[Official] Shard of Focus | Shard of Focus

[kira666]

35 pages and I dont even know if Zanz is going to Nerf SoF.

[kimham8a]

35 pages and I dont even know if Zanz is going to Nerf SoF.

I think he will nerf only if he is sure most experienced people believe it is OP. Or maybe he will buff other PC instead. But I don't think the number of pages of discussion of whether something needs to be nerfed or how to nerf it is relevant, unless each page agrees it is OP.

[furballdn]

Zanzarino: Last active July 8 2012

[kimham8a]

@furball
I admit that looks powerful, but speed and raw power has been sacrificed here. In fact, it's not even a rush anymore. Entropy rainbow rushes can afford to have many/stronger creatures (like 15). This is already an example of limited deck possibilities from the  mark. Even firestall and mono aether could beat this, due to its slowness. In terms of pure speed, this is comparable to 24 life pillars and 6 giant frogs. Also the concern was about first turn nova then Sofo, not supernova then Sofo, though the pends partly increase the chance of first turn Sofo.

I highly doubt this, and I never said it was a rush. Not every PSNbow has to rush, this one is more control oriented. I believe this can easily take down mono aether and even put up a good match vs firestall with the PC it packs along with the heavy denial. As for speed, it is nowhere near the slow speed you've exaggerated, and even then, even if it takes 20 turns, you've gotten your opponent securely locked down, so what does speed matter?

It is slow as that. 7 creatures Vs 6, with some of your creatures atk being higher, lower, or delayed. Plus your creatures cant be played as reliably. And you cant lock down your opponent the way you seem to think. If you wait for discord to decently even out the quanta before black holing, your opponent will be able to play their strategy. To soon, and your draining more from yourself than your opponent.

Also if you replace the black holes with chargers you will be starved for quanta and the denial will be significantly less.

Just to make sure though, I'm going to make an buffed copy of this as an arena deck and try mono aether. I'm thinking along the lines of only using lightning on sofo, and if any slip through on the early turns he has a choice: destroy the shield  or the tower, and I'll have many of both. Then even with no shields immortals and phases could outdamage those 7 creatures.

To the post you just made: whoops didn't know.

[furballdn]

Did you catch this bit in the suggested "nerf"?

•If your mark is gravity, then it activates on only the opponent.

[Laxadarap]

Actually, that post just gave me a GREAT idea.  Turn shard of focus into something like this...

Cost = 7 // 6 (like now)
Type: Spell (plays on a creature, like butterfly effect, blessing, etc)
Text: Target creature gains the ability Accretion: Destroy target permanent.  This creature loses 10hp from its max hp, and this damage cannot be healed.  Turns into a black hole if it dies by this effect.

This would, on most creatures, result in destroying a single permanent.  On some dragons, like upped light dragon or upped earth dragon or steam machine, you could do it twice.  On gravity creatures, like massive dragon or armagio, you could do it three times (and thus increase yet more the gravity synergy)  The no healing clause is to prevent stuff like holy flash or archangel turning it into the same near-perpetual destruction machine that gravity force can do to it now.  This could be a little too abusive with voodoo dolls, but even there, you'd do 10 damage one time (the second time, the doll dies and thus does no damage) so it's probably okay, and you'd have to use deck slots on dolls which are kinda weak anyway, whereas a card like gravity force is useful in other ways, like CC, on your own other creatures in an emergency, etc.  Also note that this card won't be broken by phoenix, since when the phoenix dies, it wouldn't have the original phoenix ability, as it is replaced by accretion; same thing with ash and the rebirth ability.  It would be like how you can stop phoenix/ash now by liquid shadow or overdrive, or stop ash rebirth by butterfly effect.

Thematically, I'd argue that the creature is losing mass to the accretion ability (rather than the way the shard is gaining mass) so that hopefully justifies the reversal from hp gain to hp loss under this design from a thematic point of view.  It also makes the shard easier to deal with by CC.  The one buff that would actually come about is that if the creature were already in play, you could theoretically play SoF on it and activate it right away (like how you can do with butterfly effect, assuming sufficient entropy quanta) but I don't think that's too much of a problem, given that outside of gravity it's capped at 2 activations anyway, and will usually be one.

Bringing this back to attention, because I like the idea a lot, however, cost should not be that much, I woul pretty much be fine with the standard 3|5 cost of many of the other shards. Especially since the damage can't be healed.

@furball
I admit that looks powerful, but speed and raw power has been sacrificed here. In fact, it's not even a rush anymore. Entropy rainbow rushes can afford to have many/stronger creatures (like 15). This is already an example of limited deck possibilities from the  mark. Even firestall and mono aether could beat this, due to its slowness. In terms of pure speed, this is comparable to 24 life pillars and 6 giant frogs. Also the concern was about first turn nova then Sofo, not supernova then Sofo, though the pends partly increase the chance of first turn Sofo.

I highly doubt this, and I never said it was a rush. Not every PSNbow has to rush, this one is more control oriented. I believe this can easily take down mono aether and even put up a good match vs firestall with the PC it packs along with the heavy denial. As for speed, it is nowhere near the slow speed you've exaggerated, and even then, even if it takes 20 turns, you've gotten your opponent securely locked down, so what does speed matter?

Just throwing out against the firestall, your "PC" is invested in Shard of focus, which can be one hit by the mulitude of firestalls spells, explosion can most likely handle discord.

[furballdn]

Start at 1hp. Accrete gives it +15 hp. Dies when hp>15, or hp>30 if mark is . no black hole given.

[Sufjan]

This card is a complete joke, and is ruining the game.

[thispersonisagenius]

This card is a complete joke, and is ruining the game.

YAY! Yet another person makes their first post on the forum a blunt complaint about a card.

Does anyone think SoFo should be a shield of some sort? For example, it could be a shield that blocks 45 damage (just a suggestion).

Another thing to note is that if your deck has enough CC and has a fast enough start, SoFo is easy enough to kill as it comes in with 1 HP. I think that many people are focusing on what happens after the turn it is played, and not realizing that even the weakest CC can take it out on turn one.

[furballdn]

This card is a complete joke, and is ruining the game.

YAY! Yet another person makes their first post on the forum a blunt complaint about a card.

Does anyone think SoFo should be a shield of some sort? For example, it could be a shield that blocks 45 damage (just a suggestion).
OP much? Heal costs 2 for 20 healing, SoD costs 3 for 16 (or 24) A single SoFo that basically negates 45 damage for 6 + 1 card is ridiculous
Another thing to note is that if your deck has enough CC and has a fast enough start, SoFo is easy enough to kill as it comes in with 1 HP. I think that many people are focusing on what happens after the turn it is played, and not realizing that even the weakest CC can take it out on turn one.
You are implying everyone carries CC. You are implying that SoFos can't come out first turn. A first turn SoFo is invincible after it gains that first 15hp. I would like to see you carrying around CC able to be played on the first turn PURELY to counter one specific card.[/card]

[thispersonisagenius]

That shield idea was just that - an idea. Actually, it isn't THAT overpowered. 2 for 20 heal means  6 + 3 cards for 60 healing, which means that 1 card would have to = 5 HP, which isn't way too far off. Also, an average of 20 HP for 3 is 6  + 2 cards for 40 healing, which isn't that bad either compared to my shield.

As for the first-turn SoFo, I'm not sure it comes up that often. Many decks that carry it have SNs, not novas, so the SoFo will have to wait a turn or two. I may be wrong, though.

[furballdn]

2 QTs-->SoFo
1 nova-->SoFo

Second turn SoFo is just as bad. Unless you have CC purely designed for countering SoFo, you'll be unprepared, and if you did gear your entire deck to dealing with SoFo, you'll be slow.

6 + 3 cards for 60 healing
9 + 3 cards for 48 (72 if ) healing
18 + 3 cards for 135 damage negation

Repeating my above suggestion: Start at 1hp. Accrete gives it +15 hp. Dies when hp>15, or hp>30 if mark is . no black hole given.