Dear Jenkai, now I see what you mean with combo and yes, you're right, Hope decks are combo decks for sure. About the rest of your posts, I have to say your arguments are also in great detail and I am starting to feel convienced by your opinion. Maybe, just maybe, Hope is not OP at all...
My 2 cents :
Titanium Shield is 4
and 1 Card for 2 defense.
Reflective Shield is 1
and 1 Card for 0 defense and Immaterial.
Hope + 2 RoL is 7
and 3 Cards for 2 defense and Immaterial.
On average a "Reflective Titanium Shield" would be 2 quanta 2 cards cheaper.
Diamond Shield is 6
and 1 Card for 3 defense.
Mirror Shield is 2
and 1 Card for 1 defense and Immaterial.
Hope (Upped) + 2 RoL is 8
and 3 cards for 3 defense and Immaterial.
On average a "Mirror Diamond Shield" would be 2 cards cheaper and provide 1 more defense.
Hope does have potential to getting more creatures to surpass the defense of Titanium | Diamond but will require the deck to be dedicated to effectively getting it into play (aka a combo deck as Jenkar mentioned below) and under most situations does not become extremely powerful until late midgame when you Fractal RoL (which is usually the best case scenario for getting this card out). When compared to other shields there are better alternatives for a more immediate defense. Light emitting creatures also have an eventual limit to their usefulness - the most likely cards you will use with it are Miracle (which drains all
) and Fractal Dragons/Archangel (which is a useful synergy but only becomes viable lategame, which indirectly synergizes with Hope's need for
generating creatures.) Other strategies (Luciferin + Vanilla Creatures or Firefly/Pegasus) are potentially viable but usually less effective compared to decks like Fire Stall, Grabbow, or Ghostmare.