Innate Deck

Introduction

Innate deck works best with a Silent, though the other two can see some benefits of a strong innate hand.  It just requires them to leverage the two colorless cards to make it effective.

The core of an innate deck is to get 10 innate cards together.  An innate card doesn't give you an extra draw, so if you only draw 5 cards, it replaces one of those cards.  If you have more than 5 cards, then each innate card ends up in your hand until you hit the 10 card cap.

If you have more than 10 innate cards, then they roll over into your next draw.

Notes

A quick note on Bottled Relics (see below).  Each of these ADD a specified card to your starting hand each combat.  Note, however, that they add cards in AFTER your draw occurs, so if you have 10+ innate cards, they might not make it into your hand.

Strategies

• This is an attackers deck, so you want to do as much damage with your opening hand as possible.  
• Zero cost innate cards are king with this style of play.  Dramatic Entrance does 6/8 HP damage to ALL enemies and its boosted by STR.  If you have an STR boost on turn one or can take a potion, you can blast all enemies for solid damage.  Especially if you have several of these.
• Another high damage winner is Mind blast, especially if you have a good sized deck.  Mind Blast cost 2/1, so having 1 or 2 of these in your innate draw is powerful.  Two of them with a deck of 25 or more can take out most single met foes and three can take out most elites alone.  If you have the Necronomicon relic, the non upgraded version of Mind Blast will be played twice.
• Silent
• After Image combined with Backstab, Dramatic Entrance and Mind Blast make for a killer combination.  You get to do a ton of damage right off the cuff and get Block for it.
• As a power starter, having multiple Infinite Blades provides you a strong second turn, especially if you also have Shiv upgrades or the Wristblade relic to bump their damage.
• Defect
• The innate cards for the Defect are setup for cold, so filling and cycling through a bunch of Frost is easily possible.
• If you add in Storm, especially multiples of the card, you can cycle through a couple of powers rapidly to load up on Lightning.  If you have the mummified hand relic, it will make a random card cost (0) this turn for each power, allowing you to effectively play an entire hand rapidly.  

Colorless Cards

• Dramatic Entrance -- Zero cost card that does 6/8 to ALL enemies.
• Mind Blast -- Costs 2/1 but does damage equal to your deck to one enemy.

IronClad

• Brutality (after upgrade)  -- zero cost card that at the start of your turn, lose 1 HP and draw 1 card.

Silent

• After Image (after upgrade) -- This puts a ton of block in your hand and is useful.
• Backstab -- Does 11/14 HP damage.
• Infinite Blades (after upgrade) -- Puts a shiv in your hand each turn.

Defect

• Chill (after upgrade) -- Zero cost card that will channel 1 Frost for every enemy in combat.  Exhausts.
• Storm (after upgrade) -- Whenever you play a power, channel 1 Lightning.

Relic Synergy

• Bottled Flame -- This adds a selected (at time of receiving the relic) Attack into your hand.
• Bottled Lighting -- This adds a selected (at time of receiving the relic) Skill into your hand.
• Bottled Storm --This adds a selected (at time of receiving the relic) Power into your hand.
• Enchiridion -- This relic gets a shout out because it adds a random Power into your hand at the start of combat, similar to innate cards.
• Nilry's Codex -- This relic gets a shout out because it lets you select from three cards at teh end of your turn to add to your draw pile.

Endless Potions

Introduction

Pretty simple: a process to endlessly create potions.  This works best with the Silent, though the Ironclad can make this process work as well if you can put your hands on an Alchemize card.  Defect requires two cards not of their color to make it work.

Requirements

• Alchemize [Silent].  This card costs 1/0 and provides you with a potion.

Silent Card

• Nightmare [Silent].  This card puts three copies of a card in your hand next turn.

IronClad Card

• Dual Wield [IronClad].  This adds 1/2 versions of the card into your hand that turn.

Relic Synergy

• Runic Pyramid makes it so you don't discard your hand each turn.  Useful to keep the Alchemize card in your hand before you duplicate it.
• Potion Belt gives you five (5) slots for potions.
• Prismatic Shard lets you get cards of different colors in rewards.  Useful for trying to pick up the right combination of cards to make this work.
• Toy Ornithopter lets you heal 5 HP when you drink a potion.

General Strategy

Use Nightmare or Dual Wield on the Alchemize card.  Both of these cards are skills and repeatable.  Keep at least one copy of Alchemize in your hand to duplicate as you move through your deck and gain access to it again.

Artifact Strategy

• If you have an artifact on and take a potion that provides a temporary buff and a debuff to remove it, the artifact nullifies the debuff.
• You can leverage STR and DEX buffs this way and also drink a Snecko potion and gain benefit from healing (with Toy Ornithopter) without the confusion.

Notes

• Make sure you have room for a new potion.  Nothing is worse than finally getting this combo to work and then realizing that you screwed up and didn't drink a potion to clear a spot first.
• This can help if you have the Coffee Dripper that prevents you from resting at campsites to heal but have the Toy Ornithopter.  You can use a bunch of potions to heal your way back towards full health.

Endless Block Silent Style (no relic requirement)

Introduction

I've been throwing out a lot of strategies that require one or more relics, especially when it comes to block.  Let's talk about an approach that builds block for a Silent without relying on any relics.  Not that they won't help, I'm just not going to address Relics.  This will be a pure draw deck to build block instead.

The core to making this deck work is making proper selections to fill your deck.  And, having the fortitude to pass on a card that doesn't fit.  Key performance only happens when you pass on shit cards that are going to come up and no other options exist.

The Cards

Blur

This card is one of the prime, if not completely the prime card you need to select.  If it comes up, take it as a reward option.  

Why?

Blur lets you keep block from one turn to the next.  It also stacks.  That means you can play two, three or more blur cards and keep your block for that many turns.  That helps when you have a shit turn where you don't get block or a handful of dazed cards.

Using blur makes all your defensive cards more powerful.  Done properly, you can make your Block grow faster than your foe can do damage.

Its upgrade is provides more block, but should be balanced against other cards that have higher priority in upgrade order.

Footwork

A key card and must to power up your deck.  Footwork provides 2/3 Dex and if you can grab multiples of it, do so.  Having a high Dex means every card that provides Block become that much more powerful.

I prefer to have at least  2 or 3 of these in my deck if possible.  If not, it becomes a target for the Nightmare card to make multiples of it.

Upgrade is a must.

Adrenaline

The card has no downsides and it is almost a must like Blur.  It provides a bonus energy and a two card draw and then exhausts.

Not really recommended to upgrade this card.

Escape Plan

A solid favorite, right up there with Adrenaline.  It has no downsides, since it costs zero (0), provide a new card in its place and gives Block if you draw a skill.  It works strongly with After Image, helping to stack in Block.  

After Image

You might think this should be number one but Blur fits in this category because of its persistence ability.  After Image is one of two key defensive cards to build Block, since it provides bonus block for every card played.

Having more than one of these is encouraged, since gaining 2, 3, or more Block per card play can carry you when you get shit draws or bad hands.

The upgrade of this card makes it innate.  Given you want to play this card early, having it innate can be very useful.  It depends on your current innate setup.  Having more than a couple can throw off your beginning hand.

Backflip

Gives you block and provides a draw for more cards.  Like all the bonus or draw cards, you will want to play this early, since the extra cards can change your strategy on the fly.

This one is okay to upgrade and should be upgraded ahead of normal defense cards.

Dodge and Roll

When combined with Blur, this provides Block across two turns, making it a nice addition to your hand.

This card is good to upgrade, providing 6 Block instead of 4 Block when you do so.

Deflect

Deflect is strong card.  It costs zero and provides 4/6 Block.  It does wane in usefulness in late gain but stays consistently useful regardless.

Deflect is good to upgrade when you have a chance.  Upgrade this card ahead of normal cards and okay to upgrade selections.

Neutralize

You start with it and it costs zero (0), give it great synergy with After Image and the added benefit of reducing your opponent's attack capability.

Cloak and Dagger

Who can say no to getting Block and a Shiv to do damage?  No downsides with this card play and it works well with a companion zero-cost card hand.

If you use a zero-cost card hand, then upgrade this card pronto to gain the two extra shivs it provides.

Burst

This is a must card when you get the chance, right after Blur.  It allows you to play a skill twice and the next two skills after you upgrade it.  This means you can double up a ton of your Block cards, allowing you to stack Blur rapidly and take advantage of of other Block cards. It also counts for After Image.

Upgrade immediately.

Killing the Enemy

Block is cool but killing the enemy is what lets us progress.

Choose a Poison approach or a mass of zero-cost cards to put out damage combined with key draw cards.  Poison obviously works well with turtling up with Block and has less of a strain on your hand.

Panache

Given your will consistently play most or all of your hand, Panache can shine really nicely to add in extra damage when you hit that magical number of 5.

Caltrops

If you Block a lot and slice slowly at your foe, then Caltrops are the way to go.  Hitting them back for 3 HP damage (or more) when they hit you is very satisfying.

Upgrade these to take advantage of the upgrade to 5HP damage back.

Choke

I like Choke no matter what companion strategy I'm playing.  It does cost 2 energy but if mitigated lets all the cards you play have the added affect of doing even more damage, e..g, 3 HP damage when you play any card.

Upgrade it if you can to make this 5 HP but only after you have upgraded all necessary Block providing cards first.

Grade Finale

If you maintain a small deck size and manage your cards right, you can leverage this card to consistently do 50 HP damage to all enemies if you can have it in hand when your draw pile is at zero.

This works best if you also keep a Well Laid Plains card to keep one card in your hand (Grand Finale).

Not worth upgrading, but do so if you have upgraded everything else.

Quirks with the Art of War relic

Introduction

The Art of War relic can seem tricky to use.  In most cases, you will want to be aggressive and attack foes, unless you are running a complete Block only deck.

Relic Synergy

• Letter Opener does 5 HP damage to all foes every 3 skills played in a turn.
• Mummified Hand makes a random card in your hand cost zero (0) that turn when you play a power card.  Incredibly useful when playing a long hand.
• Dead Branch [Relic] is provides a random card for every card you exhaust.
• Enchiridion adds a power card into your hand at the start of combat.
• Nilry's Codex lets you choose 1 out of 3 cards to add to your draw pile each turn.  Good for those times that you go beyond one turn.
• Toolbox puts a random colorless card into your hand at the start of combat.

Quirks

• Only Attack cards invalidate the bonus energy.  This means damage from other cards due to actions, such as exhaust, discard, etc., don't invalid the energy you will gain.
• If you end a turn with 1 Energy, it looks like a bug is present in the relic, since it will give you your normal energy + 1 +1.  For a default 3 Energy, that means you end up with 5 Energy versus four (4).

Useful Defect Cards

• All for One - pulls all zero cost cards from the discard pile into your hand
• Creative AI - adds a random power card into your hand
• Heatsinks - draw a bonus card when you play a power
• Machine Learning -- draw a bonus card each turn
• Overclock - draw two bonus cards
• Skim - draw three cards
• White Noise - add a random power into your hand

Useful Colorless Cards

• Chrysalis - add three random skills to draw pile
• Flash of Steel - draw one card
• Jack of All Trades - add a random 1/2 color  cards to your hand each turn
• Magnetism - add a random colorless card into your hand
• Master of Strategy - Draw 3 cards
• Thinking Ahead - Draw two cards, keep one and put one back on the draw pile
• Transmutation - Add X random colorless cards into your hand that cost zero

Useful Silent Cards

• Adrenaline.  Gain +1/2 energy.  Draw 2 cards
• Acrobatics; draw 3 cards, discard 1 cards.
• Backflip -- Draw two cards
• Choke - Does damage and when you play a card, that target takes 3 HP damage.
• Escape Plan.  Draw 1 card
• Expertise.  To refill the hand back to six cards
• Nightmare - Adds three copies into your hand the next turn
• Prepared.  Zero cost and draw 1 card, discard 1 card
• Well Laid Plans -- let's you retain cards (1/2)

Wristblade and Bullet Time

Introduction

Just like it says, combining these two together creates a powerhouse move that you might not appreciate until you do it the first time.

Wristblade is a relic that adds +3 HP damage to any zero-cost (0) card.  Bullet time is a card that makes all cards in your hand cost zero (0).  See the beauty here?

This works pretty much only with the Silent, but creates an ass whooping combination that can let you take out opponents and Bosses in one turn if you do it properly.

Obviously you want to do this with a full hand, e.g, 9 cards plus Bullet Time.  The important thing to remember is to use any of your drawing cards first, since Bullet Time will prevent card draws from your deck, but it won't stop cards you add into your hand!

Requirements

• Wristblade relic, obviously.  Already explained above.
• Bullet Time card.  Costs 3/2 energy and makes everything in your hand cost zero but you can't draw any more cards.

Card Synergy

• A Thousand Cuts does 1/2 HP damage for every card played.
• After Image provides 1 Block for each card played.
• Blade Dance card adds 2/3 Shivs into your hand.
• Burst card will play the next skill twice; the next two skills when upgraded.
• Choke card does 12 HP and 3/5 HP damage for every card played afterwards.
• Cloak and Dagger card provides block and 1/2 Shivs into your hand.
• Envenom card inflicts a poison per unblocked attack.
• Finisher card provides an additional coup de grace to this approach.  Play all your attacks in your hand and then polish them off with the Finisher card.
• Malaise card will let you take any left over energy and apply it as a STR debuff as well as apply Weak.
• Transmutation [Colorless] card lets you take advantage of left over energy and place that many cards into your hand that, you guessed it, cost ZERO (0).

Relic Synergy

• Bag of Marbles -- Just so your enemies are vulnerable on the first turn.  Allows you to do more damage right off that bat without playing a card.
• Dead Branch -- adds a new card into your hand for any card exhausted.
• Ice Cream -- Just to carry over any unused energy into the next hand.
• Kunai --Just for the bonus DEX gained after playing three attacks.
• Prismatic Shard -- just to get the full spectrum of cards.  If you can add Anger [IronClad] card into your deck, then this really beings to shine hard as it adds a copy each time played.
• Shuriken -- Just for the bonus strength gained after playing three attacks.
• Warped Tongs -- Just for the random card upgrade when you make a draw that turn.

Silent Deck Strategy II

Introduction

Use zero to low cost cards to make a run on attack cards and then end with the Finisher card, which does 6/8 HP damage for every attack you have done.  With bonus strength, it does even more for each attack card you played.

Requirements

• Zero cost heavy deck, especially with shivs, backstab and other high damage, no cost cards.
• Finisher card provides the coup de grace of this approach.  Playing a number of zero-cost cards, especially attacks, racks up the amount of damage the Finisher card does when it goes off.  Just remember to keep at least one energy to launch it.

Relic Synergy

• Prismatic Shard -- just to get the full spectrum of cards.  If you can add Anger [IronClad] card into your deck, then this really beings to shine hard as it adds a copy each time played.
• Bag of Marbles -- Just so your enemies are vulnerable on the first turn.  Allows you to do more damage right off that bat without playing a card.
• Mummified Hand -- this shriveled beauty can be leveraged to make other cards cost zero after you play a power.
• Shuriken -- Just for the bonus strength gained after playing three attacks.
• Warped Tongs -- Just for the random card upgrade when you make a draw that turn.

Strategy Synergy

Only going to cover items that are in addition to a basic zero-cost hand strategy.

• Poison hand.  This approach goes very well with a poison heavy deck that applies poison per attack.
• Exhaust deck.  Exhaust deck really shines when combined with a zero-cost deck cum finisher approach.
• Innate deck.  The core of an innate deck is having a full hand of zero-cost or tactically overwhelming cards in the first draw.  With a hand max of 10, you want to fill this amount and have cards in that draw that will let you draw more, especially attacks in this regard.  If one of those happens to be the Burst card, then you can duplicate skills, especially those that give you more attacks to stack up the Finisher finale.
• Zero-cost deck with Choke.  This deck hand pairs extremely well with Finisher, since it adds even more damage into the mix even when you play non-attack cards.
• Discard deck.  Discard decks focus on discarding cards to do damage and the light requirements of his combination pair decently, especially if you are leveraging a large number of Sneaky Strike, Heel Hook, and similar cards to gain back energy.
• Strength deck.  Pairs extremely well with a deck that focuses on high Strength gain to do enormous damage.

Silent Deck Strategy I

Introduction

The heart of this strategy is to build a deck with numerous Innate, zero-energy or 1-energy exhaustible cards.  Combined with the Dead Branch relic, each card you exhaust will be replaced with a random new one from your color deck, giving you a renewing supply of cards to play.

Its possible to play an extended hand in this manner, running a dozen, two dozen or even more cards with the right balance of play.

A core to this to focus on putting cards in your deck that are innate exhaustible and those that introduce exhaustible cards, like Cloak and Dagger, which provide block and 1/2 Shivs.  Same for Blade Dance which provides 2/3 Shivs as well.

Storm of Steel can be leveraged very effectively, even with a low 3-energy turn.  It costs two, but if zero-cost exhaustible cards are ran first, it can allow you to convert the rest of the cards you have in your hand to exhaustible Shivs to cycle through again.  Use this after you have ran out of all other possible combinations of introducing cards or adding effects.  Equally, if you have a lot of energy to burn, you can use this to replace your hand with a random but possibly usable amount of cards.

Requirements

• Dead Branch [Relic] is provides a random card for every card you exhaust.
• Zero-cost INNATE cards, as many as possible.  Backstab is the best card to have, since its innate, costs zero, and does 11/14 HP damage.

Relic Synergy

• Bag of Preparation lets you draw two additional cards at the start of combat.
• Kunai provides +1 Dex every 3 attacks played in one turn.
• Letter Opener does 5 HP damage to all foes every 3 skills played in a turn.
• Mummified Hand makes a random card in your hand cost zero (0) that turn when you play a power card.  Incredibly useful when playing a long hand.
• Ninja Scroll provides you with three (3) Shivs at the start of Combat.
• Nunchaku provides you with a bonus energy for every 10 attacks.  Your chance to chain attacks is incredibly high, especially if you are leveraging a zero-cost deck or shiv deck.
• Ornamental Fan provides 4 Block every 3 attacks you play in a turn.
• Pen Nib lets you do double damage every 10 attacks.
• Runic Pyramid lets you keep your hand at the end of the turn.
• Shuriken provides +1 Strength every 3 attacks you play in a turn.

Card Synergy

• A Thousand Cuts provides an endless source of damage as you play cards, as it hits foes for 1/2 HP damage with each card played.  Zero cost cards means damage per card.
• Adrenaline is a zero cost card that allows you to draw cards and gain energy, while also exhausting.  Perfect for this kind of deck.
• After Image card does what A Thousand Cuts does but for Block, providing an endless stream of useful block to go along with card creation (and hopefully good damage).
• Backstab card is the absolute best for this kind of strategy.
• Blade Dance provides 2/3 Shivs.
• Bullet Time card reduces the cost of all the cards in your hand to zero, but keeps you from drawing more cards.  It does not stop exhausted cards being replaced by a random that the Dead Branch provides.  This means you can play all your cards that provides draws, use bullet time and then exhaust cards and get replacements -- though they won't be at zero cost.
• Choke card can really shine here.  It not only does 12 HP damage but 3/5 follow up damage for each card played.  If you are running zero-cost cards or pulling shivs into your hand (same principle), then Choke can rack up an enormous amount of damage.
• Cloak and Dagger card provides Block and 1/2 Shivs depending on its upgrade status.
• Die Die Die card costs 1 energy but hits all enemies before exhausting.  A good damage producer that will prompt the Dead Branch to provide a replacement card after it does damage.
• Dramatic Entrance [Colorless] is innate, zero cost, exhausts and hits all enemies.
• Envenom card costs 2 energy but is a favorite since it provides 1 poison for every unblocked damage you do.
• Exhume [ IronClad] card lets you place a card from your Exhaust pile into your hand.  It then exhausts.
• Echo Form [Defect] card makes the first card you play be played twice.  This can be useful if you make that first card an exhaustible once to prompt the Dead Branch to provide two random cards.
• Panache [Colorless] does damage after 5 cards are played, making it a great play for a long term strategy that this supports.
• Sadistic Nature [Colorless] does HP damage every time you put a Debuff on the enemy, also making it a good play for this deck.
• Shiv cards are your best friends for this.  Not only do they do damage, but that damage can easily be cranked up with the application of Strength or power cards that boost Shiv damage.  Equally, they exhaust, providing a stream of new cards via the Dead Branch.
• Storm of Steel card costs 2 energy but discards your entire hand (important if you have effects that proc on Discard) and replaces it with Shivs (or upgraded ones if upgraded).  That allows you to continue to exhaust and replace cards.

Add-on Strategies

• Adding more cards into your hand.
• Use Nightmare card, which will let you add three (3) copies of the card to your hand the next round you use it.  Its a skill and is not exhausted on use, so you can use Nightmware again to repeat the effect.
• Use Dual Wield [Iron Clad] card, which will add a copy (or two if upgraded) into your hand that turn.  Its a skill and is not exhausted on use, so you can use Dual Wield again to repeat the effect.
• Other cards that provide benefits for Exhaust.
• A variety of Ironclad cards provide benefits for exhausting cards.  If you have access to them, then including them makes this approach that much more powerful.  Having the Prismatic Shard or the "Note to Yourself Event" is probably the two easiest ways to get cards of other colors.
• Colorless cards that exhaust, like Bandage or Ritual Dagger.

Doable Achievements

• Play 10 Shivs in one turn.  
• Play 25 cards in one turn.
• Kill a Boss on Turn 1