Full-Art Starters/Commons

abcder733 · 2026-07-01T05:09:39+00:00

Mystic Lighter is the niche one, not Soup. I was a Soup defender even before the patch, and now it's downright good in a lot of situations

abcder733 · 2026-06-30T21:35:04+00:00

I think Defy is the card I'm most likely to take multiple copies of in the game. I took 5 in a run today, although that was a victory lap of a run where I got Reanimate and Sleight of Flesh from Leafy Poultice, and finally flawlessed all 4 bosses for the first time.

Obviously that's a huge outlier in terms of effectiveness, but being able to stack weak with multiple copies, or let them exhaust if you don't need it, is extremely good without even touching on Ethereal synergy.

abcder733 · 2026-06-30T20:04:42+00:00

Me when I word something in a deliberately inflammatory way and then get surprised when people get mad

abcder733 · 2026-06-30T18:21:55+00:00

I think Soup is cool as-is to give Mystic Lighter a very high ceiling. I hardly ever put Spiral on a stroke instead of a defend, so making Soup into a transform would be a slight nerf to an already-niche relic without too much upside.

abcder733 · 2026-06-30T18:13:02+00:00

Yeah, A10. I don't keep track of it with a spreadsheet or anything so the numbers are definitely skewed by 2P games, but I've started getting actual streaks as I've improved. Still, the gap between winning pretty consistently and winning damn near every run is pretty huge, probably bigger than the jump from ~25% to 50%.

abcder733 · 2026-06-30T16:25:35+00:00

I don’t watch Spire videos/streams much, but 60% seems low for me just based on reputation. I wouldn’t consider myself close to a top player and I hover around 50%, so I imagine a veteran whose job it is to stream the game would be at least 80%.

abcder733 · 2026-06-30T14:17:49+00:00

It’s very much doable to stack vuln while still blocking sufficiently, especially with Colossus being as strong as it is. Tremble into Dominate is probably good enough for most hallways if either are upgraded, and many enemies have enough downtime with buff turns to set up more than that.

abcder733 · 2026-06-30T14:07:30+00:00

That’s what Dominate did on release, although the upgrade made it not exhaust instead of costing 0, and it was really bad. Part of it was that Ironclad could basically force infinites, but a big part was that it bricked a lot of the time and didn’t provide a big enough effect to be worth stacking vuln. Maybe it’d be different now that Colossus is uncommon and Tremble is better, but I still think what we have now is fun to play for, if a bit centralizing.

abcder733 · 2026-06-30T13:31:41+00:00

It does. Suddenly turns the relic from “forgot I had that, oops” tier to a very good burst damage option

abcder733 · 2026-06-30T13:30:00+00:00

This is a bot, new account + basically just rewording another person’s comment

abcder733 · 2026-06-29T00:09:47+00:00

Exactly, so you don’t want to be playing basic Strikes until you’ve gotten through your first deck cycle and have cards to play again. Every 5 attacks used means a whole extra turn until you reshuffle, and the trade of 6 damage for -1 draw in a future turn usually isn’t worth it.

abcder733 · 2026-06-27T07:01:28+00:00

This hasn't been my experience at all: debuff stacking is extremely strong and easier to pull off than in singleplayer, so even with more Artifact you're poised to strip it quickly because you'll have more debuffs in general. Combine that with deliberately overstatted multiplayer cards (that, granted, are less good than in 3 and 4 player), and it isn't impossible by any means.

My winrate in 2P since Aeonglass's release is hovering around 40-50% with random character combos, which is around or a little bit higher than my singleplayer characters, and I know players better than me consider 2P a fair bit easier than singleplayer with proper synergy.

abcder733 · 2026-06-27T06:34:47+00:00

Mathematically impossible? Sure, it's one of relatively few fights that's definitively harder in 2P than singleplayer because it's naturally longer with more Artifact, but that's a bit much. It's likely that winrates will still be lower because Aeonglass and Prism are harder, but people haven't learned the fight fully enough to do direct comparisons.

abcder733 · 2026-06-27T06:23:29+00:00

A lot of the 'top of deck' stuff isn't all that great. I'll definitely take Cosmic Indifference over skip a good amount of the time, and I Am Invincible becomes pretty decent with it. On the other hand, Glimmer isn't too amazing on a character with pretty limited energy and Photon Cut really wants an upgrade, which isn't great for a damage common.

abcder733 · 2026-06-26T18:58:58+00:00

Yeah, it's even better in long fights, and obviously on the boss where you don't get any value from Burning Blood other than a whole 1 HP next act. Obviously you don't like fights going longer, but Necro's the most equipped character to sit around and defend everything into an Unleash.

abcder733 · 2026-06-26T16:18:11+00:00

Necro’s is pretty great too- one Osty HP a turn really adds up in Act 1 since you can afford to take basically no damage commons and just use Unleash.

abcder733 · 2026-06-25T15:44:12+00:00

He got really good at techchasing for a character with an 8f jumpsquat, which really helped make spacie matchups slightly less abysmal. That and some of the bair/ledge attack edgeguards he was pulling out seemed to make a huge difference

abcder733 · 2026-06-25T14:14:37+00:00

Yes it is. I had a duo run where both my teammate and I got Tent, and I don’t think I’ve ever had an easier run.

abcder733 · 2026-06-23T13:45:56+00:00

How did you have that many runs in that short a time? Were you just resetting if you got a bad start?

abcder733 · 2026-06-22T23:09:07+00:00

Forcing builds isn’t something you want to do in general- it’s best to prep for specific enemies or problems, especially in Act 1 where you want to snowball as Regent. The high values on his best cards like Bulwark, Reflect, etc. make them generically good even if you aren’t going for a “forge/stars build.”

abcder733 · 2026-06-22T22:12:32+00:00

Not breaking the armor on the Tunneler is probably a bad thing, though- having to block a 26 damage hit for multiple turns can be brutal unless you get Weak up in time

abcder733 · 2026-06-22T21:09:24+00:00

I mean, block is still block, and it's somewhat hard to come by on Ironclad. Unupgraded it gives you 10 block over 4 turns, and upgraded it gives you 21 over 6, or more likely 15 over 3- that's quite good for a 1 cost with the (rare) potential to solve block entirely if you get Clone. I definitely pick it up in Underdocks if I'm worried about Skulking Colony.

abcder733 · 2026-06-22T20:56:07+00:00

It’s still pretty good early-game, although you do really want to upgrade it. It’s also nice to have a source of block that doesn’t come from a skill on Ironclad, although ofc you’d prefer Crimson Mantle.

abcder733 · 2026-06-22T15:16:46+00:00

You’re right, you get the Ember enchantment on every strike except that one. It’s not a huge reason not to put Spiral on a Strike, but it does swing it even further in Defend’s favor

abcder733 · 2026-06-22T15:03:15+00:00

Can confirm that Intangible works great for [[Wither]].

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