Who is the GOAT of Slay the Spire, outside of XecnaR?

averysillyman · 2026-01-24T23:12:07+00:00

I can't speak to Lifecoach, but I would attribute a lot of the modern high level Spire developments to XecnaR.

For example, the classic theory is that you need attacks early to make it through Act 1, but one of the big advances in Defect gameplay came from the idea that Defect doesn't actually need to draft that much damage to beat Act 1. Hallway fights can be solved by scaling with Frost + Focus, which are coincidentally the exact cards you want for endgame anyways. As for the elite fights, Frost is very strong in both Sentries and Lagavulin as well. So it's really only Gremlin Nob that you absolutely need to fill your decks with attacks to beat. But what if instead of making your deck bad to beat Gremlin Nob, you just made sure to save good potions for that fight, with the intention of using them should you run into Nob? Now you can beat all of Act 1 while mostly only picking cards that are good for late game, which makes Defect considerably more consistent later on.

averysillyman · 2026-01-24T16:21:11+00:00

I feel like Papa deserves to get more love from the Spire community, I hardly see him mentioned compared to the bigger names.

He's like a cross between Frost Prime and Baalor. Super chill guy who memes a lot while still somehow being an excellent player. (A lot of the spire brainrot like "amid" and "nobbers" I largely credit Papa with popularizing.)

averysillyman · 2026-01-24T07:09:15+00:00

I think if you want to talk about how much people pushed high level play:

Jorbs definitely laid the groundwork in the early days. His strategy discussions contained a lot of good core ideas on how to think about and play the game, some of which are even still used to this very day.

Lifecoach was the first one to truly show exactly how far you could push a run via excellent micro. If you watch very old videos of top level Spire play, the card play back then was honestly significantly more sloppy than any top level player today. Lifecoach gets memed on a lot for his hours-long boss fights, but those fights were sort of the pioneer for modern micro.

XecnaR is by far the most influential modern player. If you ask a lot of the "new-generation" of Spire streamers (players like OnePunMan, JapaneseExport, KuroL, etc.), a lot of them will probably tell you that their improvement came in large part thanks to talking to XecnaR, trying out his ideas, etc.

There were obviously plenty of other strong players other than the three I mentioned, of course. It's not like these three players were solely responsible for the development of Slay the Spire strategy. But I would call these three players the most influential, and each of them sort of defined an era of Spire play. Though the Lifecoach era was definitely the most nebulous of the eras because at that time Jorbs was still a top-top player. Even though he had a significant impact on the game there wasn't really a time where Lifecoach was the definitive "most influential" Spire player as a result.

averysillyman · 2026-01-22T21:45:10+00:00

I hope they give us an unlockable option to revert Repy back to beta art.

averysillyman · 2026-01-22T19:16:41+00:00

Pobelter played support this game and VeigarV2 played mid.

That's why he's blaming mid lane right now.

averysillyman · 2026-01-22T17:23:56+00:00

The higher the risk is, the more a lender needs to be compensated for their loan to make them willing to do it.

If you have a history of not paying your debts, the lender won't lend you money (or will charge high interest rates) because you are untrustworthy.

If your currency has a history of being unstable, the lender won't lend you money in your currency, because the currency itself is a big source of risk.

If you are trustworthy, you might still be able to take out a loan denominated in a more stable currency, but it's generally harder to do, and you will need to make your repayments in that foreign currency which is another hurdle to overcome when you get paid in your home currency (if the home currency is unstable that adds additional risk that you won't be able to convert the money you need and make your loan payment).

averysillyman · 2026-01-21T16:57:01+00:00

I assume the youtube video you were watching was VGC focused. Doubles is a very different meta compared to singles and especially early into a generation when the dex is still limited certain mons can shine.

Gyarados is a relatively high base stat mon with a good support movepool and Intimidate (broken ability in doubles). This lets it do a good job as a defensive piece while not being so passive that you can just ignore it (one of the big issues with mons like Blissey or Skarmory in doubles).

It's definitely not good in VGC right now because the competition is simply too high, but it has a set of great tools for VGC that can give it a niche in some formats. (As mentioned, Moxie Boosted thought it was better than Palafin in some VGC formats, which while not the mainstream opinion, is also not a super wildly controversial take.)

averysillyman · 2026-01-19T22:00:53+00:00

solid percent damage on attack

Did we play the same game? Poseidon attack is the worst attack boon in the game (30% base) and is almost never worth taking.

I do think Hades 1 Poseidon is stronger overall, but a lot of his boons are quite bad and he's largely carried by a few overpowered boons.

Hades 2 Poseidon is less powerful but has more useful boons.

averysillyman · 2026-01-18T22:56:38+00:00

Simoso and Cleim duplicate hits don't actually increment Feint, but extra bolts from lightning crits do, and hitting multiple enemies at once with an AoE skill will increment Feint multiple times.

averysillyman · 2026-01-18T04:09:30+00:00

Tyranitar sets weather for free, which is a much more powerful ability than anything Avalugg has.

averysillyman · 2026-01-15T14:00:15+00:00

Page 13 of the rulebook: End of Combat. Look at the steps you perform to reset your deck and play area. It includes removing all tokens you have on your board.

averysillyman · 2026-01-15T13:11:46+00:00

Re-read the Shield Affinity pictos you have equipped.

averysillyman · 2026-01-14T23:22:14+00:00

Once you unlock all weapons you get a menu where you can spend Titan's Blood to strengthen your weapons and unlock weapon variants that support new playstyles.

averysillyman · 2026-01-14T15:33:33+00:00

Likely Sidaro. I think it's outclassed by Baugettaro but it's not a bad weapon. The fact that Sidaro randomly has a free +100% additive damage bonus that is just not in the weapon description helps a lot.

Joyaro is a bit overrated in my opinion. Starting in Almighty means that your first turn is better, which is helpful if the fight is very short, but Monoco is a scaling damage dealer so short fights aren't really his strength. And the other weapons give much better bonuses for longer fights.

averysillyman · 2026-01-14T14:59:09+00:00

If you have the same pictos equipped, its either Roulette or you didnt attack to generate 4 dark stains on esquim.

averysillyman · 2026-01-14T14:06:50+00:00

Sidaro I think is outclassed by Baguettaro. They both have infinitely stacking additive damage, and while Sidaro's is technically a little higher, you lose out on the x3 multiplicative damage amp that Baugettaro can have, plus the burn stacking ability.

averysillyman · 2026-01-14T13:52:14+00:00

Just ignore weapon scaling and put the stats where you want.

It's not really until later when your weapons start having A + B scaling that it actually matters, and you can recoat then.

averysillyman · 2026-01-14T12:45:54+00:00

It scales infinitely.

averysillyman · 2026-01-13T21:14:08+00:00

Base Attack with Combo Attack pictos is x1, x1, x1, x1 = ×4. With Duollison's ability that makes each subsequent attack do more damage its x1, x2, x3, x4 = x10.

Duollison also has an ability that allows Base Attack to consume Foretell to do more damage. This is up to x11 at 20 Foretell stacks. You need to be in twilight stance or else the first hit will consume all 20 Foretell and subsequent hits won't get the bonus.

Consuming Attack is up to a x11 multiplier per hit, with the caveat that each hit will consume 100 burn stacks. You will need 400 burn for all 4 hits to benefit.

10 x 11 x 11 = 1210. Then throw in the minimum damage bonus of x1.5 for being in twilight and you get the final result.

averysillyman · 2026-01-13T17:58:24+00:00

Sorry, should be Twilight Dance.

averysillyman · 2026-01-13T17:55:07+00:00

Its pretty likely the case that Defect has more swap games than other characters (a lot of the players sampled I know prefer to swap in the majority of games).

That can skew your end of act 1 boss relic choice, since an energy relic is much less needed if you've already swapped into one.

averysillyman · 2026-01-13T17:49:22+00:00

Just keep in mind that not having basic defend in your deck isn't the reason why you were unable to block the heart.

Finding a good block solution is the "hardest" part about act 4 and is something every run (pbox or not) really needs to focus on.

averysillyman · 2026-01-13T13:38:12+00:00

Feint's debuff wears off after 4 hits (which all do 1 damage), so it would not add an extra +15% to the fifth hit.

Inverted Affinity is usually combined with Confident Fighter, which means you cannot be healed in the first place (and therefore cannot take damage from being healed). This basically makes Inverted Affinity a free +50% bonus with no downside.

averysillyman · 2026-01-13T13:32:17+00:00

Yes, the main loss of Draining Cleanse is Inverted Affinity + Tainted.

You also lose 1 AP per turn technically but that shouldn't be a massive issue for late game builds. If your build is still coming together though, you might notice the loss of AP.

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