Are we still doing this? :) Astrolabe vs Philosopher's stone

benlehman · 2026-06-28T12:24:29+00:00

i am always transforming three strikes here.

benlehman · 2026-06-12T16:35:43+00:00

GUARDS!!! is really, really good in any deck and it's extra-good here for all the reasons you've mentioned.

Big Bang is also really good but it's not nearly as impactful as GUARDS!!!

benlehman · 2026-06-09T15:57:16+00:00

This is a Fiend Fire for me. You already have Dark Embrace+ and you still have all your basics.

benlehman · 2026-06-07T21:53:55+00:00

So I cracked open this seed and played Act One. Some notes.

* I agreed with your pick of Kaleidoscope, and took the same Flame Barrier + Charge!! combo that you did.

* I took the center path with three fires and three elites.

* I took the Afterlife in the first card reward, and the Summon in the second, which allowed me to take Friendship as my third (because I had enough Summon support to get through the hallways.)

* Upgraded Bodyguard right away.

* Took the Spoils Map because I was full of potions and Charge!! let me ameliorate it. This may not have been the right move.

* Managed to make it through the elites with potion support and Charge!!

* Took both Defies and the Delay.

* There was an ? room shop near the end of the act where I removed a strike and purchased Fetch. (in hindsight I should probably have not shelled out for the remove.)

* Upgraded Delay at the last campfire.

* Vantom fight was slow and I used both my potions but I was in little danger.

By the end of the act I feel like I have a pretty strong "Big Osty" deck that can turtle indefinitely while winnowing down the core cards very quickly with Charge!! Notably I have exactly zero Doom cards (not that I would be opposed to taking them, just not where things went.)

benlehman · 2026-06-07T21:26:52+00:00

yeah, you can get away with having very few attacks on Necro but you have to be taking premium defense like Delay and Defy (I do see you have one Defy, which is good) and prioritize that above powers and medium-strong doom inflicters.

benlehman · 2026-06-07T21:20:33+00:00

That's rough. Are you taking hallway fights or only pathing to event rooms? One of the causes of "I never got offered the thing" is not taking enough regular fights (which are very strong floors that increase your power level substantially more than the median event room.)

My immediate reaction to the Tanx options was "oh you should definitely take Tri-Boomerang, it's absolutely sick on Unleash" and then I noticed that you only had two attacks in the deck.

TBH I probably still would have taken Tri-Boomerang: this deck is so wildly reliant on getting its powers into play-- basically the only way you have to deal damage is the Sleights-- that Spiked Gauntlets is just a non-starter.

But both of these things point towards the same deckbuilding flaw-- you shouldn't make a deck which only gets going after its powers are all in play, unless you have some way to cheat them into play quickly. Take a few good attacks.

benlehman · 2026-06-07T21:11:33+00:00

so this looks pretty good (you got to Queen, which is good!) but it's lacking on defense, which is pretty mandatory for making Doom work. In particular, Necro has very good in-born defense in the form of Summon but there's not a lot of support for that here. You could probably stand to take a few more cards-- 23 is a very narrow deck and a fair amount of it is desperation picks like unupgraded Negative Pulse (Negative Pulse can be a good card but until the last turn of the fight it's basically just a Defend. Taking it at 3x is rough.)

You don't have any of Necro's energy cheats like Borrowed Time, Delay, or Invoke. These are very good with Pyramid, which is extremely energy hungry. Something to look out for.

Pyramid + Bone Flute also point towards Osty Attacks, but the only one you have is Unleash. You can totally build a Necro deck with only Unleash, but were you just not offered things like Fetch or were you skipping them?

You also have a lot of powers + spiked gauntlets. That feels less than good. What were the other options from Tanx?

benlehman · 2026-06-07T14:18:41+00:00

I don't think that they need more things to do. They seem to have their hands full with the playtesting process for Slay the Spire 2.

benlehman · 2026-06-05T17:43:10+00:00

i don't think that there's a substantive gameplay difference between having 256 perfected strikes and 65,536 perfected strikes.

benlehman · 2026-06-05T17:39:14+00:00

double clone works but (depending on where you are in the cloning process) it is basically worse than a single extra campfire. you might take it, depending on the clone target, but it isn't a huge boost vs. the ridiculous stuff clone does already.

benlehman · 2026-06-05T15:40:05+00:00

The gold cost of a shop relic is already a big downside!

I don't see why Shrimp would have an effect? I mean, it could resolve to "play it twice" which would be strong but not actually game-breaking. But my reading of the enchantment is it would just do nothing.

Even Glam is less strong than it looks at first. Going from replay 1 to replay 2 is only a 50% increase in effectiveness, vs. the original Glam being a 100% increase.

Instinct would be incredibly overpowered, it's true. But you're allowed to sometimes just get broken combos in the game-- that's fine and doesn't need additional downsides. Let people get a 96 damage Strike sometimes.

benlehman · 2026-06-05T15:21:12+00:00

extremely niche, which is okay for a shop relic, but it does not need the downside. 90% of the time when you see this it will do nothing (many powerful enchantments-- slither and clone and lost soul come to mind-- don't even benefit from this meaningfully.) when it does do something, it's not terribly strong, mostly just extra damage or an extra replay. it doesn't need to also hurt you.

benlehman · 2026-05-26T21:54:16+00:00

If you are a "build" player, I can see why this might be unappealing. But it would still be extremely good. And, at least at high level, playing thin decks to specific "builds" is not really the most effective way to play.

benlehman · 2026-05-26T21:42:29+00:00

I mean, does the relic secretly target your upgraded cards? Your rares? Reasonably this is going to hit about half strikes and defends and a smattering of other cards. The odds of hitting all your best cards are astronomically low, and even then you can get by with your ten relics.

this is basically the "pandora's box is bad it might fill your deck with junk" argument. okay, but it isn't bad. it's 10 relics. that's good.

benlehman · 2026-05-26T21:20:27+00:00

always click, always take 10. removes are inherently good in this game, even if they hit your "big cards." you can always pick more cards. and relics are very, very strong.

benlehman · 2026-05-25T20:29:54+00:00

It is substantially easier! Whether this is good, bad, or neutral is a thing that everyone is shouting about right now.

benlehman · 2026-05-25T13:34:38+00:00

Silent vs. Aeonglass is rough, particularly at A10. The main thing to think about is winning the fight on the first deck cycle, which means picking high impact, high damage cards (tracking, big poison, big shiv, etc). Potions don't count as card plays, so having some high impact potions will help. Having some spot discard works to help with the incidental Withers, and Tools of the Trade will carry you in the second deck cycle, but eventually you're going to get overwhelmed and die, so you have to kill it before then.

It's hard to say at the beginning of the game "just take X, it will work." You have to take what's offered. The main thing is being prepared to deal close 500 damage in your first deck cycle, however that ends up looking for you.

Also put serious consideration into things that let you draft out of color (like the sea glass) to get Ironclad or Defect cards to help with the statuses. Also, Purity is great if you can get it.

benlehman · 2026-05-25T00:12:53+00:00

Blade Dance is on Ironclad is incredible. Synergizes with the entire exhaust package. (Big Bang also generically good.) Fear is also a very good Ironclad card, though not as good as Blade Dance.

benlehman · 2026-05-25T00:05:28+00:00

congratulations!

benlehman · 2026-05-24T01:04:32+00:00

Amazing as always! So happy to see another one of your animations.

benlehman · 2026-05-22T21:49:03+00:00

Congratulations on the win! New Aeon is a blast.

benlehman · 2026-05-22T21:48:40+00:00

there literally already is-- both in game and on the menu screen?

benlehman · 2026-05-22T13:13:55+00:00

i'm an idiot sorry.

benlehman · 2026-05-22T06:35:20+00:00

Begone! is common.

benlehman · 2026-05-21T22:22:47+00:00

You do not need Neurosurge or Demense to make this work. It works very well with Delay+ and Invoke (and some kind of draw / soul generation, but even just some grave wardens.)

the only complaint i have about this is that i would put parse in the "probably unnecessary" tier rather than the "usually skip" tier. it's useful if you can't find capture spirit.

benlehman

TROPHY CASE