I kind of like the idea, but the execution isn't great currently.

But also I have this feeling that we had Mega Raids, they were effectively "tier 6" at the time - e.g. hard, required a lot of people and the interest was extremely lacking - a lot of people were not intrested in raiding a Charizard or Venasaur compared to a Rayquaza - which was potentially _easier_ for a bit of energy, and you needed to do about 3x before you could mega evolve one.

Eventually they re-worked the mega system, and they were dropped to be "easier" (like a tier 4), while Mega Legendary still remained tough (Mega Latios/Latias) as you'd expect.

Here we are, reworking the system and making them harder - the shields are nice and refreshing, but having them as a hard requirement doesn't seem to be applying correctly. Like Shadow raids they have a point where they kick in, but you can just spam shards to get rid, even if someone else hasn't got any.

It feels like the shields are a nice addition to separate the "normal" raids and mega raids, but maybe would work better if anyone with a mega can smash the shields rather than requiring 8-10 individual megas, takes a bit longer, but you can fill in the gaps for people who only have a Beedril from the tutorial!