Against death, I think we can repeat the last deck we used with a couple of modifications
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5c2 5c2 5c2 5c2 5c2 5c5 5c5 5bt 5bt 5de 5de 5de 5de 5de 5de 5de 5de 5de 5de 5de 5de 5de 5de 5i8 5i8 5i8 5i8 5i8 5i8 5i9 5i9 5ia 5ia 5ib 5ib 5ib 8pr
It has trouble against the typical death rush, but is can counter stalling quite well. I wouldn't expect anybody to rush at a good speed this round, but I might be wrong.
About the darkness and aether matches, powering something with the mark alone is not an option, they LOVE pestal. What about putting to use our off-pillars and pends, or even using novas?
This could be good - or a complete failure. We get to use more novas so that we can keep them for next round, but I haven't tested this deck (Not enough time!). It'd be great if somebody could do it for me (quanta balance seems off for some reason). I think it can work, so here it is:
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4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 4vj 58s 58s 590 590 590 590 590 590 593 593 593 5bu 5bu 5bu 5bu 5bu 5bu 5c0 5c0 5c0 5c0 5de 5de 5de 5de 5de 5de 5de 5de 8pm
(We get to salvage some cool earth cards this round)