[Art Not Yet Available]
Type: Creature
Race: Polaroid
Quadrant: Regency
Element: Radiance
Cost: 1
Power: 1000
Effect: When this creature is destroyed, choose one of your opponent's creatures and exhaust it. This creature can't attack players.
Set: Advent of Chaos (CF-01) Common
Flavor Text: not yet available
Writer Text: "And then it went poof and pop and flash and boom and next thing you know I'm flat on my back." - Phoenix Alicia
The Element
The creatures of Radiance build their power stably and often have great ability to defend themselves or affect conflicts in predictable ways.The Shine Missile is certainly no exception to this, despite being the tiniest of creatures. That low cost is a great help to other Radiance creatures, as it affords some of the most useful possible Cost Reduction with no real drawback. Since most of the time Radiance is not aiming to attack the opponent quickly, its inability to attack the opponent themselves is not even considered a drawback, compared to what it offers defensively. What is a bit different here is that unlike most of the other defensive creatures within Radiance, especially other Polaroids, one is not really counting on the Shine Missile to hold the line, and in fact, one is usually counting on it to take the hit to protect another, be it yourself or one of your creatures. The very temporary nature of its effect makes it a little different from most of its Radiance counterparts, but not completely so.
The Combat Ability
The combat ability of the Shine Missile is not only minimal, but Radiance is also relatively lacking in any innate methods of increasing the combat potential of those that float the skies. Some have abilities like this on their own, but the Shine Missile has a completely different approach. When it is defeated, its power discharges as an effect, not as a combat ability. Despite this, its very minimal power rating means that this creature is almost never part of your fighting force, and being unable to attack players means that the only time that power rating really matters is very early in a game, where there are still some other creatures that are similarly low in power and cost for it to at least clash with on the basic level. This deficit also means that it is often easily targeted by effects that destroy creatures with low power, but fortunately it is not often targeted by these due to its own effect.
The Effect
It is probably safe to say that outside of a few strategies where the player intends to use the unity of Polaroids themselves to achieve high power or some other effect, Shine Missile's effect and low cost are the reason people play it, having nothing to do with its combat ability. There are very few situations where the ability to exhaust an opposing creature will have no effect at all on the flow of the game, and in most of those situations, one is usually either winning very clearly already, or very clearly losing. This means that nearly any time where you actually need a card to change the situation or even just stall for a bit longer, you can count on your Shine Missile. Whether it is helping you to play other Blockers like its counterpart Engorica, or providing a dual line of defense for your Sunbliss Hara, getting this creature in your hand early helps. Simply because most of the time, any attempts to reach any creatures that it is protecting, to attack them, is exactly what Shine Missile stops.
Even if the opponent finds a way to strike at their target and ignore the Shine Missile entirely in the midgame, this creature can make the sacrifice of attacking a larger target simply to discharge its own effect and make a smaller one vulnerable. Many other effects such as that of Antlion Trap or even Sables Duress, when they destroy the Shine Missile, can prevent the opponent from making full use of the opening that they would normally have created. Whether this creature stands against an onslaught directly, or stops one when destroyed to 'make way', it provides a defense. Even more importantly, against decks that return creatures to hand, the low cost of the Shine Missile often means that it will come right back, causing the opponent to question exhausting such important removal methods on such a small creature. This alone can throw them off, since the decision to return something else does not always help, when you cannot gain much ground due to the effect of this card. One of the most important things a skilled player can learn, though, is when exactly to simply let attacks right past their Shine Missile. This allows them to gain tempo while preserving their defense line, and may sometimes be the opponent's downfall completely, especially if that player is the one using cards like Burgundy Wail, Sentient Gorge or Sables Duress themselves.
Ratings
Casual: 10/10
If you are playing Radiance, there's nearly no drawback to this card other than its low power. Almost all other Radiance creatures and strategies currently synergize almost perfectly with it, as it combines defenses with cost reduction based acceleration. The average opponent will always have a way to deal with it, but it is an invaluable asset in any slower strategy and even as a defense in some faster ones.
Tournament/Ladder: 5/10
When competition picks up, Shine Missile's effectiveness goes swiftly down for most users. The issue here is mostly predictability. Decks that use it are usually a very particular type, or have steady progressions that are easy to see coming. Opponents that are prepared for this and have the skill level required, play around this card quite easily, and the higher amounts of cohesion or disruption make Shine Missile's 'bang' a little too little at times.
Random: 5/10
The RND duel type on KP is another place you don't really want to be seeing this card. It offers minimal benefit to cohesive strategy and requires great planning and sometimes even greater luck to actually put it to use. This is offset by the lowered amount of removal and need for effective blockers, however Shine is much more of a stall tactic when in a randomized deck than an 'effective blocker'.
Overall: 7/10
"When it is good it is very very good, but when it is bad it is horrid."
The above phrase basically sums up this card's score. It helps immensely if it comes at the right times or if the player is really aware of their own intent to actually use its effect either on purpose by their own destruction effects, or repeatedly through the use of creature revival, but just tossing it into most decks will not often result in a notably good outcome, even considering how good its effect looks on paper. Give it a try, but don't get too attached unless it has a good synergy with the rest of your deck, though it does work well with cards outside just Affinity Quadrant.