Deck idea for Scarab Rush. Suggestions welcome!

[Zen_Ineth]

Alright, so I've been working on this deck for a while now. In fact, it's the first deck I had an idea for way back in 2011 when I saw people posting cool rainbow decks.

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The idea of this deck is simple: You get a small amount of scarabs strong, or you get a lot of them on the field. The theme is rooted strongly in "denial", where you use Deflags and Steals to quickly take out what you do or don't want, and you have a couple of Pulvys in there to supplement that, all while you have your scarabs munching on creatures. It's a strong deck when it gets rolling, but the main problem is that it's undone by denial as well. Denial of towers, denial of permanents, and denial of creatures/abilities really mess things up. Due to the larger deck size, which I've tried parsing, it can be slow to start, and bad hands just wreck you. Creature rush decks can also become problematic if you can't get the Scarab + Armor + SoR combo out in time.

As for deck ideas, I've thought of alternatives. I could always add in SoB to make the Scarab Rush more deadly, especially against high health opponents, but that would also increase deck size and prevent the rush from snowballing effectively. Same problem with Hourglasses. They'd help me draw the right cards more quickly, but I don't know what I'd take out to make them fit.

Any ideas?

[Aves]

Decks like this that are larger than 30 cards usually want to include some form of draw power, for consistency. You're thinking along the right track-- there's also Sundial for another source of draw power. As a bonus, it helps with stalling too. Cards like sundial or precognition are card-neutral in terms of draw, since you draw an extra card to make up for drawing that card. Shard of Bravery is actually better in that regard, with much better draw power.

Alternatively, a way to add draw power without increasing deck size by too much would be to get rid of the shards of gratitude-- 3 HP per turn isn't going to stall too well anyways.

[Zen_Ineth]

Decks like this that are larger than 30 cards usually want to include some form of draw power, for consistency. You're thinking along the right track-- there's also Sundial for another source of draw power. As a bonus, it helps with stalling too. Cards like sundial or precognition are card-neutral in terms of draw, since you draw an extra card to make up for drawing that card. Shard of Bravery is actually better in that regard, with much better draw power.

Alternatively, a way to add draw power without increasing deck size by too much would be to get rid of the shards of gratitude-- 3 HP per turn isn't going to stall too well anyways.

Yeah, I had Shards of Divinity in there as well before I parsed the deck down from 48. I kinda feel like they're decent for Deflag/Steal bait, but I'm not sure if it's worth the extra deck size. Perhaps if I took them out and put in a couple of Hourglasses? I feel like three would be a good number, but I dunno what the critical efficiency for them is.

[mwaetht]

Is Diamond Shield really all that good? Something like Permafrost Shield seems like it would be better in a vacuum, and on top of that, you have significant consumption already. Alternatively, if it's only intended to serve as more of a temporary shield until you can set up a Bone Wall, Fog Shield seems like it would be better.

Can you really fuel Fractalled Scarabs off 14 quantum towers and a mark alone? It looks like would be pretty tight just to begin with, let alone once you throw in 2-3 Hourglasses on top.

I'd advise running an AoE effect like Fire Storm or Pandemonium; it plays well with Bone Wall and helps you stall before you get the scarab engine online.

[Zen_Ineth]

Is Diamond Shield really all that good? Something like Permafrost Shield seems like it would be better in a vacuum, and on top of that, you have significant consumption already. Alternatively, if it's only intended to serve as more of a temporary shield until you can set up a Bone Wall, Fog Shield seems like it would be better.

Can you really fuel Fractalled Scarabs off 14 quantum towers and a mark alone? It looks like would be pretty tight just to begin with, let alone once you throw in 2-3 Hourglasses on top.

I'd advise running an AoE effect like Fire Storm or Pandemonium; it plays well with Bone Wall and helps you stall before you get the scarab engine online.

If I get enough quanta for an early Fractal, Time Quanta can be tight. I usually get to play the combo late enough to not worry about resources, but some Electrum Hourglasses would definitely dip into my pool too much. I want to make it work, but it'd hamper my effective strength. Perhaps if I put some SoB in there, I could get the draw strength I'm looking for, but then that would leave me a bit dry for Rain of Fires. As for that, I like the idea, definitely. Pandemoniums aren't really interesting to me, since they could negatively affect my own darling Scarabs.

Fog Shield would be cool, but I'm not sure I like the only 40% potential to miss, when Diamond Shield definitely mitigate 3 points of damage from each creature. It really helps to make low-cost, low-damage creature rushes ineffective. I'd be more open to trying a dusk shield, to be honest.

Of course, there's also my desire to put in -more- SoR to cut down on gravity consumption, so...it's a tricky balancing act.

[CactusKing]

chuck in some earth pends and electrum hourglass maybe?

[Absol]

You might find this ancient deck semi-useful in getting ideas for your deck. http://elementscommunity.org/forum/rainbow-decks/nytu%27s-beginner-god-killer-(fg)-(unupped)-(1-14-*outdated*)/