Feel free to skip the pretty pictures!
First, the deck I came up with after tweaking yours:
5bt 5bt 5bt 5bv 5bv 5bv 5bv 5c6 5c6 5lk 5lk 5lk 5oc 5oc 5oc 5oc 5oc 5oc 5oc 5oc 5oc 5oc 5oi 5oj 5oj 5oj 5oj 5oj 5ol 5olThe first AI5 I went up against was an earth deck. I played a single air pillar. eathquake. I play another. Earthquake. And another, same deal. By the time I managed to play a firefly queen, I was at half health, and I couldn't quite recover in time.
The second I went up against was a typical darkness deck that liquid shadowed it's gargoyles (clever). Of course, as soon as I got my hope shield up, it was toast.
I've included two screenshots to show some strategy. I started my turn with 8 life quanta and no more room. I drew a dragon, so I sniped a firefly and clicked a rustler to make room for a dragon. You can also kill your own antimattered fireflies or dragons (doing this saved the game for me against a really annoying entropy AI5. I broke through the diss shield and killed him with 1 card left in my deck).
(
http://imageplay.net/view/m7Gbd66409/FFQ_win)
(
http://imageplay.net/view/m7Gbd66410/FFQ_win_making_room_for_a_drag)
Explanation:
-Hope is an extremely important card to this deck. You're spot on with the two empathetic bonds, since drawing one isn't as important as drawing a hope, but the elemental mastery is nice, and bonds are the best card in the game for that.
-There's no easy way to get around fire shield. Convert as much
to
as possible whenever you can. Play your rustler ASAP, but only after you've played a firefly, so that there's something to convert. Don't ever play it before your FFQ, since your FFQ can soak up more damage than a rustler, and your opponent is likely to spend any CC he has on that FFQ. However, since rustlers die a lot, it's good to have 5.
-Hope is an extremely important card in this deck! On average you'll draw one every 15 cards, or on your eighth turn. Way too late. Three will net you one, on average, every 10 cards. perfect. You'll draw one, on average, on your third turn. That's plenty frequent. On a very important note: play you hope ASAP. Don't convert all your light quanta away! make sure to save some (7, to be exact) for the hope!
-Drop the fog shields. No need.
-Fire shield is indeed annoying, but definitely beatable. If your opponent plays it before you have a substantial amount of quanta, just quit. You have no chance. If, however, he plays it later in the game, convert as much quanta as possible before your rustler dies
and dolley out all the damage you can muster
-Emerald dragons. I recommend you carry 2 or 3. They will beat through damage-reducing shields that will halt your fireflies in their tracks or slow them down. Your fireflies will keep your hope shield plenty high while your dragons make short work of your opponent. these are also great for shields such as turtle, fog, dusk mantle, and permafrost, which can slow your attack down enough to deck you out.
-Owl's eye. I have two of them, and hey, flying weapons are
so I carry a flying weapon too. Having the ability to deal 6 damage to enemy creatures every turn makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
-10 pillars is plenty. Don't worry if you can't play your FFQs right away. If you have multiple rustlers, you may want to drop one to avoid discarding cards. Sometimes it's better to play the owl's eye(s) before the FFQ if there are mind flayers, octopi, etc. on the field.
-Again, there's no easy way of getting around spine carapace or fire shield. You have so many integral parts to your deck that adding in more cards and the quanta to fuel them would disrupt the balance, and though you'd have a shot against decks with dangerous shields, I think your win rate against other decks would drop too much. However, if you want to try it, you can change your mark to fire, include 4-5 emerald pillars, get rid of the dragons and possibly the owl's eyes (unless you don't mind having >30 cards -- I do), and play a few deflags. Before Hope, I always played FFQ with 4-5 empathetic bonds and 4-5 deflags.
-Finally, I replaced the thunderstorm with another owl's eye. Almost all of the creatures you might need to kill before playing your FFQ have more than 1 health. If you don't have another owl's eye or don't want to play one, repace it and the flying weapon with a couple of shockwaves. Once your deck is up and running, your hope shield will stop any and all damage, so you really don't need to kill enemy creatures.
Hope this helps! Let me know if you have any questions. Thanks for posting 
