I see now why you need to play with ALL THE CARDS at some point

[Squeeealer]

My reluctance to play some cards were due to the brief explanations. Plenty of cards where I'm like... why would I ever do that. What I am realizing is that with many of these cards it's not just effective for that round - It's for the entire combat. Or sometimes I'm just misunderstanding what it's saying the card does.

One example is The Ironclad's Disarm card. Enemy loses 2 Strength. Exhaust. But what it doesn't say is that it's effective for the entire battle, unlike other cards that inflict status effects.

One card I still haven't figured out the value of is Corruption. Skills cost 0. Whenever you play a Skill, Exhaust it. Okay, so 0 cost is great. But then you exhaust it? That better be a short battle. I must be missing what it works well with in combination. The spoon? LOL

[srn347]

In general you want to thicken your deck, as well as have lots of draw/generate skills and/or dark embrace. There's also the infamous corruption+dead branch combo which can borderline win A20H runs on its own.

[mldb88]

Originally posted by Squeeealer:

My reluctance to play some cards were due to the brief explanations. Plenty of cards where I'm like... why would I ever do that. What I am realizing is that with many of these cards it's not just effective for that round - It's for the entire combat. Or sometimes I'm just misunderstanding what it's saying the card does.

One example is The Ironclad's Disarm card. Enemy loses 2 Strength. Exhaust. But what it doesn't say is that it's effective for the entire battle, unlike other cards that inflict status effects.

One card I still haven't figured out the value of is Corruption. Skills cost 0. Whenever you play a Skill, Exhaust it. Okay, so 0 cost is great. But then you exhaust it? That better be a short battle. I must be missing what it works well with in combination. The spoon? LOL

The benefit of corruption is that it lets you put even more energy into dealing damage since you're not using any on skills for defense or utility. The issue is if you're not careful with rationing out your skills and defense exactly as you need it, you'll run out of defensive cards real quick. Its also a way to fuel relics that care about exhaust like charron's ashes or other powers that care about exhausting cards, or as mentioned the dead branch combo that can just get nuts. It's not something I lean into super often but when I find that my deck is either lacking the energy to keep up with what I want it to do or I have some good synergies and enough punch to end fights quickly, I usually snag a corruption if I see it.

[Corlindale]

One thing to realize is that most fights are not that long. Cards that give you a huge immediate boost in exchange for a long-term drawback are therefore more powerful than one might assume at first glance. Corruption, Wraith Form, Biased Cognition and (the extreme case) Blasphemy all belong to this category. A category where you might first think 'Why would I ever do that?! ", but then you start experimenting and figure out how strong they can be.

Another important consideration is that not only are fights generally short, but you can usually finish faster because of the huge offensive boost of the cards. Corruption and Wraith Form both let you go all-in on offense for a few turns, and Blasphemy lets you go supernova for one turn, while BC lets you generate either a huge offense with lightning/dark or an almost impenetrable defense with frost.

In fights that cannot be won quickly, you may just hold off on playing the aforementioned cards until the second time you see them, or maybe you find a way to retain them until the right moment (e.g. Wraith + Well-Laid Plans, Blasphemy+ or Runic Pyramid). Even with the occasional battle where you don't get to use them, they will make up for it with the massive leverage they give you in the average fight.

[Nibbie]

What they said. To expand on the mentioned Corruption+Dead Branch combo though, Dead Branch is a relic says "Whenever you Exhaust a card, add a random card into your hand." Not only does this always replace the skills you play for free and exhaust so you can't run out or cards or anything, the cards Branch gives you can also be skills, which can then be played for free and exhaust, which then gives you another new card, and so on. With some luck, you can play dozens of cards in a turn for 0 energy, or even gain energy from Seeing Red or Bloodletting to play more of the non-skill cards you get.

[Last_in_line]

I couldn't complete A18 for Ironclad for a long time. Until in one of the games I got: Charon's Ashes, Dead Branch and the cards: Dark Embrace, Corruption, Fiend Fire.

[Squeeealer]

Originally posted by Last_in_line:

I couldn't complete A18 for Ironclad for a long time. Until in one of the games I got: Charon's Ashes, Dead Branch and the cards: Dark Embrace, Corruption, Fiend Fire.

Yeah, I just used Brimstone for the first time and I beat A11 without hardly trying. What I wasn't understanding was that it ACCUMULATES - it doesn't go away after each round. It was boring to use b/c too OP, but maybe I'll need to revisit it A17-20.

[ScreamWeaver]

Nibble, Thanks for your post! :)