The Ironclad is one of four class types the player can choose at the beginning of Slay The Spire. He favors strength, defense, and sometimes self-sacrifice to further augment his powers. The core strategy is to hit hard, negate damage, and cut into his HP to ensure the enemy loses all of theirs faster.
It can be a tough deck to build with lots of different strategies that are possible to implement, but it’s possible to become a pro if you understand the nature of the cards and which ones are the strongest for each strategy. To help you build your Ironclad deck, here are a listing of the best cards you can have for Ironclad.
Updated January 1st, 2021 by Tanner Kinney: Slay the Spire is widely regarded as one of the most finely-tuned roguelites in recent memory. Each fun feels unique due to the nature of the card draft system and the number of viable build options for each of the four playable characters. As the Warrior analogue, The Ironclad is a fairly easy class to learn but hard to really master. The Ironclad can inflict some serious damage, but only by taking risks and gambling on good card draw. However, in terms of catch-all cards and useless commons, there are still some that stand out compared to the rest.
15 Armaments
Armaments is a simple card that, at its core, is a straight upgrade to regular Defend card. It can be picked up early on in runs and provides 5 Block, which is underwhelming but solid. However, the power in Armaments comes in its secondary effect.
Armaments, when used, randomly upgrades a card in your hand for the rest of the battle. That’s useful, but not exactly helpful since you can’t control it. However, when upgraded, Armaments will upgrade every single card in your hand at the time Armaments is used. This can be really useful, especially early on when upgrades are hard to come by. It can be replaced later on, but as a common it’s very effective.
14 Shrug It Off/Pommel Strike
Both of these cards serve a very important purpose for card games: card draw. In some cases, getting the deck rotating is the best way to get strategies going as quickly as possible. This is especially true in a game like Slay the Spire, where some builds require drawing cards in a specific order. A bad shuffle can spell disaster, and cycling the deck is the best way to circumvent that.
In terms of these two cards specifically, they are both relatively common and serve as a great upgrade to basic Strikes and Defends. When upgraded, they just get better at their job. Pommel Strike, in particular, gains the ability to draw two cards instead of just one when used. For a one cost card, both are definitely useful to pick up early.
13 Spot Weakness
Strength is one of the Ironclad’s greatest assets. When raised, the base attack of every single attacking card goes up, which can really start getting powerful for multi-hit attacks or cards like Heavy Blade. However, gaining strength isn’t always easy, so cards that boost it like Inflame are nice to have.
However, one of the most effective, if situational, strength boosts comes in the form of Spot Weakness. This one-cost card can increase the Ironclad’s strength by 3 (4 when upgraded), a significantly higher amount than an Inflame would for the same cost. However, it can only be used on targets intending to attack. It can’t always be used, but it’s incredibly effective when it can.
12 Limit Break
So you’re building a strength deck, complete with Inflames, a Demon Form, and a whole collection of attack cards. However, it can feel like your power isn’t scaling as quickly as you need it to. Don’t fret, because the Ironclad has a trick up their sleeve to make their strength skyrocket: Limit Break.
The card doubles your Strength, a simple yet effective technique to really amp up your damage. However, it exhausts the card upon use, meaning it needs to be used at a specific moment. Well, that is unless you upgrade it; the upgrade for Limit Break removes this limitation. The Ironclad can get incredibly strong with an upgraded Limit Break, good timing, and just a dash of luck.
11 Double Tap
In terms of raw damage potential, few cards come close to matching the power of a well-timed Double Tap. Double Tap, as its name indicates, uses the next attack twice. This applies to any attacking card, allowing the player to apply multiple buffs, debuffs, or outright inflict lethal damage with a single double-strike.
Double Tap is a card that, on its own, can seem like a waste. It requires either additional energy through cards, Relics, or cost reduction to maximize its effectiveness. An upgrade to the card allows the player to double up on their next two attacks, which isn’t always feasible. Despite all that, in the right deck, Double Tap is certainly a great ace to have up your sleeve.
10 Impervious
Impervious is a simple card that provides the player with 30 block and is discarded after use. It’s one of the best defensive cards in the Ironclad deck and can negate a lot of damage which is handy for blocking heavy hitting foes or for buying time to take out the enemy’s health first.
This card is also useful in conjunction with cards like Body Slam which deals damage based on the amount of block the player has. With two energy for Impervious and one energy for Body slam you could give yourself 30 block and deal at least 30 damage in the same turn.
9 Fiend Fire
Admittedly Fiend Fire is a situational card, but when that situation arises it’s incredibly useful. Fiend Fire has you exhaust every card in your hand and deal seven damage for each card. With hands typically having five cards you could deal at least 28 damage with the other four cards and use up cards you probably wouldn’t have or couldn’t play that round.
This is especially powerful if used in conjunction with cards that draw further cards from your deck. Offering for instance has you draw three cards without using energy, this would bring your total hand up to six cards and let you burn them with Fiend Fire for a total of 42 damage.
8 Battle Trance
Speaking of a card that allows you to draw additional cards Battle Trance consumes no energy and allows you to draw three additional cards. This is definitely something you could use in conjunction with Fiend Fire or at the very least give you a chance of drawing and using a useful card if your current hand is lousy.
The only caveat with this card is that once you play it you cannot draw additional cards that turn. Make sure to use any other cards that allow you to draw before using this one, but as far as downsides go this is pretty minimal.
7 Shockwave
Given Ironclad is geared around offense having a card like Shockwave is incredibly helpful, especially if you’re facing multiple opponents. It applies three rounds of Weak and three rounds of Vulnerable to all enemies.
Weak causes enemies to deal 25% less damage and Vulnerable causes them to receive 50% more damage. This card can be used to negate part of what would normally be a killing blow and allow you to shred the enemy much faster. Combine this with a multi-attack card like Reaper and you can burn through enemies quickly.
6 Reaper
Speaking of which, Reaper is actually the next card and for good reason. It’s an attack card that deals four damage to all enemies and heals the player based on the damage that wasn’t blocked. This is a fantastic card for whittling down opponents and giving yourself some much needed HP.
The key is to soften up opponents first to ensure as much damage breaches their block as possible so you do the most damage and get the most healing. Doing a little damage first or applying a card like Shockwave mentioned above can give you the most benefit from this card.
5 Immolate
For raw damage to all enemies the Immolate card can’t be beat. It’s an attack card that deals a whopping 21 damage to all enemies. If they’re already softened by another attack or weakened in some way this can quickly clear the field and make your job a lot easier.
The only reason this card doesn’t rank higher is that it comes with a downside, playing this card will introduce a Burn card into the discard pile that can be drawn later when the cards are reshuffled. Burn is a status card that deals two damage, it can be blocked but it’s still annoying.
4 Demon Form
Demon form is a fantastic card to get early in a round. Once played this card will start earning the player two strength every turn. Given enough turns the odds of the player winning with this card still in play becomes more of a question of when they’ll win rather than if.
Still it does require three energy to use which effectively means it’ll be the only card you play save for a few cards that don’t require energy. This can pose a problem if you have an opportunity to attack and finish the fight or need a few points in block that turn.
3 Corruption
This is easily the strongest power card in the entire Ironclad deck. When played Corruption will cause all skills to have zero energy cost. This means powerful cards like Shockwave, Impervious, and more can be played while still leaving your three energy intact to play other cards.
This makes your job a whole lot easier as now any skill can be played without a second thought and you can still follow up with attack or defense cards. The one downside is that those skills cards will be exhausted and won’t resurface that round.
2 Offering
Offering is strong because it gives you options when you’re desperate. Upon playing you sacrifice four HP so you can gain two energy and draw three cards. This essentially gives you five energy and extra cards to use it on.
The HP loss can be problematic, but the odds of you drawing and being able to use a card to recoup that loss is high so it’s almost always worth the trade off. At the very least it’s great when you’re backed into a corner and don’t have a lot of options.
1 Feed
Arguably the best card in the deck is Feed. It’s an attack card that deals 10 damage when used and if it kills the enemy it’s targeting it provides the player with a permanent gain of three to their max health.
Granted it’s a one-time use card as it exhausts afterward, and it requires a situation where you can kill an enemy. But that permanent gain to max HP can make the rest of the match a lot easier and give you that slight edge you need. Not to mention, it’s easier to sacrifice a bit of health to use certain cards, like Offering, when you know you have a little extra in the bank.
![\"IT電腦補習](\"http://itteacheritfreelance.hk/test/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/logo2-2.png\"){kind=logo}
www.itsec.hk
www.itsec.vip
www.itseceu.uk
Leave a Reply