"The (Anti-Platinum) Deck" (work in progress)

[dragonsdemesne]

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Mark is time (though aether would also be a good choice)

I got to thinking, a lot of the more commonly used decks don't really work that well against the platinum league.  Weenie or rush decks just don't have the long-term stamina to deal with similar decks in the arena when they get over 100 hp and triple mark/double draw.  500 EM can work, but it's extremely boring.  False God killers, like my "The Deck" (inspiration for this deck's name) or TheIdioticIdiot's "I've got GotP Time" do alright, but as they were designed for FGs, not Platinum, they have their flaws in this format.  This deck started out of a desire to build a supernova deck, but instead of a rush/weenie that would fail against platinum more often than not, I decided to do a control-style nova deck, where instead of dropping several creatures on turn 2 or 3, I drop numerous control components and try to lock down the opponent ASAP.

The Anti-Platinum deck is designed to defeat the most popular decks in the platinum arena.  Platinum utilizes a lot of cheap, high attack creatures with low hps, and my removal/control cards exploit that.
 
The cards:
22x Quantum Towers: Duh.  My FG rainbow decks usually have 23 towers, but the 6 supernovas more than makes up for it
6x Shard of Gratitude: Duh. Healing
6x Supernova: Duh.  SPEED!
2x Pulverizer: Duh.  Permanent control!
1x Protect Artifact: To ensure you never lose your Eternity.  I lost a game or two in testing because of that, decking out when I had the board under control otherwise.  If your opponent cannot destroy Eternity, it can also be used on towers to block Quicksand, a popular Platinum card.
2x Fire Buckler: Absolutely wrecks many popular Platinum-deck creatures.  Lava Destroyer and Phoenix die instantly, Crimson/Ruby Dragon die quickly, Elite Shrieker dies in 5, (+1 turn because of graboid form) and many other popular creatures die in 3 turns or less, such as spiders, frogs, RoLs, etc.  The deck would probably benefit from another copy or two of this, and I may add some later.
1x Minor Phoenix: In "The Deck", I used Ball Lightning as the creature to bounce with Eternity.  Here, I decided to use the phoenix for a few reasons.  Since it's pretty much invincible, dying permanently only if lobotomized, I can play it as soon as I draw it, so it isn't a dead card all game.  It does cost  to play, but by the time you need to rewind it yourself, this shouldn't be an issue.  On the plus side, since it costs quanta, it won't mess up your mulligans, either.
2x Sanctuary: Hoses Black Hole/Amber/Gravity Nymph, Discord, Pest, and Nightmare, as well as Silence (though Sanc's card text doesn't imply this at all), and all of these are very popular platinum arena cards.  I used to have 3 in the deck, but I pulled one to squeeze in Protect Artifact.
1x Animate Weapon: So you can have Pulverizer and Eternity at the same time
2x Shockwave: Kills many weenies dead; see Fire Buckler.  Also, because it costs only  , it can usually be played on turn 1 or 2 and get rid of that destroyer or ruby dragon the AI played with cremation on turn 1 :p
6x Electrum Hourglass: Card Draw!  Counteract the 2x draw that the AI most likely has
2x Eternity: Reusable rewind for creatures, and prevents you decking yourself.
3x Thunderbolt: See Shockwave/Fire Buckler
4x Mindgate: 6 hourglasses not enough card advantage? Fear not, Mindgate is here!  My personal favourite card, this provides card advantage, as well as more win conditions.  Combos with Eternity to draw the creature you want.  Also abuses the fact that platinum decks are chock full of good stuff to use, and your quantum towers mean you can use it

I haven't tested it much yet (hence the 'work in progress' flag) but I won my first 4 games in gold, and then moved on to platinum.  I played about 7-8 games there, and I think I lost two games out of those.  I got 1 rare spin anyway, and I know I lost one game because I had no Protect Artifact in the deck at the time.

Comments?  Suggestions?  Criticisms?

[dragonsdemesne]

A quick ten game run got me 5/10 wins, including one rare spin.  One win was against a player with a 23-1 record (now 23-2 lol) and another win was against zse, who at the time had the #9 ranked deck in platinum arena.

[TheIdioticIdiot]

I love phoenixes, however, I don't think it's as good as some other rewind fodders out there

I read the reasons why you chose it, but here are some counter points

she is a tough creature, but not an impossible creature, which means she can be killed. which means that you still have to hold it in your hand still just to prevent sh*t from happening

if you don't want mulligan, virus, shroedinger's cat, or some random 1-cost creature would be better

it's a minor thing, but I like perfection, which is why I pointed this out

[dragonsdemesne]

Yeah it definitely can die, though it is one of the hardest to kill; I think only immortal creatures are tougher, or maybe some of the really big gravity ones, but those cost a lot more to play.  Most of the cards that DO kill the phoenix though, it is usually pretty obvious right away if they are being used, and you can hold the phoenix in hand if you are expecting trouble.

Lobotomizer is probably the most commonly used one.  Mindflayer/Ulitharid do the same thing, though as permanents/creatures, I get a turn to possibly deal with them.  Liquid Shadow/Dark Nymph can do it.  I had one guy kill it with Overdrive; it took me a moment to figure out what happened :p  I suppose something like Mitosis could remove the rebirth skill, but I have never seen the AI do that.  Then, of course, you can just kill the Ash, but that requires killing the 4/1, then the 0/7, and all before I get to rebirth it.

The best choice for a non-zero cost creature would be something small in one of the elements that I don't use at all; I think the only 1-cost creature in death/life/water is Rustler/Leaf Dragon, so that would be the best as a random 1-cost.

[TheForbiddenOracle]

I don't really understand the point of the supernovas in this deck (no mark of and you have 22 other quanta sources)

[Qwandri]

It does seem a bit excessive. -the supernovas, +1 QT because that's the norm in his decks, +1 Fire Buckler, +1 Sanctuary, +1 PA, +1 Animate Weapon, +1, um, Plague? Not really sure about it, just a theory, but it could work.

[dragonsdemesne]

Well, I was trying to make the deck faster with the supernovas and mark of entropy with just the supernovas would mean a lot of wasted entropy quanta after turn 2.

[TheIdioticIdiot]

Yeah it definitely can die, though it is one of the hardest to kill; I think only immortal creatures are tougher, or maybe some of the really big gravity ones, but those cost a lot more to play.  Most of the cards that DO kill the phoenix though, it is usually pretty obvious right away if they are being used, and you can hold the phoenix in hand if you are expecting trouble.

Lobotomizer is probably the most commonly used one.  Mindflayer/Ulitharid do the same thing, though as permanents/creatures, I get a turn to possibly deal with them.  Liquid Shadow/Dark Nymph can do it.  I had one guy kill it with Overdrive; it took me a moment to figure out what happened :p  I suppose something like Mitosis could remove the rebirth skill, but I have never seen the AI do that.  Then, of course, you can just kill the Ash, but that requires killing the 4/1, then the 0/7, and all before I get to rebirth it.

The best choice for a non-zero cost creature would be something small in one of the elements that I don't use at all; I think the only 1-cost creature in death/life/water is Rustler/Leaf Dragon, so that would be the best as a random 1-cost.

um... red my original post, I did mention something called virus... it's :p

[dragonsdemesne]

I thought virus cost two death?

[TheIdioticIdiot]

I thought virus cost two death?

http://elementscommunity.org/wiki/cards-death/virus-retrovirus/

[gumbeh]

I'd actually put in a froggy. The quanta cost really isn't going to be a problem, and it can help out with eking out a tiny bit more damage if you need it.

[Qwandri]

This deck seems like it'd win more from deckouts than damage, so I'd not put in a frog. They're rather fragile if you do use them for damage, plus there's he fact that they only do one more than the much more resilient phoenix.