Pointed Discussion

At least it's a superior version of Rod of Ruin, yet when taking a look at Crystal and Skeleton Shard, you'll notice that this isn't the best shard in this cycle, though.

Strictly better than Rod of Ruin.

Yup, better than the rod. Which isn't saying a ton. Still, not terrible.

It's kinda like a Prodigal Pyromancer, except you gotta pay to use it. Although, it does count as an artifact, so it may prove somewhat useful in certain artifact decks, especially those looking for ping.

Not bad. Repeatable burn/removal almost always has a use (unless it's badly overcosted - looking at you, Rod of Ruin and Aladdin's Ring). And as Londenmonium pointed out, it can slot into decks that care about artifact count pretty easily.

Rod of Ruin , it's about time we had a sit-down, you too Aladdin's Ring ...

This would have been handy back in the days of Soltari Priest.

One of the reasons this shard is good is because unlike other pingers, it's not a creature-- that means it's significantly harder to remove than something like Vulshok Sorcerer or Cunning Sparkmage, since artifact removal is much less common than creature removal.

And like the best pingers, it effectively has haste, so you can ping something the turn you drop it. The downside is that it costs a mana each turn, but I use it in a red deck that only has 3 spells that cost more than 3 mana, so it's not a big problem to spare a mana for it.

I think it's just as good as Vulshok Sorcerer in the right deck, but it needs to be a low-casting cost red deck, so the mana commitment doesn't hamper you.

Why the low rating? Perhaps everyone is taking this card..
*sunglasses*
..for granite
YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

@Forgeling: See EDH

Part of a five card cycle:

Pearl Shard
Crystal Shard
Skeleton Shard
Granite Shard <-- You are here
Heartwood Shard