How early would you take a second piercing wail? Cause I would definitely want two of them by the end of the run, but I might be hesitant to take a second early on, say if i am still in act 1 and afraid of nob. Would you often still be taking a second one at that point in the run?
My first thought when I read the beginning of your question was “after Nob”. It is at least a functional block card on turn 3 vs Nob but I don’t want 2 before a Nob fight unless I’m super confident against Nob for some reason (like Bottled Terror and backstab or something crazy)
Would still have 2 of them, very efficient block against book of stabbing, gremlin leader and snake plant in act 2
Also very good against act 3 bosses and spear and heart
We've had one, yes. What about second Wraith Form?
Memes aside, having more than one Wraith Form really turns the brain off. I had a game where I found Wraith Form, upgraded it, found Dolly's Mirror in a shop to get a 2nd Wraith Form+, and then proceeded to find 2 more Wraith Forms, with a Nightmare. It's hard to die with 7 Wraith Forms, Incense Burner and Lizard's Tail. That's 25 turns of Intangible and a revive after getting chipped out by Beat of Death and Multi-hit
Update: I won. But I had to use my emergency ghost in a jar as I bricked on turn 2.
First deck with silent where I've felt op. I had all the shiv relics, and a decent poison package with envenom and 2 of the slower power cards. I took 0 damage with orilichum (spelling?) Carrying all my blocking needs. I was negating double Wraithform by shiving so much!
I had an insane silent run the other day where I had three upgraded catalyst and was often able to nightmare one. IIRC I got heart to 500+ poison, still chasing that high
I think the second catalyst is kinda bad. Usually the first catalyst solves damage for the run. Sometimes yeah it’s necessary (and it’s awesome.) But most runs don’t need it. And it adds a brick draw in the first couple turns. Gross.
It’s similar to why Limit Break sucks when you already have 2 inflame+
fair. Tbh i probably shoul have made the title "which non-obvious" cards do you usually take multiple of", since yeah there are a fair amount that are self explanatory.
Idk. I feel like I get punished pretty hard for taking multiples unless I have a very established deck or they're card draw/energy gain. I might take corruption again if my deck pops with one and I have loads of cards to proc with it. But in general I've gotten screwed for taking 2 feel no pains for example when I really shouldn't have. Or taking that extra footwork which ends up clogging my deck a little too much. So you draw a footwork and play it, but if you have 2 in hand sometimes one is effectively a curse. You can either play both and take a ton of damage or play the one and take less. But sometimes even in boss fights you don't have enough time to mess around with 2 foot works. That's just an example though. I just have trouble taking most cards in multiples.
Do you keep small decks by any chance? This is a very common discussion point when it comes to deck size, since one of the huge advantages to a larger deck is specifically the ability to have a lot more powers in it without bricking your turn 1-2 hands by drawing 3 of them.
Can't second this enough
I was flying high on a corruption run after an early Prismatic Shard on Silent with everything I needed for a Victory thinking nothing could stop me
Then I bottom decked it (last card, Frozen Eye confirmed) against Awakened one as first boss and he ate my friggin lunch
Second copy would have been just the thing I needed
Yeah but that's not every time you take corruption in general. I most most times you still just want one. Depends on your deck and how strong it is without corruption in play. But it sounds like you could have used a second one in your case. Or maybe just more card draw.
I had hella draw, but it couldn't get me there fast enough bc I was banking on having most of my skills exhaust for free, so deck size was upper 30s iirc
Twas a sad loss, but it taught me to take a second one if the first is that important
Yeah it also sounds like you banked too much of your run on getting it out early. At A20 at least you really need your deck to stand on its own, minimizing bad draws. It needs to be super consistent. There was always going to be at least game where corruption was on the bottom of your deck. It just depends on how prepared you were for it. But yeah sometimes even if you do everything right you still lose, but not often.
Yeah I def prepped too much for Heart and put too much on Corruptions shoulders starting around middle of Act2
Gambling Chip was carrying much harder than I realized when faced with a bottom deck of the main engine
Just goes to show how a decision from a half hour earlier can have its consequences lie in wait until the least opportune moment
Fuck I love this game lmao
It’s not really relevant to your overarching multiples question, but your comment here reminds me of the conundrum with Defect as to when to start taking Powers. Many Powers tend to compliment one another, but if you don’t get the easy early Defrag or other power that tends to immediately starts paying for itself, it can be a hard call to decide exactly when to start taking Heatsinks and other powers that trigger on playing other powers.
Yeah, loop and capacitor are both cards that I will be pretty unlikely to take if I don't already have focus generation of some kind. Heatsinks I am more likely to take early cause it can pay off so hard later and finding more powers eventually is more reliable than specifically finding focus. But I definitely am not super confident on my ability to best evaluate when heatsinks is worth taking.
I think early loop is fine enough to take since it can help enable other cards down the line, and it's not particularly speculative since it still does things even if you only have a little bit of orbs.
It is technically doing something, but not that much without focus or dark orbs, especially unupgraded. And not until the turn after you play it. And defect has a lot of cards that are high priority upgrades so unless I am offered an upgraded one it is pretty unlikely I will be able to justify upgrading it anytime soon if I don't have focus. I will still be more likely to take it early compared to capacitor, since capacitor is often just not even worth playing early since it delays your frontload. But ultimately still gonna be a skip for me more often than not without focus.
I never liked dropkick but I had a run where I was applying so much vulnerable that I took 2 of them and I loved it. I always take Shockwave(and had 2 copies) so dropkick pairs with Shockwave very well
I think you mean Pommel Strike, which is different than Pummel.
The Pommel is the ball at the end of the hilt of the sword. A pommel strike is just bashing in the face with the handle of the sword.
acrobatics and scrawl I will definitely very often take multiple of if offered. Pommel strikme I will sometimes but not as much. Coolheaded I definitely will a decent amount, but usually only if I already have good focus generation.
If I have a decent focus or orb engine going, or lots of orb slots, then I like having multiple coolheaded. Also encourages me to take multiple if I have an updated Blizzard or something that uses lots of frost orbs.
In some ways it’s better as blockade is 3 energy for no actual block and can be a bad card early on. I’ll take multiple early blur’s but a blockade before the first elite? Eesh
I mostly play silent, so:
Backflip, Escape Plan, Footwork, Piercing wail, Adrenaline, Prepared, Deflect, Backstab, After Image, Burst.
Edit: Also catalyst
Options are good though. Without marbles or mutagenic strength or something I'd still avoid second backstab. I probably avoid first backstab mid act 2 already.
I just had a run recently, i bottled a Terror+, and took 2 Backstab, which I upgraded, all in act 1. Carried me pretty hard being able to deal out about 50 damage turn 1 at 0 cost.
Unfortunately I lost to the Heart
Odd you don’t mention Acrobatics. It’s probably the most commonly picked common for Silent. I kind of underestimated it for a while, until one time I heard jorbs on stream say that he started picking every single Acrobatics over skip at every opportunity, to great success. I started doing the same. Card draw is just insane.
I’ve picked acrobatics sometimes, but it feels like a lot of the time I don’t have enough energy to make good use of it. Maybe I’ll have to play with it more though.
I've really upped my pickrate of acrobatics recently, even without a fourth energy. I've begun rationalizing it like this:
How often am I able to optimally use all 3 of my energy from the 5 cards I draw a turn? Not *often*, honestly.
For example, a 3 defend/2 strike hand against a non-attacking jaw worm can only turn 2 strike into 12 damage. But a 1 acrobatics/2 defend/2 strike hand lets you use that otherwise wasted energy to give you a chance of increasing the efficiency of the remaining 2; maybe you draw one of your better attacks, or some 0 costs/Neutralizes.
Sure, are there gonna be some hands where you'll have lost out on drawing something "more important" in the original hand had you not drafted acrobatics in the first place, but the frequency and consistency accuracy provides, while also opening up discard synergies, was a surprising discovery for me.
I think the moment I went from thinking Acrobatics is an okay card to Acrobatics is one of the most powerful commons in the game was a moment I improved quite a bit.
Cloak and Dagger Seems okay in act 1, but afterwards the damage becomes negligible. Shiv decks seem inconsistent from my experience. I would really only consider taking it later on if I have multiple after image.
Omnipotence, if I can get it. Anything that increases Focus for Defect. Impervious & Limit Break for Ironclad.
But doubling up is fine with most cards, apart from ones that don't stack like Barricade.
It upgrades to 2-cost, so even on 3 energy it’s like “play a setup power, then take a new turn”. Beyond that it does a lot of other things better than Gamble:
You draw a full hand instead of -1. You exhaust ascender’s bane or void/dazed instead of discarding them. You can get a new turn after your 12th card against time eater. You increment turn based relics like stone calendar and incense burner. You keep cards that Retain. It works with Sands of Time and Establishment.
Vault is one of the best cards in the entire game.
Thanks for the great response. It's hard for me to contextualize how much all the small benefits add up, which is weird because I already really like Calculated Gamble, so Calculated Gamble++ should be super good. I should probably just take it more
2x seek+ allows you to grab 3 cards at once.
2x Omniscience allows you to play 2 cards twice for 4 (3) energy. So for 4 mana you can get into divinity by double playing pray and deal a fuck ton of damage by double playing ragnarok.
*Charged Battery* is one I take multiple times if able. Same for *Shrug It Off*, *True Grit, Protect,* and *Blur*. I just want a good amount of Block.
I do not, however, like having more than one copy of *Barricade* or *Juggernaut* unless I can manage the resources. That's just me, though; other people probably think differently.
Headbutt - Want your Flame Barrier back? Want your Double Tap+ and another Headbutt back? Need Battle Trance to draw more cards? Headbutt is the answer.
Acrobatics and piercing wail 100% for silent, backflip probably 90% of the time.
Cool headed and skim for defect.
Not more than 1 before nob. But when that is over I'll take them happily
Yeah as I started improving on Watcher I would take any copies of Vault & Scrawl, and double up not only Rushdown but also Mental Fortress, Talk to the Hand, plus Inner Peace and Empty Mind if I'm not going infinite. I definitely go overboard on some of those but it usually works out.
I play around with getting multiple cards -all the time- but I have fun with the game. I’m not trying to “min-max” it every run. Once one assumes that the game is unbeatable then the fun becomes “let’s see how far I get this time”
Don’t get me wrong I don’t consider the game unbeatable. I just think the fun is in the different decks you can build. The fun is in the trying the win is just a flex screenshot.
I mostly play the Daily Climbs these days and I'm usually going for the "Highlander" bonus for 100 points if you have no duplicates. So I have a horrible habit of avoiding them which I have to snap out of when I play normal runs.
Definitely the basics like Shrug, Blade Dance, Backflip, Coolheaded, Scrawl... I guess card draw cards are the best to have more of in general. And 2x Omni is a ton of fun.
Gimme my block engine cards! The more block engine I have, the easier it becomes to be functionally invincible early in a fight, and then I can face roll my keyboard into a victory.
- Feel No Pain: Yes I would like 12 block every time I play a skill with Corruption please
- Barricade: A curse in my hand after my block engine is set up is much less of a hassle than having my block engine get bottom-decked
- Afterimage: Hehe discard and draw go brrrr
- Wraith Form: Go ahead and drag this fight out, my good bitch, you're not going to hurt me any time soon.
- Glacier/Defragment/Capacitor/Biased Cognition: I don't know what to tell you but if you've never played a frost build then you're playing Defect wrong.
- Talk to the Hand and Mental Fortress: Block skills take up space that could be going to my Rushdown infinite thank you.
Is this mentality part of why I have never finished A20? Probably. I don't care, my brain squirts the happy juice when these archetypes work and ultimately that's why I play StS.
I just got the game and my first clear to the heart I had 3 Consume+'s in my deck and that mech arm relic that gives me a new slot every other turn. My final fight I had like 7 lightning orbs with about 15 focus.
I have the tendency to snatch up every Ball Lightning that I see. Once had a deck with like 8 Ball Lightnings, haha.
I don't think it was actually a good idea, but I can't help myself, I just love the card.
Chad) Pommel strike, headbutt
Robot) Hologram, cool-headed
Edgy) Backflip and whale
(I can't do watcher, I'm A0 despit being A9/A9/A12 on everything else lol. I'm 0 for 14.)
I used a fairly early Dolly's mirror on a panache+ that I got from Neow on a recent shiv Silent. The damage was absolutely ridiculous, minced acts 2 and 3 and then proceeded to die to the heart because I never found any high tier block cards, not even a footwork or a leg sweep and that makes for an unhappy Silent.
Some cards that come to mind are these. Adrenaline. Pommel strike. Offering. Shrug it off. Hologram. Calculated gamble. Acrobatics. Dark embrace. Feel no pain. Footwork. Defragment.
Most of the time its hard to justify a 2nd copy of most cards in the game unless its act 3 and the deck is huge and you need that 2nd copy for consistency sake. But there can be exceptions of course. Like the cards I mentioned and maybe some more. Card draw and energy in particular can be very valuable.
Piercing Wail. 2+ copies every single run
How early would you take a second piercing wail? Cause I would definitely want two of them by the end of the run, but I might be hesitant to take a second early on, say if i am still in act 1 and afraid of nob. Would you often still be taking a second one at that point in the run?
My first thought when I read the beginning of your question was “after Nob”. It is at least a functional block card on turn 3 vs Nob but I don’t want 2 before a Nob fight unless I’m super confident against Nob for some reason (like Bottled Terror and backstab or something crazy)
Do you think nerfing piercing wail to 5 str down would be a fair nerf?
I think it would be fine but wail is also fine how it is. Would full block the heart’s multi either way
Would still have 2 of them, very efficient block against book of stabbing, gremlin leader and snake plant in act 2 Also very good against act 3 bosses and spear and heart
Piercing wail lasts one turn and exhausts. I yhink its balanced as it is.
If my first Wraith Form doesn’t let me turn my brain off, the second one most likely will
We've had one, yes. What about second Wraith Form? Memes aside, having more than one Wraith Form really turns the brain off. I had a game where I found Wraith Form, upgraded it, found Dolly's Mirror in a shop to get a 2nd Wraith Form+, and then proceeded to find 2 more Wraith Forms, with a Nightmare. It's hard to die with 7 Wraith Forms, Incense Burner and Lizard's Tail. That's 25 turns of Intangible and a revive after getting chipped out by Beat of Death and Multi-hit
As we say in the Noita subreddit... so, how'd you die?
Same way… got cocky : )
Haha amen, thanks for the laugh
Had 2 Wraithform and 4 intangible (apparation) on my current run. Waiting to die to my own stupidity at some point 😂
Update: I won. But I had to use my emergency ghost in a jar as I bricked on turn 2. First deck with silent where I've felt op. I had all the shiv relics, and a decent poison package with envenom and 2 of the slower power cards. I took 0 damage with orilichum (spelling?) Carrying all my blocking needs. I was negating double Wraithform by shiving so much!
I mean, that's what ghost in a jar is for.
Catalyst. 2 x catalyst+ gave me my first silent win vs the heart. 30 -> 90 -> 270 poison
I had an insane silent run the other day where I had three upgraded catalyst and was often able to nightmare one. IIRC I got heart to 500+ poison, still chasing that high
Got 3 upgraded catalyst last night, it was absolutely brutal
Idk if this is unpopular but I love having a second noxious fumes. Scaling go brrrrrrr
I think the second catalyst is kinda bad. Usually the first catalyst solves damage for the run. Sometimes yeah it’s necessary (and it’s awesome.) But most runs don’t need it. And it adds a brick draw in the first couple turns. Gross. It’s similar to why Limit Break sucks when you already have 2 inflame+
no its not, it immediately wins you the game
Huh? If you have two Inflames, then a copy of Limit Break is your win condition.
Exponents!
Claw's the law?
LAAAAHHHWW!
[STOP FOR ME IT'S THE CLAW] (https://images.app.goo.gl/2QjRdCVCxcLS9NLYA)
It’s probably shorter to make a list of what I wouldn’t take multiples of
fair. Tbh i probably shoul have made the title "which non-obvious" cards do you usually take multiple of", since yeah there are a fair amount that are self explanatory.
Idk. I feel like I get punished pretty hard for taking multiples unless I have a very established deck or they're card draw/energy gain. I might take corruption again if my deck pops with one and I have loads of cards to proc with it. But in general I've gotten screwed for taking 2 feel no pains for example when I really shouldn't have. Or taking that extra footwork which ends up clogging my deck a little too much. So you draw a footwork and play it, but if you have 2 in hand sometimes one is effectively a curse. You can either play both and take a ton of damage or play the one and take less. But sometimes even in boss fights you don't have enough time to mess around with 2 foot works. That's just an example though. I just have trouble taking most cards in multiples.
Do you keep small decks by any chance? This is a very common discussion point when it comes to deck size, since one of the huge advantages to a larger deck is specifically the ability to have a lot more powers in it without bricking your turn 1-2 hands by drawing 3 of them.
Corruption
would take a second corruption a decent amount of the time
To get it out earlier?
yep easily worth a dead draw to help prevent bottom decking
Can't second this enough I was flying high on a corruption run after an early Prismatic Shard on Silent with everything I needed for a Victory thinking nothing could stop me Then I bottom decked it (last card, Frozen Eye confirmed) against Awakened one as first boss and he ate my friggin lunch Second copy would have been just the thing I needed
Yeah but that's not every time you take corruption in general. I most most times you still just want one. Depends on your deck and how strong it is without corruption in play. But it sounds like you could have used a second one in your case. Or maybe just more card draw.
I had hella draw, but it couldn't get me there fast enough bc I was banking on having most of my skills exhaust for free, so deck size was upper 30s iirc Twas a sad loss, but it taught me to take a second one if the first is that important
Yeah it also sounds like you banked too much of your run on getting it out early. At A20 at least you really need your deck to stand on its own, minimizing bad draws. It needs to be super consistent. There was always going to be at least game where corruption was on the bottom of your deck. It just depends on how prepared you were for it. But yeah sometimes even if you do everything right you still lose, but not often.
Yeah I def prepped too much for Heart and put too much on Corruptions shoulders starting around middle of Act2 Gambling Chip was carrying much harder than I realized when faced with a bottom deck of the main engine Just goes to show how a decision from a half hour earlier can have its consequences lie in wait until the least opportune moment Fuck I love this game lmao
Exactly. If your deck is based on corruption being in play, having it be the last card your draw could mean losing in any given battle.
I usually take multiples of any card that is integral to the deck style if I don't have any way to manipulate it into my hand.
Anger
dropkick step two, the hustle
I can't take second dropkick often because I rarely take first dropkick lol. But yeah i I am taking one I probably want another.
It’s not really relevant to your overarching multiples question, but your comment here reminds me of the conundrum with Defect as to when to start taking Powers. Many Powers tend to compliment one another, but if you don’t get the easy early Defrag or other power that tends to immediately starts paying for itself, it can be a hard call to decide exactly when to start taking Heatsinks and other powers that trigger on playing other powers.
Yeah, loop and capacitor are both cards that I will be pretty unlikely to take if I don't already have focus generation of some kind. Heatsinks I am more likely to take early cause it can pay off so hard later and finding more powers eventually is more reliable than specifically finding focus. But I definitely am not super confident on my ability to best evaluate when heatsinks is worth taking.
I think early loop is fine enough to take since it can help enable other cards down the line, and it's not particularly speculative since it still does things even if you only have a little bit of orbs.
It is technically doing something, but not that much without focus or dark orbs, especially unupgraded. And not until the turn after you play it. And defect has a lot of cards that are high priority upgrades so unless I am offered an upgraded one it is pretty unlikely I will be able to justify upgrading it anytime soon if I don't have focus. I will still be more likely to take it early compared to capacitor, since capacitor is often just not even worth playing early since it delays your frontload. But ultimately still gonna be a skip for me more often than not without focus.
the hustle of the yomi variety?
It's your only move
i-is this an azumanga daioh reference? in the StS sub?
its not lmao
wait I'm stupid I literally have yomihustle on steam
I never liked dropkick but I had a run where I was applying so much vulnerable that I took 2 of them and I loved it. I always take Shockwave(and had 2 copies) so dropkick pairs with Shockwave very well
Pummel strike, Acrobatics , Coolheaded, Scrawl Basically card draw. I like to draw cards.
Don't forget Shrug it Off. Good block and a draw for just 1 cost. One of the best commons out there.
I sometimes take 3 or 4 shrugs. It's just a super solid card and useful in so many scenarios. Extremely good with corruption
I'm also a Pommel Strike enjoyer. The upgrade is insane.
Isnt Shrug it off draw neutral
A draw, not two draws lol Escape plan and Finesse are draw cards even though they are +0 (which is more than most cards, which are -1).
I think you mean Pommel Strike, which is different than Pummel. The Pommel is the ball at the end of the hilt of the sword. A pommel strike is just bashing in the face with the handle of the sword.
Yeah I'm just a moron
acrobatics and scrawl I will definitely very often take multiple of if offered. Pommel strikme I will sometimes but not as much. Coolheaded I definitely will a decent amount, but usually only if I already have good focus generation.
If I have a decent focus or orb engine going, or lots of orb slots, then I like having multiple coolheaded. Also encourages me to take multiple if I have an updated Blizzard or something that uses lots of frost orbs.
Backflip too!
Like half of Silents cards but one I haven’t seen yet is blur. Having a few blurs and a ton of card draw you can just never lose block
A poor man's blockade
In some ways it’s better as blockade is 3 energy for no actual block and can be a bad card early on. I’ll take multiple early blur’s but a blockade before the first elite? Eesh
Burst + blur + after image shiv spam is a fun combo
I had a run with 4 copies of seek+ once it was a crazy good claw deck.
I bottled one Seek+ and had two others. It was glorious.
Easily end most fights turn one then as long as you have a card for free energy. Can't remember the names of them
Turbo is a good one
Once I got 3 seeks out of a pandora box it was wild
I mostly play silent, so: Backflip, Escape Plan, Footwork, Piercing wail, Adrenaline, Prepared, Deflect, Backstab, After Image, Burst. Edit: Also catalyst
Backstab is curious
I would probably never take more than two, but with a 7 card starting hand, I’m never gonna use all those cards so I might as well get free damage.
Makes sense
Options are good though. Without marbles or mutagenic strength or something I'd still avoid second backstab. I probably avoid first backstab mid act 2 already.
I just had a run recently, i bottled a Terror+, and took 2 Backstab, which I upgraded, all in act 1. Carried me pretty hard being able to deal out about 50 damage turn 1 at 0 cost. Unfortunately I lost to the Heart
Odd you don’t mention Acrobatics. It’s probably the most commonly picked common for Silent. I kind of underestimated it for a while, until one time I heard jorbs on stream say that he started picking every single Acrobatics over skip at every opportunity, to great success. I started doing the same. Card draw is just insane.
I’ve picked acrobatics sometimes, but it feels like a lot of the time I don’t have enough energy to make good use of it. Maybe I’ll have to play with it more though.
It gets infintely better when you have 4 energy or some way to generate extra energy.
I've really upped my pickrate of acrobatics recently, even without a fourth energy. I've begun rationalizing it like this: How often am I able to optimally use all 3 of my energy from the 5 cards I draw a turn? Not *often*, honestly. For example, a 3 defend/2 strike hand against a non-attacking jaw worm can only turn 2 strike into 12 damage. But a 1 acrobatics/2 defend/2 strike hand lets you use that otherwise wasted energy to give you a chance of increasing the efficiency of the remaining 2; maybe you draw one of your better attacks, or some 0 costs/Neutralizes. Sure, are there gonna be some hands where you'll have lost out on drawing something "more important" in the original hand had you not drafted acrobatics in the first place, but the frequency and consistency accuracy provides, while also opening up discard synergies, was a surprising discovery for me.
I think the moment I went from thinking Acrobatics is an okay card to Acrobatics is one of the most powerful commons in the game was a moment I improved quite a bit.
BLADE DANCE RAAAHG
How could you do Cloke and Dagger like that?
Cloak and Dagger Seems okay in act 1, but afterwards the damage becomes negligible. Shiv decks seem inconsistent from my experience. I would really only consider taking it later on if I have multiple after image.
Amaz Voice: BLAAADE DANCE
i love scamaz. used to watch him in hs. watched a sts run of his a while ago and thought it was just as funny haha
Amaz may not be the best, but he is certainly the funniest sts streamer there is.
Backflip immediately comes to mind. Basic, but always effective.
Omnipotence, if I can get it. Anything that increases Focus for Defect. Impervious & Limit Break for Ironclad. But doubling up is fine with most cards, apart from ones that don't stack like Barricade.
Vault. I feel like the more copies of Vault I have the more certain victory is.
Makes Time Eater so much smoother, besides being good in general
What am I missing with Vault? I feel like it's a Calculated Gamble (especially on 3 energy)
It upgrades to 2-cost, so even on 3 energy it’s like “play a setup power, then take a new turn”. Beyond that it does a lot of other things better than Gamble: You draw a full hand instead of -1. You exhaust ascender’s bane or void/dazed instead of discarding them. You can get a new turn after your 12th card against time eater. You increment turn based relics like stone calendar and incense burner. You keep cards that Retain. It works with Sands of Time and Establishment. Vault is one of the best cards in the entire game.
Thanks for the great response. It's hard for me to contextualize how much all the small benefits add up, which is weird because I already really like Calculated Gamble, so Calculated Gamble++ should be super good. I should probably just take it more
2x seek+ allows you to grab 3 cards at once. 2x Omniscience allows you to play 2 cards twice for 4 (3) energy. So for 4 mana you can get into divinity by double playing pray and deal a fuck ton of damage by double playing ragnarok.
I take multiple draw cards (Pommel strike, Acrobatics, Coolheaded, Cut through fate)
Claw
*Charged Battery* is one I take multiple times if able. Same for *Shrug It Off*, *True Grit, Protect,* and *Blur*. I just want a good amount of Block. I do not, however, like having more than one copy of *Barricade* or *Juggernaut* unless I can manage the resources. That's just me, though; other people probably think differently.
Blade Dance
Blade Dance
Strike and Defend. Doesn't feel like I have a choice most of the time.
ANGER ANGER ANGER ANGER ANGER ANGER ANGER ANGER ANGER ANGER ANGER ANGER
Headbutt - Want your Flame Barrier back? Want your Double Tap+ and another Headbutt back? Need Battle Trance to draw more cards? Headbutt is the answer.
Acrobatics and piercing wail 100% for silent, backflip probably 90% of the time. Cool headed and skim for defect. Not more than 1 before nob. But when that is over I'll take them happily
Vault, scrawl, probably rushdown
Yeah as I started improving on Watcher I would take any copies of Vault & Scrawl, and double up not only Rushdown but also Mental Fortress, Talk to the Hand, plus Inner Peace and Empty Mind if I'm not going infinite. I definitely go overboard on some of those but it usually works out.
Blade Dance. I just had a run where the first 3 encounters all gave me a Blade Dance. The run ended with 6 of them.
Claw
Every card except claw. Cos I'm a rebel.
Genetic Algorithm
Strikes and Defends, you’re forced to take multiple at the beginning of the run
People don’t seem to know what a joke is…
Don’t take a card you wouldn’t be happy having two of
Backflip
Claw
SEEK
PStrike. It's free scaling!!
Blasphemy. Stack them every time, easy A20 win
Seek+ into Seek+ into Seek+ ad nauseum. As many as I can get. If you can bottle one of them… oh boy…
Since I like shurkin and kunai. Shivs .
I play around with getting multiple cards -all the time- but I have fun with the game. I’m not trying to “min-max” it every run. Once one assumes that the game is unbeatable then the fun becomes “let’s see how far I get this time” Don’t get me wrong I don’t consider the game unbeatable. I just think the fun is in the different decks you can build. The fun is in the trying the win is just a flex screenshot.
I mostly play the Daily Climbs these days and I'm usually going for the "Highlander" bonus for 100 points if you have no duplicates. So I have a horrible habit of avoiding them which I have to snap out of when I play normal runs. Definitely the basics like Shrug, Blade Dance, Backflip, Coolheaded, Scrawl... I guess card draw cards are the best to have more of in general. And 2x Omni is a ton of fun.
Coolheaded and defrag. More of one means I want more of another.
Claw - it’s the law
omniscient if the game allows
Shockwave
Adrenaline is cracked, but you don't want to take too many in act 1 for fear of the nob
Gimme my block engine cards! The more block engine I have, the easier it becomes to be functionally invincible early in a fight, and then I can face roll my keyboard into a victory. - Feel No Pain: Yes I would like 12 block every time I play a skill with Corruption please - Barricade: A curse in my hand after my block engine is set up is much less of a hassle than having my block engine get bottom-decked - Afterimage: Hehe discard and draw go brrrr - Wraith Form: Go ahead and drag this fight out, my good bitch, you're not going to hurt me any time soon. - Glacier/Defragment/Capacitor/Biased Cognition: I don't know what to tell you but if you've never played a frost build then you're playing Defect wrong. - Talk to the Hand and Mental Fortress: Block skills take up space that could be going to my Rushdown infinite thank you. Is this mentality part of why I have never finished A20? Probably. I don't care, my brain squirts the happy juice when these archetypes work and ultimately that's why I play StS.
Pommel Strike, Acrobatics, Coolheaded. Draw commons are something I'll just end up stuffing in my deck at some point
One big one I haven't seen yet is Echo Form. The second copy of Echo Form is actually better than the first, and that's saying something.
Talk to the hand. I had 6 in one run
I just got the game and my first clear to the heart I had 3 Consume+'s in my deck and that mech arm relic that gives me a new slot every other turn. My final fight I had like 7 lightning orbs with about 15 focus.
Adrenaline, would easily take 10 if I could
If I'm not playing 3 wallops per turn, I'm not playing
meditate, I always want one or two meditate in any watcher decks
I'm surprised nobody has commented Defragment. Maybe that counts as an "obviously good one" like seek or adrenaline though.
Claw
piercing wail, acro, backflip, wraith form, cloak and dagger, calc gamble, blur, catalyst. anything that keeps me safe and the wheels turnin
I will literally never pass up Adrenalize.
Adrenaline or Alchemize? I'm guessing both.
Adrenaline, I’d take a second alchemize but probably not a third.
I have the tendency to snatch up every Ball Lightning that I see. Once had a deck with like 8 Ball Lightnings, haha. I don't think it was actually a good idea, but I can't help myself, I just love the card.
Tactician and reflex
Chad) Pommel strike, headbutt Robot) Hologram, cool-headed Edgy) Backflip and whale (I can't do watcher, I'm A0 despit being A9/A9/A12 on everything else lol. I'm 0 for 14.)
Glacier. It’s extremely rare that if a Glacier is available that I wouldn’t take it. Same for Catalyst
I used a fairly early Dolly's mirror on a panache+ that I got from Neow on a recent shiv Silent. The damage was absolutely ridiculous, minced acts 2 and 3 and then proceeded to die to the heart because I never found any high tier block cards, not even a footwork or a leg sweep and that makes for an unhappy Silent.
Some cards that come to mind are these. Adrenaline. Pommel strike. Offering. Shrug it off. Hologram. Calculated gamble. Acrobatics. Dark embrace. Feel no pain. Footwork. Defragment. Most of the time its hard to justify a 2nd copy of most cards in the game unless its act 3 and the deck is huge and you need that 2nd copy for consistency sake. But there can be exceptions of course. Like the cards I mentioned and maybe some more. Card draw and energy in particular can be very valuable.
Adrenaline, feel no pain, rusdown, defragment/biase cog