Offering and discard

[Dassenkop]

I started playing this week and still have to win my first run ... I don't understand Offering, how and how you 'discard' a card. This is what I found on offereing on the web for reference.

Offering

Offering cards can be cast from hand, but if you discard them from your hand during your turn, you can get them to go off for free.

[Uncle Al]

You generally use another spell that has a discard effect attached to it. Things like Offering Token (draw a card, discard a card) or Frenzied Swarm (apply Dazed 1 to enemy units, discard your hand).

[Dassenkop]

Clear and thx. So I have to look for cards with 'discard' effects. I didn't consider Offering Token in my runs but now I understand its potential value.

[Zeel Ara]

You may also want to look for ways to add "Permafrost" to cards. A frozen offering card can sit in your hand until you get a way to discard it, so you don't rely on everything being drawn together. It's not always the correct approach, but it's a synergy you should definitely explore.

[enricofermi2]

Personally I think most offering cards arn't very good either way. They lack the power to be win conditions, but you need to build your deck around them to make them work. Since you want lots of discard and offering cards together.

The most reliable discard effect is the (draw 1, discard 1), card. But even then your trading a card draw to get a free cast of a spell.

[Manxome]

Originally posted by enricofermi2:

The most reliable discard effect is the (draw 1, discard 1), card. But even then your trading a card draw to get a free cast of a spell.

I don't think that's quite the trade-off being made. Try looking at it this way:

Let's suppose that "normally" you'd draw and play 5 cards on your turn.

Now suppose you draw a hand that includes both a Token and an Offering (plus 3 other cards). You play the Token, causing you to draw a card (you now have 4 "other" cards) and discard a card. You choose to discard the Offering, which means it actually gets played. Thus, on this turn, you get to play the Offering plus the remaining 4 cards in your hand, for 5 cards total (not counting the Token).

If an Offering that was permanently modified to cost 0 is a card that you would want in your deck, then you haven't lost anything in this scenario. You played just as many cards as in the "normal" default case (5), but one of them was a free Offering.

If you could guarantee that Tokens and Offerings always got drawn together in pairs, there would be essentially no downside. I guess it means you don't get to see your fifth card (for planning purposes) until you've played the Offering, but that's pretty minor. (On the other hand, the Token triggers Incant effects, which for the Stygians is often helpful.)

The main downside comes when you draw them separately, rather than together.

If you play the Token with no Offering, it still draws a card to replace itself, but then you need to discard something and get no benefit for it. If your hand contains a card that you wouldn't have played anyway (either because you would have run out of ember, or because that card just wasn't useful this turn), then this doesn't matter, and you end up in the same position as if you hadn't had the Token in your deck. But on turns when you otherwise would have played your entire hand, the Token forces you to discard something instead of playing it. (This is still probably better than outright losing a draw, because you get to choose which card to not play.)

And if you draw the Offering with no Token, then you either pay its full normal cost (in which case it's probably not very efficient) or you choose not to play it (in which case it's a dead card--on that hand, you effectively lost a draw).


Also, obviously, there is the opportunity cost of not getting to take whatever cards you could have gotten instead of the Offering and the Token.


If you decide to try freezing cards so you can wait for them to pair up, you should keep the hand limit in mind--once you have 10 cards in-hand (including frozen cards from previous turns), you can't draw any more cards, even if you would normally be entitled to. If your deck has a lot of +draw, frozen cards can turn into a liability.

The Conduit upgrade for the Stygian champion Tethys can also help with playing damage-dealing Offerings (Crypt Builder).

[DJDiceZ]

Some of the discard/offering cards have been buffed with attuned so they are quite strong. Crypt builder has all the frontloaded damage you need. Titanstooth works as your aoe/frostbite offering card. Guardian Amulet's can destroy a boss or a floor. On the other hand, you also get pretty solid discard cards like the sap one, deep offering allowing you to discard all your offering cards AND get a second hand this turn, stunning enemies with the other discard all is a solid debuff aswell, and Titan's Gratitude has been buffed with attuned too. The new stygian champion starts with discard cards making this deck much more likely to work (although too many discards will work against you eventually).