The Architect
Unlocking
Redesigning Shard of FireThe assignment requires me to redesign either the fire shard (shard of Bravery) or the alchemy card (rage potion) and the associated nymph. At first I would like to do a evaluate the use shard of bravery. I will redesign shard of bravery and keep in mind not too make it much more powerful than it is now.
An introduction to shard of BraveryThe current shard of fire is shard of bravery. The idea of bravery itself does fit to some extent to red magic, as it involves being aggressive and taking a risk. Shard of bravery increases the amount of cards you and your opponent have in their hands.
The main thematic issue with the current design of the card is that it is more of a knowledge based card. Personally I think the card really fits a blue theme better. In magic the gathering. It reminds me of the magic cards like Trade Secrets and Ancestral Recall.
Losing shard of braveryLet’s take a look at the way Shard of Bravery is being used and what decks would suffer from it. Currently Shard of Bravery is mostly being used in decks with a combo component or a combo finish. Shard of bravery increases the speed and consistency of these decks. Sometimes one or two shards of bravery can be found in Fractix to make the deck smaller.
Personally I’m not a big fan of shard of bravery outside of those decks. Shard of bravery is a card that fixes your own draws, but also helps your opponent find his key cards. If your opponent has counters to what you are doing, shard of bravery might do the opposite of helping you. On top of that, Shard of Bravery creatures card disadvantage and can be countered by sanctuary.
Lets first look at a deck known on the forum as Debauchery. My list:
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6rk 7dp 7dp 7dp 7dp 7dp 7ds 7ds 7ds 7ds 7du 7du 7du 7ee 7ee 7ee 7gq 7mt 7mt 7mt 7mt 7mt 7mt 7n0 7nq 7nq 7nq 7nq 7q4 80k 8poCremation decks can use shard of bravery because the have a combo component. You need to find a cremation target, cremation and a big creature. Debauchery likes to keep chaining cremations, thus shard of bravery has a good use. Shard of bravery also combos well with silence, though both cards have an issue of being countered by sanctuary.
Combo decks also use shard of bravery. An example would be Dazzling Dolls, by Chapuz.
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4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 77l 7ee 7ee 7ee 7ee 7js 7js 7js 7n7 7q9 7q9 7q9 7q9 7q9 7q9 7qb 7qb 7qb 7tg 808 808 808 80b 80b 8poCombo decks like card draw so they can find their combo pieces really fast. Shard of bravery helps these decks.
Another deck that uses shard of bravery to find its combo pieces is voodoo bravery.
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6u3 6u3 6u3 6u3 6u3 6ve 6ve 6ve 6ve 6ve 74d 74d 77l 77l 77l 77l 77l 77l 7ee 7ee 7ee 7ee 7ee 7tg 7tg 7tg 80b 80b 80b 80b 8puVoodoo bravery is a really fun farm deck that is mostly used against false gods. With this in mind it would be unfortunate if shard of bravery would be removed from the game. It would fit another element better however.
The shard can also be used for deckout purposes. A deck that does this well is BLARP. List here:
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4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 5lg 5lg 5lg 5lg 6qq 6qq 6qq 6qq 6qq 71u 71u 71u 71u 71u 71u 7ee 7ee 7ee 7ee 7ee 7ee 7km 7km 7km 7km 7km 7km 7q9 7q9 7q9 7q9 7q9 7q9 7qb 7qb 7qb 7qb 7qb 7qb 8pqThis deck was once the Bane of the Championship League. It uses the same defensive options as Pdials does (SoDiv, SoSac and sundial) which is difficult to deal with for many decks. Pdials is now much more used however (also related to card changes).
Frankenshard rush is a shard golem deck that uses shards for the sake of being shards. It really uses the effect of drawing more shards well. A hidden feature of shard of bravery is that the upgraded version gives shard golems +4 damage, more than any other shard. List of Frankenshard by TribalTrouble:
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4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 778 786 786 786 786 786 7ee 7ee 7ee 7ee 7ee 7ee 7nq 7nq 7nq 7nq 7nq 7nq 7tb 816 816 816 816 816 816 8poShard of bravery is a card that allows rush decks to be more rush oriented aswell. Several rushes use it, but usually in a non-competitive setting. Think of Brave Wyrms, Calindu’s Brave Phoenix and Faro’s Speed Poison.
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7dg 7dg 7dg 7dg 7dp 7dp 7dp 7dp 7dp 7dp 7ds 7ds 7ds 7ds 7ds 7ds 7du 7du 7du 7du 7du 7du 7ee 7ee 7ee 7ee 7f2 7f2 7f2 7f2 8poHover over cards for details, click for permalink
710 710 710 710 710 710 710 710 710 711 711 711 718 718 718 718 718 718 71a 71a 71u 71u 71u 71u 71u 7ee 7ee 7ee 7ee 7ee 8poTeam fire didn’t use Shard of Bravery once during war 11, the most recent war. Ive also browsed the used decks team Fire in war 9 and didn’t find any shards of bravery. In the Academy PvP event, which started in February of this year, the shard did see play.
Astrix used shard of bravery in 2 of his cremation decks. The first was lost and his second deck was illegal. Majofa used shard of bravery in Fractix, list here:
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4so 4so 4so 4so 4su 5f0 5f6 5f6 5fu 5fu 5gi 61o 61o 61o 61o 61o 622 622 622 622 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 7ds 7ds 7ds 7ds 7ds 8poTeam gravity did use shard of bravery in war 11. They used two copies of shard of bravery in their Swallow deck against team air, list here;
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4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 55k 55k 55k 55k 55k 55k 55r 55r 55r 55r 55s 576 5rp 744 752 752 752 75m 77d 77d 77d 7ee 7ee 7hi 7hi 7hi 7q9 7q9 8ppOne of the uses of shard of bravery in this deck is to find important cards, like shard of patience. Team Gravity also used a copy of SoB in their catatitans dials against team aether. Both sets of matches were lost however.
Shard of Bravery doesn’t see that much use competitively. It does see play in farming decks and has several good uses. The downside is that it can also help your opponent. In a way, shard of bravery helps you if you are dropping cards much faster than your opponent can. The card disadvantage is something you notice if your opponent also gets to play all its cards.
Shard of Flames | |
NAME: | Shard of Flames
| ELEMENT: | Fire
| COST: | 3
| TYPE: | Permanent
| TEXT: | If a creature dies during your turn, shard of flames becomes a 5/2 hellhound. If your mark is  it becomes an 8/5 instead. Unique.
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| NAME: | Shard of Flames
| ELEMENT: | Fire
| COST: | 3
| TYPE: | Permanent
| TEXT: | If a creature dies, shard of flames becomes a 7/2 hellhound. If your mark is it becomes a 10/5 instead. Unique.
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NOTES: | After transformation the spelltype of the card and the picture change, and is called Hellhound (Shard of Flames).
Hellhound is a creature, it is no longer a permanent.
The card is unique to play, you cannot play another if you have 1 on the field. If it is destroyed or killed you can play a new copy. After transformation you can still not play a second copy until the original dies. The card doesn’t have room to display unique, but it is.
You can cast twin universe on it.
Table layout is stolen from Aves with his permission.
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Using and balancing Shard Of FlamesIn this section I will describe what decks can use Shard of Flames. By doing so I can also take a look into the balance.
I will start with a deck that is build around Shard of Flames. Afterward I will comment on the balance as I describe its interaction with different elements. I will also mention the way it can be used in competitive games.
Flaming Phoenix
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6rk 7dg 7dg 7dg 7dg 7di 7di 7dp 7dp 7dp 7dp 7dp 7dp 7dq 7dq 7dr 7dr 7ds 7ds 7ds 7ds 7ds 7ds 7du 7du 7ee 7ee 7f2 7f2 7f2 8poThis deck is inspired by Brave Phoenix and Www3’s cremation. The deck allows you to play pillars and phoenix first, bravery shard second and cremate right after. Alternatively you can go for a fast start and the 2 rage elixirs can be used right after you cast the shard.
Earth cremation uses earth mark and cannot really use the creature that well. Its already has graboid to fill a similar role.
Phoenixbolt
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4so 4so 4so 4so 4so 4so 5f0 5f0 5f0 5f0 5f4 5f4 5f4 5f4 5f4 5f4 5f6 5f6 5f7 5f7 5fc 5fc 5fc 5fc 5fc 5fu 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 8poPhoenixbolt is an example of a deck that can simply put a copy in instead of the third Fahrenheit. One thing that works really well for Phoenixbolt is the fact that all of its creatures are resistant to spells. If the shard would be the only good target for a shockwave the card wouldn’t really fit in. You can keep the shard as a permanent until the opponent used his kill spells.
Another interesting point is that you can use your own fire bolts on your phoenixes to transform the shard. In case they get hit by antimatter it might be the right play.
With regards to balance I have to consider the use of the old shard of bravery. In competitive shard of bravery is not used a lot. What I can add is a card that would be good as a singleton but wouldn’t buff the element too much.
Phoenixbolt is a deck that can be used competitively, like in league or in an event like 12 lives. SoFlames naturally fits into the deck.
In the unupgraded meta Phoenixbolt is in great shape, it is one of the best mono decks out there. Similarly, you don’t wanna buff firestall, either the upgraded or unupgraded version.
Cremation decks however, aren’t that strong. To be more specific, they have a lot of counters. I wanted to add a creature that doesn’t die that easily, but can still be countered by lightning bolt.
5 damage for 3 quanta is relatively powerful, but you have to activate it first. Cockatrice is 4/4 for 3 quanta and does its damage immediately. If your mark is fire the shard is either truly amazing or truly useless. If you opponent has no creatures to kill the shard does nothing.
The upgraded version is has an amazing power to quanta ratio. Its 1 quanta cheaper then phase recluse but requires something to die. Its will work out for casual matches, but the card simply isn’t good enough for competitive unless your mark is fire.
In the best case scenario the shard is a good as a graboid, but you have to be able to consistently kill anything if it wants to be as strong. I would say graboid is an OP card, but this requires a second card to function. It is a combo card, yet easy to find a combo for.
Shard of Flames has counters, not only would facing a stall make the card pretty useless, reverse time and lightning bolt are also problematic.
The interaction the shard has with aether is amazing. I made SoFlames unique for balance reasons. One issue it has is the ability to break fractal. Still it does really well with spark, an example:
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5f0 5f0 5f0 5f2 5f2 5f6 5f9 5f9 5fa 5fa 5fa 5fa 5fb 5fb 5fu 5fu 5gi 5gi 61p 61p 61p 61p 6rk 7dp 7dp 7dp 7dp 7ds 7ds 7t9 8pmThis is one of of the decks of Team Fire, with modifications. Notice the interaction between the shard and spark. Even if you draw a late spark that would normally be useless, it can still be used to trigger the shard.
This cremation deck was used to beat earth. Adding SoFlames mostly makes the deck better, thus has a use in war.
Obviously also death has a good use for the card with a death effect. Death has access to retrovirus and great shells that benefit from death effects.
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710 710 712 712 713 713 713 713 718 718 71a 71b 71b 71b 72i 72i 72i 72i 72i 72i 72i 72i 72i 72i 7dm 7dm 7do 7do 7ee 7ee 8poThe deck above is based on one of the decks of team fire, used in war 11. They used a death/fire combination against darkness (to deal with its SoPa deck) and against life. SoFlames does have a natural shell for use in war. You dont need to modify your deck a lot for it.
Entropy has the cat that can trigger the death effect, though cat only sees play in casual matches. Also rainbow decks can feature SoFlames if they use multiple forms of CC, though full rainbows are often not allowed in competitive matches.
Regarding competitive play, Shard of Flames can be put into regular fire decks without many changes. With 5 hitpoints it can also be a good card to avoid the CC of air cards, which is something fire lacks.
It is designed as a good card, but you can only use 1 copy. Naturally it buffs fire as an element, while removing shard of bravery isn't a big loss, given its low use in war.
As seen before, not only fire, but also other elements like death can use the card in war.
Any deck with a lot of CC can make use of Shard of Flames. Gravity usually doesn't combine well with fire, but in a deck with otyughs and maybe some graviton fire eaters it could have a shot. It adds good DPS to the gravity element, while allowing it to use its more passive otyughs at the same time.
Light and time are examples of elements that can't make good use of SoFlames. They lack the damage cards to trigger the effect. You could put a SoFlames in a firestall to trigger it, but most likely it just gets killed.
To summarize; losing Shard of Bravery wouldn’t be a big loss for fire in competitive play, but it gets a shard back that can be quite valuable. If you build a deck around it, SoFlames can be as strong as a graboid.
It is a strong card, so adding "Unique" to the ruleset is important for its balance. Without it, it would end up needing different damage numbers and a lot of testing.
The fit of Shard of FlamesFire is an aggressive element, or at least tries to be. It can always use some raw power.
As mentioned before, to fit right into Phoenixbolt the card should be easily targetable. It isn’t. At first I wanted to create a card that changes back into a permanent at the end of turn so your opponent wouldn’t be able to target it. It would be a very difficult card to understand however.
Shard of bravery has been discussed at length. Thematically I think drawing cards for all players isn’t something that fits fire well. If you really want to implement some sort if card draw I would go with the design of browbeat from MTG.
Fire is a damage oriented element. Its creatures have a high attack value and a low amount of hit points. An extra creature makes sense. I wanted it to have a unique design and this one seemed great.
In terms of gameplay fire doesn’t get a lot of use out of Shard of Bravery. Rainbows and other elements benefit more from it.
Fire has a lot of cards that kill things. Cremation kills its own creatures, the bolts/pots/rains kill the opponents creatures.
I think this card suits the element better.
Thematically a hellhound suits the element of fire well. Some cultures associate the afterlife with fire.
Hellhounds perform tasks related to the afterlife. In this case something died, thus the hellhound is summoned, perhaps straight from hell.
Alternatively I could have picked a devil, an imp, or maybe a demon. I like hellhounds though, and its realtion with fire is pretty clear.
Rage PotionI wanted to talk briefly about the use and design of rage potion aswell, even if I don't have to.
Rage potion is in a very good spot in the meta. Both Rage potion and the fire nymph have seen uses by team fire in both war 9 and war 11.
Fire nymphs were used by team fire in its victory against darkness, using this deck:
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52g 52q 52r 542 5f0 5f0 5f0 5f0 5fk 5fk 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 5gi 718 718 718 718 718 71b 71b 71b 7dk 7dk 7do 7do 8pkThe nymph was also used with less succes in several other decks. Red nymph is one of the weaker nymphs in my opinion, but changing rage potion and red nymph would change a lot about fire as an element.
Rage potion and red nymph can be used in raging angels, using the heal ability of the angel to negate the drawback of rage potion. A deck of team fire is shown below. It lost against air.
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5f0 5f0 5f6 5f6 5fb 5fb 5fb 5fb 5fe 5fe 5fe 5fk 5fk 5gi 5gi 7dg 7dg 7dg 7dg 7f2 7f2 7f2 7f2 7f2 7f2 7ju 7ju 7ju 7ju 7k2 8pqRage potion is often used for CC and fights with firebolt for a spot in firestalls. It is often used a a 7th bolt.
If I would redesign it, I would let it buff all your creatures with +3 damage.
Fire creatures just don't have enough hitpoints to make use of rage potion. If you want to buff your creatures with rage they die.
This is the end of my task. If you don't have protection from wall of text, you died.
