Seeing Red seems useless without upgrading

[♥♥♥♥ Goblin]

Seeing red: +2 energy, exhaust; cost 1 energy. Upgrade: cost reduced to 0.

So by default, since playing the card costs 1 energy, you gain 1 energy and exhaust the card. Compared to some other skills that give 1 energy (and usually do something else like do damage AND they don't exhaust themselves), the card is weak.

I think it would be better if it was either +2 energy, no cost; or upgrading it removes the exhaust instead of reducing the cost, thus you end up with a +1 energy repeatable card.

[SpearOfLies]

A lot of cards are bad before upgrade and became good or insane after update.

[rav]

theres also cards that synergize well with exhaust effects and usually other cards that give energy rely on other effects like vulnerable or weakened

[SakuraKoi]

Well, it is quite comparable with Outmaneuver, though that one does not exhaust, is made better by the fact that it improves the next turn and can so be simply set up... it sure ain't my top picks, on the contrary, unless I sport many 2 cost cards, I skip, the card draw is better left to any other card.

Another option to improve it slightly may be to add +1 card draw which'd fit into the conext of "seeing red", the Exhaust though really makes it a poor choice still.

[Pixel Peeper]

Essentially, you're going to have one fewer card but one extra Energy the turn when you draw and play it, then it leaves the deck. If your deck has lots of expensive cards or relies on Whirlwind to deal damage, it's nice to have.

But yeah, it's not particularly good unless upgraded. Even then it may not be useful if you don't have anything to spend the extra energy on; it'll just reduce your draw by 1 every time it shows up. You'll have to play it just to remove it from your deck for the fight.

Like most cards, it's bad to have it in your deck unless it fits.

[Zadown]

It's pretty weak yeah, not useless but not great. There's a lot of cards that are rather weak so it's not alone in the "meh" bin of cards, though.

[Zadown]

... having said that, I just had a run where it was good. I had a relic that gives 3 damage to every enemy when a card is exhausted and Ice Cream that allows you to retain your extra energy, so even if I didn't need the energy I played the card and it did a weak AE and gave me that energy next turn.

[Direbear]

It fits some expensive decks which prefer less draw and more energy. But this is not universal card like "Shrug it off" which can be taken without thinking.

[♥♥♥♥ Goblin]

The problem is that you usually get the card when you don't have a full build to synergize with it. In multiple games, I've seen it on level 1 drops, which isn't very useful since I can't customize my deck early enough to plan to 'synergize the exhaust effect'.

I have played a few exhaust builds but those builds tend to rely on a specific card/relic to make the build "work". So planning ahead by picking up this card and then not getting the needed "combo card" means this card is very weak in your deck.

Thus it becomes: "Skip unless I have exhaust synergy" rather than "I can use it even if I don't have other cards to synergize with it" (which imo is more desirable for all card types).

Unless you plan to provide a way to "build a deck before starting the game", then cards like these become "skip" for almost every time they appear.

[Sonmi]

Considering that most cards cost one to play, and you'll usually draw at least five every turn, Seeing Red pretty much means 1 "free" extra basic action every combat (2 upgraded), it's insanely powerful. Once you start rolling expensive cards, or start rocking a draw heavy deck, it should pretty much always be a fixture of your deck, you'll easily start playing 10-12 cards every turn you draw it (which should preferably be on your first turn, thanks to the gambling chip) once you arrive at the third area of the game, clearing most fights in one or two turns.

It synergizes pretty nicely with exhaust trinkets as well, if you need the extra chip damage.

It's essentially only garbage on cheap decks using 0-cost cards because then it becomes useless, but those decks struggle late game in any case.

[goodolarchie™]

I like Seeing Red when I get Ice Cream or Runic Pyramid, even un-upgraded

[flamethrower]

Some people think Silent is too weak, some people think Ironclad is too strong. I won my first game following the brick wall strategy (block + poison cards). I think "Seeing Red" is too weak because it's exhaust. Silent's energy card "Outmaneuver" is the same value (+1 energy or +2 for upgraded) but not exhaust so you stay energized on subsequent shuffles of your deck.