Tips/Criticism for my Rainbow Scarab based deck (Arena Grinder?)

[Elbirn]

by Elbirn

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Hello all, I'm a community newbie. Just found this forum and thought I would do well to take advantage of the resources. I'm not a total elements noob ( 510/419 in games played..Been around the block, but not totally impressive.), but I could use help.

Anyway, this is my Rainbow scarab deck. I can't take total credit, as the deck idea was inspired by someone else on one of the many elements wiki's..Can't recall which one or who I drew inspiration from. Either way, good sir, I applaud you.

So it's kind of all over the place. In game though? It WORKS. Usually. I haven't yet used the stat tracking tool on it, but I'd like to go on record as saying that it can win Bronze arena and AI up to level 3 with elemental mastery nearly every time. (Unless I run into an uber bronze arena deck somehow..Which happens too often for my liking, and only after winning 5/6 games..) I've also experienced a more than fair amount of success with the silver arena, and I can win gold arena often enough that it makes it worth it. A win with this deck is also almost always an elemental mastery, so the cool 300+ electrum from the gold arena far outbalances losses.

Anyhoo, I'm looking for some constructive criticism. How can I make this deck better? I'd like to be able to consistently grind Silver/Gold with EM, maybe take on AI4. (I'm not too concerned with farming the AI's anymore though, it's hardly ever worth it) I DON'T expect this to be a false god slayer, I just want to make a great farmer out of this if possible.

All feedback is much appreciated

EDIT: I almost forgot to explain the strategy behind the deck. It's obvious I'm guessing, but I always feel annoyed when I see a deck posted with no explanation of how it's played.

The concept is simple. Spam scarabs. Get one out and use either plate armor/heavy armor/blessing on it, omnom creatures. Play as many scarabs as you can. Got a pharoah in your hand? AWESOME, play it. If you can, play your bonewall BEFORE eating creatures (You want that +2 bone bonus. Boneus. hehe.) opponent has a nasty permanent? BAM, deflag or a steal if you've got it. Got aether quanta and an excess of time quanta for some reason? Weeeee scarab spamming via fractal! empathic bonds, druidic staff and heals for, well, healing, as well as that purple nymph. It's a bit out of place, but if you get her out and you encounter a creature with massive hp, antimatter it. 2 enchant artifacts for your choice of permanent protecting, I usually use one on an empathic bond and the other on the quantum pillars, depending on the type of opponent. And.. Voila.

[mycale]

It needs more hourglasses since the deck is quite big and is likely to have bad draws.

[Elbirn]

I do have an upgraded hourglass that I won from a spin..hm.

Why does everyone like hourglasses so much though? I like sundials since they give you a turn to stall (Regain health with the empathic bonds for an EM) and you get to draw a card..

I guess I could remove a sundial and put in an hourglass?

[I8SumOrangesNItWasK]

Hourglasses are there permanently. Sundials last one turn.

When I read "Rainbow Scarab based deck", I was thinking something close to mine (which is technically a Quad now, since I removed Triton [Titan is much better anyway]) but meh...I was wrong, yours is nothing like mine. My guess is because you don't have any SoR's...you don't, do you? They are, like, the game's uberest card (unconfirmed), especially in -based decks. If you get one, USE IT. If you get another, USE IT! USE EM ALL!!!!!

Ok, but since I run a Scarab-Based almost-Rainbow deck, I just have to mention one thing. Do you not like Mummies? Mummies + RT is less quanta than Pharoah, and plus if you don't have enough to support another Pharoah (like you already have one or two out taking all your ) then you have a Mummy (which has more attack) and an RT which you can use on the opponent in place of a Pharoah which would be sitting there sucking up space. o.O

"Oh, well I have plenty of quanta so I don't need Mummies + RT over Pharoahs." ...then lose some pillars. It looks like you might have too many but I'm not sure. My 30-card deck has only 5 Pendulums o.O and 6 Novas. It's a lot faster though (mostly thanks to SoR's) instaed of all the stalling tactics.

By the way, when/if you get SoR's, you can replace Plate Armors and Blessing with them as you'll start needing those less and less. :p

EDIT: My deck wins to AI3 and Bronze Arena 95%+ of the time. It wins to the Half Bloods and Silver Arena at least 85% to 90% of the time (I can usually win 5 Silver Arena in a row). I haven't tested False Gods or Gold/Platinum Arena enough yet as I just got my 4th SoR last night and I'm trying to upgrade my Pendulums and Titan as well as get another Titan. Anyway, I've modified my deck some since I last posted it here but you can get a general idea of what it looks like in the Deck Help forum a few posts down from yours. I'll post a "completed" version once I get my Pendulums and Titan upgraded which is subject to change if I get anymore Titans, but yeah.

[Elbirn]

Thanks for the tips. I've considered mummies, but I never find myself with much  quanta, which I need to save up for bonewalls.

I don't have many rare cards yet.. I have 3 SoG's and 1 SoS (Oh God I hope I know my acronyms) but that's all. I'm assuming SoR is shard of readiness, used in this case on scarabs so they can omnom for 0 quanta? Also, even when I do start finding a few of those, why would I take out plate armors and blessings? I usually find that I need those to use on an early scarab to start the creature control early, and without that, I've got a single hp1 scarab twiddling it's thumbs. ;P

I really never feel like I have excess quanta (of needed types) to spare for some reason, so I'm a little iffy on taking out any pillars. i've checked out hourglasses as well, and I think that the higher cost in time quanta would cause issues, whereas the sundials make use of light quanta that would otherwise do nothing.

I'm curious as to what your quad deck looks like. Link? :3 Nevermind, just saw your edit good sir.

Possible fixes I've thought of:

1. Replace a few quantum pillars with time pillars
2. Replace 5 sundials with 3 hourglasses and 2 blessings. More blessings = more chance to draw one, more buffed scarabs, better use of light quanta.
3. Take out an emphatic bond and put in another deflag

Thoughts?

[ninetyfools]

U may want to try novas. Take out 6 pillars for 6 novas. That makes a hella lot faster. This is a bit too big though.

[furballdn]

Needs hourglasses and novas. 6 sundials isn't enough for a 50 card deck.

[Elbirn]

by Elbirn

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Made a few changes based on everyone's input so far.

I'm definitely hurting for the lack of stasis the sundials gave, and not enough time quanta is generated for the hourglasses. As for novas...I WANT to love them, but I don't. In a small streamlined deck, I'm sure they're great. But in here, not so much. It might take a few turns to get one out, and then afterwards I'm left usually left thinking "Boy, I sure wish I had gotten a quanta tower instead, giving me +3 random quanta per turn". The only thing I like about them is 1. The ability to get cards played on turn 1 (Which rarely if ever happens, and if it does, I'll probably have no quantum towers played, which sucks) or 2. I'll randomly get one in mid-late game, when it has no purpose. on the plus side, adding a plate armor and replacing a bond with a deflag proved incredibly useful, as did leaving the deck at 48 instead of 50. My OCD winced at the non-even number, but it helps a little.

I think the beauty of my deck is that it's terrible, but it's so terrible that it's good. It's slow. It's cluttered and random. And it wins. I don't know how, but it wins. If improvements are going to be made to it, it's going to involve a massive overhaul so well thought out that it'd practically be a whole new scarab deck.

[omegareaper7]

by omegareaper7

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Made a few changes based on everyone's input so far.

I'm definitely hurting for the lack of stasis the sundials gave, and not enough time quanta is generated for the hourglasses. As for novas...I WANT to love them, but I don't. In a small streamlined deck, I'm sure they're great. But in here, not so much. It might take a few turns to get one out, and then afterwards I'm left usually left thinking "Boy, I sure wish I had gotten a quanta tower instead, giving me +3 random quanta per turn". The only thing I like about them is 1. The ability to get cards played on turn 1 (Which rarely if ever happens, and if it does, I'll probably have no quantum towers played, which sucks) or 2. I'll randomly get one in mid-late game, when it has no purpose. on the plus side, adding a plate armor and replacing a bond with a deflag proved incredibly useful, as did leaving the deck at 48 instead of 50. My OCD winced at the non-even number, but it helps a little.

I think the beauty of my deck is that it's terrible, but it's so terrible that it's good. It's slow. It's cluttered and random. And it wins. I don't know how, but it wins. If improvements are going to be made to it, it's going to involve a massive overhaul so well thought out that it'd practically be a whole new scarab deck.

Honestly, i think pillars are better then basic novas, or even supernovas in decks like this.

[ninetyfools]

The 2nd deck is slightly better but too much scarabs. U already have fractal for more.
If u want big monsters to be easier to nom, take out one purple nymph for rain of fire.

[I8SumOrangesNItWasK]

I was refering to using SoR for Pharoahs, not Scarabs.

You could take out Quantum Pillars or Novas for Time Factories if you want. But keep in mind, Supernovas give TWO of every quanta, costing only 2 which you don't need.

How are the Bone Walls faring for you?

For the record, a note on my quad deck (because it's changed a lot): I took out all Bone Pillars/Towers, Time Towers, and Eternity, and changed my mark to ; threw in 5 Gravity Pendulums, 6 Novas, another SoR, another RT, and a Titan; as well as upgraded all my SoR's, RT's, Mummies, and Bone Walls. I played around with Arsenic for a while, but I think Titan is better for my deck. I also even tried Trident, but didn't like it. I thought about changing my mark back to and changing the pendulums for Death Pendulums instead...but then I'll rely on pendulums or plenty of Novas to get out Mummies early on, and I may not like that. Titan is less important, and Devour is normally for mid-game while Chimera is for late-game. Anyway, I'll post a "completed" deck once I upgrade my Pendulums and Titan. Hopefully I'll have another titan by then too, but we'll see.

[Elbirn]

@Ninety: I've thought about cutting down on the number of scarabs too..And the problem is that with this deck, I can't rely on pharoahs/Fractals to mass produce scarabs until mid/late game. Early scarab draws are pretty much my bread and butter for locking down the game from the get go, then pharoahs/fractals finish the job.

@Tiamat: I already took out novas / put quantum pillars back in for them (due to my own testing and omega's sentiments, thanks for your thoughts mate), and took hourglasses out / sundials back in. It seems to work better for me. Supernovas would be much better, but I don't have any, or any electrum to upgrade my novas. :/

Bone walls are fantastic..When I get them. Sometimes i can get one out early, sometimes I never draw one. Once I get a bonewall going though, I've won, it's game over. I think I should add a bonewall, take out a few quantum pillars and put in death pillars in their place.

I'm really excited to see your deck by the way, it sounds like it could be a definitive scarab deck / farmer. I'd love to make it myself, but I just don't have the rares for it.