since the plan is to fill their side with 1/1 malignant cells, you might want to put in a shield that both reflects spells and blocks at least 1 damage (either the upgraded light one, or the life one). This way spells could not target you and it would prevent all damage from the malignant cells without wasting your quanta. Also, if you want to block more powerful creaatures as well, try antimatter for non-growth creatures and either lightning, mutation, eagle/owl's eye or fire lance for growth creatures