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Take more normal fights in act 1, and path into a shop. This isn't unique advice to the Ironclad, but instead advice I think works for all the characters. My recent strategy has been prioritising normal fights in the beginning of act 1 to see cards to start getting strength and then going for elites to later in the act. I also like taking an early shop to see some cards and get an idea of some build arounds.
Actually grab some defensive cards. It's taken me about 2k hours to realise that the reason I'm dying in act 2 is due to not taking defensive cards out of fear of being punished by Gremlin Nob. Shrug It Off and True Grit are perfectly fine cards to pick up in the early game that are good in a lot of fights like Sentries, Lagavulin Guardian, and a good number of normal fights like slavers. Uncommons like Second Wind, Flame Barrier, and Power Through are amazing hits that you shouldn't overlook.
Seek sources of Vulnerable and Weak. They are very strong debuffs and you want them on the enemies in your fights at every available opportunity. Upgrading Bash and Clothesline aren't the most exciting options in the game, but you will thank yourself as the run goes on for how much damage and mitigation they provide. Upgrading bash as your first card upgrade if you haven't seen other sources of vulnerability is a classic ironclad play.
Take Scaling cards when you can. Common cards are weighted to show up very often in your drafts, and 14/20 of Ironclad's common cards are attacks. As a result, if you ever find yourself thinking "I'd really like to do more immediate damage with an attack" almost every cards reward is going to have an attack card on offer.
Which means that if it's the choice of getting an attack card or a scaling card like Enflame or Feel No Pain, I'd lean towards the later almost always especially early on in the run. Scaling cards are not bad in act 1, many tough fights such as lagavulin and hexaghost reward you for getting scaling.
Exhaustion IS the Ironclad. Exhaustion is the single thing that truly separates Ironclad from the other characters to me. Other characters have exhaustion cards, but a large part of Ironclad's scaling is tied to exhaustion.
Exhaustion makes your draws better in long fights: tired of drawing strikes and statuses that do nothing? Exhaust them away.
Exhaustion has strong powers tied to them: I love getting block and card draw from exhausting cards while having Feel No Pain or Dark Embrace in play.
Exhaustion has some strong cards attached to it: Burning Pact, Fiend Fire and Corruption are all very strong cards that have the 'downside' of exhaustion... except as shown above exhaustion isn't really a downside.
1/3rd of Ironclad's card pool either exhaust themselves, exhausts other cards, or interacts positively with exhaustion. A large portion of cards that don't are common attacks which aren't very exciting to pick up for most of the game, or non-exhaustion powers that can supplement an exhaustion strategy by giving things like strength to your remaining strong attacks or making block better from juggernaut or barricade.
If there's one thing I can express to someone learning Ironclad, it's to learn to stop worrying and love the Exhaustion.
It sounds like the biggest problem right now is you’re stuck thinking in terms of builds and “decks”. I know you mentioned reading a lot of guides, and while there are a few good ones here and there, I hate to say it but most of the guides for this game are absolutely garbage. There are so many decks that feed into this “Just take barricade, entrench, three body slams, a juggernaut and two impervious and you’ll never lose!” mentality that just doesn’t work because, well, good luck curating the perfect deck with seed based rng.
Take a step back and let the card selection guide you. Start off with some front loaded damage early. The only cards I’d actively avoid at heavy blade and clash. Heavy blade is more of a noob trap and doesn’t scale nearly as well as other more cost effective cards and with ascenders bane makes clash even less likely to be playable. Take attacks for 3-4 of your pre-elite fights and maybe 1 defense/utility card if it’s something that’s really good or worth the pick. After the first elite start drip feeding some more defense and utility options in among more attacks. By the time you clear the act 1 boss, you should have an idea of what your deck kind of wants to do.
If you notice a trend with a lot of cards that do multiple hits, start snagging some strength cards where available. If you see a lot of exhaust cards or cards that add statuses, lean a bit more towards exhaust when offered the cards for it. If you ended up a bit more defense heavy or find you’re not taking much damage in fights, a block/stall subtheme with a few key damage cards to supplement/get around hyper scale enemies might be worth looking into.
The important thing is don’t lock yourself into an archetype before the end of act 1, or even through act 2. There’s a lot of crossover and decks can often have elements of multiple archetypes and still work really really well as long as they’re at least somewhat focused in one of them.
The last piece of advise is switch to another character. Sometimes you get so stuck in a rut you make play mistakes or misvalue cards just due to route memorization or repetition of trying things so many times at best, or do really ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ out of desperation like taking soul fire first pick like I did at worst. Taking a break from chad will help you come back to it with a fresh perspective as well as the general game knowledge and threat assessment with enemies that comes with playing the other characters.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2673443183
Maybe also some more ideas here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzFZmpik5xI
For my part, I no longer count lost runs as “lost” but rather as training that allows you to refine your instincts. It's about improving and enjoying StS, not "winning" every run (otherwise it can get very frustrating).
You can't make the right decisions without having the experience behind it.
A defeat can have more value than a victory due to a favorable seed (victory by RNG) when we have made gross mistakes. It's important to know how to recognize if we played well (and not necessarily perfectly, but "our best according to our current knowledge of the game") despite the defeat.
The game in the top Ascensions requires more and more that we learn to evaluate and estimate situations. Which can only come with experience....
It's not so much the question of "finding the right strategy", but of knowing how to use the details that will make the difference. Know how to recognize the possibilities of combos, and of course know by heart what each fighter, elite and boss does.
Also don't think of the spire as a ladder where you build towards a goal. Think of it as a tree where you go off on different branches. You need to go where the cards take you.
Feel No Pain + True Grit = easy block and card trimming.
Dual Wield + Feel No pain = big block
Strength + Reaper = Full heal in combat
Dual Wield + Reaper = Infinite Heal during combat, with Feel no Pain you also gain block
Add some high damage cards for act 1 and strength scaling for act 2 and you're golden.
(Basically the deck below. A misplay was picking Demon Form instead of picking the skill card from the Jaxxed event.)
Edit: As the Seed is cut off: 4WF13P5IAQ6XH
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3137004630
♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Whetstone upgraded one of your Strikes, huh? I hate that. Whetstone and Warpaint should let you choose what to upgrade, or at least not be available until Act 2.
Already had Anger+ and Blood For Blood+ vs Hexaghost, so it wasn't a bad outcome.
It seems like I have heard this about every single character.
Every single character can be played successfully and well. If a character doesn't resonate with you at first, go play your favorite character, and maybe come back to the one that is giving you trouble after awhile.
Have fun! It can take a bit to reach mastery in this game. (if you care about such a thing)
First and foremost have fun, and you'll get there eventually.
Then maybe you're listening to the wrong advice.