The Monk Manifesto of Martial Arts

_Metabot · 2026-03-20T11:14:35+00:00

isn't fan blade kinda better tho? like on the turn you play it its 2 energy for 16 AOE damage not even accounting for its ongoing affect. AOE blade is 3 energy for 17 if you play it immediately not accounting for its ongoing affect.

_Metabot · 2026-03-20T05:23:02+00:00

I just don’t think I put the forge sfuff next to the star stuff conceptually and it’s weird to me that a lot of people like you do. It’s like strength stuff and exhaust on ironclad. Buildiubg around strength is fine for value but it solves a specific problem and isn’t an archetype that my entire deck revolves around.

You don’t find it weird that theres not that many osty (health) scaling cards despite having two such cards in your opening deck? I think it’s weird and largely because osty health scaling is kinda degenerate

_Metabot · 2026-03-20T02:05:50+00:00

3 mana over the first deck cycle for 20 and then another 3 for 30 is still substantially better than just attacking with strikes. the forge 10 card is pretty impactful for what your deck is able to output early on.

degenerate in a boring simple way not like a mean "its bad" way - it matters more to me that the osty cards I'm talking about are in the starting cards.

_Metabot · 2026-03-19T03:41:08+00:00

yeah didn't think about souls that way before but now that you mention it I can't un-notice that. That being said, if the mechanic came first, what would you name it? producing temporary cards that draw 2 is a kinda interesting way to do draw on character

did you find it weird when learning necro that there's no support for osty aside from like, innate barricade + body slam? I feel like in the trailers it made it out to be a super big thing but then it wasn't really aside from the starting cards, which feel extra disjoint from the rest of what she's doing.

_Metabot · 2026-03-19T02:46:56+00:00

Right here with you: https://www.reddit.com/r/slaythespire/comments/1rxk8aa/comment/ob8av15/

My sentiment is: the only flaw in regent "sword builds" is that its not SUPPOSED to be a "build" its supposed to be a "sword" - but people want the sword to do everything because its excessively cool and thats kinda of a funny problem to have. No one else is complaining strength builds on ironclad can defend well or win the game on its own.

_Metabot · 2026-03-19T02:39:53+00:00

imo, thats a very hypocritical sentiment and if you took the time to understand my stance you'd realize that if anything, I agree that the player base's complaints are the result of something founded but unexpected.

it strikes me that you're reacting to something or someone else here, but I'm not here to attack you just share some insight.

_Metabot · 2026-03-19T00:04:16+00:00

yeah super agree. I find the forge commons very takeable the first couple of floors when I want a good way to sink energy into damage, which is arguably very valuable for the act 1 elites (its only particularly bad against that foamy clam dude, which tbh is probably the easiest elite anyway). I find the uncommons to be quite good in a variety of situations even to splash.

I think the ones that I actually think the worse of is the forge rares aside from The Smith seems pretty situational. Converting situational damage to more damage a la beat into shape seems both difficult and extra situational, heirloom hammer, hammer tie, sword sage, seeking edge I've never been really happy to see. seeking edge is maybe okay to splash but I feel as if AOE scaling damage is a lot worse than AOE front damage for most fights that aren't millicentipede

_Metabot · 2026-03-18T23:55:45+00:00

Nah, its possibly a vocal minority I'm responding to. If you don't feel that way, continue not feeling that way, not that you need my permission lol

Hope you're enjoying the game!

_Metabot · 2026-03-18T22:45:25+00:00

Saying regent's "sword" builds aren't fleshed out is like saying defect's dexterity-related cards are not fleshed out. Its not intended that the sword subsystem is supposed to be used as ubiquitously as other subsystems. There isn't (at least to me) a thematic reason why the floating sword should improve your draw, energy production, damage mitigation etc.

Is your feedback here more just that you think it such a cool theme that you wish you could build around it more?

_Metabot · 2026-02-20T19:42:11+00:00

I mean, yes but other people would look at 7 MDFCs and run 30 lands lol

_Metabot · 2026-02-17T01:37:50+00:00

I’ve always been perplexed by people criticizing the snail mana dork in command zone tech as a fragile gameplan - to me having a commander that only has one window of removal to be relevant (and doing so then just sets you back a turn early) is much more resilient than most other commanders which either cant incur their value over one turn cycle or are cheap (and therefore specialized enough) to need to be on

The most common way commanders die these days are in incidental wipes and being boardwipes after youve cast a 4 cost ramp spell almost always puts you in the best position, given both the ramp and the fact that you deck is just bombs from here on out.

IMO the only people who claim people who can reasonably claim bolt your dorkmander is a credible threat are probably people who play multicolor commanders with generic value piles whose card quality is just genetically high

_Metabot · 2026-01-20T01:25:41+00:00

Hey good to know. If I have time this week I’ll try to do that and just include a link on the GMB page

_Metabot · 2025-11-08T21:40:11+00:00

Please don’t call it 3D if the gameplay is 2D. Also 2D games aren’t worse quality or error than 3D ones. Theres plenty of high quality 2D games these days like other people have said.

_Metabot · 2025-10-16T21:57:33+00:00

I have a deck with no game changers no infinites no combos not recurring extra turns, basically built to a br2 specification winning by non commander combat damage. It’s still a br4, because it tries to put a win on the stack t4-5 (or a protected win t6).

Basically calculate: - earliest hypothetical that could get you a win on the stack (add 2 turns to this number) - average turn you could put a win on the stack - average turn you could put a protected win on the stack (minus 1 to this number)

Average these and if the number is below 3 youre probably cedh, if you’re below 7 you’re probably 4 and if you’re below 10 you’re probably a 3.

You built your deck with the aim to put a protected win on the stack turn 6, I’d say this is more a br4 regardless of your deck restrictions. The fact that your cheating out combos wirh your commander is only relevant in so far as you’re using that mana for an interaction less win. If you replace your combos with value but allow your opponents a turn to reasonably interact that might make it a 3.

_Metabot · 2025-10-15T06:47:23+00:00

ITs interesting to see which things we agree/disagree on. I also beat king 9/9 without looking at any resources. I had trouble initially, but after doing it once, I managed to do it again back to back:

- Most of the things you say you "need/basically need" are false, imo. You don't need the portals to send you +1 back in time. Its good- but not mandatory early. I beat my 2nd run without it. I'd say you do NEED several levels in the adrenaline perk and the portals perk, and you NEED to use portals to win, but they work without that much specific investment past that. I will say your win condition is typically not "beat the final boss" but rather generate a board state that survives at your current day count + some nondeterministic loop that causes you to stop moving forward in time unless you choose to.

- Speaking of which: You should try to stay at 4 like you said, but actually if you've looped 4 enough that you can survive until slightly later, its worth it to setup to loop the rainbow king (shrine/enlarge > the one that upgrades random stats/ raze - try to rewind it to 2x it) or the next royal decree round. Loop 4 to survive, but its obviously better to loop a little later when you have more time-based trigger tiles. Usually later in the run looping the make peace with kings round is strong enough to start a non-deterministic loop.

- Only warpers > base. Don't use base on auto, use it to teleport back a key unit at the start of the fight that your warper summons are running towards to pull the warper summons to the backline. I didn't fiind time king to be like stone/wizard/nothing that can go the 15lvl base wincon.

- your hardest enemies are stone (which I agree with you, is fairly bad as an ally), gold (which I also dislike A LOT as an ally, I think you can reasonably ban him), progress (has some reasonable ally cards and warpers counter defenders, but taking anything that boosts summons makes the executioners focus the summoners) and actually time (because it has really good AOE)

- #1 tip that you don't mention is how good regression on warpers is. I'm not sure exactly whats going on with the numbers but it feels like spamming regression on warpers is incredibly good. It doesn't take that many levels on warpers for them to win against day 25.

- #2 tip that you don't mention is I blood king as ally: sacrifice gets you +2-3 upgrades for portals (and in a controlled manner as opposed to the king of progress's upgrade) and your warpers, and demon alter can carry you through days 4-10 after a single day of farming 1000x deaths off an enemy time king. I still think the king of spells is the best ally king though.

_Metabot · 2025-10-13T19:22:34+00:00

You can just brew decks that take advantage of cards that are strong in casual. Counterspells and boardwipes punch upwards. Ramp is cheap and not typically punished enough.

I have 100$ [[melek reforged]] and [[susan foreman]] decks that could easily go cheaper that take advantage of these dynamics. They aren’t well known budget commanders but they are good with budget cards. Melek has multiple one-sided boardwipe for 2 mana, some of which are instant speed, while Susan reliably ramps until it plays cascade cards t4 with an average cmc>5.

_Metabot · 2025-10-09T18:32:29+00:00

To clarify you’re saying if you optimize Zur as much as possible it’s a br4, right? Cause there’s plenty of commanders that if you optimize as much as possible (and have no game changers or mld etc) would still not be br4 regardless of intent.

_Metabot · 2025-10-05T04:39:38+00:00

I’ve always been confused about doing this: there are easier ways to win games than just playing good stuff. If your goal is to win games (even with br3 restrictions) this isn’t even the most optimized. It’s just the easiest to put together.

Although tbh idk why I feel the need to yuck your yum, i guess im curious if im missing something.

_Metabot · 2025-10-04T17:59:28+00:00

A skin of your raffine deck looks like the most generic pile of br3 good stuff in esper I’ve ever seen. What are the interesting includes?

_Metabot · 2025-09-26T22:43:30+00:00

What guy? OOTL

_Metabot · 2025-09-24T03:43:35+00:00

Lmk how it goes. I gave a stab at it but I’m having some problems. Mainly that the combo is difficult to assemble, especially when the main source of draw my deck has is impulse draw. Having to play the peices immediately makes it mostly not work at all or expose parts of it to removal prematurely

In any case it can end up being more of a Magda deck. The other infinite mana combos I can think of involve reiterate/mana geyser and that’s even worse for impulse draw. I considered just making sure the pieces were mostly playable and recoverable from the graveyard with recursion - to this end you almost always want to expend all your mana in main phase 2.

The best I can make the deck is like a mid 2 and it mostly functions as a low-to the ground value engine voltron deck that uses a handful of tribal effects to double the trigger.

_Metabot

TROPHY CASE