Hi Treldon,
My first suggestion is to stay with AI 3 until you have multiple Weapons, at least the amount needed to make the hand you wish to use better to be able to win five in a row in bronze arena (where you will get a special spin for a chance at a rare - shards included).
But when you are able to do the five bronze wins in a row, battle there for awhile to win more rares, especially shards.
If you find the type of deck you have is not suited to the arena, and you wish to stay with that style of deck, you can always try level 4, for higher pay and a slight chance at an upped card. Level 4 has 150 health and 3x mark against you. It uses two suits and some quantum pillars in case some of the cards need other quanta. I consider some of the decks rather easy to beat as the two suits are thrown haphazard together, not planned decks like level 3 has. Some though are definitely harder than level 3. Be prepared.
(You probably already realize this, but do not sell ANY rares until you have 12 of them (you will want six unupped and six upped). You'll find need for those rares at some point, and it's not like you can buy them.
You did mention wanting hints instead of asking for a deck, so here are some thoughts:
As for improving your deck, my first recommendation is to make sure to have some pendulums in the opposite suit from what your mark is. This helps you make sure you get quanta for both suits so that there are less bad draws. Also, whenever you have adjusted those, the suit which is the same as the mark, make sure that half are pillars and half pends (as cards such as earthquake would have a harder time destroying all your pillars then).
There are many ways to play Firefly Queen. Looking at another post of yours, well, I recommend taking out solar buckler and adding better shields such as Carapace (poisons the opponent's creatures for some creature control - I love this shield), Emerald / Jade shield, for more blocking and for help regarding cards such as psion, Unstable Gas, the bolts, etc. as any attack by them would be redirected back to the opponent (as there are many aether decks in bronze, I would certainly consider a Jade shield there - it also blocks many scorpion attacks, and it can NOT be stolen / destroyed). Or a cheap Fog shield, which blocks nearly half all attacks; it should not be underestimated. You could have a second Hope shield of course.
With more pendulums, I don't think you'll need so much Life quanta cards. or you can add more cards. I.e., have you thought about cards such as adrenaline? On a firefly queen or firefly it attacks attacks 12 instead of 3; and the firefly produces 2 light. Have you thought about mitosis to make extra cards? Have you thought about Sky Blitz for a sudden large attack? Have you thought about Sanctuary to not only heal your hand 4 per turn, but to protect both your quanta and your hand/deck from cards like devourer, black hole, nightmare, silence, discord, etc. Also, if you have more Druidic Staffs, a flying weapon and an adrenaline on that will not only attack multiple times (for a total of 8 attack), but also heal 20. (Of course Owl's Eye helps provides creature control, but my guess is that you don't have that card as yet.)
I realize that you likely want a smaller deck so can't play all those cards, but I think you might find some of those cards helpful if you choose to play so many Emerald pillars and rustlers.
You also might more carefully choose which cards you upgrade as it is so expensive to do so. Cards such as Solar Shield, simply cost one quanta less. So many more cards are better to upgrade. For your deck, of those I mentioned, both the life shields can be very nice upgraded, and they block an additional attack each. Via that most of your deck isn't necessary to upgrade, you might choose to save your money for future important card upgrades. Of course, if you do stick with firefly queens and that is all there is to upgrade, those needing one quanta less cost, and wish to upgrade that deck, then I recommend upgrading the quanta cards instead, as you will get the quanta faster that way, and it is then easier to choose which cards you wish to play.
To me, the most important cards to upgrade are the ones which make a HUGE difference. I.e., Pandemonium only attacks the enemy, Otyugh can eat many more creatures. Next important are likely those that save a quanta per turn, i.e., Hourglass, instead of using 2 quanta per use, only uses one. Also, there are the cards which can be used for many decks (think your arena deck for example). Upgraded Flying Weapon uses quanta from ANY suit. Also upped Sundial is free quanta. In Air, the dragonfly is free quanta. etc. Also, upgraded photon, which provides a light quanta, just like fireflies do, is commonly used in some decks to fight some of the FGs, for example.
This is a list of all the cards so that you can look it over to have a better idea which cards might be better upgraded:
http://elementsthegame.wikia.com/wiki/Card_ListIf you wish, I hang out in Kongregate's Elements' chat room # 2, and am happy to help when I am around. My main hours are weekdays mid afternoon until about 7pm or so, and some wee am hours, Pacific Time Zone (USA). During those hours, even though I am not there all the time, I do check in periodically to see if someone is looking for me.
Of course, if you notice a section right next to where you clicked "Introduce Yourself," there is one called "Mentor Program." You can become an apprentice by asking one of the top players to help mentor you.
If you have saved most of your cards from all other suits (instead of selling them all like I have seen some some people do), in addition to being able to have more cards for the arena decks, you also might find it fun to participate in things like Tournaments or Leagues, etc. That info can be found under "Events and Competitions," which is two rows lower than "Newbie Area."
Hopefully you are making decks in the arena around the card that the oracle provides for you as you can win some free electrum that way.
I hope the above info gives you some ideas for both your deck and plans to proceed in the game. (And hopefully I didn't type waaaay to much info for you; when I post, I have a tendency to make large posts.
)
I hope you enjoy yourself, and welcome.
Janicep.s., ... I did start this post before Dragtom posted...
