[Official] Shard of Focus | Shard of Focus

[Trollinator]

I fully expect to be flamed for this, but I like Focus the way it is. That is how I voted.  It got a reasonable and well-deserved nerf with the HP reduction and I like that.  It was a needed change.  I think it is fine as is, and doesn't need any changes.  Most suggested changes would hurt monos and duos a helluva lot more than would hurt rainbows.  As far as adding an additional benefit to gravity users/mark, black hole already is the benefit.  The main problem here is not with the card itself, but with rainbow's flexibility.  If it absolutely has to be change, to go with the spirit of colorless shards, I support the "growing" activation cost.  However, with rainbows, a colorless activation cost would be negligible. I would still play it without a thought.  A more appropriate change, I think, would be to get black hole card if and only if you have gravity mark.  So, in conclusion, I do not support a change, but if a change has to be made, those are what I would hope for.

[Cheesy111]

I fully expect to be flamed for this, but I like Focus the way it is. That is how I voted.  It got a reasonable and well-deserved nerf with the HP reduction and I like that.  It was a needed change.  I think it is fine as is, and doesn't need any changes.  Most suggested changes would hurt monos and duos a helluva lot more than would hurt rainbows.  As far as adding an additional benefit to gravity users/mark, black hole already is the benefit.  The main problem here is not with the card itself, but with rainbow's flexibility.  If it absolutely has to be change, to go with the spirit of colorless shards, I support the "growing" activation cost.  However, with rainbows, a colorless activation cost would be negligible. I would still play it without a thought.  A more appropriate change, I think, would be to get black hole card if and only if you have gravity mark.  So, in conclusion, I do not support a change, but if a change has to be made, those are what I would hope for.

Please, I beg you to join BL.  Then perhaps you will see why SoFo is a severe problem that kills the metagame.

[kimham8a]

Oh? What's happening there with SoFo? I don't have time to join, but I'd like to hear what problems are encountered. Is everyone using/countering it?

[furballdn]

Oh? What's happening there with SoFo? I don't have time to join, but I'd like to hear what problems are encountered. Is everyone using/countering it?

Many people don't like a 6 creature that can destroy 3 permanents in 3 turns, be nearly immortal after 1 turn, and then give the owner a free black hole to cause even more denial.

[kimham8a]

Oh? What's happening there with SoFo? I don't have time to join, but I'd like to hear what problems are encountered. Is everyone using/countering it?

Many people don't like a 6 creature that can destroy 3 permanents in 3 turns, be nearly immortal after 1 turn, and then give the owner a free black hole to cause even more denial.

But is there really any problem? What decks are people using these days? Because poison dials, rainbow rushes, cremation, pestal, etc, are barely affected by sofo. Sofo kills instosis, but its not like everyone's going to use that if they seem to run into sofo all the time. (at least with my experience)

[OldTrees]

Oh? What's happening there with SoFo? I don't have time to join, but I'd like to hear what problems are encountered. Is everyone using/countering it?

Many people don't like a 6 creature that can destroy 3 permanents in 3 turns, be nearly immortal after 1 turn, and then give the owner a free black hole to cause even more denial.

But is there really any problem? What decks are people using these days? Because poison dials, rainbow rushes, cremation, pestal, etc, are barely affected by sofo. Sofo kills instosis, but its not like everyone's going to use that if they seem to run into sofo all the time. (at least with my experience)

Yes. The threat of SoFo is great enough that it insulates the metagame against change. Most new challengers to those archetypes would involve pillars. SoFo slows pillars down a lot.

PS: How does SoFo hurt a SN OTK like Instosis?

[omegareaper7]

Oh? What's happening there with SoFo? I don't have time to join, but I'd like to hear what problems are encountered. Is everyone using/countering it?

Many people don't like a 6 creature that can destroy 3 permanents in 3 turns, be nearly immortal after 1 turn, and then give the owner a free black hole to cause even more denial.

But is there really any problem? What decks are people using these days? Because poison dials, rainbow rushes, cremation, pestal, etc, are barely affected by sofo. Sofo kills instosis, but its not like everyone's going to use that if they seem to run into sofo all the time. (at least with my experience)

Type of decks being used don't matter. The whole issue is the fact its invincible pc that can be played easily on the first turn. You know what most decks do when they have two of these against them? They lose. Losing 6 pillars is awful. Or they could target your shields. One of these destroys mono aether without a second thought. Your not exactly coming back from having something destroyed every turn for the price of a nova and a single shard.

[kimham8a]

Oh? What's happening there with SoFo? I don't have time to join, but I'd like to hear what problems are encountered. Is everyone using/countering it?

Many people don't like a 6 creature that can destroy 3 permanents in 3 turns, be nearly immortal after 1 turn, and then give the owner a free black hole to cause even more denial.

But is there really any problem? What decks are people using these days? Because poison dials, rainbow rushes, cremation, pestal, etc, are barely affected by sofo. Sofo kills instosis, but its not like everyone's going to use that if they seem to run into sofo all the time. (at least with my experience)

Yes. The threat of SoFo is great enough that it insulates the metagame against change. Most new challengers to those archetypes would involve pillars. SoFo slows pillars down a lot.

PS: How does SoFo hurt a SN OTK like Instosis?

Oh thanks. I get it now.

Also, it kills instosis because of killing its hourglasses or alternatively killing sundials at the right time, or simply using their ability no matter what just for the BH's.

[OldTrees]

Oh? What's happening there with SoFo? I don't have time to join, but I'd like to hear what problems are encountered. Is everyone using/countering it?

Many people don't like a 6 creature that can destroy 3 permanents in 3 turns, be nearly immortal after 1 turn, and then give the owner a free black hole to cause even more denial.

But is there really any problem? What decks are people using these days? Because poison dials, rainbow rushes, cremation, pestal, etc, are barely affected by sofo. Sofo kills instosis, but its not like everyone's going to use that if they seem to run into sofo all the time. (at least with my experience)

Yes. The threat of SoFo is great enough that it insulates the metagame against change. Most new challengers to those archetypes would involve pillars. SoFo slows pillars down a lot.

PS: How does SoFo hurt a SN OTK like Instosis?

Oh thanks. I get it now.

Also, it kills instosis because of killing its hourglasses or alternatively killing sundials at the right time, or simply using their ability no matter what just for the BH's.

What if the Instosis deck discarded its Hourglasses and played its Sundials without  ?
Black Hole would only drain mark quanta and OTKs don't care about Singularities.

PS: I have not had a good test for this counter strategy so I don't know if it would work.

[Cheesy111]

Spoiler for Hidden:

Oh? What's happening there with SoFo? I don't have time to join, but I'd like to hear what problems are encountered. Is everyone using/countering it?

Many people don't like a 6 creature that can destroy 3 permanents in 3 turns, be nearly immortal after 1 turn, and then give the owner a free black hole to cause even more denial.

But is there really any problem? What decks are people using these days? Because poison dials, rainbow rushes, cremation, pestal, etc, are barely affected by sofo. Sofo kills instosis, but its not like everyone's going to use that if they seem to run into sofo all the time. (at least with my experience)

Yes. The threat of SoFo is great enough that it insulates the metagame against change. Most new challengers to those archetypes would involve pillars. SoFo slows pillars down a lot.

PS: How does SoFo hurt a SN OTK like Instosis?

Oh thanks. I get it now.

Also, it kills instosis because of killing its hourglasses or alternatively killing sundials at the right time, or simply using their ability no matter what just for the BH's.

What if the Instosis deck discarded its Hourglasses and played its Sundials without  ?
Black Hole would only drain mark quanta and OTKs don't care about Singularities.

PS: I have not had a good test for this counter strategy so I don't know if it would work.

There is not enough hand room in Instosis for both all the Supernovae needed and all the cards needed to OTK. 

[Kuroaitou]

Personally, the best nerf to SoFo (that would be reasonable within Zanz's limits) would be these two small changes:

1) SoFo gets an activation cost of 6 quanta, 5 if upped. (This makes it so that it has a heavy cost, even if a player were to cast one with Nova)
2) SoFo turns into a Black Hole if its HP is greater than 31. (Note: If this change was implemented, it would still allow 3 permanents to be destroyed, BUT a single buff (Heavy Armor, Momentum, Chaos Power, Blessing, etc.) will reduce its permanent destruction capabilities to only two perms. Basilisk Blood would reduce it immediately to one PC.

...that being said, it would also be more interesting if instead of 'Black Hole', Focus becomes a different Gravity spell altogether to concentrate on the theme (hell, even Momentum or Gravity Pull would have more thematic meaning than the PC-denial-etc. of doom).

[rosutosefi]

Personally, the best nerf to SoFo (that would be reasonable within Zanz's limits) would be these two small changes:

1) SoFo gets an activation cost of 6 quanta, 5 if upped. (This makes it so that it has a heavy cost, even if a player were to cast one with Nova)
2) SoFo turns into a Black Hole if its HP is greater than 31. (Note: If this change was implemented, it would still allow 3 permanents to be destroyed, BUT a single buff (Heavy Armor, Momentum, Chaos Power, Blessing, etc.) will reduce its permanent destruction capabilities to only two perms. Basilisk Blood would reduce it immediately to one PC.

...that being said, it would also be more interesting if instead of 'Black Hole', Focus becomes a different Gravity spell altogether to concentrate on the theme (hell, even Momentum or Gravity Pull would have more thematic meaning than the PC-denial-etc. of doom).

But it's still a Rainbow card, and now it's complete trash in mono-gravity. D: