Rainbow Control looking to tighten up

[iNuzzle]

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This is my current deck that I'm using to farm silver arena. I win the majority there and against ai4; not sure which is more effective grinding. I assume arena for the better spins. I hope to transition into more of a grabbow deck and then branching out, but my lack of towers can't support that at the moment, I feel.

What I look to you all for is assistance on choosing where to take the deck next. What should I up? What cards should I swap right now? Aim to tackle FGs or higher arena next? Scrap the whole thing? Stick to un-upped PVP?

Any and all help is appreciated!

[iNuzzle]

At the risk of looking crazy by replying to myself, here's the slimmed down more aggressive version that I'm about 70% with on Silver:

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I was enjoying flayer's versatility but it might be too much of a strain on my aether, I'm finding it challenging to cast shield at times. The more control-oriented deck was losing too often to phoenixes and phase dragons.

[theelkspeaks]

So this deck is a pretty interesting start and I actually really like it!  You've certainly got a good start towards a competitive PVP deck going, but you don't have enough copies of your key cards.

Key cards in this deck are Bone Wall and Sanctuary.  Between the two, it's hard for the opponent to deliver meaningful damage to your face.  The added benefit of Sundials helps you buy time for your CC to come out when you're getting flooded by your opponent's creatures, and the hourglass lets you dig through your own deck.  Also, the FFQ is pretty nice for breaking with, so overall this is pretty strong indeed!

But back to the problem with your key cards - you only have one copy of Bone Wall and one copy of Sanctuary.  With the importance of these cards, you almost certainly want at least 3 of each in the deck.  If you can stabilize faster, the Heal card probably shouldn't be necessary.  With only one mindflayer, you might have some trouble answering a Psiontal, as RoF + Oty is your only real answer right now besides Sundials (oh and lightning).  It wouldn't be a terrible idea to include one/two Emerald or Reflective Shields.

Nova is also not that great in a deck like this, I'd trade those out for more QPs (nova is burst quanta, and you prefer sustained quanta).  Adding a mindgate or two to this deck is also actually pretty useful, it gives you another source of damage if you want to win via damage.

A Pulverizer and a miracle are two rares you might want to add (up to 2-3 of each) if you have them - they'd do well here.

All of that said, this deck isn't the best grinding deck, as its core idea is slow but steady wins, and grinders often prefer speed to winrate.

If you want a grabbow, however, for Arena and such, this deck should be available to you - trade in Vamp Stiletto for Arse if you don't have one.

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[iNuzzle]

Thanks for the advice!

How balanced should my creature/permanent count be if I'm aiming for a more slow deck? I don't want to walk into my opponents removal, as I really have no protection and it seems difficult to sustain card advantage outside hourglass in elements. Oty's really absorb the punishment I've found.

I was waffling back and forth between sancs because I had dissipation shield in for awhile when I had no other cards that used entropy. It climbed pretty high and was a good back up for wall. I suppose I was trying to play mid-rangey and utilize all of my colors evenly.

I do like the idea of going more defensive, at least for pvp. What should I look to set my deck total at?

Edit: I do not have miracle, but here's hoping!

[theelkspeaks]

This deck probably values its permanents more than its creatures (looking at the slow one).  If your creatures die too often when you play this deck, you can consider throwing in some Quintessence or a Blessing.

I don't really recommend Dissipation Shield in this deck because I think you value the healing from sancs more.  Add extra bonewalls as back up for the first instead.  A deck like this in PVP probably wants to be at least 50 cards, as your chances of winning by deckout are fairly important to it (given your overall lack of damage).  Be careful not to draw too hard with hourglasses and deckout first, of course.

For arena, Upped Pandemonium is basically the best entropy card for this deck (don't use unupped or you will be sad).  If you're in unupped play or PVP, you might want to use a card like Antimatter if you need a sink for Entropy.

[iNuzzle]

You've given me a good deal to consider, thanks!

The heal would occasionally save me early game but sanctuaries would do the same for sure. Maybe protect me from black hole, that card is crushing... The one reason I still might keep heal as it made getting masteries very easy. When you're electrum poor like I, that means a lot!

I may run something defensive like this if we have an unupped tourney in the future 

[zephyl]

This is a really interesting deck, I would suggest swapping nova for QP and add some sort of reflective shield (for psiontals).

[Chapuz]

This is a really interesting deck, I would suggest swapping nova for QP and add some sort of reflective shield (for psiontals).

Psiontals are mostly seen in Bronze. The fat deck loaded with CC and PC is extremely effective against almost everything in unupped metagames. Also 6 Hourglasses are a must.

[noah1212]

For arena, Upped Pandemonium is basically the best entropy card for this deck (don't use unupped or you will be sad).  If you're in unupped play or PVP, you might want to use a card like Antimatter if you need a sink for Entropy.

How would you feel about something like  discord? I realize that he already has vampire stilletos. But an early discord can win a game entirely on its own vs many decks. Maybe swapping in steal or something for a vamp, and then adding a discord?

for the slimmed down version, I feel that dimensional shield is too expensive.

[h.coffee]

I used this rainbow deck for a long time:   

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My version doesn't have a certain key way to play it, which is why I liked it. Sometimes I would devour all of my enemies creatures, other times I would mutate my skeletons or fireflies. The benefit of this deck is its versatility, very high win rate against Silver, and wins many EM's due to all of the healing. The Protect Artifact and the Eternity are there to prevent you from decking-out!

I started with an un-upgraded version of this! I upped the Druid first, then Hourglasses, and towers. Farmed the Silver arena and soon enough I had all of my cards upped.


Based on the experiences I had with my deck, I'd suggest you consider adding a Quintessence or two to keep an Otyugh alive, maybe drop 2 of the Lightning cards, you've already go a lot of creature control with 2 Rain of Fire and 4 Otyugh.. I highly suggest adding a Boneyard (Edit: I didn't notice the Graveyard, think about using 2 Boneyards instead, they're cheaper) and a Feral Bond! Since the plan is to eat creatures to fuel the Bonewall, you might as well get added damage and extra healing!       

Hope this could be of some use!