Elements 1.29

[Essence]

SoS as is, using the Sundial/Poison deck listed earlier.  Zero practice and just jumping right in:

Game 1: Jezebel.  EM. 18 turns.
Game 2: Octane. EM. 15 turns.
Game 3: Destiny. EM. 17 turns. 
Game 4: Jezebel again. EM. 19 turns.
Game 5: Fire Queen. Loss (deckout/Feral Bond)
Game 6: Dark Matter. EM. 20 turns.
Game 7: Scorpio. EM. 16 turns.
Game 8: Serket.  EM. 17 turns/
Game 9: Elidnis.  EM (barely!) 23 turns. (Feral Bond again)
Game 10: Graviton. EM. 16 turns.


9/10 EMs.  I see losses from Fire Queen, Ferox, Miracle, and sometimes Morte, Elidnis, Paradox and Rainbow.

This is much worse than the Dive/old-SoR deck.  Obviously the correct solution is to give us back the old SoR.


Also, I hated the text colors at first, but I've gotten used to it.

[RRQJ]

I don't understand why SoS doesn't have a casting cost.  The "drain non-death quanta" isn't a valid argument.  For one, that "cost" is nothing in a mono-death, and two, why can't something like miracle have a zero cost then?  It drains all light quanta anyway.

[majofa]

I don't understand why SoS doesn't have a casting cost.  The "drain non-death quanta" isn't a valid argument.  For one, that "cost" is nothing in a mono-death, and two, why can't something like miracle have a zero cost then?  It drains all light quanta anyway.

Because you could use it in a deck that doesn't even use quanta. Plus the 15 (or 12) cost makes it hard to play.

[Higurashi]

Yes I saw that. And for that reason, I think it's almost OP.

No not almost, it is... the fact that you can't use PC to stop it means there really isn't a counter to it besides not doing dmg at all

Silence =D!

[RRQJ]

I don't understand why SoS doesn't have a casting cost.  The "drain non-death quanta" isn't a valid argument.  For one, that "cost" is nothing in a mono-death, and two, why can't something like miracle have a zero cost then?  It drains all light quanta anyway.

Because you could use it in a deck that doesn't even use quanta. Plus the 15 (or 12) cost makes it hard to play.

That's true.  And that's currently true for the SoS.  You can play it in a mono-death deck, which doesn't use non-death quanta.

And yes, the 15/12 cost makes miracle hard to play.  Then why should SoS, which does something comparable to miracle, be easy to play?  It should have a fairly significant cost (random, obviously, to fit the shard theme) so it can't be played so easily.

[BluePriest]

Its the only card in the game that has a cost of dealing damage to the user. I think it would be fine if it did 30 upped, 20 unupped because then you would HAVE to draw it early against rush decks otherwise you would be dead.

[The_Mormegil]

SoS as is, using the Sundial/Poison deck listed earlier.  Zero practice and just jumping right in:

Game 1: Jezebel.  EM. 18 turns.
Game 2: Octane. EM. 15 turns.
Game 3: Destiny. EM. 17 turns. 
Game 4: Jezebel again. EM. 19 turns.
Game 5: Fire Queen. Loss (deckout/Feral Bond)
Game 6: Dark Matter. EM. 20 turns.
Game 7: Scorpio. EM. 16 turns.
Game 8: Serket.  EM. 17 turns/
Game 9: Elidnis.  EM (barely!) 23 turns. (Feral Bond again)
Game 10: Graviton. EM. 16 turns.


9/10 EMs.  I see losses from Fire Queen, Ferox, Miracle, and sometimes Morte, Elidnis, Paradox and Rainbow.

This is much worse than the Dive/old-SoR deck.  Obviously the correct solution is to give us back the old SoR.


Also, I hated the text colors at first, but I've gotten used to it.

Try adding some Dragons for Miracle avoidance and some Plagues to counter Bond gods. It should work even better, and thanks to Sundials you can draw through it easily.

[Snopel]

Great... My post on page 4 was completely ignored...

With SoS, I think Mono Death has just become so damn powerful. It went from barely being used to becoming an OP mono deck. o_o
SoR now makes a Time Rush possible. (Finally)
SoD still has no use.
SoG with the enemy + HEAPS OF MINDGATES = Goddammit.

[ZephyrPhantom]

My cents:

Gonna say this right off, not a fan of the text color.

SoS is pretty imbalanced, but I suspect that was done on purpose as usual.

Everything else is amazing; really looking forward to seeing what the rest of the Shards will do.

^My thoughts exactly. Colored rare text just doesn't seem to fit on anything (except for a few unupped nymphs)
The new SoD looks kind of... off. I'm going to miss the old graphic (On the bright side, the old graphics can still be used in forum avatars.)
SoG nerf finally happened, meh.
SoR could lead to some interesting strategies like ArendaDejaVus mentioned earlier in the thread.
SoS seems to be a common card in my Ai1 matches. 
I like the subtle effects that occur when SoS, Silence, and Sanc are played.

Overall, nice job Zanz, looking foward to the next few shards.

[Chemist]

In this version the health loss from SoS is more of a quickly repayed investment than an actual sacrifice. I think it would be more balanced if it took away as much hp AND reduced the player's max hp by the same amount at the end of *each* turn that it was in effect.

The colored text I find looks great on some elements (e.g. other), but not so great at all on some of the rest (e.g. death).

[Rutarete]

Hooray for update! I'm not a fan of the text colors, nor the Stacking of SoG (examples shown on the first few pages). THere was a suggestionthat Trident/Poseidon be able to target shards. I'm in favor of that.

Otherwise, I like the rest.

[RootRanger]

If the Death shard is extremely overpowered, I can't even imagine what the Fire shard is going to be like. This is really scaring me.