Deck Building the Stygian Guard

[Beowulf]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2372297977
Out of all the factions in the game the only one I really don't understand how to play is the Guard, either as a ally or as the primary deck, so i'm looking for tips.

As for my specific problem, there cards feel far too gimmicky, very support focused but very little real power for killing enemies combined along with being very upgread intensive and requiring other cards to make combinations work like frostbite or offering which is difficult to pull off both in getting the cards and the upgreads.

While there is some synergy with the two clans that I have done, the others just don't seem to work together at all, any help you guys can give would be appretiated.

[PsYcHo_O]

There are more or less 3 ways to play Stygian Guard.

Frostbite:
Quite easy to build since there are lots of ways to apply it, if you get the artifact to apply +2 frostbite it's an easy win most of the time. Usually it relies on the champ (both are good at it) to stack enough frostbite on bosses. The shark with frostbite on revenge is a nice tank. If you can't heal/armor/revive him, put endless on him. Obviously don't pick it with the exiled champ. The sweeper with frostbite can be nice with multi strike, but loses quite a bit of value late game. Try to set up on the bottom floor for maximum frostbite ticks on heavy units. Avoid the challenge with full heal on floor change and thorns on the regular champ. Sweepers are a hard counter for the regular champ, keep that in mind.

Spell weakness:
Just stack as much as you can on the boss and blast him for 5k damage with a single spell. The sweeper with multi strike can be great to clear floors, since Stygians have lots of multi-hit spells. Try not to hit the boss with weak spells and waste his stacks. The exiled champ doesn't really bring anything to the table for this build, but can be a decent tank and/or semi incant, since you will play mainly spells. Avoid spell shield challenge.

Incant:
Can be quite insane and simple. Just play as many spells as you can and stack crazy amounts of hp and damage (or rage) on those fish ladies. Doesn't even matter what spell you play, anything will do. Works good with the frostbite path of the exiled champ, but your champ is more of a nice bonus here. If you get the double incant artifact, you win. Card draw and 0-cost spells are your friend. Sometimes it's better to let some enemies through instead of using your spells on the wrong floor to finish them off.

Incant can be combined with pretty much everything. The incant = sap thingy (totem? idk) is expensive to play but can be really insane. The other "totems" (or whatever they are called) are strong too, even if you just slap more hp on them for a little extra tanking. Keep in mind though, that 0 damage enemies won't attack, which will not trigger revenge, same goes for damage shield.
In general, Stygian Guard has a hard time to survive on it's own. Endless units and/or support from other clans are a great complement. And of course, the general rules apply to Stygians too. Don't bloat your deck and be picky about extra cards. If you can only play 7 spells a turn, don't have 14 in your deck. You need a plan to kill double heavy, back line and bosses.

[ShinryuEXE]

As always, knowing what part you're struggling with (bosses, killing heavy frontliners, killing backliners, keeping champion alive, etc.) helps narrow down the suggestions.
That said, some general tips:

= Incant units are very powerful:
- Guard of the Unnamed makes for a great frontline tank (especially if you Merchant of Steel him for Incant Armor as it will stack with his natural Incant Armor)
- Siren of the Sea and Nameless Siren are both strong scaling damage dealers. Just give them Multistrike and they can easily start taking down one or two frontliners by themselves per attack. And in Relentless as long as you have a tank in front of them, or have incanted enough HP with Siren of the Sea for her to tank hits, they will pump out a ton of damage. Also with Siren of the Sea, if you give her Endless the stat changes from her Incant stay for the whole battle so if she dies and you play her again she does retain all that extra attack and hp.
- Guardian Stone takes only one capacity but can help keep your whole floor alive. Its low capacity lets it slot in easily to a lot of floors and adds a lot of extra survivability to the floor. Play it behind your tank but in front of your damage dealers so it gives you a bit of extra time to soak damage during relentless. It also helps keep Tethys protected from enemies with Sweep, which can be a major problem for Tethys since she's so squishy.
- Glacial Seal: Doesn't provide a lot of frostbite with each incant, but since it applies to the whole floor a little bit can go a long way. Two or Three incants is enough for the frostbite to kill most backliners, acting as a sort of form of sweep for the floor. Also it will apply to Seraph/Talos/Fel/Archus/Daedalus if they're positioned at that floor when you cast, which is not a ton of damage but it can stack up through the fight and help soften them up.

In general, even with only moderate uses of the Incant triggers you can get a lot of benefits. If you struggle to do this, consider using the Merchant of Magic to -1 cost several of your spells, especially ones that are normally 1 ember so you can make them 0 cost. Combine that with extra draw and you can easily play out your whole hand while still leaving yourself enough ember to play a high cost spell or deal with Scourges or whatnot.

= Offering: Not too difficult to pull off, just needs a bit of planning.
- Things like Offering Token (draw a card, discard a card) directly help you bring other Offering cards online. Put it on Holdover and you can cast it every turn, always discarding an Offering Card if you have one in your hand for a free extra cast, which also lets you just put more magic power on Crypt Builder or Holdover or whatever other upgrade you want without having to worry about its mana cost since you'll be casting it for free every time you see it. It also is a free Incant trigger every turn even if you don't end up using it to cast an Offering spell. It also helps you cycle through your deck faster so you can get to the cards you want and past the ones you don't want.
- Forgone Power (the exile starter card) randomly makes you discard a card as part of casting. Not as consistent as Offering Token, but can help you cast out Offering spells for free. Again, being 0 cost makes it essentially a free incant trigger as well. As with most Stygian cards, works best with extra draw bonuses to offset the discard effect.

= Spell Weakness can be really potent.
- Lots of ways to go about it, but basically make a strong spell or two, stack up the spell weakness, then hit them with the strong spell and they explode. Can easily deal thousands of damage in a single hit. Admittedly not my favorite strategy, but it can easily murder both heavy frontline units and bosses themselves.

= Tethys: Squishy but powerful
- I actually don't like playing Tethys all that much, but not because she's bad. Each of Tethys' upgrade paths can be incredibly potent, especially against bosses. Lots of different options to play around with here, but if you're struggling consider trying 2 levels of frostbite Tethys and one of Spell Weakness as it'll also give her Sweep on all of her attacks, making her stack a good chunk of frostbite on the frontliners, kill all the backliners, and even stack Spell Weakness and Frostbite on the boss throughout the battle so by the time you hit Relentless they're much easier to kill.
- Again, Tethys is squishy and needs a good tank, which you can either get from Stygian itself (Guard of the Unnamed, Titan Sentry, Siren of the Sea) or from whatever your ally clan is. Also benefits from Guardian Stone stacking armor on her as it protects her from Sweep enemies (or you can use Stealth or use Awoken spells to give her extra max hp, etc.)

= Solgard: Basically the Incant Champion.
- Coldchannel wants to be your frontline tank, but needs some type of support to stay alive. Again, if you have strong enough incanting via Guardian Stone you can use that to keep him alive, or you can give Max Hp and healing via Awoken, or armor from Hellhorned, etc. If you are struggling to keep him alive you can also splash one level of Titanchannel with two levels of Coldchannel as it gives him a lot more max hp and the first level of Titanchannel isn't too hard to hit to bring him online early. That said, since his frostbite triggers every time he gets hit, he can provide a massive amount of frostbite every turn. You can even trigger it extra times by hitting him with your own spells like Torches.
- Direchannel is a bit more awkward but can pump out strong damage. Basically just works like any other incant backliner. The biggest detriment I see with Direchannel is that his ability only hits the front unit, so you need some way to kill other units on the floor. That said, his ability bypasses Stealth and doesn't make him take damage from Spikes and such, so it can be nice in certain fights.
- Titanchannel is just awkward and easily my least favorite upgrade. Can be good to splash in for extra max hp, but is really awkward to bring online in a timely manner at max upgrade unless you have a very well tuned Incant deck. That said, once he is online he's just a very powerful beatstick and tank, so y'know.

= Some clan combo specific plans:
- Hellhorned: Has a lot of targeted damage spells or sweep which can help if you're having issues killing backliners. Can help stack armor either via spells or via Welder Helper which is useful for Solgard or Titan Sentry or whatever unit you use to use as a tank. Can contribute units either to tank or to be damage dealers, like Demon Fiend which can function in either role. Deranged Brute also combos super well with Nameless Siren as he buffs her already considerable rage generation. Armor cards can be used to keep Tethys alive through Sweep units if necessary.

- Awoken: Can contribute tanks if necessary, though several of them are high capacity so it's not my favorite option. Rootseeds (exile starter card) are a great incant trigger since you can always play them on the floor you want, you can easily turn them into 0 cost, and they give you extra draw for the following turn. Lots of healing which can help keep Solgard or Titan Sentry alive as a frontliner. Can also give spikes to Solgard, Titan Sentry, Guard of the Unnamed, or whatever else is your tank to help kill of backliners or tank multistrike bosses/etc.

- Umbra: Plinks and Shadesplitters can both be used for easy incant triggers, even if you don't care about the other effect they provide. Perils of Production can be a nice Holdover card as it provides a bit of extra damage scaling, is a 0 cost card, and gives you extra ember for whatever you want to use that turn. In general Umbra can get past most problems by setting up a Gorging unit top floor (Penumbra, Crucible Warden, Overgorger) and just scaling it up with morsels throughout the fight while you set up your other units bottom or mid to kill off the waves while you bring the top floor online. In particular, Solgard or Titan Sentry (or Coldcaelia) can be great at this as their frostbite generation works like sweep and helps kill off the backliners before they reach the top floor while also softening up the frontliners. Of note, Damage Shield does not work with Revenge, so be wary of using it on Solgard or Titan Sentry.

- Melting Remnant: Melting Remnant can be strong just doing its own thing, but still lots it can contribute with Stygian. Dregs can help you get past the first couple rings while you draft/upgrade the units you're more excited for. Reform lets you reuse Titan Sentry repeatedly even if it dies so you can just play it out front, let it revenge til it dies, then reform it and do it again. Reform also keeps the stat gains from Siren of the Sea. Of note, Reform does not work well with Solgard as he loses all his Shards upon reforming. Stealth, especially via an Endless or repeatedly reformed Molten Encasement, can help keep Tethys or your other backline units safe which lets you scale up Incant with impunity or lets them sit there wailing on bosses stacking up more and more frostbite or spell weakness which can win a fight all on its own. Some powerful spells like Mortal Entrapment, Subsuming Blade, and Memento Mori can all be used to combo with Spell Weakness. Etc.


I recognize this was a sort of rambling list of things, but I hope it helps.

[N.N.Q]

Haven't played so long, but my highest score yet, I got with Guard. Adding frostbite
early on enemies, also on endbosses befor final wave, can really work out on the long run.

[zaycdr]

трорргщгкаапождорчпблормлооорплпмяфпоогге

[Tripitaka (HUN)]

Weird. I haven't played for too long, but I played with guard the most, in fact, I heard a few people say and I also believe it is the "best one" apparently. Incant is the key. Get sirens with "incant: gain armor 2", get a tank, get ♥♥♥♥ ton of card draw and cheap spells, and spam spam spam spam spam spam......

One of my runs literally ended with two 200x2 sirens with 150 armor as my backliners. I don't even talk about the tank.
Also, they have massively powerful spells. Helical crystalis, ice tornado, and by far the best in my experience: ancient synergy is busted. They kill the tanks for you while you "scale up". If you get cost recution on them, ( especially with spell reduction tethys titansbane ) they even help scaling.

I don't have much experience with other builds of stygian, but I know they exist so I encourage looking them up.