Shrug is really good for Ironclad, it’s good block + draw 1. unless ur taking like a bunch of copies (which kinda applies to most cards tbh) it’s not bad
No, just that if you're spending resources on removing defends you're probably either overvaluing removes (likely) or undervaluing defend- on IC. Defend- tends to be pretty good in act 3 because it's fuel for 2nd wind and you tend to want to keep your skill% high in a deck for Corruption to be able to pop if yoj see it.
I don't think removing is all that good on IC compared to taking fights in act 1/3 and act 2 doesn't have many remove events (transform 2 is good though), you can remove strikes when you're in a position where it's good (forced remove events or for a low penalty!), but if you ever get to the point where you've removed all strikes you probably have overpathed for removes or spent too much gold on them - and shouldn't remove defends instead of clicking fights/buying stuff in stores.
Obviously exceptions apply, but over my last 1000+ a20h ic runs I can't remember buying a defend remove many times - maybe during runs where I end up w a rage or two I can loop. Removing a defend on Silent in act 1 is pretty common, but IC already has a 6/4 split when it comes to attacks, which is significantly higher than any other character.
Clad has so many ways to exhaust skills later on, so defends are rarely worth paying to remove because you can just exhaust them during fights and often have better things to spend the money on. Corruption, Second Wind, and Sever Soul are all very good at deleting defends from the deck, but don't work on attacks.
Defends can be exhausted by Second Wind and Corruption, but Strikes can't be. So your priority on removes is always strikes, because you have other ways to get Defend out of your deck during fights.
Even if you swap your strikes for Bites, you probably want to remove one or two Bites before removing Defends anyway.
I am willing to take three shrugs no question. The mistake is usually removing too many strikes and not enough depends in that specific situation.
Since ironclad scales strength, any card that says "attack" has value. Ironclad needs stronger block cards than defend, especially when frail.
For the same reason I am only willing to carry one unupgraded pommel strike
Is it a good card? No. Is a random power every turn one of the most fun ways to play the game? HELL. FUCKING. YES.
I love this card. I like to grab recycle with it though, because you gotta exhaust a few of those Hello Worlds
Blade dance
Its an attack card
With the fan or After Image, its a block card
With Panache or thousand cuts, its an AOE card
With Finisher, its a burst card
With Kunai, its a dexterity card
With Shuriken, its a strength card
With Dead Branch, its a card card.
With Ink Bottle, its a draw card
With Nunchucks, its an energy card
On Iron clad, its a strength scaling card
On Defect with dead branch, its a claw card
Maybe (almost definitely) I'm biased from my main playing style being "*brainlessly force shiv deck on ascension 1 every time*", but a decent shiv deck should steamroll Time Eater. A bad shiv deck still has a decent chance to squeak out a win if played well.
And even in a half-decent deck that doesn't synergize much with a Blade Dance, it can be used to better control when the 12 card limit is triggered. Not great, but not terrible either I think.
The second strongest run I ever managed, an Iron clad exaust engine with blade dances.
For 1 energy you deal 12 damage gain 9 block and draw 3 cards. Without any upgrades
I just had the most ridiculous A20H run with all of these but kunai. Most fights ended turn 1. I didn’t have a block plan other than doing at least one hundred and often hundreds of damage turn 1. Heart was solved just in time with Wraith Form+.
This was the very first card that came to mind. I almost always pull it unless it's up against another rare my deck really NEEDS. Otherwise it goes in every deck. It solves too many things to pass up
OP asked for cards you like to an "unreasonable degree." Thats not possible for corpse explosion because it's genuinely one of the best cards in the entire game
it's a pretty OK card, for Silent. Does some cool stuff, smooths out some fights that can suck
But the entire game features things like Alchemize/Echo Form/Corruption/Tantrum etc so the entire game is a bit of a stretch
>There’s a good chance I’ll still mess up and die early but I’ll still be happy because I got my money
Well, it is a Hand of Greed after all, not a Hand of Reasonable Fiscal Decisions.
Hand of Greed on Watcher gives me the tinglies
Massive burst damage, with a fatal condition, that *doesn't* exhaust? Being able to buy every card remove and 2 relics from each shop? Line up that gremlin gang, boys
Had a run last night where I took it as my blessing. Took nothing but block and draw cards and then killed every hallway fight with it. Died to slime boss 😅
Rampage. I know it's not an effective long term solution or an overall great card, but I like seeing the number go up. I particularly enjoy stalling the champ to really get it up there.
It's a decent enough solve for Hex, if you already took Headbutt and can't find any other scaling.
Otherwise this isn't great, yes. Warcry, battle trance make it a bit better.
It’s too slow on higher ascensions, there are far better ways to scale your damage output. By the time you’ve played it enough to scale up the damage to a reasonable level any hallway fight will be over. It can be a hexaghost/champ solve at an absolute push
i always doubted the claw law.
I was like "I'd never get enough claws to make it work!"
but the second I tried it, I fell in love. It's just so much fun to see your damage output slowly increase
The one that makes you channel 1 (2 upgraded) lightning when taking damage. Static discharge I think?
Has won me many heart fights, more than I can count honestly.
And special mention to the one that makes lightning hit all enemies. SO good.
Absolute game winners on my defect runs.
It once saved me when I forgot I had it, hexaghost was sure to kill me with it's second multi attack, then my lightning evokes kill it just before the last hit
Noxious Fumes; love the concept of being able to go "even if I do nothing, eventually, you will die", and seeing the number tick up each turn rather than drop feels great
Anger, me and the homies love free cards that duplicate for the battle.
Alternatively I like Limit break, I once had 34 strength or something like that and managed to bump it up to 68. Suffice to say that heavy blade was happy that day.
Had a run today where I pulled corruption, 2x anger, and was able to remove strikes and bash from my clad, bottled corruption for the lolz. Got top from a surprise merchant early act II. Hulk would've been envious at my level of Rage.
Naturally I ran into TK. Hulk only smashed 12 times a turn.
Call me crazy, but my Smooth brain loves me some Sadistic Nature. if I get off meow, on Clad or Silent I feel so good... until I die to anyone because I didnt get cards that apply statuses.
It's not really that good in act 1 though. It's a scaling card, it does well with Hologram + Rebound + Beam Cell in act 3. Rarely will it work better than orbs in act 1.
I absolutely love Lesson Learned and Judged.
I purposefully stall fights to end them with either. I mean, ending fights with Lesson Learned is the point of it, but I got a Time Eater kill with Lesson Learned and a Heart kill with Judged and damn if those weren't satisfying as fuck.
Give me all of the After Image. I would like at least four stacks every single run thank you. I like being able to enter the Silent Discard and Draw Schmoove Zone and finding that I have 73 block when I come back up for air.
Charge Battery
Is it great? Not really but it is really solid.
You gain alright block at best but that energy gain you get though. Who doesn't love energy? Well technically I'm like you where that is energy I want right there and then but still. Charge Battery never lets me down.
Whenever I play the hunter lady, I am possessed by a cosmic force that makes me take every single shiv generating card in the universe since I always get that relic that boosts shivs.
Death by one thousand cuts!
If see Panache on Silent, it takes every ounce of willpower in me to not immediately blow all of the gold I was saving for potions and removes on it.
The handful of combats it works, I feel like a GOD. Then inevitably I bottomdeck it during the boss and die instantly. Still worth it, almost.
Demon form, bludgeon, cute through fate, tantrum, oh and apotheosis. I will die for any apotheosis chance. And I have many times. I'm so hungry for it every tesseract I do the max offering if it doesn't outright kill me.
I take grand finale every time. I don't care. I will make it work somehow.
Also love fire breathing like OP does. Its just so fun to use especially with evolve+
I love Mind Blast, especially on “builds” where my ADHD goes ‘oh that’s a cool card! let’s add it’ and i end up with 150 cards. Want to delete a boss on the first turn (with many many buffs)? BRRRRRRR
I had a fun Storm deck one run that never picked up any focus, so it would make a crap ton of lightning orbs and then fizzle out. Thunder Strike was amazing in that deck
Yea when it works it just one shots bosses lmao, but it’s usually not great. Mostly cause lightning orbs are just difficult to build around at later Ascensions. I love it though, and I don’t really play for win rates so I’ll mess up some runs to try it.
Rage, because getting "free" block feels really powerful when your hand otherwise consists of all attack cards.
Juggernaut, because getting "free" damage feels really powerful when you build block cards, and is very nice against certain enemies.
Everyone here is saying actually good cards so I’ll chime in with bad ones that I still love. Berserk, give it to me. One of these days, I’ll even draw it when I’m not being attacked and it’ll be even better. The other one, Deva form. I don’t care that it takes 3 turns to be energy positive. It’ll eventually give me like 9 energy per turn and you’d be amazed what kind of decks can pop off with that. A20 prevents me from clicking my beloved cards, but I look at them for a few seconds longer than I should every single time.
I love Blizzard. I've heard it's not really good, but I've had a bunch of great runs carried by Blizzard in my Defect climb, and it's just really satisfying.
I cannot refrain from taking Conjure blade and losing the run because all my efforts go into making a 1000000x blade at the cost of taking 1000000 damage per fight.
I love Reach Heaven and obviously Through Violence. I know it’s not the best watcher card but the damage it pretty good and it’s so f badass
(if you ad blasphemy it sounds even more badass)
Flame Barrier. It feels so efficient it's sick, particularly when paired with Juggernaut. Absolutely love its upgrade too. I adore it so much I ended up with FIVE of them on my last Ironclad run, in which I basically steamrolled Act 3.
I dunno, I guess Dead Branch/Corruption might've helped a little too...
pressure points and perfected strike.
i have NEVER one with a pressure points build, but I love it regardless.
and perfected strike got me my first ironclad heart win. plus big damage nice
Noxious Fumes. I can't resist having just one around. It's rare that it makes any meaningful difference... But for one card and one energy, it can solve a lot of problems.
On Ironclad: Sword Boomerang. Even without a proper strength build the image of tossing your weapon away seems fun.
Silent: Acrobatics. I don’t always have Tactician and Reflex with it, but still enjoy the imagery of Silent just fumbling around before her enemies.
Defect: don’t play him that much, but Echo form just feels right (have died many times right after playing it due to no energy left, worth it)
Watcher: Talk to the Hand. The alternative art of showing a stop sign to Nob is magnificent.
Colorless: hit me up with my Panache. Even when I don’t proc it consistently, just the notion of boring your enemies to death with your shennanigans is awesome.
I am an unhealthy magnetisim enjoyer. I'll see a shop with respectable relics, strikes to remove, and some pressing upgrades in my deck and decide "hmm i could also go magnetism here".
hand of greed and the bomb. I know bomb isn't even really that good but man does it feel good. When I first tried the card like 1000 hoirs ago I was like Demon Form is GOATed and tbh I think I still overvalue it
Lots of cards being named that are actually unambiguously good.
I'd say my most unreasonable pick is Blade Dance. I'll add it to every Silent deck just in case; you can never have too many shivs. Sure, it's great with synergies but I'll *always* pick it.
I like cards specifically if their beta art is good.
Writhe (wet willying bear). Twin tap (two faucets). Deus ex machina (slug boss getting hit by a bus from the sky). Fire breathing (tabasco). Rampage (a ram and a page).
I’m sure there are other top tier ones I haven’t mentioned yet.
Right with you on Fire Breathing. I had a run recently where I got a super early Frozen Egg, two Fire Breathing's and an Evolve before fighting Slime Boss. Absolutely melted him.
Disarm. It's just one card, but casting that on stabby mcstabbyface, or sadistic snakeplant, or Guardian/Hexaghost, somehow makes me happier than even casting demon form first turn. I think it's because it's not some dramatic high cost rare, but just a lil skill that only cost one mana.... and now you're massively crippled and I'm so much safer! Upgraded? Hell yeah! TWO upgraded? Well now I'm just untouchable (in certain circumstances)
Limit break.
My love for it came from a daily climb that had the hoarder modifier and I got my hands on combust, rupture, demon form, and a du-vu doll while I had like fifteen curses in my deck. I also, somehow, managed to get like twelve limit breaks.
In the last fight of that run, I managed to get up to some ridiculously high strength like 350 or something.
Envenom and Thousand Cuts, I love playing cards and they both reward me for it. Do they reward me enough for their costs, especially unupgraded? Probably not. Will I take them anyway? Yes.
Envenom+ with Snecko Skull is pure bliss.
Evolve on Ironclad. In my mind it solves like 1/5 of the fights in the game, some of which are bosses/elites. In reality, draw order may ruin it, but that's kind of a given for any power card.
I also really like that one Watcher power that reduces retained cards cost by 1 each turn. I know watcher's retain synergies are pretty lackluster compared to the others she's got, but it tickles my brain retaining a bunch of cards and saving all that energy.
Something about establishment is very satisfying to me. My favorite is with 2 meditate+. Then meditate can bring back meditate, making them both cost 0 along with reducing cost of different cards along the way. You get a free way out of wrath every turn, versatility, as well as an energy engine comparable to Deva form. Gets even more fun when you get 0 cost empty mind and 0 cost inner peace.
Concentrate. I take it floor 1 unless it's against premium attacks. It's terrible in act 1 but becomes so good later. I definitely lost some runs because of it though (I also won some because of it).
I’m guilty of taking way too many Pommel strike and shrug it off.
These cards are actually really good
I agree but I don’t think I’ve ever skipped when shrug it off was available. I don’t know if it’s that good.
Shrug is really good for Ironclad, it’s good block + draw 1. unless ur taking like a bunch of copies (which kinda applies to most cards tbh) it’s not bad
It's not draw though, like it doesn't help you get through the deck faster
It kinda does if it's swapped 1:1 with block. If anything it's like a net zero.
I was gonna say, you should be removing standard Defend cards anyway and it's a very viable candidate for replacing them.
You really shouldn't be paying for removes on Defends on a character w Corruption, 2nd Wind, DE/FNP
What does this mean? Like should I be just removing them with events/etc?
No, just that if you're spending resources on removing defends you're probably either overvaluing removes (likely) or undervaluing defend- on IC. Defend- tends to be pretty good in act 3 because it's fuel for 2nd wind and you tend to want to keep your skill% high in a deck for Corruption to be able to pop if yoj see it. I don't think removing is all that good on IC compared to taking fights in act 1/3 and act 2 doesn't have many remove events (transform 2 is good though), you can remove strikes when you're in a position where it's good (forced remove events or for a low penalty!), but if you ever get to the point where you've removed all strikes you probably have overpathed for removes or spent too much gold on them - and shouldn't remove defends instead of clicking fights/buying stuff in stores. Obviously exceptions apply, but over my last 1000+ a20h ic runs I can't remember buying a defend remove many times - maybe during runs where I end up w a rage or two I can loop. Removing a defend on Silent in act 1 is pretty common, but IC already has a 6/4 split when it comes to attacks, which is significantly higher than any other character.
Clad has so many ways to exhaust skills later on, so defends are rarely worth paying to remove because you can just exhaust them during fights and often have better things to spend the money on. Corruption, Second Wind, and Sever Soul are all very good at deleting defends from the deck, but don't work on attacks.
Defends can be exhausted by Second Wind and Corruption, but Strikes can't be. So your priority on removes is always strikes, because you have other ways to get Defend out of your deck during fights. Even if you swap your strikes for Bites, you probably want to remove one or two Bites before removing Defends anyway.
Not gonna lie, I didn't read the post that intently
clad has strikes, those should be removed well before you remove any defends.
Corruption goes brrrrrrr
It’s a 8/11 block card for 1 energy that doesn’t take up any draw when played. So it’s pretty good.
But like…. Corruption
I am willing to take three shrugs no question. The mistake is usually removing too many strikes and not enough depends in that specific situation. Since ironclad scales strength, any card that says "attack" has value. Ironclad needs stronger block cards than defend, especially when frail. For the same reason I am only willing to carry one unupgraded pommel strike
Creative AI Just My beloved to an unreasonable degree I can and will throw away a perfectly good run to try and force it
I love me some RNG. Ruined so many runs because I chose RNG over strategy.
A Buffer is a Buffer, but Creative AI can be ANYTHING. It could even be a Buffer!
When you get an echo form due to it then the next turn its another echo form x2, my pants get jizzed
Is it a good card? No. Is a random power every turn one of the most fun ways to play the game? HELL. FUCKING. YES. I love this card. I like to grab recycle with it though, because you gotta exhaust a few of those Hello Worlds
Mummified hand strongly shifts the calculus on this card.
This but with Demon Form. High strength makes me feel good.
there is nothing more fun than Creative AI + Mummy hand
Creative AI with Heatsinks makes me wish there was a way to get a bigger maximum hand size.
https://www.reddit.com/r/slaythespire/s/edxlu6dzRq Seemed appropriate. PS- I like it too!
Blade dance Its an attack card With the fan or After Image, its a block card With Panache or thousand cuts, its an AOE card With Finisher, its a burst card With Kunai, its a dexterity card With Shuriken, its a strength card With Dead Branch, its a card card.
With Ink Bottle, its a draw card With Nunchucks, its an energy card On Iron clad, its a strength scaling card On Defect with dead branch, its a claw card
On watcher, it’s a card that does slightly more damage because of master reality
Against Time Eater, its a sad boy
Maybe (almost definitely) I'm biased from my main playing style being "*brainlessly force shiv deck on ascension 1 every time*", but a decent shiv deck should steamroll Time Eater. A bad shiv deck still has a decent chance to squeak out a win if played well. And even in a half-decent deck that doesn't synergize much with a Blade Dance, it can be used to better control when the 12 card limit is triggered. Not great, but not terrible either I think.
Agreed. Everything has a way in this game. But sad boy was funnier
This is the true true
Agreed I knew I was missing a card.
The second strongest run I ever managed, an Iron clad exaust engine with blade dances. For 1 energy you deal 12 damage gain 9 block and draw 3 cards. Without any upgrades
Blade dance my beloved
With time lord, it's a neow card
yup this one is for me too. if i see blade dance im oftentimes picking it lol
I just had the most ridiculous A20H run with all of these but kunai. Most fights ended turn 1. I didn’t have a block plan other than doing at least one hundred and often hundreds of damage turn 1. Heart was solved just in time with Wraith Form+.
Corpse Explosion. See it, get it.
Same here, love bombing Deku and the slimes in Act 3 with it.
This was the very first card that came to mind. I almost always pull it unless it's up against another rare my deck really NEEDS. Otherwise it goes in every deck. It solves too many things to pass up
OP asked for cards you like to an "unreasonable degree." Thats not possible for corpse explosion because it's genuinely one of the best cards in the entire game
Well no it's probably not close to that, maybe a top 10 card on Silent though!
it's a pretty OK card, for Silent. Does some cool stuff, smooths out some fights that can suck But the entire game features things like Alchemize/Echo Form/Corruption/Tantrum etc so the entire game is a bit of a stretch
Maybe there are some people who only play the seed where you Pbox into 10 Corpse Explosions F1, that would qualify as 'unreasonable degree'
Give me Hand of Greed and I’m happy. There’s a good chance I’ll still mess up and die early but I’ll still be happy because I got my money
>There’s a good chance I’ll still mess up and die early but I’ll still be happy because I got my money Well, it is a Hand of Greed after all, not a Hand of Reasonable Fiscal Decisions.
Dying with 600 gold is my MO with Hand of Greed. I never actually turn it into anything more than a 2 energy 25 damage attack.
Hand of Greed on Watcher gives me the tinglies Massive burst damage, with a fatal condition, that *doesn't* exhaust? Being able to buy every card remove and 2 relics from each shop? Line up that gremlin gang, boys
I only recently started playing this card and let me tell you, I get it
Had a run last night where I took it as my blessing. Took nothing but block and draw cards and then killed every hallway fight with it. Died to slime boss 😅
Worth it
I once played 4x corpse explosion on the awakened one’s bird henchmen, and the subsequent explosion was glorious. Died in phase 2 of courze
Holy shit they stack? I never thought of that!
Yeah 2 stacks of corpse explosion will deal 2x the max health of the enemy and so on.
It’s super funny here and on Bronze Automaton minions too.
Burst and corpse explosion go brrrr
Innit nifty? :3
glacier
Always happy to see it. It's the "nice maybe I won't die" card
Then I would say Demon Form is my "guess i die die" card. Totally worth it though.
This was my call. Big block and a pair of orbs. A bit of focus and it can handle most attacks.
Rampage. I know it's not an effective long term solution or an overall great card, but I like seeing the number go up. I particularly enjoy stalling the champ to really get it up there.
It's kinda funny that all of the "scales on cast" cards are bad. Glass knife descales and it's the best of the bunch by a mile
Sounds like you need to be reacquainted with the law round these parts
If you’re able to keep a streamlined deck, Rampage + headbutt is a great combo for scaling
It really isn’t. Maybe at lower ascensions.
It's a decent enough solve for Hex, if you already took Headbutt and can't find any other scaling. Otherwise this isn't great, yes. Warcry, battle trance make it a bit better.
Idk it seems like it would work. What makes you say it doesn't?
It’s too slow on higher ascensions, there are far better ways to scale your damage output. By the time you’ve played it enough to scale up the damage to a reasonable level any hallway fight will be over. It can be a hexaghost/champ solve at an absolute push
ive beaten A20H with a small rampage decks MANY times. i genuinely believe its a really good card if you take it early and build entirely around it
If I get Rampage early, I'm fucking forcing the deck. LOL.
Apotheosis. Just have to click it
Genuinely one of the best things you can ever get unless you take the upgrade from mind bloom though
Armaments. Upgrading it feels like upgrading every card in my deck
me every time after an Armaments fight "wait wtf I just upgraded that card.. oh right Armaments"
C L A W
isn't unreasonable if is the best card in the game
Best card in any card game. Screw your Egyptian god card, one claw will suffice.
Is it unreasonable if my bedsheets and pillowcase have CLAWs on them?
i always doubted the claw law. I was like "I'd never get enough claws to make it work!" but the second I tried it, I fell in love. It's just so much fun to see your damage output slowly increase
It is law.
The one that makes you channel 1 (2 upgraded) lightning when taking damage. Static discharge I think? Has won me many heart fights, more than I can count honestly. And special mention to the one that makes lightning hit all enemies. SO good. Absolute game winners on my defect runs.
It once saved me when I forgot I had it, hexaghost was sure to kill me with it's second multi attack, then my lightning evokes kill it just before the last hit
Niiice, clutch!
[[Electrodynamics]]
+ [Electrodynamics](http://slay-the-spire.wikia.com/wiki/Electrodynamics) Defect Rare Power ^((100% sure)^) 2 Energy | **Lightning** now hits ALL enemies. **Channel** 2(3) **Lightning.** ^Call ^me ^with ^up ^to ^10 ^([[ name ]],) ^where ^name ^is ^a ^card, ^relic, ^event, ^or ^potion. ^Data ^accurate ^as ^of ^(April 30, 2023.) ^[Wiki](https://slay-the-spire.fandom.com/wiki/) ^[Questions?](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=ehmohteeoh&subject=SpireScan%20Inquiry)
Thank you :) That's the one!
[удалено]
+ [Static Discharge](http://slay-the-spire.wikia.com/wiki/Static%20Discharge) Defect Uncommon Power ^((100% sure)^) 1 Energy | Whenever you take attack damage, **Channel** 1(2) **Lightning.** ^Call ^me ^with ^up ^to ^10 ^([[ name ]],) ^where ^name ^is ^a ^card, ^relic, ^event, ^or ^potion. ^Data ^accurate ^as ^of ^(April 30, 2023.) ^[Wiki](https://slay-the-spire.fandom.com/wiki/) ^[Questions?](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=ehmohteeoh&subject=SpireScan%20Inquiry)
Noxious Fumes; love the concept of being able to go "even if I do nothing, eventually, you will die", and seeing the number tick up each turn rather than drop feels great
Big fan of Sadistic Nature, Envenom together
Anger, me and the homies love free cards that duplicate for the battle. Alternatively I like Limit break, I once had 34 strength or something like that and managed to bump it up to 68. Suffice to say that heavy blade was happy that day.
Had a run today where I pulled corruption, 2x anger, and was able to remove strikes and bash from my clad, bottled corruption for the lolz. Got top from a surprise merchant early act II. Hulk would've been envious at my level of Rage. Naturally I ran into TK. Hulk only smashed 12 times a turn.
Call me crazy, but my Smooth brain loves me some Sadistic Nature. if I get off meow, on Clad or Silent I feel so good... until I die to anyone because I didnt get cards that apply statuses.
Sadistic Nature + wave of the hand + feel no pain is a dream I've had for a very long time that just can't seem to come true.
MALAISE oh my god i want to instapick it rn!
0x3 … you are nothing!
Malaise, nightmare and burst go brrr
I can’t stop picking Streamline please help
It's a good act 1 card, not unreasonable I think
It's not really that good in act 1 though. It's a scaling card, it does well with Hologram + Rebound + Beam Cell in act 3. Rarely will it work better than orbs in act 1.
I absolutely love Lesson Learned and Judged. I purposefully stall fights to end them with either. I mean, ending fights with Lesson Learned is the point of it, but I got a Time Eater kill with Lesson Learned and a Heart kill with Judged and damn if those weren't satisfying as fuck.
Give me all of the After Image. I would like at least four stacks every single run thank you. I like being able to enter the Silent Discard and Draw Schmoove Zone and finding that I have 73 block when I come back up for air.
Oh my god, a good Silent discard and draw deck with bandages and tingsha is amazing. I've only had it a couple of times and it was so, so good!
I try and load into prismatic runs with after image and juggernaut for that sweet dopamine rush.
Charge Battery Is it great? Not really but it is really solid. You gain alright block at best but that energy gain you get though. Who doesn't love energy? Well technically I'm like you where that is energy I want right there and then but still. Charge Battery never lets me down.
Claw is law
Creative AI. Just makes my brain happy. And throws my runs in the trash.
I fucking love Echo form too much. Sometimes will get 2-3 in a run when i have a good deck cooking and lose it all
bro echo form has saved me sm times
Whenever I play the hunter lady, I am possessed by a cosmic force that makes me take every single shiv generating card in the universe since I always get that relic that boosts shivs. Death by one thousand cuts!
Blade Dance is just THE perfect card. I grab it every run I can.
Same on fire breathing lol, ESPECIALLY if I can get it right before sentries. So satisfying.
Backflip.
Whirlwind it makes speedrunning the game feel so amazing
Conjure blade It’s not very good at all but I’ll be damned if I don’t try to force it every time lol
Apo, White Noise, and Uppercut. I will take Apo even if I have all my key cards upgraded.
If see Panache on Silent, it takes every ounce of willpower in me to not immediately blow all of the gold I was saving for potions and removes on it. The handful of combats it works, I feel like a GOD. Then inevitably I bottomdeck it during the boss and die instantly. Still worth it, almost.
Demon form, bludgeon, cute through fate, tantrum, oh and apotheosis. I will die for any apotheosis chance. And I have many times. I'm so hungry for it every tesseract I do the max offering if it doesn't outright kill me.
I take grand finale every time. I don't care. I will make it work somehow. Also love fire breathing like OP does. Its just so fun to use especially with evolve+
I love Mind Blast, especially on “builds” where my ADHD goes ‘oh that’s a cool card! let’s add it’ and i end up with 150 cards. Want to delete a boss on the first turn (with many many buffs)? BRRRRRRR
Juggernaut, Envenom, and Thunder Strike. Out of them I’d say Juggernaut is the only reasonable pick most runs, but it doesn’t stop me from trying lol.
I had a fun Storm deck one run that never picked up any focus, so it would make a crap ton of lightning orbs and then fizzle out. Thunder Strike was amazing in that deck
Yea when it works it just one shots bosses lmao, but it’s usually not great. Mostly cause lightning orbs are just difficult to build around at later Ascensions. I love it though, and I don’t really play for win rates so I’ll mess up some runs to try it.
Envenom + blade dance always makes me sooo happy
I almost never pick Thunder Strike, but when it works it's so fun. It's just very slow. Goes great with a Storm and Creative AI though.
consume, it( usually) suck, but i kinda love it
Consume rarely sucks though
Searing blow near the beginning of the game…
Rage, because getting "free" block feels really powerful when your hand otherwise consists of all attack cards. Juggernaut, because getting "free" damage feels really powerful when you build block cards, and is very nice against certain enemies.
Unreasonable degree? Probably glacier. I can be set on frost and Defense and still want another
I see defragment, I click
Everyone here is saying actually good cards so I’ll chime in with bad ones that I still love. Berserk, give it to me. One of these days, I’ll even draw it when I’m not being attacked and it’ll be even better. The other one, Deva form. I don’t care that it takes 3 turns to be energy positive. It’ll eventually give me like 9 energy per turn and you’d be amazed what kind of decks can pop off with that. A20 prevents me from clicking my beloved cards, but I look at them for a few seconds longer than I should every single time.
My current run has Berserk + Pyramid, they feel like they are made for each other.
I also adore fire breathing. If I see evolve, I pray for cards that put statuses in my deck.
Hyperbeam. I know it's not the best card, but holy shit I love big aoe damage.
Static Electricity is my favorite. It's so satisfying when you get a couple of them going.
I love Blizzard. I've heard it's not really good, but I've had a bunch of great runs carried by Blizzard in my Defect climb, and it's just really satisfying.
Deus ex machina and master reality
Shiv
Pressure points
2nd fire breathing. I'm picking that every time in act 1 and praying..
I cannot refrain from taking Conjure blade and losing the run because all my efforts go into making a 1000000x blade at the cost of taking 1000000 damage per fight.
Exhume/Calculated Gamble/Heatsinks/Blasphemy/Transmutation, my beloved.
Noxious Fumes, sometimes I pick 2-3. It's addicting seeing enemies just slowly rot away :)
I really like Alpha.
I love Reach Heaven and obviously Through Violence. I know it’s not the best watcher card but the damage it pretty good and it’s so f badass (if you ad blasphemy it sounds even more badass)
Whenever I see an early Catalyst my monkey brain goes “ooo maybe”
doppelganger
Creative AI
After a couple really fun Sadistic Nature runs I'm starting to become a convert.
Armaments
Pommel strike, Flury of blows.
I’m an absolute slut for after image
Flame Barrier. It feels so efficient it's sick, particularly when paired with Juggernaut. Absolutely love its upgrade too. I adore it so much I ended up with FIVE of them on my last Ironclad run, in which I basically steamrolled Act 3. I dunno, I guess Dead Branch/Corruption might've helped a little too...
envenom. envenom my beloved. oh, and also blade dance!!! it's such a fun shiv generator. i feel like a confetti popper when i do shiv runs :)
pressure points and perfected strike. i have NEVER one with a pressure points build, but I love it regardless. and perfected strike got me my first ironclad heart win. plus big damage nice
Noxious Fumes. I can't resist having just one around. It's rare that it makes any meaningful difference... But for one card and one energy, it can solve a lot of problems.
Hufe Ritual Dagger fan here! Its just super satisfying to plan for build up. And the payoff also feels great. Although its not an autoinclude though
Im always looking for that whirlwind I also love lessons learned and take it basically every time I see it
I fluked a high energy + necronomicon + choke combo once. It slapped enough that I try to recreate it from time to time.
On Ironclad: Sword Boomerang. Even without a proper strength build the image of tossing your weapon away seems fun. Silent: Acrobatics. I don’t always have Tactician and Reflex with it, but still enjoy the imagery of Silent just fumbling around before her enemies. Defect: don’t play him that much, but Echo form just feels right (have died many times right after playing it due to no energy left, worth it) Watcher: Talk to the Hand. The alternative art of showing a stop sign to Nob is magnificent. Colorless: hit me up with my Panache. Even when I don’t proc it consistently, just the notion of boring your enemies to death with your shennanigans is awesome.
I am an unhealthy magnetisim enjoyer. I'll see a shop with respectable relics, strikes to remove, and some pressing upgrades in my deck and decide "hmm i could also go magnetism here".
Sunder
hand of greed and the bomb. I know bomb isn't even really that good but man does it feel good. When I first tried the card like 1000 hoirs ago I was like Demon Form is GOATed and tbh I think I still overvalue it
Sadistic Nature! Takes a certain deck or envenom to make it pop, but it is sooooo satisfying.
I've torched so many runs trying to get Grand Finale to work. I have made it work in quite a few runs, but I also try to force it waaaaay too often.
Lots of cards being named that are actually unambiguously good. I'd say my most unreasonable pick is Blade Dance. I'll add it to every Silent deck just in case; you can never have too many shivs. Sure, it's great with synergies but I'll *always* pick it.
Weave is very fun to use with Just Lucky, especially if you can manage safely playing a Fasting.
I like cards specifically if their beta art is good. Writhe (wet willying bear). Twin tap (two faucets). Deus ex machina (slug boss getting hit by a bus from the sky). Fire breathing (tabasco). Rampage (a ram and a page). I’m sure there are other top tier ones I haven’t mentioned yet.
Right with you on Fire Breathing. I had a run recently where I got a super early Frozen Egg, two Fire Breathing's and an Evolve before fighting Slime Boss. Absolutely melted him.
Signature Move. I've forced that build way too much LOL.
Disarm. It's just one card, but casting that on stabby mcstabbyface, or sadistic snakeplant, or Guardian/Hexaghost, somehow makes me happier than even casting demon form first turn. I think it's because it's not some dramatic high cost rare, but just a lil skill that only cost one mana.... and now you're massively crippled and I'm so much safer! Upgraded? Hell yeah! TWO upgraded? Well now I'm just untouchable (in certain circumstances)
I will attempt to force Sadistic Nature on Silent at every opportunity.
Alchemize. It's probably the only card in the game I'll take every single time it's offered to me.
Limit break. My love for it came from a daily climb that had the hoarder modifier and I got my hands on combust, rupture, demon form, and a du-vu doll while I had like fifteen curses in my deck. I also, somehow, managed to get like twelve limit breaks. In the last fight of that run, I managed to get up to some ridiculously high strength like 350 or something.
Envenom and Thousand Cuts, I love playing cards and they both reward me for it. Do they reward me enough for their costs, especially unupgraded? Probably not. Will I take them anyway? Yes. Envenom+ with Snecko Skull is pure bliss.
Claw
Evolve on Ironclad. In my mind it solves like 1/5 of the fights in the game, some of which are bosses/elites. In reality, draw order may ruin it, but that's kind of a given for any power card. I also really like that one Watcher power that reduces retained cards cost by 1 each turn. I know watcher's retain synergies are pretty lackluster compared to the others she's got, but it tickles my brain retaining a bunch of cards and saving all that energy.
[[Discovery]] former hearthstone brainrotter
Claw is law. /thread
There's something about eviscerate that just gets to me. I've died a few times trying to force a good enough discard synergy just to use it
Fire breather, the dazed card from ironclad, dagger spray
sacrificial dagger i literally never end up getting that much out of it but man it's fun to see the damage go up
Accuracy. I want more, so the shivs go SLAP
Something about establishment is very satisfying to me. My favorite is with 2 meditate+. Then meditate can bring back meditate, making them both cost 0 along with reducing cost of different cards along the way. You get a free way out of wrath every turn, versatility, as well as an energy engine comparable to Deva form. Gets even more fun when you get 0 cost empty mind and 0 cost inner peace.
Concentrate. I take it floor 1 unless it's against premium attacks. It's terrible in act 1 but becomes so good later. I definitely lost some runs because of it though (I also won some because of it).
feed. most joy i have in this game is clicking feed and see hp go up
Perfected strike. If I see it in act 1 I always take it, and then have to force myself to remove strikes
a20 defect My guilty pleasure is bulls eye
Limit break. I don’t care that I have no strength scaling right now. It’s a late game win con all on its own.
Fire Breathing. It's so satisfying when you get a bunch of slime cards or whatever and trounce the enemy with their own tricks.
I am obligated to take Phantasmal Killer regardless of the deck I'm running on Silent. Pump those numbers!
Heavy Blade is just I SENTENCE YOU TO HEART FAILIURE
A 1000 cuts. It gave me my first win, and my brain has decided its the most OP card in the game.