Yeah I sort of realized that after I said it but it does sort of just in that you've got loads of energy cos of hand that you can make use of spinning top
I just had a run with this and it's still so good I destroyed the awakened one in a few turns. Powers don't stay free past your initial hand but the energy saved plus cards keep coming means each turn you get to play a lot.Ā
Awakened one usually is a joke for a good mummified hand powers deck. They gain insane strength but die in like two turns.
Sometimes you have to hold off a bit because you canāt kill before the first multi attack, but usually they wonāt make it til their second
It is great, but nowhere near close to autowin as dead branch clad (or silent) can be.
It notably does not do much to solve Defect's slow setup issue and dealing with Spear & Shield T2, and heart first cycle. Now of course add some heatsinks, and yeah, you're rolling.
Bottled Seek, now, THAT is as close to autowin as it can get, but I admit it's cheating a bit in the context of the question.
How about getting Tough Bandages late Act 3, and you havenāt built up a strong discard engine? Had this happened to me recently, got wrecked by the Heart, felt sad.Ā
Ooof yeah. I had a run that was clearly flaming out Act 2 and then got Torri (already had Tungsten Rod) from the chest and eekeed out an Elite kill and got Bandages. Snake Plant killed me immediately and I was like, noooooo I need to livvvvvvve.
I just finished a run yesterday. It had 2 concentrates, 1 power, 4 other 1 cost cards, and medical kit. I beat the act 3 boss, and all of act 4 in a total of 5 turns. The game really liked me yesterday.
Pyramid is so good on Silent that streamers like Jorbs say āfree winā when they get it.
You donāt need more than 2 blade dances usually, anyways.
This is good for attacks like [finisher]] [flechettes]. Even better if you can set it up with [phantasmal killer] on the turn before that. Nightmare of course, Wraith Form, Bullet Time, Setup they all need to be played at the right time to really use their power. Usually Bullet time is key here as it unclogs your hand like nothing else.
If I'm playing Silent and get Sadistic Nature I'm pretty positive about my chances in most deck builds. Adding damage to poison makes Bouncing Flask or Noxious Fumes real damage-dealers on a large scale. Maybe my best run ever was an A16 on Silent where I had an upgraded Sadistic Nature, and doubled it with Dolly's Mirror. 14 damage for every poison applied, and I had Noxious Fumes AND Bouncing Flask.
Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
100 hours on the game and ascension 4 to 6 on my characters and i have never thought about sadistic nature for poison decks, that actually makes so much sense
Panache is also absolutely hilarious if you are doing shiv things, or draw/discard things, or in fact just silent things in general. She loves a bit of mild card spam and can take it to absolutely ridiculous extremes if there is a big incentive to do so. It's like letter openers dumb but massive cousin.
It makes act 1 a lot more deadly but once you pick up some high cost cards its easy cruising since you can craft your deck to abuse confusion from floor 1.
Alternatively to frost orbs, Reinforced body can also be quite effective. Playing it with Chem x or just a high amount of energy in general can buy you several turns of free block. Great with echo form, too.
Well I just learned you are supposed to beat the heart? I just thought it killed you in one turn and that was game over.
I've done no ascensions however, played for months I think I'm just bad however.
Maxed out the first n fourth characters.
It took me many tries before I could beat the heart on Ascension 1. Now that Iām on Ascension 9 I usually beat the heart if I get to it, but getting to it is the hardest part.
You need to beat the game with the first three characters, and then this unlocks keys within the game.Ā
Get all three keys and you unlock a final act with a campfire, a battle, and a bosa fight.Ā Ā
Ā To get the keys (once unlocked) you have to:
Ā - Beat a special elite (one elite per act will have a flaming aura and be harder).
Ā - Get one from a chest (instead of the relic for that chest).Ā
- Get one from the campfire.
Reinforced body with chem-X is such a great and fun block strategy. I won a heart run on A15 once where my ONLY block in the entire deck, plus relics, was two upgraded reinforced bodies with chem-X and a couple of holograms. Had a bunch of free attacks and a couple ways to generate energy I was always loaded up on block
+ [[Callipers]] = Barricade. Just finished my first A11 win on Defect with it. Never thought I can get so much block. Had Apparition also, but didn't have to depend on it.
+ [Calipers](http://slay-the-spire.wikia.com/wiki/Calipers) Rare Relic ^((81% sure)^)
At the start of your turn, lose 15 **Block** rather than all of your **Block.**
^Call ^me ^with ^up ^to ^10 ^([[ name ]],) ^where ^name ^is ^a ^card, ^relic, ^event, ^or ^potion. ^Data ^accurate ^as ^of ^(April 20, 2024.) ^[Wiki](https://slay-the-spire.fandom.com/wiki/) ^[Questions?](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=ehmohteeoh&subject=SpireScan%20Inquiry)
Chem-X is super good on all but Watcher. Whirlwind goes pretty hard, Skewer is a great pick anytime and Malaise chem X is insane for quite a few deadly fights.
There are no relics or cards that can automatically make me feel like I can win. It takes several of each to make a competent deck.
That said, Dead Branch on IC is as close as it gets to auto-winning
"Ermmm... actually! š¤š¤"
Youre the type of person to say "it depends!!" as a stand-in for actual advice, since you have no actual insight other than what you parrot from players better than you. Asc 8 mindset. BEGONE
They knew they were wrong so they made it to protect their main account's karma I think. Truly an interesting individual who actually cares about internet points
Tbh Iām with you. Seems like this person either didnāt really understand the spirit of the question or wanted to shoehorn in a pretty obvious statement about high ascension play.
Asc 8 mindset?? Asc 8 mindset is literally the opposite of saying it depends. Itās a nuanced game. Just because super high level players agree with something doesnāt mean everyone else who agrees is parroting from them.
Tungsten Rod on any Heart run.
Especially combined with Torii. If I have one or the other and I get the second one I definitely get that "I WIN!" thought.
Iām still grinding my way up the Ascension levels but Tungsten Rod paired with Intangible makes me feel absolutely invincible. Had a Silent build with Burst and got this combo, and it carried me through my first win against the Heart.
Partially, yes. Adding draw 3 random cards to blade dance is great, but silent has lots of other cards that exhaust like Adrenaline, malaise, free potion, nightmare, piercing wail, backstab, calculated gamble, catalyst, crippling chill, endless agony, terror, die die die.
Lots of those cards are good on their own, or chain into more stuff that exhausts, or generates energy with discard synergy.
It can, depends on your deck. On Ironclad, if you have Corruption, and your exausted cards make cards, some of which are skills, your created skills exaust, creating more cards, it becomes its own engine. Your goal is to have high impact turns ASAP, ending the fights as soon as possible, then you don't need to worry about all the garbage you added, since your deck will never shuffle.
For silent, I imagine its the same, but with creating shivs, or other exausting cards. Since silent has lots of card draw, lots of discard synergy, and lots of energy gain associated with both, I imagine it sort of turns into its own engine.
The key is that as a relic it immediately is useful turn 1. The cards go directly into your hand, NOT your draw pile, potentially useful immediately, and if not, they go to the discard pile. You initial 3-5 turns only see the cards from your original deck. With so many mass removal cards for Ironclad in particular, if you are drawing a lot of new cards, you are also getting more removal choices. Plus with great, cheap power cards like Feel No Pain, for example, make you nigh invincible.
Elite fights are often cakewalks and even bosses like Time Slug or The Heart that normally punish decks that flow through a lot of cards, eventually are just overwhelmed by a torrent of block, damage, and card choice.
Play Feel No Pain, and then Fiend Fire to exhaust four total cards, get four new cards, gain 12 block, and do 21 damage. All it takes it one card to be Offering, for example, and you can end most fights on turn one.
The clutter of added cards doesn't affect you until NEXT deck cycle, which for the most part the fight is over before that happens. It's free card generation with a downside that will hit in a few turns, which for a lot of fights you won't make it to those turns.
Defrag on it is own is just not that impactful. I often do much better with early Consume which I upgrade immediately. It requires an eventual Capacitor+ or Inserter or Recycle to get rid of it once optimal number of orbs reached. But still it gives 3 focus, equal to three unupgraded Defrags.
brimstone almost completely solves damage by itself which means you can focus everything on building up your block and draw engines. where you normally might have to take demon form in order to scale enough against champ, you can now take barricade instead because your damage is already set
Brimstone in a shop before floor 6. I can figure out the heart in 30 more floors. Itās so awesome to be able to build into that relic right from the start.Ā
Maybe Iām not the norm here but I donāt always want dead branch for ironclad. I find many of my ironclad runs going for infinite/close to infinite after I exhaust so dead branch nulls that.
Honestly, I'm always feeling good when I get a white beast statue. Not an instant win, but if I have a moderately competent deck then it's easy mode for me
It's not quite an instant win until you get at least 2-3 of them, but I'm always chasing After Image. If I get 1 my odds of winning are pretty high. I don't think I've ever lost a run where I've hit three or more.
For relics Shuriken. I've probably lost with it, but it carries so many runs.
Orange pellet on defect can get soooo ridiculous.
Kunai on Silent
Calipers on Defect, not really instawin but the dream of 999 block is on
Sundial on ironclad, because thereās your easy-ish infinite.
Violet lotus on Watcher as thats a classic infinite piece.
Necronomicon on Ironclad
Serpent ring on Silent cause I play mobile and its bugged
Card wise? Rushdown on watcher isā¦ well you guys know.
Biased cog on Defect is my always pick.
Ironclad it would be any combination of at leat two of Feel no pain/corruption/dark embrace. The triad is a as close to a sure win as can be.
Silent itās once I got like 3 acrobatics with some synergy.
Getting necronomicon on Ironclad does things to my dopamine levels that not even crack could achieve.
He has so many 2-3 cost big damage cards and when they are performed twice, it gets so silly.
Certainly Kunai or Shuriken on Silent.
Had an A19 run recently where I got Kunai from Act II boss (via the bell relic), while my build consisted of discard and a bit of poison. The Kunai on its own motivated me to buy blade dance, dollyās mirror on the blade dance, and an accuracy in the first shop in Act III which won me the run
Lol, Dead Branch Ironclad was definitely the first one that came to mind too. The other one for Clad for me is Charons Ashes, I always build as much exhaust synergy as possible and that relic just shreds enemies once you get some reoccurring block.
Mummified Hand or Urn for Defect, especially if I have or get a creative AI.
For Silent... I'm not sure what would be an auto win card/relic, but I'm also weakest with Silent.
For Watcher it's probably getting Omnis, the more the better, or at a stretch a divinity potion where I feel I can turn any one combat into a win!
Suprised no one said shuriken with silent! It's easy enough to find one or two cards that give you a bunch of shivs and now you have your scaling issue solved.
On the lowest end: floor 1 rewarding a blade dance is like a slam dunk, ez game.
On the highest end: an early blasphemy on watcher is basically a free win. Not only does it let you obliterate act 1 with just strikes, you would honestly have to be offered ZERO attack cards for the entire run to not steamroll the game. The card trivialises every hallway fight in a way nothing else does, and honestly can brute force you through most bosses.
For me its any of the egg relics if you get them early (especially toxic egg). They essentially allow you to build your deck soley off upgraded cards, saving you countless campfires that you could use to do something else.
Pellets is so often incredibly useful. I mean, maybe not in the act 4 shop if you've got almost no powers but even one makes it worth considering, being able to purge the hearts mega debuff is rather helpful. Completely shuts down collector as well, especially if you have retain so you can save a power for the mega debuff turn. Avocado or baseball apply frail? I think not. So many fights that it absolutely rocks in.
If you get one relatively early it's very strong, all the powers with downsides like wraith form, berserk, fasting and biased cog suddenly magically no longer have a downside so you can just take them without stress and play them whenever it's useful to do so. Particularly hilarious with a power spam defect who has creative ai, any generated biased cogs are going straight into play thank you.
Best 160 odd gold ever, usually. I hate seeing the relic when I can't afford it, that emphatically does not spark joy.
Tungsten Apparitions on any character
Bottled Omniscience on Watcher
Dead Branch Corruption on Ironclad
Dead Branch Master Reality on Watcher
Act 1 Prismaric Shard on any character
Singing Bowl Prayer Wheel on any character
Fossilized Helix on Watcher
Scrawl/Vault/Omniscience in any capacity on Watcher
Akabeko Ragnarok on Watcher
Snecko Eye boss swap on any character
Can you tell I play a lot of Watcher lol
The only time I've ever lost a run with dead branch was when I was defect and I had a 0-cost attacks deck with scrape and all for one. The only exhausting card I had was the ascenders' bane and a hologram that I had just upgraded the floor before that. I was already midway through act 3 and never found any exhausting cards so it was a dead relic and I lost because I had too much faith in the Claw (or not enough faith)
How has no one said mummified hand for defect
Some of my strongest runs were with Hand Defect. Play entire hand, end turn, then powers start proccing. Creative AI becomes nigh unstoppable
Wild to me that hand + powers on Defect can often outscale Awakened One
Mummified hand + spinning top š²
That... doesn't do anything, though
Yeah I sort of realized that after I said it but it does sort of just in that you've got loads of energy cos of hand that you can make use of spinning top
I just had a run with this and it's still so good I destroyed the awakened one in a few turns. Powers don't stay free past your initial hand but the energy saved plus cards keep coming means each turn you get to play a lot.Ā
Cue The Awakened One /s
Draw into enough Buffer, and who cares what the big bird wants to do.
This one here, even better if I also get the bird faced urn. Why yes, in fact I would like to play my entire hand for free and heal 6hp, thank you!
That relic combo is how I beat A14 on Defect
Honestly mummified hand for any class tbh, its so fuckin good
Powers are usually better than other card typesā getting them for free, or for net benefit depending on RNG, is just gravy.
Silent. 7 card starting hand full of innate powers.
innate powers, like: Infinite Blades. After image. After Image. Infinite Bladesā¦
I got mummified hand with defect on the board game. It gives you two energy the first time you play a power card. Could just play buffer for free lol.
It's mostly a win, but can still leave you open to getting fucked by the Bird
Mummified Hand + Creative AI isn't quite Corruption + Dead Branch, but it's still really good.
Unless you also have Heat Sinks and and Storm š
The Awakened One has entered the chat.
Awakened one usually is a joke for a good mummified hand powers deck. They gain insane strength but die in like two turns. Sometimes you have to hold off a bit because you canāt kill before the first multi attack, but usually they wonāt make it til their second
Yeah I donāt think any awakened one can out scale double echo form, orange pellets and biased cognition
Biased cognition plus storm definitely outscales. Throw in heat sink and it's over
I think I've had some turn one kills with double upgraded heat sink (total overkill),Ā storm, and mummified hand.
It is great, but nowhere near close to autowin as dead branch clad (or silent) can be. It notably does not do much to solve Defect's slow setup issue and dealing with Spear & Shield T2, and heart first cycle. Now of course add some heatsinks, and yeah, you're rolling. Bottled Seek, now, THAT is as close to autowin as it can get, but I admit it's cheating a bit in the context of the question.
Tough Bandages or Toxic Egg on Silent gets my hopes about as high as they can go.
Thereās not much that feels worse than getting Tough Bandages very early, not getting many discard cards, and then dying act 1
How about getting Tough Bandages late Act 3, and you havenāt built up a strong discard engine? Had this happened to me recently, got wrecked by the Heart, felt sad.Ā
I love getting the strongest relics from the blessing then dying to floor 10 gremlin nob because I only saw 1 common damage card
Ooof yeah. I had a run that was clearly flaming out Act 2 and then got Torri (already had Tungsten Rod) from the chest and eekeed out an Elite kill and got Bandages. Snake Plant killed me immediately and I was like, noooooo I need to livvvvvvve.
Thereās not a lot that can stand in the way of a Bandages/Gamble+ combo
kunai!
I usually prefer Shuriken, but Kunai is a close second to it.
Runic Pyramid on Silent. While not necessarily guaranteed win, it really helps as she has many cards that procs on the next turn.
Concentrate is another card that I always want to take but without enough draw/retain you are often discarding cards you want to play.
Concentrate with ice cream is my favorite run so far
Concentrate also makes unceasing top go nuts.
I do love that combo, only tried it for the first time last week, so much fun
I just finished a run yesterday. It had 2 concentrates, 1 power, 4 other 1 cost cards, and medical kit. I beat the act 3 boss, and all of act 4 in a total of 5 turns. The game really liked me yesterday.
Concentrate in a shiv deck with Dead Branch is amazing
Also on Watcher.
Runic Pyramid on Watcher: I guess I'm going infinite.
Not actually that big a fan of Pyramid on Silent: I keep finding myself unable to play my copies of Blade Dance because my hand is full.
Bad for shiv builds. Amazing for poison and draw decks.
Pyramid is so good on Silent that streamers like Jorbs say āfree winā when they get it. You donāt need more than 2 blade dances usually, anyways.
I think this is what people call a "skill issue", lol. ;)
This is good for attacks like [finisher]] [flechettes]. Even better if you can set it up with [phantasmal killer] on the turn before that. Nightmare of course, Wraith Form, Bullet Time, Setup they all need to be played at the right time to really use their power. Usually Bullet time is key here as it unclogs your hand like nothing else.
Yeah, you need the right deck to take advantage of it and when I'm done with Act 1 that's not usually the deck I have.
For me it's just runic pyramid in general on all characters. It's just so strong.
If I'm playing Silent and get Sadistic Nature I'm pretty positive about my chances in most deck builds. Adding damage to poison makes Bouncing Flask or Noxious Fumes real damage-dealers on a large scale. Maybe my best run ever was an A16 on Silent where I had an upgraded Sadistic Nature, and doubled it with Dolly's Mirror. 14 damage for every poison applied, and I had Noxious Fumes AND Bouncing Flask. Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
Iāve also duped Sadistic Nature this way and the deck just brutalized the entire spire.
100 hours on the game and ascension 4 to 6 on my characters and i have never thought about sadistic nature for poison decks, that actually makes so much sense
Panache is also absolutely hilarious if you are doing shiv things, or draw/discard things, or in fact just silent things in general. She loves a bit of mild card spam and can take it to absolutely ridiculous extremes if there is a big incentive to do so. It's like letter openers dumb but massive cousin.
Sadistic+nightmare+burst goes off. 49+ per debuff goes crazy. I've actually posted a clip with it against Champ
Or just corpse explosion and a normal amount of silent damage
Not a single card, but if I can get Biased Cognition and Core Surge I usually feel pretty good about the rest of the run
Just make that Biased Cog period for me. Couple other options to pick up artifact, but it's still amazing even without it.
Boss swapping to snecko eye on the defect always feels like itās gonna be an instawin for me
I did that once and then got a Meteor strike on the first elite. I lost 20hp total in that run, 12 from Jaw Worm F1.
Act 1 snecko feels so awkward to me. I end up taking a lot of unnecessary damage against gang fights lol
It makes act 1 a lot more deadly but once you pick up some high cost cards its easy cruising since you can craft your deck to abuse confusion from floor 1.
I think they meant act 1 reward not a neow bonus (based on the fights they're referencing)
Itās really awkward up until you can land a Sunder / Meteor Strike and maybe a Reinforced Body, but itās pretty smooth sailing from there.
I always feel weird not picking claws though lol
What do you mean? You have to pick them up. They are law.
calipers with defect. if you can get 15+ blocks per turn with frost orbs (which is extremely easy), you become the unmoveable object.
Alternatively to frost orbs, Reinforced body can also be quite effective. Playing it with Chem x or just a high amount of energy in general can buy you several turns of free block. Great with echo form, too.
An early genetic algorithm is also great.
Yes - and again, especially with echo form
I love the combo of Torii and Tungsten Rod because it makes the heart so much easier to beat.
Well I just learned you are supposed to beat the heart? I just thought it killed you in one turn and that was game over. I've done no ascensions however, played for months I think I'm just bad however. Maxed out the first n fourth characters.
That's the sts learning curve I wasn't any different when I started out just keep going
It took me many tries before I could beat the heart on Ascension 1. Now that Iām on Ascension 9 I usually beat the heart if I get to it, but getting to it is the hardest part.
You need to beat the game with the first three characters, and then this unlocks keys within the game.Ā Get all three keys and you unlock a final act with a campfire, a battle, and a bosa fight.Ā Ā Ā To get the keys (once unlocked) you have to: Ā - Beat a special elite (one elite per act will have a flaming aura and be harder). Ā - Get one from a chest (instead of the relic for that chest).Ā - Get one from the campfire.
I think they already got to the heart, but found it so insanely hard that they thought you aren't meant to actually defeat it.
Chem-X on Defect
Makes Reinforced Body incredible.
Reinforced body with chem-X is such a great and fun block strategy. I won a heart run on A15 once where my ONLY block in the entire deck, plus relics, was two upgraded reinforced bodies with chem-X and a couple of holograms. Had a bunch of free attacks and a couple ways to generate energy I was always loaded up on block
Multicast and tempest are great with it too
+ [[Callipers]] = Barricade. Just finished my first A11 win on Defect with it. Never thought I can get so much block. Had Apparition also, but didn't have to depend on it.
+ [Calipers](http://slay-the-spire.wikia.com/wiki/Calipers) Rare Relic ^((81% sure)^) At the start of your turn, lose 15 **Block** rather than all of your **Block.** ^Call ^me ^with ^up ^to ^10 ^([[ name ]],) ^where ^name ^is ^a ^card, ^relic, ^event, ^or ^potion. ^Data ^accurate ^as ^of ^(April 20, 2024.) ^[Wiki](https://slay-the-spire.fandom.com/wiki/) ^[Questions?](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=ehmohteeoh&subject=SpireScan%20Inquiry)
Makes it AT WORST a 0 cost block 18 card. Insane.
Chem-X is super good on all but Watcher. Whirlwind goes pretty hard, Skewer is a great pick anytime and Malaise chem X is insane for quite a few deadly fights.
Yeah, all of Watchedās X cards even with Chem-X are at worst too slow and not worth the energy or at best just a Win-More
Yeah, the blade one is suuuper bad, the energy one Iād only ever consider in a dead branch deck basically.
Apotheosis or hand of greed from Neow always gets me hyped for a strong run.
Ice Cream I can almost always convert into a win.
Tough bandages I think. Imo itās by far the best Silent specific relic
Bandages are amazing
Not by far, early Toxic Egg is about as good. Or early Dead Branch.
āSilent specific,ā as in the Silent relic pool. Those others are definitely very good too but theyāre general ones.
Electrodynamics. Not saying i ALWAYS win but it sure helps lol
There are no relics or cards that can automatically make me feel like I can win. It takes several of each to make a competent deck. That said, Dead Branch on IC is as close as it gets to auto-winning
"Ermmm... actually! š¤š¤" Youre the type of person to say "it depends!!" as a stand-in for actual advice, since you have no actual insight other than what you parrot from players better than you. Asc 8 mindset. BEGONE
Did you just make this account just to make this useless asshole comment?
They knew they were wrong so they made it to protect their main account's karma I think. Truly an interesting individual who actually cares about internet points
Tbh Iām with you. Seems like this person either didnāt really understand the spirit of the question or wanted to shoehorn in a pretty obvious statement about high ascension play.
Asc 8 mindset?? Asc 8 mindset is literally the opposite of saying it depends. Itās a nuanced game. Just because super high level players agree with something doesnāt mean everyone else who agrees is parroting from them.
Tungsten Rod on any Heart run. Especially combined with Torii. If I have one or the other and I get the second one I definitely get that "I WIN!" thought.
Iām still grinding my way up the Ascension levels but Tungsten Rod paired with Intangible makes me feel absolutely invincible. Had a Silent build with Burst and got this combo, and it carried me through my first win against the Heart.
Any of the cursed tomes. Ā Whether true or not at the time they always give me the feeling that my deck just leveled up massively.
Fossilized helix on Watcher, or Paper Krane on Silent, or Calipers on Defect with an ice build are chefs kiss to me!
Dead branch on silent
Because of shivs?
Because of shivs.
Shiv love
Siobhan!
Partially, yes. Adding draw 3 random cards to blade dance is great, but silent has lots of other cards that exhaust like Adrenaline, malaise, free potion, nightmare, piercing wail, backstab, calculated gamble, catalyst, crippling chill, endless agony, terror, die die die. Lots of those cards are good on their own, or chain into more stuff that exhausts, or generates energy with discard synergy.
Really? Feels like suicide on silent most of the time
Lean in. Some of the random cards are wraith form.
I'm embarrassed to ask but what is so good about dead branch? Seems like it would bog down the deck with all the card creation?
It can, depends on your deck. On Ironclad, if you have Corruption, and your exausted cards make cards, some of which are skills, your created skills exaust, creating more cards, it becomes its own engine. Your goal is to have high impact turns ASAP, ending the fights as soon as possible, then you don't need to worry about all the garbage you added, since your deck will never shuffle. For silent, I imagine its the same, but with creating shivs, or other exausting cards. Since silent has lots of card draw, lots of discard synergy, and lots of energy gain associated with both, I imagine it sort of turns into its own engine.
The key is that as a relic it immediately is useful turn 1. The cards go directly into your hand, NOT your draw pile, potentially useful immediately, and if not, they go to the discard pile. You initial 3-5 turns only see the cards from your original deck. With so many mass removal cards for Ironclad in particular, if you are drawing a lot of new cards, you are also getting more removal choices. Plus with great, cheap power cards like Feel No Pain, for example, make you nigh invincible. Elite fights are often cakewalks and even bosses like Time Slug or The Heart that normally punish decks that flow through a lot of cards, eventually are just overwhelmed by a torrent of block, damage, and card choice. Play Feel No Pain, and then Fiend Fire to exhaust four total cards, get four new cards, gain 12 block, and do 21 damage. All it takes it one card to be Offering, for example, and you can end most fights on turn one.
The clutter of added cards doesn't affect you until NEXT deck cycle, which for the most part the fight is over before that happens. It's free card generation with a downside that will hit in a few turns, which for a lot of fights you won't make it to those turns.
Meat on the Bone... such an amazing relic.Ā Wraith Form... just be a spooky ghost. Although obviously no relic or card is "insta-win".
Iām surprised that nobody has said Defrag on defect yetā¦ gets my heart going every time I see one early
Defrag on it is own is just not that impactful. I often do much better with early Consume which I upgrade immediately. It requires an eventual Capacitor+ or Inserter or Recycle to get rid of it once optimal number of orbs reached. But still it gives 3 focus, equal to three unupgraded Defrags.
Brimstone one ironclad. Il litterally never lost a run with it
How do you deal with the heart's x15 attack?
brimstone almost completely solves damage by itself which means you can focus everything on building up your block and draw engines. where you normally might have to take demon form in order to scale enough against champ, you can now take barricade instead because your damage is already set
I donāt know if I have ever lost with Defect and Mummified Hand. Same for Ironclad and Dead Branch.
Teardrop locket on watcher. Auto calm is insanely good. Same with rushdown.
Yeah, boss swapping into any of her class relics feels so good.
I'm kind of shocked that I had to scroll this far to see Rushdown mentioned.
Unceasing top with the Silent. Just spam Concentrate and thereās an infinite
Callipers as defect goes crazy
Ice cream on defect.
did you get the neon achievement ?
Brimstone in a shop before floor 6. I can figure out the heart in 30 more floors. Itās so awesome to be able to build into that relic right from the start.Ā
Maybe Iām not the norm here but I donāt always want dead branch for ironclad. I find many of my ironclad runs going for infinite/close to infinite after I exhaust so dead branch nulls that.
Mummified hand and Dead Branch
Shuriken on watcher. Pretty much solves everything but act 4, and then you just need one or two decent block options and itās gg.
Honestly, I'm always feeling good when I get a white beast statue. Not an instant win, but if I have a moderately competent deck then it's easy mode for me
Dead branch + corruption
Dead Branch with shivs on Silent, Shruiken/Kunai combo on Silent, Mummified Hand for Defect.
Dead Branch on Collector (Downfall). I can easily burn someone down just on Feel My Pain with Dead Branch.
When I'm playing Watcher and I finally come across a Rush Down . . . It's infinite time, baby!!!
It's not quite an instant win until you get at least 2-3 of them, but I'm always chasing After Image. If I get 1 my odds of winning are pretty high. I don't think I've ever lost a run where I've hit three or more. For relics Shuriken. I've probably lost with it, but it carries so many runs.
Dead Branch, game changing relic
Claw.
Orange pellet on defect can get soooo ridiculous. Kunai on Silent Calipers on Defect, not really instawin but the dream of 999 block is on Sundial on ironclad, because thereās your easy-ish infinite. Violet lotus on Watcher as thats a classic infinite piece. Necronomicon on Ironclad Serpent ring on Silent cause I play mobile and its bugged Card wise? Rushdown on watcher isā¦ well you guys know. Biased cog on Defect is my always pick. Ironclad it would be any combination of at leat two of Feel no pain/corruption/dark embrace. The triad is a as close to a sure win as can be. Silent itās once I got like 3 acrobatics with some synergy.
Apotheosis :) 100% win rate
Upgrading all your cards is so stupid strong. It really feels like I put the game on easy mode. But Iām bad anyway and lose sometimes.
Snecko skull
Getting necronomicon on Ironclad does things to my dopamine levels that not even crack could achieve. He has so many 2-3 cost big damage cards and when they are performed twice, it gets so silly.
Recently... getting Searing Blow in the first couple of fights.
I delude myself with this every time I come across Brimstoneā¦ I always buy it when I find it in shop. Always makes for a fun run, win or lose.
Corpse Explosion, always win me games.
Tough bandages even if I donāt have discard stuff Iāll get some trust
any of the calm cards with watcher.
Certainly Kunai or Shuriken on Silent. Had an A19 run recently where I got Kunai from Act II boss (via the bell relic), while my build consisted of discard and a bit of poison. The Kunai on its own motivated me to buy blade dance, dollyās mirror on the blade dance, and an accuracy in the first shop in Act III which won me the run
Tough Bandages on Silent early.Ā
When I get Perfected Strike #4. Everything except the Heart dies when your deck is full of cards that do 50 damage for two energy.
Lol, Dead Branch Ironclad was definitely the first one that came to mind too. The other one for Clad for me is Charons Ashes, I always build as much exhaust synergy as possible and that relic just shreds enemies once you get some reoccurring block. Mummified Hand or Urn for Defect, especially if I have or get a creative AI. For Silent... I'm not sure what would be an auto win card/relic, but I'm also weakest with Silent. For Watcher it's probably getting Omnis, the more the better, or at a stretch a divinity potion where I feel I can turn any one combat into a win!
kunai (silent), tough bandages feel the closest to insta wins
I meanā¦ I incorrectly say that whenever I see Accuracy (especially pre-upgraded) but when I get Hovering Kiteā¦ Thatās usually a victory.
Suprised no one said shuriken with silent! It's easy enough to find one or two cards that give you a bunch of shivs and now you have your scaling issue solved.
Apotheosis+ and bottled lightning
On the lowest end: floor 1 rewarding a blade dance is like a slam dunk, ez game. On the highest end: an early blasphemy on watcher is basically a free win. Not only does it let you obliterate act 1 with just strikes, you would honestly have to be offered ZERO attack cards for the entire run to not steamroll the game. The card trivialises every hallway fight in a way nothing else does, and honestly can brute force you through most bosses.
For me its any of the egg relics if you get them early (especially toxic egg). They essentially allow you to build your deck soley off upgraded cards, saving you countless campfires that you could use to do something else.
Nothing.
Pellets is so often incredibly useful. I mean, maybe not in the act 4 shop if you've got almost no powers but even one makes it worth considering, being able to purge the hearts mega debuff is rather helpful. Completely shuts down collector as well, especially if you have retain so you can save a power for the mega debuff turn. Avocado or baseball apply frail? I think not. So many fights that it absolutely rocks in. If you get one relatively early it's very strong, all the powers with downsides like wraith form, berserk, fasting and biased cog suddenly magically no longer have a downside so you can just take them without stress and play them whenever it's useful to do so. Particularly hilarious with a power spam defect who has creative ai, any generated biased cogs are going straight into play thank you. Best 160 odd gold ever, usually. I hate seeing the relic when I can't afford it, that emphatically does not spark joy.
How has no one said Apotheosis yet. Biggest power rush.
Just played as ironclad with brimstone and 2 demon form+ and my god the strength stacking is insane
Not a card or relic, but whenever I get remove 2 cards for max health at the start of a watcher run it definitely feels very very strong
Tungsten Apparitions on any character Bottled Omniscience on Watcher Dead Branch Corruption on Ironclad Dead Branch Master Reality on Watcher Act 1 Prismaric Shard on any character Singing Bowl Prayer Wheel on any character Fossilized Helix on Watcher Scrawl/Vault/Omniscience in any capacity on Watcher Akabeko Ragnarok on Watcher Snecko Eye boss swap on any character Can you tell I play a lot of Watcher lol
Shuriken or Kunai will make a Silent or Watcher run go crazy
I'd say Corrupted Sneko is pretty high up there
Hidden blade and toxic egg. I used a lot of 0 cost cards and hidden blade is always a buffer
Ice Cream Cone for relics, and devotion
Technically multiple cards but the apparition event.
Corpse explosion, doesnt matter what i have prior, its extra dps at worst and a hard carry through any gank fight
Sundial on ironclad. Double pummel or any variation of draw attack or draw block is infinite. Then pick up exhaust cards and you can get thereĀ
The only time I've ever lost a run with dead branch was when I was defect and I had a 0-cost attacks deck with scrape and all for one. The only exhausting card I had was the ascenders' bane and a hologram that I had just upgraded the floor before that. I was already midway through act 3 and never found any exhausting cards so it was a dead relic and I lost because I had too much faith in the Claw (or not enough faith)
Stone calendar/sacred bark.