Once upon a time, the Oracle gave me an Unstable Gas card. The deck I built didn't do well in the Arena, but it turned out to be amazing against AI3. In my first trial of 20 duels, this deck won the first 8 in a row, ending with a record of 18-2, or a 90% win rate. It is completely unupped with only 2 rares, which are fairly easy to get from the AI3 spins. Combined with the relatively low cost of most of the cards in the deck, this makes the deck an excellent choice for newbies who want to grind AI3.
Play Notes:
1) Always play Unstable Gas first.
2) Always play Unstable Gas first.
3) Play Owl's Eye and Fog Shield when you can, especially if the opponent is playing creatures. Save as much quanta as you can for the UGs, though.
4) Play the Queens last (or any time you have no UGs in hand). If another UG shows up, refer to notes (1) and (2). Remember to detonate the UG
BEFORE generating Fireflies or playing new Queens.
5) Finish off your opponent by overwhelming him with Fireflies, with assistance from the OE.
Strengths:
1) Good CC from UGs and OE.
2) UGs get around shields (except Emerald Shield).
3) UGs deal significant damage quickly. Usually, you can detonate 2 or 3 UGs before the opponent has more than 2-3 creatures in play.
4) All creatures and weapons get around the Wings shield.
Weaknesses:
1) Emerald Shield makes the UGs hurt you instead of your opponent.
2) Susceptible to PC. Steal can be really bad if your opponent has
.
3) Uses no PC. Titanium Shield and Dimension Shield shut down your Firefly army.
4) Susceptible to rush and CC. Even with quick UG detonation, if you can't get your Queens and Fireflies on the board and keep them there, the opponent can overwhelm you with large creatures in just a few turns. Also, there's no way to get rid of Immaterial creatures (obviously).
5) Beware of devouring creatures (Otyugh and Scarab) when producing Fireflies. You may need to knock down the devourers' HP first.
6) Slow initial quanta production, especially if you have more pendula than pillars on the field. In the worst case, you will get your UGs into play but be unable to detonate them because you have no Fire Pendulums in play. Go ahead and play your Queens, and they usually can overcome the opponent, anyway.
Although the Weaknesses outnumber the Strengths, the Strengths overcome the Weaknesses in almost every case. When I faced a Voodoo/Pandemonium deck, the opponent had me cornered. He took me down to 1 HP, yet I was able to finish him, anyway. I apologize that I was so excited about winning this duel that I forgot to get a screen shot.
During my initial trial of 20 duels, I faced 2 opponents with Emerald Shield. I defeated them both. In the most extreme case, the opponent got his Emerald Shield into play immediately after I put down my first UG. Fortunately, I was able to get my Queens into play quickly. I overwhelmed him with Fireflies and won the duel with 74 HP remaining. If you're looking for a strong, reliable deck to farm AI3, this is it!
