Skull Shield
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Contents
Overview
Although not the most reliable source of protection, Skull Shield is a nifty defensive permanent that can turn hostile creatures into frail bones. In addition to reducing all physical damage by 1, attacking creatures have a small chance of transforming into a Skeleton.
General Use
Quick Facts:
- Skull Shield reduces all physical damage by 1; creatures with less than 2 ATK aren’t affected by the shield’s special effect
- The chance of enemy creatures being turned into a Skeleton is based on the equation (50% conversion chance / Current creature HP). Creatures with higher HP have a lower chance of being converted
- Status effects (adrenaline, immortality, etc.) stay with a creature if they are turned into a Skeleton by the effect
- Triggers the death effect when a Skeleton is made
Skull Shield is another shield for the Death element (the other being Bone Wall). For 3 
quanta (2 upgraded), Skull Shield will reduce all physical damage from creatures by 1. In addition, the shield’s skill will also cause any non-momentum affected creature that attacks through the shield to have a small chance of becoming a Skeleton. The following equation and table below provide the details of Skull Shield’s chance of ‘killing’ off enemy creatures - note that the higher a creature’s health pool is, the less likely they’ll be affected by Skull Shield’s ability:
Equation: 50%/Current creature HP
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | ... | 50 | X | |
| 50% | 25% | 17% | 13% | 10% | 8% | 7% | 6% | 6% | 5% | ... | 1% | 50%/X |
Note that Skull Shield’s ability will trigger death effects when an enemy creature is converted into a Skeleton; creatures with less than 2 ATK (their entire damage is blocked) aren’t affected by shield’s ability. One small detail about the Skull Shield is that previous effects (immateriality, burrowed, poison, etc.) on creatures will still remain on that creature when it transforms into a Skeleton from the shield. So in other words, an Elite Immortal can easily become an Elite Skeleton with the immortal status effect, or a burrowed Shrieker can turn into a Skeleton that’s burrowed into the ground (but unable to burrow itself out).
While Bone Wall can absorb hits better than Skull Shield can, Skull Shield has unique strengths that Bone Wall cannot provide. Creatures rushes (ones that involve either the spamming of cheap creatures or extremely strong, yet frail, ones) can often overwhelm a Bone Wall unless the player has mass CC - creatures with Adrenaline tear down the counters of Bone Wall faster. However, a Skull Shield can put a halt to a majority of these creature-spam decks. Fire-rushes (ones that often use Lava Golems or Phoenixes) can be stopped dead cold by a single Skull Shield by dramatically reducing the offensive monsters into bones. Mono-life decks that use Adrenaline on Horned Frogs simply give the shield more chances to turn each multi-attacking Frog into a Skeleton on each hit. As most creature-rush decks are based on cheap creatures with moderate or high ATK and low HP, Skull Shield can slow or even put a stop to the creature rush on the first turn its played, assuming its not destroyed in the process.
Synergies
Rain of Fire | Fire Storm can often sweep a field clean of creatures, but in other cases (if the opponent is using more durable fighters), the spell can serve as a softener to make such creatures more vulnerable to Skull Shield. Using Rain of Fire on a field of Toadfish, for example, can increase the chance of converting the creatures into skeletons by 37%! Of course, not all creatures (see Gravity) can be affected by a Rain of Fire spell, but even then, Rain of Fire can also serve as a way of getting rid of the opponent’s skeletons to trigger more death effects…
…and because the death trigger is integral to many of Death’s strategies, Boneyard | Graveyard also becomes a favorite to use alongside Skull Shield. Because of the death trigger from turning your opponent’s creatures, a player can reap these benefits by also generating Skeletons of their own to deal further damage to the opponent. If the opponent doesn’t have a shield, playing a last-minute Nightfall can greatly boost the damage of the Skeletons of the player (although the damage boost also applies to the enemy’s Skeletons as well).
While Skull Shield can be a chancy form of CC, it can also serve as a lockdown mechanic when coupled with the right denial cards. In this case, Aflatoxin | Aflatoxin has wonderful synergy with Skull Shield. Because Aflatoxin poisons a creature, creating a Malignant Cell upon its death, the opponent’s field can slowly be infested with Malignant Cells via Aflatoxin and Skeletons from the shield, reducing their damage from creature sources significantly.
Other Cards With Synergy
Cards such as Flooding, Plague, and other CC can double the number of death effects to trigger alongside Skull Shield. Vulture and Soul Catcher can also benefit from the Skull Shield procs. The usage of Eternity can also be a major benefit, as one could rewind the shield’s Skeletons into random creatures, then rewound again into your opponent’s deck to deny them a draw (unless the opponent has the quanta to play that creature). Finally, Otyughs and Scarabs can also eat the enemy skeletons as well.
Conclusion
Even though the Death element has a more reliable shield that can block more damage given steady CC, Skull Shield is a much cheaper shield for Death that can halt rush decks and also provide a fun way of killing creatures on the enemy’s field.
Popular Deck
Ragequit 101 by Chapuz
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Editor's note: PvP1 deck
