Aflatoxin rainbow combo

[Xinef]

(http://www.screenshotdumpster.com/view/m7Gbd47137/CancerCombo)
Mark is 30 cards
- 10 quantum pillars
- fallen elf
- aflatoxin
- gravity shield, otyugh
- 3 enchant artifact
- empathic bond, adrenaline
- photon
- Eternity, 6 sundial
- 3 quintessence

I was experimenting with a deck that would be fun to play and include all my favorite cards, that is Eternity, Aflatoxin, Protect Artifact, Empathic Bond and some kind of immortality. It's not designed to be very efficient, but when it wins it's almost always a mastery.

It is basically designed around three tactics:
 - creature denial with indestructible Eternity
 - improving denial by mutating the creatures (can also help by giving them over 6 hp)
 - making an immortal malignant cell on steroids (play photon, cast aflatoxin on it, eat it, adrenaline the resulting cell, quint it)
 - (optional) mutate cells
 - (often obligatory) return a cell to prevent decking out

(http://www.screenshotdumpster.com/view/m7Gbd47179/when_it_works)

Advantages:
 - fun to play
 - many masteries
 - cheap (if you have an Eternity)
 - upgrading a single card (fallen elf) does help a lot
 - there are only three things that can stop you - premature death, quantum denial, firewall

Disadvantages:
 - premature death happens a lot
 - Eternity often pops up too late

I've tried it in trainer, and it wins often against AI3, sometimes against AI5. In real game I have a Pulverizer, an Eternity and an Arsenic, no more rares and I am still quite poor, but I concentrate on building a few decks (one Time/Rainbow for casual playing and one for grinding), rather than upgrading cards.

Any suggestions what could be improved? Maybe a few time pillars and some hourglasses/precognitions would make it faster and more reliable in terms of Eternity finding? I tried Anubises for immortality, but they often require me to stop using Eternity to gather quanta and they can be frozen, killed etc. before they do their job. Also I would love to build something around scarabs, but they just don't work without buffing/multiplying and this adds too much cards and makes the deck cumbersome.

[Xinef]

Ok, I know my previous deck sucks... I got lucky a few times at first, but later it lost much more often...

but it was some time ago, now I designed something much better, but still around the same idea... the way to achieve this was to concentrate on TIME and to include more cards I can play the moment I draw them, rather than waiting for the right moment.

(http://www.screenshotdumpster.com/view/m7Gbd49250/TimeRainbow3) :timemark

So basically the idea is simple - survive for a while (sundials, gravity shields), while playing a few scarabs (they are expendable, we need only 2 to do the trick), do not worry if they are killed, at least your opponent wasted some spells to kill your cheap (2 quantum) creatures. Do not use buffs on them unless you can momentum AND quint one the same turn.
Now, the situation we want is either one momentumed and quinted scarab, or two scarabs in play and a scarab and aflatoxin in hand. Play the scarab, aflatoxin it, it has 1 hp so you can eat it. If you can, adrenaline and/or quint the cell.
Now you have unlimited food for your scarabs, nice healing, way to pump your bone wall...

A few tips: if your opponent has a nasty shield (fire shield, procrastination, ice shield) it is very important to momentum the cell. Momentum on your biggest scarab is advised, unless it is already quinted, then you may momentum a smaller one, but cell is much more important.
If you expect your opponent to have permanent control, do not play eternity until you can PA it... unless necessary, to eg. rewind growing/buffed creatures.
It is nice to adrenaline and quint a cell, but it is necessary only if your opponent has a lot of creature control (can kill all your cells, or kill a lot of them at once, or lobo them, or whatever).
If your opponent has otys, rewind them, block them with gravity shields, or block them with bone wall.
If you already have your field full and draw a new aflatoxin, you may use it on some enemy creature to lower it's hp, so you can eat it... just do not let the cells spread, because none of your shields protect well against DDoS (distributed denial of service )

Things that may require tweaking - pillar count, number of cards, other shields?, some permanent control?, two eternities?, maybe some other buffs? tried it with anubises instead of quints, but too risky (in fact we only need one scarab and one cell quinted).
As for upgrading cards... works well unupgraded, but hourglasses are a priority, then death cards (a lot of is used, but little produced), gravity cards (devouring does cost a bit, so might be in shortage), then I guess pillars.
Upgrading scarabs might speed up your victory, but lower chances for elemental mastery, so it is a matter of taste.
Upgrading sundials does not change much... no other use for so usually not a problem...

Weaknesses:
- black holes, earthquakes
- speed decks (unless you can sundial them, then surprise them with a gravity shield)
- big creatures with momentum
- ...

[Baily18]

change out a few time pillars for quantum pillars, and take out the rest of the time pillars. most of the cards are 1-2 cost, and hourglasses arent hard to fuel when you have time mark.

[Xinef]

I'll try that, but somehow even with that many time pillars I often come down to 0 each turn
To be exact it looks like that:
-either I have an hourglass in my hand, or draw one soon, and using hourglasses while playing scarabs and often sundials brings my to zero (and with 5 time pillars I usually draw like 1 early, sometimes 2 or 0)
-I draw eternity early, and I use it to deny opponent's creatures
-or draw little time cards, and until I draw an hourglass I have like 20

But of course I see your point. Aproximately 1/4 time quantum per quantum pillar per turn could be enough if I used it more sparingly, and being able to play aflatoxin earlier might help... worth trying.

[Xinef]

I tested both with time pillars and without, and both options seem equally efficient... but then I decided to try with less cards just in case it may work... and it seems to work better that way. Also shield changed to jade shield (graveyard decks were a big problem, direct damage spells also, and I tried ice shield too, but jade shield proved better even if it uses which is used by EB and adrenaline). Also the indestructibility of jade shield means I can do with only a single PA. I also removed bone wall, because it was useful only when I was already winning. I added a single heavy armor, as it seems very useful (elite oty = 5 hp for 5 , scarab + HA = 7 hp for 2 1 ). In the meantime I won my first miracle, and decided to include it, as it helps greatly with masteries. Not very useful at keeping me alive, as I usually have like 20 when I win, so I guess about 10 when I lose... not enough to use miracle then... maybe with improved pillars and improved miracle it could affect winning percentage, but now it only affects masteries... but anyway I see it a worthy addition

(http://www.screenshotdumpster.com/view/m7Gbd49527/TimeRainbow55) :timemark

Anyway I try any 'risky' changes in trainer, but I already play the 'working' version in real game, and so far i have 80% victories against AI3 (30% masteries without miracle, 100% with), losing only against life/air or entropy rush... I guess not bad for a control deck with only a few upgraded cards. With a few more upgrades it might work against AI5.

Also sundials seem useful now, as they allow me to gain quanta I need to play more expensive cards, but they seem to slow down the game... so I guess a fully upgraded version of the deck might work better without sundials as a nice 30 card deck. I have to try that in the trainer, but as of lately I spend more time on forums and in trainer, so my real deck upgrading seems really slow (less then a card a day?)... I have to organize my better...
And it's a sad thing I prefer to play a control deck rather than an aggro deck to grind AI3 or AI5... but it's more fun xD even if it takes like 5 times more to win a match.