What is your favorite relic and card?

[Pattar]

I am just curious, what is that one relic or card you get early in a run that makes you say "This is gonna be a good run"? For me it is When you get the wrist blade as the Silent, or the corpse explosion card.

[jamesc70]

Dead Branch for the relic. I think I've only lost once when I've gotten it early.

Upgraded Fission for a card (Defect).

[Rasmus Bang]

My favorite card/relic combo is Dead Branch + Storm of Steel

[Hell0John]

For me its apotheosis, when I see this card even if I have lesson learned deck I can't help but pick it I just love it

[Scathe]

fav card: shrug it off
fav relic: calipers
not necessarily stuff that guarantees a good run like you asked in your opening post tho.

but, if the custom game options did not allow you to pick any combination of colors you want, then my favorite relic would be prismatic shard, to make things more interesting.

[LHGreen]

Escrito originalmente por Scathe:

fav card: shrug it off
fav relic: calipers
not necessarily stuff that guarantees a good run like you asked in your opening post tho.

but, if the custom game options did not allow you to pick any combination of colors you want, then my favorite relic would be prismatic shard, to make things more interesting.

Even though the consensus is that Prismatic Shard is objectively the worst relic? It's like one of the only things you can get absolutely everyone to agree on, from what I've seen.

[Zu]

Escrito originalmente por LHGreen:

Even though the consensus is that Prismatic Shard is objectively the worst relic? It's like one of the only things you can get absolutely everyone to agree on, from what I've seen.

At least it's subjectively fun unlike 🍼🔥that you skip half the time.

[Scathe]

Escrito originalmente por LHGreen:

Even though the consensus is that Prismatic Shard is objectively the worst relic? It's like one of the only things you can get absolutely everyone to agree on, from what I've seen.

just to be difficult, I'll take a stance arguing that prismatic shard is not the worst relic. when people make the arguement that a shop relic has to be the worst, I can say this back at them... maybe it is the worst play, to buy that shop relic, but the worst thing for your run is not having that relic show up in your shop. there is plenty of chances to spend your money usually anyway, and finishing a run with a couple hundred gold unspent may not be a problem. having a problematic set of boss relics show up is much more likely to cause you to lose a run early. I would argue that pandora's box is the worst relic. it is in my estimation much more likely to end your run in a loss than any other relic I can think of. sure, it can win you a run too, but this is rare, and you have to ask, what relics could I have gotten instead of this, and they are mostly going to be powerful relics. the fact is that defends are generally good for your deck's balance of offense vs defense, and removing them risks throwing that balance too heavily twards offense for you to survive.

[LHGreen]

Escrito originalmente por Zu:

Escrito originalmente por LHGreen:

Even though the consensus is that Prismatic Shard is objectively the worst relic? It's like one of the only things you can get absolutely everyone to agree on, from what I've seen.

At least it's subjectively fun unlike 🍼🔥that you skip half the time.

Milk... flame? Hot? Spicy, maybe? Spicy Milk? Yeah, I haven't seen that one, I guess it's one of the mods.

But I didn't say it wasn't fun. It's not practical, though, and it usually does much more harm than good.

Escrito originalmente por Scathe:

Escrito originalmente por LHGreen:

Even though the consensus is that Prismatic Shard is objectively the worst relic? It's like one of the only things you can get absolutely everyone to agree on, from what I've seen.

just to be difficult, I'll take a stance arguing that prismatic shard is not the worst relic. when people make the arguement that a shop relic has to be the worst, I can say this back at them... maybe it is the worst play, to buy that shop relic, but the worst thing for your run is not having that relic show up in your shop. there is plenty of chances to spend your money usually anyway, and finishing a run with a couple hundred gold unspent may not be a problem. having a problematic set of boss relics show up is much more likely to cause you to lose a run early. I would argue that pandora's box is the worst relic. it is in my estimation much more likely to end your run in a loss than any other relic I can think of. sure, it can win you a run too, but this is rare, and you have to ask, what relics could I have gotten instead of this, and they are mostly going to be powerful relics. the fact is that defends are generally good for your deck's balance of offense vs defense, and removing them risks throwing that balance too heavily towards offense for you to survive.

Ah, yes, this is an excellent point. Well, certainly, Prismatic Shard isn't the worst of the relics that you might be "forced" (which, for the moment, will include relics that you can choose, but have to choose blindly, without knowing what they are ahead of getting them) to take. That would probably be one of the Bad Faces from the Face Trader, or the one that stops you from healing when you upgrade all your cards. But it is the worst of the ostensibly "beneficial" relics (as I'll call them for the moment), because of what I said about it being WAY more of a detriment than a benefit. It narrowly beats out Cauldron, which is totally beneficial but is also literally just a more expensive Entropic Brew. It'd be great if Cauldron instead simply allowed you to do something like, maybe, a one-time shuffle of a potion you get at the end of combat, to get a different potion of equal or lesser rarity. Similarly, it might be nice if Prismatic shard maybe gave you the ability to shuffle one of the cards at the end of combat into one of a different color. But unless there's an update on the horizon, we're stuck with using them as-is or modding them, and they are pretty terrible. The best thing about them, though, is that you're never forced to either take them or call it a wash. They're in the shop, so they appear alongside two others that you can choose instead, as well as potions and cards. That's what makes shop relics inherently great, not awful, and I don't know why anyone would say that a shop relic has to be the worst simply because it's a shop relic.

And I sort of agree about Pandora's box, although it's more like it's very conditional rather than bad. It's great if your deck is already good and the strikes + defends are holding it back. You can just turn them into other random cards and maybe get some really good/helpful stuff out of it, rather than removing them. It really is a lot more efficient than removing and replacing cards, when it works. It just doesn't always work. Snecko Eye is kind of like that, too. It's excellent on someone like the Ironclad, but it spells death with the vast majority of things you'll try to do with the Silent.

[Zu]

Escrito originalmente por LHGreen:

Escrito originalmente por Zu:

At least it's subjectively fun unlike 🍼🔥that you skip half the time.

Milk... flame? Hot? Spicy, maybe? Spicy Milk?

But I didn't say it wasn't fun. It's not practical, though, and it usually does much more harm than good.

Ye.

That's a bottle btw.

[LHGreen]

Escrito originalmente por Zu:

That's a bottle btw.

Yeah, I already knew that when I posted it, hence the glib, trolling grin. Or rather, the closest approximation to that sort of a grin that I currently have in my inventory. And I don't usually pass up bottled flame, I just make sure that attack is something I usually want to see on the first turn.

[Ricky Icky]

My favourite card is Edit: whirlwind...NOT rampage. There is just something satisfying about watching the whirls of the sword repeatedly streak across the screen as the damage ticks.....

My favourite relic is runic pyramid.

[LHGreen]

Escrito originalmente por Ricky Icky:

My favourite card is rampage. There is just something satisfying about watching the whirls of the sword repeatedly streak across the screen as the damage ticks.....

Rampage? Huh, interesting choice. I mean, it's just a worse version of Claw, overall, so I'm a bit surprised that it's being mentioned.

[Zu]

Escrito originalmente por LHGreen:

I just make sure that attack is something I usually want to see on the first turn.

I regret it the most on chad without bag or ink. "Turn 1 whirlwind or clothesline could help" but then case 1 goes "Haha spikers / no reptomancer ever" and case 2 goes "Haha that's too early vs transient" or whatever.
BakaMitai.mp3

[Sinocelt]

• Circlet (which you receive when you've run out of relics to find) is best. ;o)
  
  
• Membership Card (50% rebate on everything in shops) is just nuts if you get it early. It's even better when combined with The Courier (20% rebate and infinite inventory) and Meal Ticket (15 HP restored when you enter a shop).
  
  
• Potion Belt, White Elephant, and Sacred Bark combine to allow for a huge supply of double-effect potions. Add a Membership Card and you can just potion your opponents out of existence.
  
  
• Ice cream (don't lose your energy between turns) allows you to better plan your moves, and Unceasing Top is great if you have more energy than cards to play.
  
  
• The Shovel (dig for relics at rest sites) is like Christmas on repeat. I get a similar feeling from Nilry's Codex, which lets you pick (or not) a random card at the end of your turn; it's a lot of fun. Somewhat similarly, Pandora's Box (transform all Strikes and Defends) make a deck a lot more interesting.
  
  
• Peace Pipe (you can remove cards at rest sites), Singing Bowl (gain 2 HP instead of a card), and Smiling Mask (50 golds to remove a card in shops) are great if you want a lean deck, which is great with cards that get better the more you use them (e.g., Claws). If you don't fancy a lean deck, then any of the Bottled artifact (that lets you decide on a card to start combat with) is great, especially in late games (I used it with great effect on an Omniscient Card that I used to double-trigger a Deva card, thus ensuring a huge energy supply for my Defect).
  
  
• Frozen Core (if you have one free orb slot at the end of your turn, fill it with an ice orb) and Inserter (gain an orb slot every two turns) make for a great combination in long fights, such as most boss fights.
  
  
• The Specimen (transfer the poison of a dead opponent to another opponent) can make fighting multiple opponents a lot easier.

[Ricky Icky]

Escrito originalmente por LHGreen:

Escrito originalmente por Ricky Icky:

My favourite card is rampage. There is just something satisfying about watching the whirls of the sword repeatedly streak across the screen as the damage ticks.....

Rampage? Huh, interesting choice. I mean, it's just a worse version of Claw, overall, so I'm a bit surprised that it's being mentioned.

Ugh!!!! I meant whirlwind. My god working nights ruins your brain i swear...hahhaa...