Runic Pyramid?

[ZappyDoggo]

Whenever I see the opportunity, I always take the Runic Pyramid for most of my runs. Is this a good Idea, or can it be a bad idea later on in the run or just in general?

[Zu]

Wounds and Burns if you can't discard / exhaust those. Also gives you one less option to choose from on turn 1. Also makes you feel really sad when you keep spending all your 4 energy on all your cards each turn (because you have to), because then the benefit is null, so oddly enough you still need some amount of draw even though that's what the relic's supposed to do, kinda.

TL,DR: Doesn't fit every deck but can bring combo pieces together and provide a safety net.

[Aeternalis the Abyssal Alchemist]

No, since you are limited to 10 cards in a hand, it would be devasting if you get hit with a lot of Curse or Status cards. It also reduces the number of cards you draw, which further limits what you can do in a given turn.

The only time Runic Pyramid should be considered if your deck is based around Exhaust or Discard.
It does have synergy with Fiendfire and Storm of Steel, but even then, it takes a while for the cards to build up, since you are only drawing about 3 or 4 cards every turn.

[ZappyDoggo]

Ah, Okay. Well I avoided it on a recent run for the Mark of Pain. Hopefully that works more in my favor currently than the Runic pyramid.

[burningmime]

I'm not a fan. The cards you keep are the ones you didn't want to play. Sometimes it's because you didn't have enough energy or they didn't make sense at the time (ie a block when the enemy is not attacking), but frequently it's the crappiest cards in the deck -- statuses, curses, and strike/defend.

[robofish126]

Runic Pyramid is quite situational. In the right deck, its basically Well Laid Plans on steroids, where you can always save cards until you need them. In the wrong deck its -1 draw, have fun getting clogged with statuses, and no way to trigger cards like Clash or Masterful Stab.

Overall I'd say that Silent derives more immediate benefit as her starter relic offsets the initial disadvantage by starting with a fatter hand, and it is a great help in conjunction with things like the unplayable cards you need to discard to use, makes it trivially easy to set up grand finale, makes flechettes beastly, etc etc. However her lack of exhaust means it can be dangerous vs enemies that clog your decks.

Overall though it isn't a huge issue because I'd say the biggest deck cloggers are the Slime Boss and Hexaghost, so it shouldn't be an issue unless you got Runic Pyramid by trading in your starting relic to Neow.

[iangoth]

Taking it at every opportunity is a bad plan. If you can play 4+ cards per turn, Runic Pyramid is almost purely negative, and taking it instead of an energy relic is almost certainly a mistake (playing more cards is better than holding onto cards you couldn't play). Runic Pyramid also makes curses and wounds much worse, since they'll permanently clog your hand if you can't actively discard/exhaust them. I've never really encountered a situation where Runic Pyramid seemed like it would really make my deck better, but I'm sure there are situations where it would. Maybe if you really need to play a certain combo, so you hold onto one piece until you find the rest.

[[TLGS] Mario-x]

It is good if you have lots of discard cards to get rid of status/curses, or blue candle. Or when I have lots of +energy relics/cards.

[ZappyDoggo]

Ah, Well thats good to know! It just isn't easy finding exactly what you need sometimes. It's almost like the game pushes for a mix of 2-3 synergies or something. I've even tried grabbing like 1 or 2 cards each level. I still almost always die on the 2nd boss, But it's probably the fact that I always take a wrong turn.

Makes me wish there was a Relic that lets you see what Elite-enemies would be before you encounter them.

[Yoder]

It's best if you are a silent, have not been offered any +energy relics, and have some combos like burst + catalyst. It also lets you save block cards until you need them. I've had success with it, but sometimes bad luck too. You do need discard/exhaust ability as several people mentioned.

Frankly I find some of the boss relics underwhelming so it is sometimes the best choice on offer.

[Poseidenj]

I would only ever take it in a major target exhaustion deck (EG where you can choose what cards to exhaust in some way).