all of next week, meaning I can devote nearly all of my time to assisting with vault building.
