What deck to build in order to beat the dealer?

[Sader]

god knows I have tried over 50 times with no success.
What deck startegy should I go for?
I've read many people saying nyph of the sweetwood is good, but I still don't have that card, I fail to get enough food for the trading store thingie that unlocks it.
anybody knows good method to build up food for it?
there are many cards I am missing, I keep failing to reach the requirements for blood auction, the trading store and much more.
I always fail the blacksmith encounter too.
Can someone give me some tips?

[Bomoo]

Endless mode is a great place to unlock those cards. Even if you run into cards you can't interact with on the first encounter, try and live long enough to run into them again, and you'll be good.

[Lucid]

Jack of Scales is the best story mode to grind on imo. His curses aren't that bad, and the levels are long enough to get the resources to unlock tokens. As sad as it is, you just have to get the nymphs card, and get it early. Most of the other unlocks aren't really worth it. The final charity gives you a ring that's completely useless on the last boss.

[thanos6]

Go for defense first, speed second, and offense a distant third.

[ryven]

How far are you getting? If you're reaching the final boss but underequipped, remember that there's always a shop on the final floor. If you can get there with enough food and gold, you can keep stepping off of it and back on until you've bought everything you needed. I like Rat Cleaver + Skeleton King Shield + Herne's Antlers + Hag's Wraps for that fight, with a side of Ring of Justice and Time Heals for insurance.

If you're having trouble getting there - you can win without Nymphs. I didn't draw it early enough to be worth taking on my winning run. You need to generate enough gold to buy off bad curses, though. If you get an opportunity to take a gold-generating item like Plunderer's Cap or Mercenary Contract, be sure to go for it. Also keep an eye out for the Oracle's Diadem, so that you can avoid or prepare for difficult encounters.

Deck advice, go through your deck and cut out any cards that interact with Blessings, because you probably won't have any. This includes encounters like Old Graveyard that check your blessing count to decide if you get a good or bad result. Also cut any challenging unlock cards like the Blacksmith or the Druids - you don't want to be attempting those when you're trying to beat the Dealer. Stack your encounter deck with safe cards. Any card that has variable difficulty levels that affect its risk/reward ratio (like The Crucible) will always be on the hardest difficulty in this round, so only keep them if you can live with that.

[thanos6]

Originally posted by ryven:

If you can get there with enough food and gold, you can keep stepping off of it and back on until you've bought everything you needed.

It wouldn't let me do that on the final floor. Once I was on the shop, I could only go forward.

[Neoman]

Either hit up Endless Mode or do something like Jack of Skulls for Nymphs. It is really almost necessary against the Dealer. Taking him down while haggered by curses is asking for trouble.
Try to get Feathered Ice as well; it's great cc, has lots of charges and can let you take apart each of the dealer's gangs.
Equipment-wise, try to come in with Hag's Wraps (slowing enemies down is super important), Herne's Antlers (you can take another helm, but I prefer being able to kill the scales bosses quickly) and the Rat Cleaver (same thing, but for Plague bosses).
The Dealer himself isn't too much trouble, just avoid his attacks and press the QTEs when they come up.

[Duck-Goes-Quack]

My normally plan for the dealer is Berserker Ring and/or Holy Ring(Blood Auction and Charity 2 respectively) Spirit Walk or Time Heals but I will settle of Damocles because of synergy with my only weapon the Blood Cresent.

Blood Cresent drains 20% of your life in exchange for an instant kill which I try to use only on the kings. Berserker/Holy ring can be used to full heals on the Skulls round and if you play the skulls round correctly you can get a second heal at the end of the Plague round(only works with Berserker ring). Time Heals is used to undo damage done by all sources or Spirit Walk can be used to quickly kill the Rat King(Two hits) and the King of Scales(Three hits) and then if you mess up placement during the moving beams rounds you can just heal or become immune.

Now why Damocles you ask? Damocles uses a prone attack for it's ability and any weapon with finisher(Dragon Sword and Blood Cresent) have instant finisher for their ability. So if you position youself correctly and use Damocles you get instant kills on bosses but the positioning is really tight on most bosses because you have to be right on top of them. I would still take Time Heals or Spirit Walk over Damocles as they are much more reliable and work with every weapon

[Sader]

Originally posted by ryven:

How far are you getting? If you're reaching the final boss but underequipped, remember that there's always a shop on the final floor. If you can get there with enough food and gold, you can keep stepping off of it and back on until you've bought everything you needed. I like Rat Cleaver + Skeleton King Shield + Herne's Antlers + Hag's Wraps for that fight, with a side of Ring of Justice and Time Heals for insurance.

If you're having trouble getting there - you can win without Nymphs. I didn't draw it early enough to be worth taking on my winning run. You need to generate enough gold to buy off bad curses, though. If you get an opportunity to take a gold-generating item like Plunderer's Cap or Mercenary Contract, be sure to go for it. Also keep an eye out for the Oracle's Diadem, so that you can avoid or prepare for difficult encounters.

Deck advice, go through your deck and cut out any cards that interact with Blessings, because you probably won't have any. This includes encounters like Old Graveyard that check your blessing count to decide if you get a good or bad result. Also cut any challenging unlock cards like the Blacksmith or the Druids - you don't want to be attempting those when you're trying to beat the Dealer. Stack your encounter deck with safe cards. Any card that has variable difficulty levels that affect its risk/reward ratio (like The Crucible) will always be on the hardest difficulty in this round, so only keep them if you can live with that.

I have reached the dealer 3 times, always dying at the third stage against the rats, they are too difficult.
ever since I wasn't even able to reach the dealer anymore, I just don't understand, first dungeon and I run into a random battle that draws me heavy creatures like the king of bandits + jack of bandits, or king of rats + queen of rats, on the first/second dungeon when I have the starting equips, it's just crazy how am I supposed to beat that.