Deck that I think works okay - Dark/Aether

[OzzJr]

I used this deck for quite a long while, and it works okay against most level 3. It works fine unupped, but if you upgrade it, it might be good to keep the Vampires unupped, as I put them in there 'cause they were cheap, plus they have much attack per quanta when you get Nightfall. On second thought, maybe it's okay to keep Nightfall unupped as well, 'cause then they can't be killed by Paradox.
Personal opinion: Works good when you can't afford upgraded cards, and will take on most level 3s victorius, but upgrading it won't necessarily make it much better (I've stopped using it...)

Spoiler for Dark/Aether:

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5ul 5um 5um 5um 5um 5um 5um 5uo 5up 5up 5uq 5ut 5ut 5ut 61o 61o 61t 61t 61u 620 620 622 622 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 63a 8pt

[ColorlessGreen]

If you remove the fluff (dragon, dim shields, spiders) and replace with more fractals, you've got devtal/pestal, which is a pretty fantastic deck.

[Laxadarap]

If you remove the fluff (dragon, dim shields, spiders) and replace with more fractals, you've got devtal/pestal, which is a pretty fantastic deck.

I have never heard dim shields referred to as fluff before XD. 

As to deck: Black dragon and spiders do seem a little extraneous, maybe take them out for + 1 fractal, + 2 aether pends?

[ColorlessGreen]

I have never heard dim shields referred to as fluff before XD. 

Yeah, I kinda hesitated over that particular phrasing.

However, when there's only two of them and it's otherwise basically a pestal, they are rather fluffy.

[Higurashi]

Dims are not uncommon in Devtal and neither are Lightnings. Especially the latter works very well because you can remove any Dragons/Graboids/Ghosts or similar that popped up before you managed to lock 'em down.

Because Devtal relies a lot on Vamps to survive that early offence you normally can't stop, I would suggest you pack 2 Nightfalls. Dusk Mantle, Lobo and Dims are not bad additions, but your deck is quite low on quanta as is. Spiders have no real place in this archetype, but they kind of make sense because you're only packing 2 Fractals.

If you wish to make it more effective at its actual job: -1 Dragon, -1 Dusk, -2 Spiders, -1 Lobo, -2 Dims, +2 Fractal, +5 Aether Pends, -2 Aether Pillars. You can experiment with 10 Pends and 4 Pillars as well; it is an equally effective build that has a better chance of third turn Fractal on Devs, but it gets too much during late-game.

Eclipse is the perfect upgrade for Devtal. Paradox is not a problem as it requires constant quanta to use: something this deck denies. The other perfect upgrade is Aether Pends/Pillars. Optional builds include 5 Devs and +1 of whatever you like, for instance Lightning, 2 Vamps and more CC (Lightning or Drain), reversing the mark/pends for faster Devs and EQ resistance (but potentially slower CC/Fractal), and finally adding Dims by changing around cards and running less quanta.

You are correct that, once upgraded, this deck doesn't perform -that- much better. It is mainly used in the unupped meta because upped quanta sources makes it quite a bit less effective. Furthermore, Vampires are very expensive for the early game, which is when Pestal needs help. As such, I tend to run Pestal (the name for the upped deck) with more CC (2 Vamps, 5 Pests, more Thunderbolts).