Block with Silent?

[jamesc70]

You pretty much need the better block cards to survive as the Silent, afaik, but I never seem to get any.

Over my last 3 runs, I've only seen a block card availalbe 1 time (the 2 weak 10 block? card). At one store there was another, but I lacked gold.

How do you deal with block as the Silent?

[Shovel Priest]

She has a lot of good block cards, so I've never really had issues with this. Backflip, Blur, Cloak and Dagger, Dash, and Leg Sweep are all solid choices. Footwork with the basic Defends will usually hold you for the first floor as well.

On top of that, an upgraded Neutralize helps a lot to keep enemies Weakened, so it's often one of my first upgrade choices.

Getting card draw cards (especially Prepared and Acrobatics) can help make sure you get to the block cards you *do* have. I almost never turn down having one or two Prepareds, and an Acrobatics is *usually* a good choice, especially if your deck is getting big.

[gradualsmith]

Prepared is only useful upgraded. Acrobatics requires additional energy over 3 per turn to have any real value in extra defence.

[Shovel Priest]

Prepared is *okay* unupgraded, but yeah, if you take it you should plan on upgrading it as soon as possible.

Acrobatics is useful in decks where you haven't been able to add many block cards, and you run the risk of starting a turn with no blocks on a turn where you need blocks. It costs 1 energy, but it gives you another chance to access block cards you otherwise wouldn't have had access to. Sure, a chance within a chance, but Acrobatics is just a good card draw card regardless.

[wckowalski]

Unupgraded prepareds mostly only help you if you have stuff that benefits you when you discard stuff.

[Flavorable]

Originally posted by wckowalski:

Unupgraded prepareds mostly only help you if you have stuff that benefits you when you discard stuff.

Or with After Imagine or Thousand Cuts.

[itssirtou]

Same. I know she has good options I just never seem to see any of them but Backflip. Which is still basically just Defend :\

And truth be told a lot of her defensive options that don't cost 2 are kinda low number, 4-6 when not upgraded. Dodge/Roll is 8, but only 4 per turn. Blur is useless if you can't block everything that comes at you. Deflect is nice in small numbers, because its free. Cloak and Dagger is 6 and upgrading it doesn't increase the block amount, its really only good in Shiv decks.

Really you need the powers to make her defense work. After Image is good for like 4-5 in your average deck, but upwards of 10 per turn in Shiv or Discard Cycle. Well Laid plans lets you hold onto your good defensive cards for when you need them most. Footwork is where its at.

Also shes really good at reducing damage output, with Malaise, Peircing Wail, and a suite of Weaken effects.

[wckowalski]

You don't need block if you make an infinite combo and kill everything first turn (except time eater). It's not too difficult as silent, you just need a small enough deck to draw your whole deck at once and certain cards that give energy and card draw at low cost, and something that deals damage. Simply having two acrobatics and an upgraded tactician along with any attack would be sufficient, though there are a number of other ways to do it. Throw in an escape plan for infinite block so you don't take damage against enemies with thorns and explosion.

[Shovel Priest]

"Don't worry about block, just make an infinite deck" is kind of suspicious advice. It's not *hard* to infinite as Silent, but it's never a guarantee, and it's more difficult than finding a Footwork and a Blur in the same run.

Backflip is a huge upgrade over Defend. Drawing two cards is a very valuable addition to a Defend card.

Most unupgraded block cards in the game are in the ballpark of 5 block per energy (Shrug It Off being one of the notable exceptions). Dash is 5 and Leg Sweep is 6. Being able to reliably mitigate more than 20 damage per turn almost always relies on support from Powers or Relics. But you still need a good foundation of those block cards.

And yeah, forgot about Malaise. That's one card I almost always take and upgrade. Being able to permanently drop an enemy's strength and have the card exhaust is just too good to give up. Especially if you have some energy sources, Malaise can just completely neutralize an enemy.

[gradualsmith]

Indeed, I love Malaise. Malaise + upgraded Caltrops = hilarity against all the enemies that deal XxX attacks where the Malaise reduces it to Xx0 ( or should that be 0xX, never can remember).

[wckowalski]

Having so many cards with card draw like backflip is why I love taking 0 cost cards as the Silent. Thus maybe the 5 block from backflip means 9 block because you draw a deflect or something.

Originally posted by gradualsmith:

Indeed, I love Malaise. Malaise + upgraded Caltrops = hilarity against all the enemies that deal XxX attacks where the Malaise reduces it to Xx0 ( or should that be 0xX, never can remember).

Know what works great with malaise? Ice cream, you can potentailly inflict a lot more with malaise than you can otherwise, especially if you have stuff in your deck like outmaneuver.

[Sentient_Toaster]

Footwork seems critical.

I had a run that was going pretty well last night w/ 2x upgraded Footwork, Caltrops, Blur, After Image, the thorning card, and Calipers... until I listened to the siren song of the Black Star and foolishly attempted an elite right before what would have been the final campfire. Ran into a pair of Orb Walkers and couldn't block fast enough.

Shouldn't have been greedy. *sigh*

[wckowalski]

Originally posted by Sentient_Toaster:

Footwork seems critical.

I had a run that was going pretty well last night w/ 2x upgraded Footwork, Caltrops, Blur, After Image, the thorning card, and Calipers... until I listened to the siren song of the Black Star and foolishly attempted an elite right before what would have been the final campfire. Ran into a pair of Orb Walkers and couldn't block fast enough.

Shouldn't have been greedy. *sigh*

I've had runs where footwork didn't seem very relevant as I had kunai and activated it on average twice a turn.

Also, my last winning run with the silent, I fought double orb walkers and managed to kill one of them first turn. Look at this crazy build:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1315611288

[jamesc70]

Wow, 54 cards? I've been trying to keep my decks around 20, and I avoid curses like the plague.

[wckowalski]

Originally posted by jamesc70:

Wow, 54 cards? I've been trying to keep my decks around 20, and I avoid curses like the plague.

I had a relic that gave me +1 strength for each curse.