Will this work unupped?
Starting from an unupped version, which cards would be considered critical and should be upgradded first?
I played a few rounds against AI 3 with an unupped version of rainingblood's deck. One thing I learned pretty quickly is that you're not going to get very far without at least a few upgrades. Here's where I would start:
Pulverizer - Useless unupped as you won't have enough quanta to use its ability.
Supernova - The deck won't work without these, as they're your only source of
for Quintessence. 6 Novas gives 6
, which is only enough for one Quint. (2 if upgraded Quint) Using 6
Supernovas gives 12
, allowing you to play 3 unupped Quints or all 4 upped Quints. I was, however, able to beat Destiny with just 3xSupernova and an upgraded Pulverizer, though I very nearly decked out due to the lack of quanta.
Quintessence - See above. You can't play them all if you don't upgrade them all.
Nymph's Tears would be next on my list, followed by the Obsidian Pillars, but I expect the deck would be functional by this point. More testing needs to be done, however.