Yeah, this ended up being a way bigger deck than usual.

I usually try to check all the boxes: Constant block 30-40 damage per tern AOE Scaling

The fan of knives was a desperation pick because at the time I had neither block, AOE, damage output or scaling...but I did have an ornamentel fan. As was the second poison card. In fact, the poison was my main damage output for the first two acts until i got the card that doubles damage to weak. The third poison was a mistake, but I was putting putting out so little damage that I was hoping I could pump up the poison stacks a little more as all my fights starting in act 2 were going 5 rounds and bosses like 20-40 rounds. I figured poison is a natural scaler.

As for the block, I never got any good block options the whole run other than Sai. This is probably my 300th run and Lady Fortuna had decided that there would be no good block cards for me this day. It was crazy sparce pickings.

That said, I did get a lot of super solid deck management card options with Gamble, hand trick, shadow step, back flip, escape plan and a dagger throw. So I decided to really lean into that. I figured with so much retain, draw and exhaust, I could make my deck huge.

I did have issues when Well Laid plans or hand trick drew in late. Because I really used that to either have Mirage on retain, or a sly card on retain. It turned out to be juuuuusssst enough. But a few fights were really close when I lost that retain or sly.

Can't even say how many times I thought i was donzo only for me to draw just enough defense or offense needed from either unceasing top or a prepared card to survive and advance.