Here’s the thing about Quilius that nobody warns you about.
She’s an assassin. Her whole identity is landing killing blows with Extinguish, banking Trophy tokens, and eventually dropping a Quietus Vow that deletes the nemesis. On paper, terrifying. In practice? For the first several turns she just sits there with a starting economy of 6 aether, unable to afford anything that actually pushes her power forward.
So every game, I’d lean on my Mazahaedron player to toss her a gem — a Scoria Slag here, a Frozen Magmite there — just to get her rolling. And it works. But one game I didn’t have a Mazahaedron, and I had to ask the uncomfortable question: can Quilius reach a high-cost spell entirely on her own?
I ran the numbers. The answer is yes — but only if you stop doing the “obvious” thing.
Why Quilius Stalls Out Solo
Quilius starts with two open breaches and four spells already in her deck — that’s a lot of spell density and not much gem power. Her aether curve is flat. If you try to build toward a big spell the intuitive way, you keep landing on hands worth about 4 aether, which isn’t enough for the cost-6+ spells that make her offense terrifying.
The card that looks perfect for her is Convection Field.
The Convection Field Route Feels Fine — But It Plateaus
Convection Field (cost 5) is a perfectly reasonable spell — 4 damage on cast, or 2 damage plus letting an ally destroy a card from hand. You can prep it by turn 5 and cast it turn 6. It’s a normal, workable line.
But here’s what I kept noticing: after picking up Convection Field, my following hands tended to land around 4 aether. Fine for casting, but hard to climb from — I’d stall right at the doorstep of the cost-6+ spells I actually wanted.
The Alternative: Buy a Gem Engine Instead
Instead of spending that turn-3 window on Convection Field, spend it on aether generation. The line looks like this:
Turn 1
Hand: Extinguish / Spark / Crystal / Crystal / Crystal
Prep spells to your two open breaches. Buy a Frozen Magmite (cost 3) — gain 2 aether, and it places your next gain on top of your deck.
Turn 2
Cast your prepped spell, then grab a second Frozen Magmite. You’re building the gem base, not chasing damage yet.
Turn 3
Cast the prepped Extinguish and Spark, then prep the Extinguish from your hand. Now the choice: the natural pickup here is Convection Field — but this is exactly where you swap it out and acquire Erratic Ingot instead.
Turn 4 — the payoff hand
Hand: Erratic Ingot / Spark / Frozen Magmite / Crystal / Crystal
Play it out:
- Crystal ×2 = 2 aether
- Frozen Magmite = 2 aether
- Erratic Ingot = 2 aether (or 4 if a nemesis turn-order card is sitting in the turn-order discard pile)
That’s 6 aether — or 8 with the nemesis card. Suddenly cost-6+ spells are in reach. Acquire the spell now, prep it turn 5, cast it turn 6.
The Dread Diamond Alternative
If Dread Diamond (cost 3) is in the supply, it’s a slick substitute for Erratic Ingot. It gives 2 aether, and you may discard one of your own prepped spells to gain 1 more — turning that hand into 7 aether. You trade a Spark for the reach, but 7 aether opens up the very top of the spell market.
What You Can Actually Afford
With 6 aether, Conjure the Lost (cost 6) becomes reachable — 5 damage on cast, with the option to destroy it afterward for +4 Gravehold life. And because you built a gem engine instead of a one-off spell, your hands keep generating aether afterward, so the next high-cost pickup comes faster too.
One nice wrinkle: you’ll have three spells in hand but only two breaches to prep them to. Focus Breach III with a Frozen Magmite plus a Crystal, though, and you can prep a spell there even while it’s still closed — you just have to cast that spell on your next turn. That gets all three onto the board.
The Honest Verdict
Let me be straight with you, because the point of the experiment was honesty:
Quilius can self-fund a high-cost spell without help. The gem-engine line (Erratic Ingot or Dread Diamond over Convection Field) gets her there about one turn slower than a mid-spell purchase would — but she lands on a genuinely powerful spell and keeps her economy healthy afterward, instead of stalling at 4 aether.
That said? Having a Mazahaedron hand her a gem is still the easy button. Self-sufficiency is possible; it just isn’t efficient.
Summary
- Quilius’ flat 6-aether start makes self-funding a high-cost spell slow, not impossible
- The Convection Field route is workable but plateaus — hands tend to settle around 4 aether afterward
- Buy a gem engine instead — Erratic Ingot gives 6–8 aether in the payoff hand depending on the turn-order discard
- Dread Diamond is the 7-aether alternative — discard a prepped Spark for extra reach
- You pay one turn of tempo for a real cost-6+ spell and a healthier economy afterward
- A Mazahaedron gem gift is still easier — self-sufficiency works, but support is smoother
Tested in 4-mage mode. Solo or 2-mage changes the turn-order-card math for Erratic Ingot, but the core lesson — gem engine over mid spell — holds.
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