[Official] Shard of Focus | Shard of Focus

[Jenkar]

This is one of the shards I hate the most, both in concept and in execution. It seems like a bad excuse for the lack of Permanent Control in most elements, and I'd rather see cards such as Touch of Midas, Implosion, Rejuvenation and Dark Kraken in the game in its place.

So much +1.

[mega plini]

don't care what they do, as long that they nerf it bigtime.

[vrt]

Let it delay permanents for 2 turns and it might be a little balanced.

[yaladilae]

I don't necessary think it's overpowered, but its definitely very very strong

on another note, this shard has highlighted both how strong earth is (petrify, guard, PA), and that we only really have PA to protect our permanent (whereas creatures have things like nymph / anubis)

And Jenkar is right, it's shards like this that makes stall deck boring to play and everyone is just building rushes after rushes....

[mega plini]

Shard of focus offers permanent control to elements who do not have normal acces to it. I think this is a good thing.
Shard of focus regenerates a black hole wich is a counter to the meta defining speedbow. I think this is a good thing.

But where does it go wrong?
Is it because it can destroy multiple permanents? Pulvy does that too. This is not the problem.
Is it because it nerfs speedbows? Changing the meta is a good thing (it keeps us sharp). This is not the problem.
Is it because it does all these things at the same time?
Maybe...
Look, I have absolutely no problem with powerfull cards and I believe a card that both destroys permanents and nerfs speedbows at the same time can exist.
So, as far as I'am concerned, that is no real problmem.

The real problem about shard of focus is: IT IS ALMOST INDISTRUCTIBLE.
In fact, that by itself isn't the problem eather. Armagio is almost indistructible as well. So what's the difference? Let me tel you.
Shard of Focus is a creature with an epic ability that is even harder to destroy than a Pulvy.
That is , I Think, the problem. Only a lobo effect can stop it. But these effects are not so common in the meta. Other cc can't kill it, it can only slow it down by reversing or freezing it.
That's why tyhis card is OP and should be nerfed.
A good point to star is are his hitpoints. With low Hp this creature would be more balanced. At least we could counter it.

[Sinolai]

I think it is quite good card as it is.
Only rainbows can use this card with out thinking about its cost and it can destroy only three permanents which is not too much in my opininon. (Pulivenizer can be used as many time as you want if you have  / ) Enemy can also take a copy of this card with parallel universe (I do this a lot, although I take copies of my own shard )
Reverse time is also fun to play with this.


If you really want to nerf if, maybe its starting hp could be dropped to 5.

[Atico]

Destroy Pillars, gain BH and all for 5 quantum. Fantastic...
I always hated PC in game, because it is too easy to destroy some kind of stuff. Now PC is easier. I prefer some kind of "soft PC" like SoW or SoFr - avoid shield or Rejuvenation.

I agree that SoF should be removed from game and Rejuvenation (as PC for Life) and other cards should come in 1.31.

[RRQJ]

I played an arena deck that used this with rage potions.  It was not fun.

One big problem (among others) is that, especially if you can control the HP, it is almost always beneficial to use the effect on pillars.  Every other form of PC is generally saved for other permanents (besides earthquake for obvious reasons) because the cost of using the PC is more than the benefit you gain from destroying a pillar.  Thanks to it's zero skill cost and ease of getting multiple shards onto the field, that's not the case for this.

And even if you don't have a way to control hp, 6 shards=18 permanents.  There's only a handful of decks that have more than 18 permanents (including pillars), and they are likely to be heavily reliant on hourglasses, which you can likely destroy when it comes out even if you were extremely aggressive with destroying permanents.

At a minimum, I think this needs a skill cost or a clause that prevents destroying pillars.

[Atico]

I played against the same deck FireNymph+RageElixir+BlackHole+SoF, fine combo.

SoSa and Sof should be nerfed, changed or removed from game.

[mega plini]

Let it delay permanents for 2 turns and it might be a little balanced.

Actulaly that is a great Idea! delaying permanents for soft permanent control.
But then again, it can't get any worse than it already is, can it?

[Zso_Zso]

I played against the same deck FireNymph+RageElixir+BlackHole+SoF, fine combo.

That's my deck -- unless somebody else made the same too. 
I also thought this shard was OP, but the performance of my deck in the arena actually demonstrates that it is not
This deck went 4-2 so far and is almost out of the league due to strong negative rating. When I submit a speedbow, that easily gets 10-1 win-loss results.
Which means a deck built around SoF is still significantly weaker than a speedbow.

[Glitch]

I feel like Gravity, already one of the weaker elements (at least unupped) got really shunted here.  Yeah, gravity can play the black hole, and it can fling/acceleration/gravity pull the shard for synergy, but I feel like I'd use this shard as permanent control if I were playing an element that didn't have any.  Black hole isn't that good of a spell to begin with, it's really only useful versus a rainbow.

I'd have to play around with it though.