Northernlion Rates Every Ironclad Card in Slay the Spire!

hi everybody and welcome to northern Lyon rates every single ironclad card and slay the spire what on earth are you doing Eggman you suck I know but I have I mean you can see it for yourself 385 hours in the game hey don't add me by the way I'm not gonna spoil much get ready there's a little spoiler boom that's boiling much okay boom ascension 20 it has been done you're probably watching the episodes you know there's a little bit of a backlog you're watching the episodes and you're like how did you beat ascension 20 when you suck so bad the night these always darkest before the dawn so I had this idea in my head you know it would be fun let's pretend to be like a good hearthstone slash magic streamer who actually knows how to evaluate cards and let's evaluate all the cards in the game shall we I want to point out before we get started here there should be a an ironclad a silent a defect video maybe a colourless video but at some point you know I mean there's enough colorless cards to rate probably the other thing I want to add is that I encourage dissent I encourage context this is the context of the cards that I raped most highly the cards that I don't rate at all and the cards that I think are decent so if you got dissent disagreement agreement support constructive criticism toss in the comments below this is good to generate discussion as well okay so we're gonna go through every single one of these cards and I will give you something to be mad about but hopefully entertain you as well you ready here we're gonna go on a rating system from 0 or sorry from 1 to 5 5 I'll put context for it you know as we go through each card 5 is like extremely good almost always take or maybe even always take one is probably in the vicinity of never or extremely rarely take and then you know 2 is situationally good 3 is you know a decent card that maybe a situational even great you get the idea so let's start Bosch you start with one in the ironclad deck deal a damage to vulnerable for to energy I'm gonna give this a 2 out of 5 very very helpful in the early game in order to get some extra damage done the enemies kill them before they do too much damage to you but I don't think you would ever add more of these to the deck there's better cards that add vulnerability Tripp adds to vulnerability as well for zero and upgrade it affects all enemies clothesline does damage to vulnerable to weak sorry too weak on clothesline uppercut does too vulnerable to weak when it's upgraded so I'd give this it - I wouldn't most of the time I wouldn't remove it but I don't make it a high upgrade priority as well defend I mean I don't even know what to say about these ones this is probably a one you want to remove these most of the time as quickly as possible and have learned on Ascension you know as the iron clad in particular you want to get rid of your defense before your strikes cuz you need that offense to be able to punch through enemies that are gonna kill you more quickly than you can kill them and your defense are not gonna make much of a difference against you know elites that are gonna hit you for 20 or 30 damage per turn so this is a one strike might be like a 1.5 I don't want to do half ratings but you know the only thing I will say is that it does enable perfected strike which by itself is not that great of a card but can be useful especially early on keep in mind these evaluations are also coming from the perspective of you know somebody who's been on ascension 15 to 20 for like two months which means I'm bad but also they're tailored to slightly different parameters but anyway strike obviously you can get better damage you can get cheaper you can get status effects on attacks the only thing I can think of really is it makes perfect that strike a little better but again you never add these you you remove them if anything so anger this is an interesting one I probably would have given this a a - until recently but I actually think anger is probably a 3 out of 5 card that goes up to even a 4 probably not a 5 but you know close depending on your any zero-cost attack is gonna be excellent if you have kunai if you have shuriken and if you have unceasing top the fact that it fills up your deck with itself you know deal six damage and add a copy of this card into your discard pile after you play it is is actually good if you're building around aggression if you're not building around aggression and you really you know you have a thin deck where you need to rely on drawing you know flame barrier or something like that then this can become a little dangerous but I've come around to this card a lot I also think especially on the first floor which really sets the tone for a lot of sentient ironclad runs for me having any free damage is extremely helpful so having a card that's basically like a free strike is is awesome plus you get great value on the upgrade the longer the fight goes on the more you know you get 2 damage per card basically and you could have you know 10 or 12 of these in your deck by the end of a fight against a boss so I'd say this is a 3 bordering on 4 out of 5 card depending on the way your deck works armaments this is a weird one unupgraded I don't think it's very good but you have to most of the time take it on upgraded and give it like a 2 out of 5 on upgraded upgraded I would give it a 4 I love having one of these in my deck but you only really need one and if you're rolling a thin deck which I don't do that often you're probably best off even finding a way to exhaust it later because you know once it becomes just a basic block it's not so good but I love taking at least one armaments are usually just one armaments bodyslam is another very interesting card and and like all my menses is another card that I think benefits extremely highly from being upgraded this is a tough one for me because I've had a really hard time making you know a block ironclad ascension deck work I haven't really had great luck with barricade juggernaut impervious you know my rage is a different story but but I still think that you'd I'd probably say that like anger bodyslam is is okay when not in a shell that's built for it and good to maybe even great or maybe even a run winner if it's built in a into a barricade deck so I would say if you're taking this early it's probably like a - once you get it upgraded it becomes much better and of course any free damage is nice but if you're building a deck that's you know corruption barricade you get the idea this this could become a four or even a five you know inevitably people are gonna be like two stars I did 500 damage to the awakened one with one body slam yeah it has a lot of upside if you can build around it but I'm very hesitant most of the time to take one early especially because if you don't have a lot of block it's pretty much useless early on until you get it upgraded then it becomes free damage but I don't disrespect this car has just got to be the right situation clash very interesting card in non ascension runs I love it I might even make it a five star but in ascension runs you start with a curse and just having that curse can make clash substantially worse I would probably put this at a three it's a little bit like anger I think it fits in the exact same shells that that anger does to be honest anytime you want free attacks it over you know other priorities in particular like defense then clash is gonna be good and moreover I think actually clash is something that some people over eight or some people don't rate I should say exactly the opposite is that clash basically allows you it's not a defensive card but it enables good defense because you most turns if you don't have something like clash you choose between some combination of defense and attack clash I mean it allows you to maybe play three basic defense early on and still do 14 damage so 15 block 14 damage with three energy is relatively strong by early game standards and of course you can do any combination thereof depending on what you draw so this one's a bit of a tricky one but I've been taking it more often it's been very useful on Ascension again anytime you get the opportunity to do damage for free is nice but you need to build in something that deals with the the downside of only being able to play it if you have a tax I'll give it a three I'm gonna give out a lot of threes keeping keep it in mind okay clothesline let me calf it in here because we're getting into the real meat clothesline I will also give a three but its bordering on like three point five sort of levels why well it's strictly better than playing two strikes a lot of my ratings are based on how good the card is early by the way which is probably biased because a lot of my runs died on the first floor ascension 20 but upgraded it applies three week on upgraded obviously it applies to week it's very very useful not so much for elites like the the weakness doesn't really body any of the elites on the first floors you know it saves you maybe five damage against the Lagavulin for two turns it saves you I don't know maybe like eight damage times two against the the devil and then against the the obelisks it's very unlikely to work at all however against the bosses it does very well it does extremely well against the hexa ghost if you can get it applied it does extremely well against the Guardian if you can get it applied moreover any source of damage early on is is quite nice so I mean if you give me the choice between bash and clothesline I'd probably take clothesline most of the time so yeah I'll give this a three but it's it's close I don't there's a card that I like a lot more than this it's probably gonna get a five but we'll talk about that later flex it's situational but I'm gonna give it a two which i think is gonna is gonna ruffle some people's feathers but I used to love this card I don't love it that much anymore I do think I mean gaming to strength 4-0 is pretty good early on is not likely to help out that much because you know you mamie gets six extra damage if you draw this plus three extra attacks where it shines a little bit as two specific situations one I mean obviously upgraded is very helpful as well but and a lot of these free cards are like no brain or upgrade targets I think because of how how much better they get but one good situation is if you have a limit break or anything that applies an artifact to you so that you can actually keep the strength permanently in which case this card is very good I mean 2 or 4 strength 4 0 is awesome Limit Break I mean would still try to thing I guess it would be 2 strength with Limit Break and yeah so you know it is still 2 to 4 4 0 but you basically need panacea for that which is an uncommon level colorless cards so it's unlikely to get but it does happen and another situation would be if you have a strength shell so you have cards that hit multiple times like a sword boomerang or a twin strike etc etc if you have a bunch of those I think this is a little bit more take Abul but as a flat card I probably give it a 2 with the knowledge that I've overrated this substantially havoc now we're getting into the cards that are above my intellectual weight class without a doubt play the top card of your draw pile and exhausted incredible beta art and it cost zero when it's upgraded but I'm at the risk of being a little controversial this is how you get that YouTube engagement up I kind of think havoc is terrible and I'm tempted to give it a one I want to add this is my personal rankings I have had very successful builds that have included havoc which is why I'm gonna add a little caveat here I think in if you look at any deck it's a 1 I don't feel like I would just take any deck that I have see havoc and add it and feel that I've upgraded the deck the risk of exhausting a card that you actually need maybe something like a shrug it off or you know a spot weak and there's something that enables your deck to get stronger is is real and it might not happen but if it does you could be in trouble if you accidentally exhaust your wind condition now of course you can get like you know frozen ID that allows you to see what you're going to exhaust and maybe play around that but I mean there's many tools you can use to deal with it but it's not always they're not always going to exist but the exception to this is if you have a build that focuses on exhaust you know if you have feel no pain which gives you three to four block for every exhausted card and maybe you have corruption maybe you have dead branch even you know maybe you have the the spoon relic that keeps things from exhausting 50 percent of the time this can be really good I mean a free card and this is the workflow for many of these decks at least you play havoc it plays a card and exhausts it and maybe it's a card you would have exhausted anyway if it's a skill because of corruption you get whatever the benefit is out of that card which could be great you get three to four blocks from feel no pain it does five damage to the enemy with jug or not you get a new card in hand thanks to dead branch and so on and so forth so if you're building an exhaust deck this could be especially upgraded it's like a four maybe even a five there's no downside but most of the time I mean I very rarely take this and especially early when you don't know what the decks looking like it's hard to tell so that's that's my controversial feelings on havoc head but very easy card for me to evaluate I give this a three I like having one of them in almost every deck I might even give it a four damage-wise is a little underwhelming but I mean obviously better than a strike but the ability to bring a wind condition back is very important how do you use headbutt well I mean the thing is you use it almost every time that you have it to do something useful even if you're just putting a shrug back on top of your deck or a flame barrier or blah blah blah you know something that you know you're gonna need on the next turn you know bring back your best block for example but where it shines the most is if you and you know maybe you shouldn't be doing this build consistently on Ascension but if you have a a rampage you know you play rampage play headbutt bring rampage back next turn it gets amped up you do the same thing with anger I mean there's there's many different cards you can use this basically uses dry your wind condition more often the way I use it a lot is you know you play something like immolate and on the first floor everything's dead or almost dead head but immolate comes back next turn to turns to kill three strong enemies is really good so head but I think is a three and it's kind of like armaments I want one in almost every deck iron wave I would also give a three it gets a little bit better I think in block focus decks I used to think this card was garbage by the way now I kind of see this and I'm learning to like - which is the silent card that's to energy deal 10 damage get 10 block kind of learning to love these cards that are just I mean it's basically substantially better it's like a strike and a defend mixed together at half-price it also works really well with a free body slam because basically if you have iron wave in a free body slam you have at least fourteen damage it depends on your strength +7 block for one energy which is really good value so I think iron wave is another card that for the most part especially early on if we have three rewards and I don't really love any of them then I'll take an iron wave I think it just makes the deck better at least it have a couple perfected strike is very contentious I'm inclined to give perfected strike oh you know I hadn't thought about this I'm gonna give it it's between a 2 and a 3 for me I beat probably like half of the runs from ascension 1 to 15 with perfected strike is the focus of my build and then read somewhere that it sucked and was inconsistent stopped using it started to suffer not having a lot of success then some very nice individuals let me know hey just because you take a perfected strike that doesn't mean you need to take every other card with strike in its name that doesn't mean you need to remove every car that doesn't have strike in its name you know you can just take one of these early on and this is really when the card actually shines is best because you're gonna remove strikes later probably anyway and you know I mean right off the bat unupgraded it does 16 damage for 2 which is not amazing but after you upgraded even if you add no more strikes this 21 damage for two if you combine that with some vulnerability you can chunk down enemies real quickly and there's also a recurring theme here cards that do really well against first floor elites I'm gonna rate very very highly because it's my play style is to fight first floor elites you need for the Lagavulin and the devil you need some card that does a lot of damage you need some means to do you know maybe thirty damage a couple of times in order to take them out before you get taken out perfected strike shows up a common level and is even unupgraded relatively strong so I I will take this early on in a lot of situations I would give this somewhere between a two and a three early on let's say it's a three late game it becomes it to pommel I find myself wanting to give it a three because I think I under eight it relative to the norm but I'm actually gonna give it it too and I don't have a good explanation for that except for my own innate biases I don't rate very highly that it powers up perfected strike although that's very nice and the in the early game for sure it is also strictly better than a strike which is not saying much but the reason I think I don't like it that much compared to a shrug it off which does something similar before defense well I don't know I'll just tell you straight up I think I under 8 drawn I I don't play many ironclad decks that focus on drawing cards but I could definitely see you know if you're looking to get anger if you're looking to get body slam as a little bit more valuable um I'm still gonna give it a - I like to add maybe one of these into the deck but for the most part I don't love this card shrug it off dude I'll level with you I think this is a 5 I think it's a 5 at the common level for sure I can't believe the rate next to one another that's perfect it's good block early on I mean eight block is excellent you're hoping at some point maybe you get some extra dexterity so that that can be even better but eight-block for one energy or eleven block for one energy plus the draw is really nice and it can get you out of some jams I know that there's some observer bias there but you know oftentimes eight block is enough to keep you alive even if it doesn't draw any others any other engines but III think that shrug it off is probably my favorite block in the ironclad deck at any level including stuff like impervious I I try to take as many of them as I can within reason you know having three or four of these in a in a twenty card deck is a OK by me I I think I would honestly give it a five it's just a really really solid car to the common level I would love to take all the time sword boomerang man caffeinate again I'm be inclined to probably give this a two as well if you have no strength it's actually I would say substantially worse than a pommel strike or a headbutt because you can't choose to with targets the the obvious question or the obvious difference is if you have any source of reliable strength gain shuriken even a demon form even of Vajra I think or having gained some strength from the Guria is totally fine or where you know oh you know the relic that gives you strength forever do voodoo doll' that gives you one strength for every curse in your deck so I mean if you can get 12 damage for one energy you're starting to get no downside except not being able to choose that's pretty good if you can play a flex or an upgraded flex I mean that's 21 damage for one which is really good but you do need other pieces to make this work so that's why I'm gonna give it it to with the knowledge that it's much better in a strength building I mean a lot of these cards are situational for sure thunderclap I give it it to yet again having a source of vulnerable is very important to bust enemies especially if they have big blocks but I I give it a to mostly cuz I'm mad that it doesn't benefit almost at all from being upgraded and I think I'm probably on the lower side when it comes to this item as well or this card I think most people probably consider thunderclap to be a little bit stronger and having reliable sources of AoE is very valuable so I can relate to that for sure but thunderclap is not how I prefer to do it now it would be way overpowered if it did to vulnerable to all enemies +7 damage for one but I don't I don't like this card very much I don't take it very often True Grit on the other hand this is a weird one unupgraded I think it's like a 2 and upgraded I think it's like a 4 so it basically depends on your ability to upgrade it it does get better in in a couple of different decks if you are and against some specific enemies to be honest if you're fighting enemies in particular that put burns into your deck true grits useful if you have a deck with a lot of curses true grits more useful but yeah I'll usually take one or two early on especially but I do want they're like c-plus upgrade targets you know you you want to upgrade your wind conditions first but if you get the chance to upgrade these you'll like them for the ability I mean the thing is if you want a galaxy brain and even just using them to exhaust other defense and other strikes is pretty useful so I I do actually I've come around I used to think this is one of the worst cards in the ironclads collection but I think it's actually pretty great if you can get it if you can get it upgraded sometimes exhausting a card is more valuable than draw I think but true grit let's give it a three let's split the difference shrug it off is still better don't at me twin strike is the same as sword boomerang to be honest I would I mean it does one more damage by default and you can target it so I would actually probably make it a little better but it also does the damage one less time so it benefits a little less from strength so I would still probably give this a 2 again with the knowledge you would much rather have a twin strike than a strike in any situation but especially if you have strengths I don't think there's much more that needs to be said about this one war-cry another interesting one I'll tell you say for the knowledge I don't build the exhaust deck too much as the ironclad even though if you get the thing is okay let's lean real close to the microphone okay if you get dead branch and corruption you're probably gonna win anyway so I almost feel like I'm doing myself a disservice by saying well if you have dead branch in corruption this car is really good yeah if you have dead branch in corruption like 65 percent of the cards in your deck are gonna cost you zero and then replace themselves with something that might cost zero by itself you know so I think that that is a little bit intellectually dishonest that being said you know at base level zero costs draw a card put a card from your hand on top of your drop pile and exhaust I think it's it I never take it basically but it's hard for me to say this is less than a three even unupgraded it basically turns itself into one card and removes the worst card from your hand or the card you need least or even the card that you need most next turn if you're fighting an enemy with an obvious pattern upgraded it's obviously much better I'll give it a three mostly I'm invoking the claws of I'm dumb so I don't know if maybe there's better implications for this card at some point wild strike as a two right there but I will say I'm this is a two with an asterisk which is like I'm willing to see what it does if you haven't evolved down here it's a it's a lot better it turns the wounds into a positive I'm not a positive but not a negative as long as you're not rolling clashes as well and I can't understate wait I can't overstate the importance of doing 12 or 17 damage early on when you're fighting enemies especially on the first floor having the ability and even later I mean 17 damage for one energy is pretty good even through to the second floor and and probably through to the third floor as well I haven't really taken into account you know fighting the the heart on higher ascension levels when it comes to these evaluations but anyway all say is for now I think this is a - but I I'm I'm open to experimenting with this card little bit more in my experience with the ironclad on a high level ascension is like early on I would much rather do 12 or 17 damage for one energy and deal with the consequences of the wound later to kill the enemies quickly is worth its weight in gold battle trance I honestly think I have to give this a 5 even though I don't always take it provided you use battle trance I mean it the only thing you have to worry about with this card I think is order as long as you as long as you're playing this lasts after all of your other draws it's never bad you're literally drawing three cards or four cards for free now it does come with a negative you know what that my actual least favorite part of battle trance is if you play it it will kill an artifact for you so if you have a panacea that gives you one artifact and you're waiting on like a flex to come around if you play battle trance mindlessly you'll draw three cards and still be able to draw more which is not I mean you're happy to not have the negative effect but it's not worth using an artifact on for the most part I mean you much rather use it to just block a frail or a vulnerable on top of that but I still think this is a five star I think if you see this show up in your card rewards usually you're pretty happy to take one of them now I will say it gets exponentially worse the more you have because drawing to battle transits in the same turn is useless unless you want a theory craft like well if I have corruption and then every time I exhaust the card I have Chiron sashes so I deal three damage to each enemy then it's not useless okay sure if you construct the exact perfect shell for any card it could do something good but what one battle trance extremely nice to depends on the size of your deck any more than that is a little too much I think blood for blood I'm inclined to actually give this a it hurts me to say this I think I'm gonna be a little galaxy brain and give this a four there's a huge negative with blood for blood and that is until you have extra energy via any source if you on your first turn is garbage you me the upgraded in order to even have it be playable but I mean three energy for twenty two damage is not good necessarily but at least playable in the depending on when you when you are in the game but if you have offering or blue candle so you can hurt yourself and you have something like rupture you have something like chemo Kinesis which is another car that I think is acceptable to play for it just for damage this becomes amazing and in particular the reason I give it a higher score is because I think it's an awesome damage dealer on long fights so you know if you're fighting the hexa ghost you're liable to take damage and the fight might go on for eight turns let's say on average you probably like it to go on a little less but you start basically at some point you start to be able to play this for free and it's good damage without the negatives of a clash that get worse on a fight like that because your decks getting full of burns that will make clash on playable so I think that this is a four I tend to like adding it but you have to be aware of the knowledge that at some point you're probably gonna draw out and be like I would like that to be anything else dude I didn't realize how many freaking cards are in this game okay we're gonna go a little faster bloodletting hmm I probably give it a lose three HP you get to energy or you yeah you get to energy on the upgrade I'd give it a two it's a three if you have rupture maybe but I much prefer seeing red to be honest I don't like to lose HP is the ironclad even though you do have burning blood that might not seem relevant but on higher level of sentience you know sometimes you you beat a boss with one HP remaining so I think bloodletting it's a little dicey you probably it's a lot of these cards that cause you to lose HP have good effects but they don't exhaust which it almost seems like a bad thing because you don't want to play them more than once per fight otherwise you're completely nullifying burning blood for two extra energy sometimes it's relevant but yeah I might even give it it to because it works well with rupture but for the most part I don't think you'll love it burning Bank exhaust the card draw two cards I'm gonna give this a two as well with the knowledge that I probably underrated but even compared to the other exhaust cards we've talked about I don't really like burning pact and I also under rape draw so this is that like the perfect storm I might actually give it a one just because I I mean this is the perfect intersection of an archetype I don't use plus an effect I probably under rate in terms of draw so you know objective ranking probably higher northernlion ranking this is a one carnage on the other hand I'll give it a three I think most people probably like carnage a little bit more than I do from from what I can gather from the community either way I like it I want to make that clear but you need a reliable damage source in the early game 20 damage 228 damage to even 42 damage if you if the enemy is vulnerable extremely important for killing like a villain extremely important for killing the the demon very nice to use on the on the bosses and on the obelisks you know you need some way to deal damage consistently otherwise those first floor bosses will will you down if the enemies don't themselves so I'll give it a three maybe even bordering on four level I just hate to draw carnage and not be able to play it in an exhaust itself combust I'm gonna give this a two but its bordering on one honestly and it that's not to say that it's bad it's just very situational if you get a rupture which gives you a one strength every time you lose HP due to a card this is extremely nice you get one strength for the cost of one HP just fine and deal 5 damage to all enemies AoE is pretty valuable this does nice against the obelisks for example and does nice against the birds on the second floor and you get the idea it's not a it's not a wind condition but it can be helpful and they get that extra strength is nice so I'll call it a I actually think it's probably a 1 if you don't have rupture and maybe it's you if you do corruptions is a silly one it's like a 1 or a 5 I like cards like but you might even say it's a 2 or a 5 the danger with corruption let's talk about the upside the upside with corruption is insane much of your deck will cost 0 and if you can get benefit from exhausting it's even better so you know you play a shrug it off you get 8 block it costs you nothing you draw a card dead branch puts another card in your hand maybe you get 3 extra block off of a feel no pain maybe you get 10 extra damage off of an upgraded jug or not thanks to that deal three damage thanks to Sharon's ashes maybe you have a spoon so it doesn't actually exhaust and now you got another zero cost shrug coming your way the downside is especially you know before you get extra energy or if you happen and never get extra energy it takes up a whole turn to play this plus whatever other skills you have in your likely five-card hand and you can if you miss time it you can basically end up losing all the skills in your deck which a deck with no skills is pretty unlikely to sustain itself against basically any enemy but if you time it right it can still I stand by the idea that it can still be good even without dead branch but if it has dead branch it's an easy obvious take most of the time you don't have dead branch you probably won't want to take this maybe in a barricade that but then it becomes too very expensive powers I've started to if I have dead branch I will search for this card I will hit every shop that I can to get it because it's an easy win but if I if I don't have dead branch I very rarely take corruption in this day and age and I think it's improved my my efficacy a lot this arm it's tough I've lost a little bit of favor for this because it's not good against first floor elites but I will still give disarm a for for a couple of reasons it absolutely bodies especially upgraded two out of the three first floor bosses and some of the enemies that show up later like second floor elites in particular like the book the book of stabbing for one energy I mean you can just think about this on the hexa ghost basically for one energy that saves you 18 damage on the first attack that the hexa goes does depending on the HP that you go in there with that's one block or one energy for 18 block but then it also saves you 3 on every subsequent turn that's absurd value against the Guardian every time I mean it saves you minimum 3 damage every turn he attacks sometimes that's gonna be 12 damage saved so like it's awesome I still usually take it I'm gonna give it a 4 not quite 5 dropkick I actually think I could give this a 3 especially if your deck is thin enough or as focused vulnerability I think the Dropkick it's free damage basically which I do rate very highly if you don't have reliable sources of vulnerability it's like a zero you never want it drawing this without vulnerability is a slap in the face it's worse than a basic strike which is like you should never want that dual wield is another very very interesting card I this is one I think you're it's prone to disagreement but I would probably give it a two upgraded it gets much better and it becomes maybe even like a 4 if you have zero cost attacks or a staggering amount of energy the the the reason I say it all of my ratings are generally based on the early game disproportionately so you know I'm like an American college I only care about your first semester at 12th grade after that I figure you know if you beat that boss and you're looking good you're probably well on your way to getting your bachelor's of science but I think if you have many clashes or even if you have a couple of clashes or a couple of free body slams or some angers I think you like dual wield otherwise it becomes a little bit energy expensive - you know dual wield a headbutt or something like that dual wielding a headbutt and then playing two of them is not as good really except for the future of your deck because you get that second headbutt in there as you know just playing a headbutt in two strikes for example but you could also dual wield like a wind condition like for example you could do wheeled and immolate just to get two of them in your deck so they tend to show up twice as quickly or you could do a wheeled reaper for example so that you can have two opportunities to heal which can be really amazing if you have strength and also are fighting you know two or three enemies so I think this is situational but I give it it - most of the time in trenches like this is the one that's gonna rattle some people add to energy early I think it's absolutely horrible except in a barricade Beck I catch a lot of flack for that from people who are probably correct and one energy I think it's good enough but it really I mean it's an obvious five star that you must have if you're rolling a barricade deck it's essential it's probably a five star if you have good blocks and calipers as well you know entrench and you know you're using body slam it's probably a wind condition you know if you get to a hundred block or something like that you're probably gonna win so in entrench makes that plausible and we've done it a couple of times but I do think it's it's not a universally take above car it's like cilantro you know the people who liked it liked it a lot but it's not for everybody this is a counter example cuz I love cilantro but I'm not a big fan of entrench I give it I mean it's a two end of four right or maybe even a two and a five hey you know it's not even a two and a five no I think it's a one and A five how does that cover my bases or does that make two different groups of people upset perhaps rightfully so in a barricade that gets a five you want it as soon as it shows up if you don't take it it's a major mistake in a in a non barricade deck even upgraded I don't see much of the use case unless you specifically want a block on a turn in which case you know - shrugs and then an entrenched sure that takes you to 30 - block which is really nice but you're not doing anything else on that turn with three energy at least anyway that's my thoughts on that evolved dude straight-up evolved it's gone from a 1 to a 4 for me if this card shows up on the first floor I will almost always take it let me explain why first off it makes the and we're gonna talk about this with feel no pain as well it makes the three obelisk elites a joke which is extremely great and upgraded sure it gets better but your hands gonna get full eventually anytime you draw a daze you're gonna draw another card it makes the days is completely useless same thing if you draw burns versus the hexa ghost for any enemy and I mean it also works well with immolate as well which is a five star card that will talk about later but this is a it's just something that basically you take to counter a couple of enemies who otherwise could ruin your run you're basically taking evolve and trading that spot in your deck for a relic when you fight that elite and I think that's a very very good value plus it'll give you value later so I think this is a four if you get it on the first floor after that point I could take it or leave it but the firt for the first floor which is perhaps the most important this is extremely good same with feel no pain if it shows up before I fought some elites I'm taking it it hard counters any enemy that puts days into your deck basically against the obelisk it's a free win you know if you draw four days --is and then one attack you attack and you also have twelve block for free so instead of having dead turns this becomes great so I think that you know this is also it's it's a probably a three I like it a little less than evolved but with the knowledge that it is also an essential part of the exhaust block quote-unquote archetype so you know if you're if you're rolling corruption you can put up some absurd defense with this and any other exhaust energies are nice as well so and actually with juggernaut in particular it's really good so I still give it a three fire-breathing is like a zero I don't understand this card and maybe I'm wrong I I just I you can concoct for every other card in the game if you concoct a perfect world scenario you can make it sound like a five-star fire-breathing even if you built the perfect run for it you almost never would still be impressed you know you would need to play fire-breathing let's say on turn one and then on turn to draw like five clashes okay so you did 15 damage 5 to each enemy what does that matter you know I'm trying to articulate what I'm saying a little bit better if you're at the point where you're playing enough attacks per turn that you actually get considerable damage out of fire breathing you don't care about the 1 damage per attack you know you're doing 6 damage per anger or you know I mean you get the idea 1 damage per die or the 13 damage per die die die or you know 14 to 18 damage per clash like it dwarfs the usefulness of this really I I never take this I don't see it being useful the only time I can even reason it into being useful is you draw it early and you're like okay this fight will probably go on for like at least 5 turns so I play fire-breathing instead of a bad attack and then over time it will pay for itself but I still think it's complete trash flame barrier on the other hand this is like a 4 dude I take it every time it comes up especially early you don't have caltrops as the ironclad you need this or bronze scales to really body those enemies who hit you multiple times an upgraded flame barrier is insanely great it's the block of 2 shrugs plus 2 times a base level caltrops or bronze scales it just it's just basically by itself destroys the birds who are an extremely common enemy to die to on the second floor any enemy that hits you multiple times is gonna get hurt a lot and you got quite a lot of block out of this I think flame barrier is very very good I might even give it a 5 to be honest I would also give ghostly armor of 4 you do lose it if you don't play it because of ethereal but a reliable source of cheap strong block is very good early I think ghostly armor is I mean it's full stop you know it's not a complicated card I love to take this card not even just early but early is probably the best I mean you tend to take cards earlier more than later to begin with later you're usually solidifying your deck hemo Kinesis very tough it's a two or three in my opinion is it - if you don't have rupture you still might take it early on to have a reliable source of dealing damage but it wouldn't be my first choice if you have ruptured actually might be like a four and I mean there's other relics and stuff that work with these cards that lose HP for you like for example Centennial puzzle you know you play this you lose 3 HP draw three cards and deal 14 damage rupture of course also gives you one strength out of it and you know self-forming clay gives you three block on the next turn so it's not it's not as simple as I'm making it out to be but it's basically reliable source of damage little cost to yourself wouldn't be my first choice but it is not bad I would give it a two or three infernal blade I would give this a four I take it often times and often times probably when I shouldn't even take it but the ability to get a random attack for zero even for one is decent because you I wouldn't say you tend to get a card that costs that is worth more than one but you do often times get one I mean the worst case scenario is that you'd get something that sucks like infernal blades worst possible outcome is probably a dropkick you would also be unhappy maybe if you got a wild strike and it's gonna be a long fight or something like that but you know sometimes you draw immolate or bludgeon or even a perfected strike or a heavy blade or something like that so you know you're rolling the dice but it tends to be at least worth what you pay for it upgraded insanely good a free attack you know sometimes you get benefits out of skills sometimes you get punishments out of skill if you're fighting the time keeper or the red beam and etc etc but I will almost almost always take this an upgraded I love free damage and it has the added benefit of making your deck better for the rest of the fight assuming you get a card that doesn't exhaust in flame is like a - if you're building strength and you have power based synergy relics like mummified hand that would make another card free or even heal you with the bird face learn it maybe a little bit better but I tend not to build in such a way that in flame is a high priority so I would call it it to intimidate it's kind of a none exciting card but I'd like free cards I'd still I'd probably give this a three anything that does a OE status effects is pretty rare beyond that it does exhaust so you can't use them multiple times I would rather have a trip for example but that's an archetype agnostic card yeah it it worst case scenario you at least purge artifacts from all enemies by using this but it isn't great against every enemy but for the most part I think it's at least a Keable metallus sighs I honestly don't like it and I would give it a two but I understand it's another one I'm probably disrespecting a little bit on a base level using first principles it seems very good because why would you for example even look at not a defend but a like a true grid why would you pay one energy for seven block once ignoring the exhaust even when you could pay one energy for three block every single turn pays for itself pretty quickly true and I don't have a good counter-argument to that except that sometimes you would rather have seven block on a turn where the enemy's attacking then three block on every turn including turns where they're not attacking and you might rather have spent that energy on you know whittling them down faster I'm basically basing this on my own performance right it's not just me trying to force like some kind of narrative about cards that I've invested in financially you know that doesn't work in this in this game so I tend to not have good success with metallus eyes so I'll give it it too but if you have different decks that have worked well with metallus eyes at high level ascension I'm happy to hear about them I always I need the help to be honest I will say if you get a juggernaut you know for block and five damage per turn for two energy is pretty good so that amps it up power through I will also give it to if you haven't evolved it's probably a little bit better and sometimes you just need the block is what it comes down to you know we could wax philosophical about oh how valuable to wounds could ruin your clash deck that doesn't really matter you know when you know one of the enemies like the collectors looking at you with two times twenty-eight you know sometimes you just need 20 block if you have other block sources and you're not running evolve I would prefer those and you know even like a fiend fire or a sever soul can help you here speaking of which I'm like oh my god there's so many cards left we got to go a little faster okay pummel I'm gonna give it a two but if you have strength it's actually a four or a five particularly I'll give it a four if your role in a strength archetype and a five if you have demon form because all you do with pummel if you have demon form is play demon form and then wait until this one-hit ko is the enemy by doing like 160 damage but early on you know for one you can rely on this doing 12 damage and then exhausting itself because of the vulnerability from bash but even that's not very good this is not the kind of card you take and expect it to help early this is more of like a late-game enabler now the again if you take this early you almost have to take something like a flex an inflamed for example because I mean a flex could honestly take this up to 24 damage which is extremely great but I think for the most but I'll give it a three I'll upgrade it rage straight up you cannot convince me this is not a five-star card it might even be a six star card index with a lot of zero cost attacks like bodyslam clash anger etc etc especially upgraded for zero every time you play an attack you get a basic block this has been a part of a lot of my high-level ascension victories and a big part of it let's ignore the juggernaut synergy because that's kind of like perfect world but you know if you drive maybe late in the game you have a rage you have a battle trance you play rage you play battle trance you got three zero cost attacks there could be like 40 damage 15-block and then you've spent zero energy on it it's disgustingly good I love it you the downside is he isn't untargeted you know you can't choose maybe you draw rage on a turn in which the enemy is not attacking that sucks real bad but still you never are unhappy to play it the most unhappy you get is this is a car that's not useful on this term but it costs zero anyway so you still play it rampage I think it's it - there's there's exceptions I've tried to build around rampage at high level ascensions I can't make my deck thin enough and draw enough for rampage to work but sometimes especially on a first floor boss you get into a desperate situation where you need a way to get stronger over the course of the fight you know you've blown out all your good attacks that's when you know on turn 10 rampage comes around for the third time starts doing 32 damage per hit that you might need it sometimes but I would prefer almost every time to take another option so I'll give this a 2 reckless charge dude I honestly think this is a I mean if you have feel no pain Endor evolved it's better but I never take it I would pardon me probably personally give it a one rupture I actually think you can it's a tough one I know I'm saying that a lot I would probably give it a three upgraded it's free and it benefits from power synergies you would lose HP from cards more frequently than you might think this enables you to take an offering I think it enables you to take a Jack's and get even stronger it enables you to benefit more from a chemo Kinesis or you know even from curses you know something like pain stops being a terrible curse and starts being an opportunity for you to gain you know maybe for strength over the course of a turn by taking for damage which is really good now that caveat is that you really want to have something probably that gives you HP back preferably a Reaper that also benefits from extra strength but I like this card more than I used to once I realized how many it turns frowns upside down let's put it that way searing blow I think this is a 2 that oscillates between a 1 and a 3 you can make it work I've seen high level streamers make it work on ascension 20 against the heart which is hilarious because that's like the heart should body a deck that runs on this it just on high-level ascension it requires too many upgrades in order to be viable I think you know you got to take so little damage you never have to rest and then have no other you know more viable upgrade targets I think now I will say if you're not playing on ascension I think that searing blow is one of the most fun archetypes to run I just wish I mean I don't think it needs a buff necessarily but I will say I just wish you did a little bit more damage by default cuz right now it's the first you know six fights ever you pick it up it's basically just worth two strikes it does get better I wish you could see how much better it got cuz it does scale but anyway second wind you know this is like a question mark for me is a question mark out of five I don't necessarily think it's a good amazing the problem I mean I actually I would probably give it a - yet again - is kind of like my rating for cards that I'm confused about a lot of the time you're going to exhaust offends which is actually fine as long as you have better defense in your deck and you get some kind of exhaust synergy it also enables clash but I find it a little too precious to be honest I don't take it very often let's give it it to seeing red is like a five the there's one downside to it and that's that it takes up a spot in your hand when it's upgraded though it gives you two energy especially if you don't get an energy relic early on after your first boss seeing red is pretty important if you have powers that are expensive to get out like demon form for example so I think that the cost of it taking space in your hand is well worth the benefit that you get it you know it's weird because it's a five star card in my opinion but it doesn't it's not gonna win you the game but it's just a five star and the benefits that when you have it I think you are gonna play it almost every time there are exceptions you know if you have four and gee and you draw for one cost cards and seeing red it's dead but for the most part I think I would be inclined to take this almost every time I see it Sentinel I think this card sucks it's a 1 and end of 4 the 4 is a huge asterisk if you have corruption it's insanely good you know you basically get to energy and 5 block for 0 however if you don't have corruption or a true grit that can hit it then I think it's it's terrible it's the definition of like a situational card I never want to see it unless I'm rolling corruption and then I'm like ok I love it sever soul I probably give it a 3 based on the idea that again early on especially a reliable damage source is very important the exhaust could be good could be a tough pill you're willing to swallow just to do 16 or 20 damage but any reliable source of damage early is valuable shockwave is a tough one I would probably still give this one a 3 it's very nice to apply good amounts of vulnerable and weak it obviously gets blown out by enemies that have two artifact or more and is the ironclad if you give me the choice between a shockwave and just a way to spend to energy doing AoE damage I would much rather do the AoE but this is still pretty good and again 5 weak and vulnerable even if you're applying it to one enemy like an elite it's gonna buy you a lot of time if you're second floor elites I'm thinking about in particular which are mostly you know three enemies this is absurdly good so this is the rare like in my opinion maybe second form enabler also good against some of the awful first floor fights like you know 5 slimes AoE is more valuable than I had ever considered well like did I did I skip cleave hold on where's we've been talking for a while here cleave did I not do cleave yo here's the thing cleave that's a three or a four star card and I will not be gas-lit into believing anything accepted from that okay you need a Olli early the first floor will crush you if you don't get at least one source of AoE now I'd prefer it wasn't Clete but anyway spot weakness I'm gonna give this a - if you can spin it around with a headbutt and draw different story but I think it's a little bit too slow most of the time but it's still take a bullet and maybe even is a guaranteed take if you're rolling some kind of strength deck in particular but again what do you take to enable a strength deck maybe it's file weakness is what you take and then you start building around this instead of like oh I took a twin strike so now I'll take a spy weakness normally I start building a strength deck when I get Limit Break or demon form so at that point I would probably add one of these but uppercut is a 5-star card in my opinion I'll go with step I'll step it down for unupgraded five upgraded we haven't even talked about the fact because this video is gone on way too long if you are the iron clad and you have Necronomicon some of these cars get even better this is one of them the ability to do 13 damage apply to weak and apply to vulnerable is extremely strong its damage is a little underwhelming but it makes up for it in a big way with the status effects even at - energy you would almost always rather play this than a bash maybe even always rather play this than a bash upgrade it it's not even close it's a strictly better bash by like an order of magnitude three extra damage and well one less vulnerable but too weak on top of it this is a great card I take it almost every time it shows up and I think it fits in almost every shell whirlwind is also before AoE is very important I I will take one of these at least one every time it shows up there is a downside it is an X card which can be good and it can be terrible it's terrible because sometimes you get a madness and it hits whirlwind you know because you have nothing else in hands but you should probably not do what I do and play around that but yeah this so useful on weak first floor enemies so useful on the birds the second floor provided you have the energy to get to four attacks and take them out on the high level ascension parameters not not good against bosses that's the downside but extremely good on floor fights and that's just a OE in general barricade I mean you know the deal it's basically it's it's a 1 or a 5 if you have energy and you have I don't know if you need corruption but if you have energy and you have good blocks particularly an entrenched barricade can work now what do you take first barricade are in trench I don't know if you can't really I don't feel like it's good that they can trench without barricade I don't feel like it's good to take barricade without having the things that enable that block deck to work so it's tough for me but I have that runs where it works in when it works it feels really good so you know your mileage may vary berserk I think this is a terrible power especially on Ascension you can't get away with vulnerable in yourself against basically any enemy past like I don't know ascension 15 like even on runs where I win on I don't wanna spoil anything but on ascension 18 19 20 and a lot of fights particularly elite fights we basically survive with 5 HP vulnerable would make that impossible so the question becomes how do you make it work well if you can is there a relic that makes you not become vulnerable can't remember there's that there's like ginger and there's one that makes it so you can't become frail I think but it's I never take it is it's just too tough to make work I think I would probably give it a 1 blood JIT on the other hand I'd say it's a solid 3 maybe borders on for early on a guaranteed source of damage to I mean it if you get this in one of your first like 10 card rewards take it every time you need a way to deal damage you can't deal 32 damage with 3 energy very often in the early game so like sign up for this in the late game you tend to get some cuter decks that you know can put out damage at a better rate but you still probably play it a lot of the time so this might even be a four to be honest brutality totally forgot this card existed works very well with rupture otherwise you know I tend to think it's maybe not worth the cost some of the time depending on what you want to do with the floor you know your choice of path I give it a - dark embrace uh again it's cute it's precious I think it only really works in an exhaust / corruption deck so I give it a two as well for situational demon form is extremely wild it's a must take I think or close to a must-have in a strength deck with the caveat that you need the energy base to make it playable this is not much use in playing demon form if on the turn that you play it you can't play anything else and you take thirty damage you know but you know it's it's again it's like a tour of four I don't think it's quite a one or a five I think you can feel good playing it in certain situations even when your deck doesn't focus on strength because strength always helps and you don't need it to make a strength deck work probably limit break is a little bit more valuable and there's other strength sources you can get but it can be very good double tap it's a four honestly but it it really benefits from being upgraded I also like like a lot of cards it benefits from a zero cost source of damage so that you can pay one and then get four attacks out for the cost of only double tap but it also works really well with AoE like a double tap cleave double tap high energy whirlwind double tap emulate even double tap Reapers and insane heals so I almost always take this when it shows up same as exhume early it's horrible because you don't exhaust any cards but once you get perhaps like a Reaper is a really good example pummel might be okay maybe you lose your carnage or something like that exhume also can hit things like offering which exhausts itself like I think that exhume especially at zero tends to be worth it you know what it's also great and this is something that's worth thinking about it's great with feed because you can use it you can use feed to attack then bring it back and get the kill or even get two kills with feed and it works insanely with ritual dagger a card that I think is one of the best colorless cards in the game you can get to a ritual dagger that does you know 40 50 60 damage and then play it twice per combat that's gonna make short work of enemies and bosses feed speaking of which is a 4 I almost always take it there earlier it shows up the better but it's still good no matter when it shows up fiend fire I under 8 I'd probably give this a 3 bordering on a 2 you don't tend to draw enough early to make this incredible but it is a reliable source of damage most of the time with fiend fire I find myself being like do I really want to exhaust these cards in my hand but I won't deny sometimes you just need that extra oomph early immolate five-star favorite card to see in the early game as the ironclad no doubt if you get an emulator early on like on the first floor you are probably gonna cruise through the first floor and that's worth a lot you can fight your elites I mean you even against a single enemy you know you're doing 21 damage for to energy it's pretty good the downside of it doesn't matter to be honest until you get into longer fights if you have a fight that's gonna last you know 20 turns then yes you're more for that matter the burns are gonna add up and it's gonna start to suck pretty bad but I don't even think you need an answer for the downside on it for the first couple of floors and this bodies it body's single targets on the first floor it bodies elites particularly the Ovilus it bodies AoE based targets it's so so good this plus I had but you don't need anything else in the early game ez 5 or even 6 star impervious it's good enough I would probably say it's a 3 obviously it's better in a deck with barricade it's an easy 5 star you know because you get to hold on to the block forever but even without barricade you would take it a lot of the time if you didn't have better options because I mean even if the enemies are only doing 20 damage you would still rather pay 2 to take 0 and then get some attack in most of the time juggernaut it's an injury thing one is a two or three it's too expensive I think to work in a non block deck but in a block deck of any sort you're gonna love it especially I mean with rage this becomes disgusting you don't even need to look at them being upgraded but if you get juggernaut strike strike strike rage well I mean that's not a great example cuz you need a thousand energy to make it work let's say you play juggernaut first turn and then you draw three bad attacks and rage on the second term which is a totally plausible and not even that good situation what do you get out of that well you get nine block which is gonna do 15 damage to the enemies plus the damage from the three attacks pretty solid let me break you know it's a it's a zero or a five well it's a zero with three or five nothing is worse than four your reward for starting a run getting Limit Break is your rare card cuz it's literally just dead it does nothing but you know what other card in the game can give you twenty strength you know it doesn't exist for one energy especially definitely benefits from an upgrade you know the thing with Limit Break is you know when you need it and when it's useless so I think it's a great card in that purpose there's never like mmm does this work here there's always like yeah I would this is my wing condition by the way Limit Break + Reaper easy wins if you have a source of strength all you need is the ability to play this against you know three enemies and you can maybe he'll for thirty minimum offering I think is a three I use the thing this was a five star card but on a higher level ascensions where your HP is more precious in my opinion at least I oftentimes do not wish to justify losing six HP and the effect from burning blood just to gain two energy and draw three cards now the effect is very nice obviously it works well with a rupture and obviously there are going to be some situations where you're like well I could either lose six HP and try to draw some blocks with this extra energy or I could just take 20 damage unblocked from an enemy so sometimes you play this and it's like you know you're choosing between the lesser of two evils I'll give it a three Reaper is it's at least a three sometimes four sometimes five if you have strength it gets insanely good I used to think this card was great and then I used to think it was horrible right now it is one me so many runs basically even if you choose not to play it on some fights because obviously like against a single target healing 4/4 and doing four damage sucks really bad for two energy but the number of times you know that it has saved me by with strength allowing me to hit enemies you know even healing for 12 which is the low end of the usefulness still pretty good for two energies so there you go there's my ratings for the iron clad I didn't expect this to take 70 minutes I hope you've enjoyed the episode if you did click the like button if you disagree with me totally fine I'll do it trust me I do not think I'm the best slave aspire player you know keep in mind I'm open to being educated let me know what I under ADA none of these cards are meant to be rated low with malice I don't have a personal vendetta against havoc for example um and you know well we'll bring these other videos out at some point as well but for now there's the ironclad subscribe if you wanna see more slave aspire content in the future for now thanks for watching and I will see you next time follow me on Twitch as well to put you to TV slash nor the line to be notified I want to go live in the future playing card games and other jazz for now thanks for watching I'll see you next time see ya

Channel: Northernlion

Views: 201,530

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Id: AIFNdFYQRw8

Length: 70min 11sec (4211 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 09 2019