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Nimbly's Nook Inside The
Game: Faces of Shield Manipulation 8/09/05 Hey Everyone! Now here’s the third article for you guys (This one on time…). Problems are resolving so now I get to waste away my dog-dangling afternoons writing articles and such…Yay?
So, we’ve covered creativity and mana control. So now we move on to another strong element to the game that can make large impacts: The Shields. These 5 starting cards hide that untapped power that we all have embraced or scolded at times. So we’ll dive a little deeper into the idea of shield manipulation and review some of the best ways to get the shields you want (and some bad ways too :D)
Why can’t I get a shield trigger?...
I bet we’ve all said this once in our lifetime. No matter how many shield triggers we use, excluding those with all shield triggers, we just don’t get one. I’ve been there a lot. I use 24 shield triggers in a 40 card deck, and the occasional no-shield trigger shields will rear its ugly head.
Let’s go into the idea of the shield. For you people scratching your head so far, stick to solitaire and pick up a rulebook. The shields are an amazing element to the game, where a lucky or well-timed card can change the momentum of the game.
The special element lies within Duel Masters characteristic “Shield Trigger” that they have worked around. To cast things for free, in exchange for a shield, that can change the game in a crucial way makes the game strong, yet really hinders it in the end. And even if you don’t get a shield trigger, the non-shield trigger card can be helpful as well. And even if you have complete control of the match, some well timed shields can really put the brakes on your runaway.
Most Competitive players use roughly around half their decks shield-trigger. From there, it’s just simple mathematics. Half of the decks mean that a shield trigger will show up in your deck every other card, or ˝ the time. Meaning in a shield zone of 5, you should expect 2 or 3 shield triggers, right? Well, no one said that probability is a guarantee…
We have shield triggers of all purposes: Destroying, bouncing, monsters, blockers, tapping, mana gain, and discarding. Depending on timing, each shield trigger will change the tide of the game. For example, if you got 15 attackers breathing down your neck, then it’s great if you got a Holy Awe in your shields, right? I mean, Ghost Touch sure isn’t gonna help…
So that’s really the principle behind shields. Now we move on to the manipulators.
We have several ways to gain shields, some better than others. Let’s go over them. The ways are: Hand Mana Zone Hand – Replacement Battle Zone Deck
Holy Awe doesn’t do much for me now…Let’s drop it down to the shields
The First one we’ll go over is the Hand manipulation method. This is the type where you put cards from your hand directly to your shield zone to gain shields. The card that does this the best would be Sundrop Armor.
Sundrop Armor is a more general and direct way to do this form of shield manipulation. You pay 4 mana to put a card from your hand face-down. So, if you have a Holy Awe in your hand, then it’ll probably do better for you in your shields.
This card does wonders for those yellow decks that can’t really save themselves against constant bounce and destruction decks. In addition, Alcadieas wrecks with this card as well. Just put a Holy Awe down and just let the attacks come in. Not like your opponent can do much. He has no shield triggers now :/
It’s a pretty simple card. It may be a little over cost, and it should get a shield trigger ability since its brother, mana nexus, did, but it’s still decent to use.
How would you like to go through 3 Nexus?...
The next method is the mana zone manipulation. The king of the hill here is, of course, Mana Nexus.
Nature lovers, Rejoice. It’s Green’s saving grace card. This card makes green amazingly strong, even more so when you combine it with an even crazier color (Blue).
Use Nexus with both Blue and Green, and splash Black or Yellow if you want. Then look at the possibilities. You can get Snare, Awe, Terror Pit, Memory, Surfer, Torcon, Nexus, Spiral Gate, and any other shield triggers, but these are the big ones. Wow.
In a word, run it if you have green. It’s so strong to get that extra shield from cards you don’t really “use” anymore.
Watch as…this shield becomes…a better one!
Shield Replacement has its shining star with our 2-cost cyber lord, more well known as Emeral.
Yes, Water abusers take this card for all it’s got, which is a lot, I may say. Emeral is great at really any point in the game. And for 2 mana? That’s nothing. Really.
In the start of the game, it’d be nice to have a Surfer or Terror Pit down to take care of some early threats. Late game, the last shield being a Holy Awe would be amazing. It’s up to you. You put down something in exchange of taking a shield back.
I bet people who do use this card have come across the following situation:
Littl’ Billy – “I’ll put down a Holy Awe and pick up…a Holy Awe? Crap…” Judge – “That’s a swear! Banned forever!”
Now I bet someone came across that situation before. Except for the whole language part. Hopefully you have people at your tournament that speaks in whole sentences…Anyway, That’s the type of bittersweet reaction to happen. I mean, you get the security of knowing that a Holy Awe is down, but you lose a potential shield trigger gain.
Overall, Great Card. They tried to make a “stronger” form of it in Trenchdive Shark, but why? Honestly. Tell me why? I’ll wait...
Sure, Destroy my monster…Give me shields…
Yea, we do have such cards. No one uses them hopefully, as they don’t really do anything. There are only 2 to my recollection.
Both when destroyed go to the shields. They don’t really do anything in the shields at all though. If they had effects, shield trigger effects, then people would abuse them. But, they don’t, so they really don’t live up to tier 1 expectations…
Another problem? They are grossly overpriced! Oh boy, 10 mana for a 3000 blocker that goes to the shields. Yay? Oh, a 1000 attacker for 5 mana. Yay again?
Uh. Another problem? How are these rares? We have cards like Corile and Emeral common, yet these are rares? How do I react?
Well, I suppose in its own deck, they can do something, but don’t expect much out of them. You get exactly what you expect from them.
Top of the deck in the shields…nice…
The final way we do this is through deck shielding, more specifically top of the deck shielding. We have 3 ways I can thing of, but I may be wrong again…
All 3 of these put a card from the top of your deck into the shields.
Loth Rix is great as it is still a monster. So not only do you get some shieldage, but you get a 4000 power beatstick on the field. It is a little overpriced at 6, but it’s still great, as green pays 6 for just the effect. Mystic inscription is a plain dull as dirt 6-cost to add shields from the top of the deck. It is overpriced, which is why it really gets no play, but it can come in some use someday… Sphere of wonder costs 4, which is pretty decent. It adds the shield you want if your shields are less than your opponent, which happens. However, it’s not that great because if you have less shields than your opponent and you have 4 mana to spare, then chances are that they have more monsters than you and you should really deal with that before going with random shields…4 can play some nice blockers…
Still, this is complete randomness to what you get. Unless you already know what is coming, through Corile or something else, it’s all chance.
Shields are gone...time to go peacefully…
As we finish our in-depth review of the shield manipulation strategy, we’ll review.
-We defined the mathematics of shield percentages. Learn not to depend on them people… - We reviewed the basics of shields and occurances in them. - We reviewed the 5 types of shield manipulation - We hopefully figured out the better ways over the worse ones.
What’s left? Well. Nothing really. …. …. …. Oh, I guess I should explain a little something on the following.
Creative deck contest- I only got a few entries, but I’ll give people 1 more week. I’ll have my deck choice by Monday with my next article. Only 1 more week. I just want to see some more suggestions, and with the 5 Civ coming up, it gives me a great chance to test some more of these decks out. To all that entered, thanks for waiting another week for the stragglers. Refer to the first article for instructions…
Well, with that said, I’ll take my leave. If anyone has a Question, Comment/Concern/Complaint, a reply to a review or Article, or anything about the game of Duel Masters, E-mail me at nimbly@gmail.com Later Days…
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