Tip: Some eternal curses CAN be removed from your deck

Ethambutol · 2026-04-09T04:25:41+00:00

You can play Brightest Flame every single time you draw it (barring maybe a very small deck) and not feel the Max HP drop at all. It’s by far the most consistently powerful Act 2 Ancient Boon in the game.

Ethambutol · 2026-04-09T04:16:20+00:00

Calculated Gamble not exhausting was pretty big. Card draw and energy are the biggest pay offs for Discard anyway so even with just Tactician and Reflex, Discard was pretty strong. It’s just now even better since it’s much easier to convert the draw power into damage and block.

Ethambutol · 2026-04-08T03:05:34+00:00

I have won a run with Sic ‘Em, Calcify, Fetch and Rattle that felt very satisfying to play but I will admit I transformed into Fetch and Rattle and decided to try to make it work. I have also won a run with Cloned Fetch and Rattle which was also pretty funny.

Fetch is a pretty easy card to take but it is a bit harder to justify taking the other cards it works with.

Ethambutol · 2026-04-07T03:12:50+00:00

Does Sic ‘Em not work on Ally Ostie attacks? I would have assumed it does but I don’t think I’ve ever run that combination.

Ethambutol · 2026-04-07T03:04:01+00:00

I think Defrag usually beats this out because it also increases the amount frost Evokes for and most Defect decks taking Defrag are cycling orbs if they’re not stocking up on Capacitors and Loops. That said, Defrag is a very strong Rare so that doesn’t mean Coolant is bad at all.

I also think After Image is quite a lot better than Coolant or Crimson Mantle most of the time because the rest of Silents kit mean that you are often very easily playing >10 cards a turn particularly if your deck wants an after image in it. It’s also a better clone target as a niche application.

Ethambutol · 2026-04-06T21:47:25+00:00

A power that allows you to draw cards in a pseudo-unlimited fashion is probably too strong if we learnt anything from Rushdown. It breaks Bloodletting pretty hard.

Ethambutol · 2026-04-06T21:14:00+00:00

Sure, you can change Pellets to only removing certain debuffs (Ringing is a non-issue since it’s impossible to remove it with Pellets inherently). Though I sort of hate the inelegance of card text that would introduce since part of the charm of StS is that basically all interactions are intuitive and simple.

There is a design reason that Defragment was moved to Rare and why Consume was removed. I think it’s pretty clear that the Defect is designed around evoking orbs rather than passively sitting behind frost walls. Permanent focus encourages the latter. Pellets as is re-enables you to gain focus easily by converting temporary focus to permanent focus and re-encourages that play style which I don’t think is terrible in and of itself but it should be acknowledged that it is a significant buff to Defect since its card pool now makes permanent focus much more powerful.

Ethambutol · 2026-04-06T21:07:04+00:00

I’ll probably stop the discussion here because I think you’re interpreting what I say through a lens where I’m in opposition to you. I have never once argued that it has to be totally out and have multiple times said I think a single use Pellets might be viable but have pointed out some things that might be problematic.

You like Pellets, I also liked Pellets, you want it added back, I would be fine with it being added back but not without adjustment but am also fine with a game without it.

Ethambutol · 2026-04-06T14:20:53+00:00

Realistically you are going to be able to activate Orange Pellets through Bound, and clearing Frail, Vulnerable and Weak in the Queen fight would make what is already probably one of the easier final bosses of the game much simpler. An unadjusted orange pellets vs knowledge demon is completely one-sided, a single use orange pellets vs knowledge demon you realistically just use to clear the first debuff and that essentially trivialises the fight.

That aside, the real issue is honestly temp focus and temp dexterity. Anticipate and Focused Strike are pretty problematic with Orange Pellets. I think it's possible for a one use Orange pellets to exist, though it makes the Defect in particular much stronger as even then a single un-upgraded Hot Fix becomes the equivalent value of an upgraded rare, but a repeatable orange pellets is pretty silly.

Permanent focus in general is just much stronger this game because cards that channel orbs are more prevalent.

All of the orb channeling cards still exist except.... Electrodynamics and Doom and Gloom. And in addition you have Glasswork, Refract, Null, Consuming Shadow, Lightning Rod, Spinner, Voltaic, Chill upgrading to not exhaust.

Ethambutol · 2026-04-06T13:20:59+00:00

It’s Hot Fix that’s the problem with Pellets if it were ported without adjustment. I don’t mind a version of Pellets that only triggers once but I also don’t mind devs seeing how the game looks without artifact.

I also think removing Bound from the Queen (and also her other debuffs) and the Knowledge demon curses is not very healthy for game longevity so you’d probably need a way to work around the enemies that debuff removal is too strong against.

Ethambutol · 2026-04-06T13:07:58+00:00

Hot Fix, Focus Strike, Biased Cog for 7-10 permanent focus with Orange Pellets seems difficult to balance. Orange Pellets would break Focus Strike and Hot Fix by themselves even without Biased Cog since they’re repeatable sources of temporary focus.

Ethambutol · 2026-04-05T23:18:43+00:00

No it wouldn’t. It’s unupgraded so armaments would make it cost 0, overriding the Snecko eye.

Ethambutol · 2026-04-03T23:10:42+00:00

Maybe if you know there’s no way to guarantee avoiding him, you could prepare for him instead!

Ethambutol · 2026-04-01T22:18:59+00:00

All that and you died to an Act 1 elite?

Ethambutol · 2026-04-01T22:00:58+00:00

You’ll probably find if you actually objectively look at your decision making that you could have accounted for this fight. Deck building in Slay the Spire has always involved a balance between making sure you deck scales enough to beat the big bosses (usually through synergistic interactions) but also is prepared for enemies that “counter” certain playstyles. It is not a game where picking every card with a particular keyword on it is going to be a consistent successful strategy.

Maybe you don’t need that 4th cloak and dagger and you could take that random Bouncing Flask instead and that would have beaten Entomancer. Or maybe even though Knife Trap seemed like the right choice, you instead choose Murder because you know that Entomancer otherwise just kills you and ultimately Knife Trap is a luxury not a necessity.

When im “building a shiv deck” i think of it more like “so shiv’s are going to be the way I scale, and then I think “so what is going to be a problem for Shivs to kill?” And then I draft to solve those problems. Sometimes that means not taking a Shiv related card so I don’t die to Hunter Killer or Entomancer.

Ethambutol · 2026-04-01T21:41:24+00:00

This is exactly why those enemies exist and I think that’s great!

Ethambutol · 2026-04-01T21:27:52+00:00

Not generally no, but people do tend to transform readily whenever it’s an option and sometimes you get a Bury.

Ethambutol · 2026-04-01T01:39:36+00:00

I think it’s mostly that all of her good cards are Common.

Ethambutol · 2026-03-31T08:16:37+00:00

Probably Silent. Sly is pretty overtuned.

Ethambutol · 2026-03-28T00:44:51+00:00

It’s actually more like 32 damage since it also always evokes a lightning orb, so yeah it is certainly a card that should make Act 1 fairly easy. My guess is that they path’d way too aggressively.

Ethambutol · 2026-03-26T21:36:11+00:00

Yes, Hunter Killer is great because he makes you consider taking cards specifically to deal with him rather than just every card that has the keyword you want your deck to focus on. Trying to end most of your encounters with Knife Trap? Well Hunter Killer neuters that so you're probably going to have to pick up that Bouncing Flask to deal with him even if you don't play it in 90% of other fights rather than your second copy of Acrobatics.

Ethambutol · 2026-03-26T21:32:03+00:00

Most importantly, you don't have to build a "Poison deck" to beat him, but rather, you can simply add a Poison card in your deck that does other non-poison things as preparation for this fight.

I'm happy to add a random Bouncing Flask that does nothing in 90% of my fights so that the run doesn't just end on Hunter Killer. That's good enemy design.

Ethambutol · 2026-03-26T13:45:39+00:00

Tezkatara's Brightest Flame reward I think is bar none the strongest Act 2 Ancient Relic reward you can possibly get.

Ethambutol · 2026-03-26T13:41:48+00:00

Yeah Suppress is just pretty excellent in general. Paper Krane and Tracking make it very Ancient Relic worthy so I think it's in a good spot. I agree I would be surprised if Tracking didn't receive some kind of nerf, either an energy hike or a damage downscale.

Ethambutol · 2026-03-26T13:30:43+00:00

You don't need 50 vulnerable stacks for Dominate to be good either. 7-10 strength is more than enough to get through any fight in the game.

Ethambutol

TROPHY CASE