Any Must-Have Starting Pieces for Building Around Consumer of Crowns?

[Smuckem]

Now that I've maxed out Hellhorned level, am looking to try this for funsies at some point in the future--that you need to build an Imp-heavy deck for this is obvious I would think, but beyond that I'm looking for some of the nitty-gritty details that would ensure using him is doable.

Since it's easy to just soft reset for your "starting kit", so to speak, what would be the optimal random starting cards or starting Artifact(s) to have on hand in case you manage to find the Consumer early, or at all? Who would be the optimal Allied clan to go with to facilitate this? Since Imp deck is all but needed, any particular Imps or Imp-centric Spells I should prioritize at the start?

[s†. Chris†opher]

The best way is to have remnant as your ally and start with flicker's liquor.

summoning a unit (like a 0 cost dreg) reduces the cost of a random card in your hand to 0.

so essentially you just burn your low cost spells and then use dregs/imps/train stewards to reduce the cost of consumer of crowns to 0.

[Malkav0]

I have put it to use with the relic to have imps given in hand, and a few starting imps. And some luck too, quick multi strike access, space upgrade through event and duplication of it (early and late, 3 copies total).

[Xenrathe]

Other players' experience may be different, but the one time I tried to build Consumer of Crowns was the last time I tried to build him. Here's what happened and what I learned:

I had incredible luck of draws, at least in terms of imps, so I had a lot of imps, and I ended up duplicating a powerful quick multi-strike consumer of crowns several times. So I had FOUR, and I thought the run was in the bag.

Unfortunately, I began to suspect the game doesn't have truly random deck shuffling. Instead, it tends to prioritize units to the front of your deck. Which makes sense, for nearly every other build. But it was a disaster for Consumer of Crowns. Despite having FOUR of them, I very rarely was able to deploy even ONE before my first reshuffle. I'd often pull all four within the first two draws - and this wasn't with an especially lean deck.

This was triply bad: I had cards in my hand I couldn't use; I wasn't able to deploy my biggest hitter and tank; and instead of sacrificing imps to take hits, I had to keep them alive and in the back row.

Possibly I simply had an incredible run of bad luck, but I doubt it. Pay attention and you'll notice how often your big units get drawn in the first couple hands.

So to answer your question, I'd echo Kris' comments, and suggest that actually using imps to lower cost is NOT the way to use Consumer. Instead, you need some combo that lowers cost of spells to 0. In addition to flicker's liquor, I think there's also a Stygian, frozen combo that'll do it. And there may be others. Or, as Malkav0 said, artifact or cards that guarantee a steady stream of imps.

[Leopanther]

Volatile Gauge.

Not must-have, but makes it very easy to get high-cost units like Consumer of Crowns or Siege Engine in play if you find them. (and the extra card draw is great to draw the cards you want to play. Can still reduce spell costs with upgrades, they apply after the randomized energy cost.)

[gruetoo]

alternatively, if you have Sketches of Salvation, you can have some Consumer of Crowns be the only units in your deck and get a bunch out for free. slap on some multistrike and destroy anything that dares enter the second floor.

[s†. Chris†opher]

Originally posted by Leopanther:

Volatile Gauge.

Not must-have, but makes it very easy to get high-cost units like Consumer of Crowns or Siege Engine in play if you find them. (and the extra card draw is great to draw the cards you want to play. Can still reduce spell costs with upgrades, they apply after the randomized energy cost.)

oh yeah. can't believe i forgot about gauge. i guess its cause it wasn't the last artifact i used to field consumers.

gauge is definitely the best way.

the problem is, you can start a run with gauge etc but never get consumers.

[Leopanther]

Originally posted by Kris✅:

Originally posted by Leopanther:

Volatile Gauge.

Not must-have, but makes it very easy to get high-cost units like Consumer of Crowns or Siege Engine in play if you find them. (and the extra card draw is great to draw the cards you want to play. Can still reduce spell costs with upgrades, they apply after the randomized energy cost.)

oh yeah. can't believe i forgot about gauge. i guess its cause it wasn't the last artifact i used to field consumers.

gauge is definitely the best way.

the problem is, you can start a run with gauge etc but never get consumers.

Though gauge is also quite strong on its own. The +3 card drawn is very strong especially in higher covenants, where its more important to get through your deck faster to get the good cards while ignoring most of the trashy starter cards that cluster your deck. And it's not very hard to manage with the randomized energy costs, thanks to reliable energy cost reduction upgrades for spells and energy+ enhancements after major bosses.

I think I'd rather take a Volatile Gauge early than taking Consumer of Crowns or Shadow Siege early. Gauge is always useful, while Consumer or Shadow Siege can end up as unplayable 'curse' cards that not only cluster your deck, but also slow down your 'guaranteed unit draw' in the early turns of card drawing. Sometimes its worth the risk of taking them and hoping to somehow get to play them later. But overall I believe its more reliable to first get something that helps playing them, since that something usually also helps in other ways even if you don't get the big-cost units.

[Zero]

I had very strange consumer of crown run.

I got artifact that gives me a random imps each turn, and my deck only has 2 imps: endless imp that gives me consumed card, and 1 deal 5 damage imp.

In the end, I run a lot of imp spell related cards, and it works so damn well and consumer of crown with multistrike obliterate almost anything

[Smuckem]

Originally posted by gruetoo:

alternatively, if you have Sketches of Salvation, you can have some Consumer of Crowns be the only units in your deck and get a bunch out for free. slap on some multistrike and destroy anything that dares enter the second floor.

As it turns out, I had one run with this combo last night and nearly had an easy Rank 2 win on my very 1st attempt. The combo can work quite well, but I shot myself in the foot running it with some key mistakes:
- unit bloat in general
- exacerbating this bloat was my 1st obtaining of Railspike Colony; in the process of trying to do both this and Consumer as main thrusts of the deck; as it has been explained to me since, Sketches and Colony are very anti-synergistic
- I had planned to use Hidden Passage often to get my Hornbreaker behind the bulked up middle floor and get his Slay and Rage buffs from there, but I had only one Passage and like an idiot, never replicated it even when I had the chance, instead exaberating the unit bloat further; there were three battles where Hornbreaker was out late and one where he never came out period
- I actually replicated the Consumer once but then, for some reason, gave him that one upgrade that gives him a bunch more health and attack but turns him into a Purge card; I was thinking that being drawn by the Sketches would not count as a Purgeable draw, but alas...so I went into Seraph one key unit down on top of everything else

Lots of mistakes to fix what otherwise would have been a surefire cruise to Rank 3. In the meantime, I will try all suggestions, at least until I get the Consumer gold-framed.

[Leopanther]

One thing to also be wary of when using Sketches of Salvation: The battles with Haste enchanters. They neatly skip your bulked up middle floor which can end up ending your run right there if you have no method to deal with them.

Hellhorned have their fireballs which can deal with the Haste enchanters quite easily - if you draw one on every turn and didn't turn on a 'enemy units enter with 10 or 15 armor' or 'enemy units enter with 2 spell shield' Trial.

A swiper unit from Stygian or Awoken may also help with this - but only if it doesn't get auto-summoned to the middle floor, which is very likely to happen.

In general you'll need a bunch of targeted or swiping spells - or a healthy pyre with some pyre strengthening artifact(s) to deal with this battle if you have Sketches of Salvation. Worst case scenario, you don't draw any card that can kill the Haste Enchanter that spawns together with the boss - making the Boss skip your bulked up middle floor.

Oh yeah, ascending your units from middle to top floor (or descending to bottom floor) may also be a valid tactic for this.