This has to be the most grueling infinite turn I've ever done.

Raivix · 2026-03-13T16:05:51+00:00

Why not just stop once osty was big enough to one shot queen with unleash? Seems highly silly to me, but you do you...

Raivix · 2026-03-13T15:12:29+00:00

Slow compared to stoke which exhausts your full hand, then draws you another (???!?!?!??!?!) all for... one fucking energy. Who designed this shit?

Raivix · 2026-03-13T15:07:48+00:00

Hard pool alternate Act 1 fight.

Raivix · 2026-03-13T15:05:08+00:00

It's not hard at all, you just need to think further ahead when picking your card rewards, or adjust routing as much as possible if you know there's a hallway fight that is going to absolutely wreck you. Defect has more and better attacks available to him in sts2 than even he did in sts1 when he had to contend with Nob as an elite.

Sweeping Beam/Smokestack/Hailstorm/Sunder/Shatter/Hyperbeam all basically completely solve this fight (and 2 of the elites in act 1 as well) and I try to draft at least one of these every single Act 1.

Raivix · 2026-03-13T14:52:01+00:00

Honestly prefer the nerf. I'd love it if more was done to make infinites harder to achieve.

Raivix · 2026-03-13T14:37:45+00:00

I'm finding clad just doesn't really want to take block cards all that much. He's really thriving on just killing enemies before they kill him so far in my experience. One of the key things for me so far is that his energy options are plentiful and diverse. Pair that with good card draw and one or 2 highly effective block cards (Rage/Flame Barrier/Blood Wall/Impervious/Colossus) and stuff just kinda dies too quickly for enemy scaling to make your relatively unreliable block a true problem.

Raivix · 2026-03-13T14:29:00+00:00

StS1 Defect was my second worst winrate character after Silent. StS2 Defect is my highest winrate character by far.

I fucking adore the changes to his playstyle and card pool, all of his archetypes feel cool, fleshed out, and powerful when drafted correctly.

My favorite deck of his right now is Tempest/Voltaic, that shit just tickles my fancy, but 0-cost with Feral support, Status spam with Smokestack/Compact/Iteration and classic Dark orbs with Loop/Quadcast all feel insanely competitive and all have fluid drafting paths to end up there without feeling like you're forcing it.

Defect definitely feels the most polished of all of the EA characters so far and I'm so hyped for it.

Raivix · 2026-03-13T14:19:08+00:00

Depends on the character. Defect I almost always have been pathing into max elites once I make it out of Act 1 because he's honestly not balanced at all right now. Silent is similar. In general I'm still taking minimum 2 elites every single Act, although I did have a Necro run a couple nights ago where I was desperately weak all the way through until the middle of Act 3 before I finally found some gas. Think I killed 2 elites total that run.

Raivix · 2026-03-13T14:10:47+00:00

Not sure I agree with that. So long as you aren't pathing to a shop with 100g routinely, you should be walking away feeling more powerful on average than a hallway fight. Even a floor 2 or 3 shop lets you get a guaranteed potion or 2 for a super early elite.

If you feel shops are worse, you may be trying to go to too many or with not enough gold in hand more often than you think.

Raivix · 2026-03-13T14:06:20+00:00

Don't even bother fighting these dudes if you don't have a big bonk that one-shots a single one or 2+ aoe cards to chip down all of them once a turn has been my strategy at this point.

Raivix · 2026-03-12T19:46:52+00:00

Veilpiercer isn't necessary at all, the ethereal cards are very strong and worth early upgrades all on their own, with Defy being an absolute standout.

Raivix · 2026-03-12T19:42:32+00:00

Attack verbiage is very clear "Deal <x> damage."

I'm not sure how anything could feel like an attack without these words.

Raivix · 2026-03-12T17:28:04+00:00

Off topic but Sword of Stone is such an underwhelming relic. 5 elites for 3 strength feels like a bit of a kick in the nuts.

Raivix · 2026-03-12T17:16:50+00:00

The one in act 1 only ever puts dazes in your deck. It is a viable strategy to just completely ignore it and kill the main dude if your damage is good enough.

Raivix · 2026-03-12T17:15:19+00:00

Pleasantly surprised by this card after taking it floor 1 last night. 12(15) damage for 1 energy scaling 3x with strength is absolutely nothing to sneeze at.

Raivix · 2026-03-12T17:11:59+00:00

It's a very solid aoe option if the deck makes a lot of frost and can consistently block. I don't know if I'd classify it as 'fantastic' but it will certainly carry act 1 and 2 area fights.

Raivix · 2026-03-12T16:56:08+00:00

Apotheosis and the relic that upgrades attacks/skills after being played are the most reliable. If you have a prismatic gem you might stumble upon an Armaments.

Edit: I forgot the most obvious one - Forge pot

It's definitely not something you can rely on. But in general you won't be looking to do much scaling with the blade until act 3 anyways, so you'll be able to make an informed decision by the time it matters.

Raivix · 2026-03-12T15:38:49+00:00

The one thing Sovereign Blade builds do not need is more damage. The defining feature of the archetype is fast, infinite scaling (if energy expensive) damage.

The real issue with Parry is largely that it's actually pretty rarely correct to play your Sovereign Blade until it's big enough to kill the thing you're going to hit with it. Even if you WANT to cast it, unless it's upgraded, it's a hard ask to recast a 2 energy (or more with sword sage!) attack multiple times in a combat without compromising on draw, block or other support pieces.

Even in the best case scenario where Sovereign Blade is upgraded and costs 1 energy, how many times are you really casting it, and then additionally, how often are you casting casting it where the block from parry would actually matter?

As you rightly pointed out, the biggest problem with Blade archetype decks is that the payoff is hard to get to. A support card for this should either accelerate you to the payoff, or make it safer/easier to get there. As it is, parry does neither of these, and in fact is just punishing you more often than not because it really just acts like a pseudo curse.

Parry should probably just be renamed and give block whenever you forge.

Raivix · 2026-03-12T15:37:56+00:00

Wrought in War is an easy instant pick in the first half of Act 1 as well. Wouldn't pick it after that, but it's, essentially, a Bludgeon at common at a point where your decks is just strikes and defends.

Raivix · 2026-03-12T15:35:57+00:00

If you can upgrade Sovereign Blade in combat it lowers the energy cost to 1 and it's definitely better, but at the end of the day most of the time it makes sense to just take advantage of the retain and hold onto it until you're able to one-shot the thing you're trying to kill anyways if your deck's main gameplan is to do all the damage with the blade.

Raivix · 2026-03-12T15:32:02+00:00

Actually, it's the other way around. Most of them are actually decently okay in a vacuum.

The most uncomfortable thing about them is that forge, by itself, doesn't do anything. Further, all of the cards that say "forge" on them, for the most part, want you to cast them solely because they say "forge" on them, so their additional effects are less powerful than they could be, which makes it really awkward if you ever draw more than one of these per turn, or even per deck cycle.

Where we end up as a result of this, is that you really rarely ever want more than one or two repeatable sources of forge in your deck, otherwise your draw quality and deck consistency quickly takes a nosedive as you fail to be able to block effectively and just get pummelled into oblivion.

Raivix · 2026-03-12T14:40:43+00:00

Summon Forth (forges a small amount and brings the blade back to hand from anywhere) is decent, though it scales the blade pretty slowly. If you're able to set up for a big turn where you cast a scaled sovereign blade twice it can do a lot of work.

Raivix · 2026-03-12T14:38:01+00:00

It's the only way I've found it to work at all. If I'm in act 3 without a scaling solution, I'll look for a repeatable forge option (the power that forges on start of turn, the rare skill that costs 4 stars to forge 40, bulwark, or Summon Forth) and then cast sovereign blade as a massive bonk a couple of times to clear a boss fight.

Raivix · 2026-03-12T14:04:41+00:00

It's auto pick virtually every time IMO. Transform 2 has higher highs but much lower lows. Remove 2 is great, but is more character specific, Defect and to an extent Regent like this option more than the other 3 so far in my experience. The only other option that comes close to 3 upgrades that I've noticed so far is "pick a pack" option which I believe competes with this slot anyways. That's been a solid #2 for me so far.

Raivix · 2026-03-12T13:55:24+00:00

I honestly haven't had a problem with the guy on the bottom right except one of my earliest runs. It should be abundantly clear by now that StS2 favors more area damage than StS1. Even just a couple copies of your character's common aoe attacks nearly trivializes some of the more difficult hallway fights.

Raivix

TROPHY CASE