# What separates good from great
Beginners ask “is this card good?” Strong players ask “is this card good for this deck, in this act, against the fights I can see ahead?” Every section below is a tool for answering that second question consistently instead of by feel.
Plan
Commit to one or two win conditions early and draft toward them.
Tempo
Know whether you're racing the fight or surviving to scale.
Consistency
Thin and shape the deck so your plan shows up reliably.
# A card-evaluation framework
When a reward screen appears, run every card through these five lenses in order. The first “no” usually settles it.
- 1
Does it advance my win condition?
If you're a Poison deck, a vanilla attack rarely helps. If it doesn't push your plan or cover a hole, it's a skip candidate.
- 2
What does it cost me in draws?
Every card added dilutes your deck. A card has to earn its slot against the cards it pushes out of your average hand.
- 3
Is it floor or ceiling?
Floor cards (reliable block/damage) stabilize; ceiling cards (combo pieces, scaling) win bosses. Know which you're short on right now.
- 4
Does it want an upgrade to be good?
Some cards are mediocre base and excellent upgraded. Factor in whether you'll realistically have a Smith to spare.
- 5
Does it fight my energy curve?
Three cheap cards you can chain often beat one expensive bomb you cast alone. Count what a typical turn can actually play.
# Synergy clustering
A deck is rarely one combo — it's a cluster of cards that share enablers. The skill is recognising overlapping clusters so a single draft serves multiple plans, and you're never left with dead cards when one line dries up.
Shared-enabler example
On Ironclad, draw and Exhaust overlap: cards that draw also feed Exhaust payoffs, and Exhaust thins the deck so your draw is denser. Drafting either improves both — that's a healthy cluster.
Anti-synergy to avoid
A Retain-heavy hand that wants to hold cards fights a discard-recur Silent shell that wants to churn them. Splitting across opposed clusters gives you two half-decks that each underperform.
# Deck size & thinning math
Consistency is just probability. With a 5-card draw, a card that is 1-of-10 appears far more often than the same card 1-of-20. Thinning isn't about a smaller number for its own sake — it's about raising the odds your best cards and engine pieces show up when you need them.
Permanent thinning
Card removal at shops and events, and transforms. The highest-value removes are your worst cards: starting Strike and Defend, and any curse you've taken.
In-fight thinning
Exhaust effects and one-shot powers leave your deck during combat, raising draw density for the rest of the fight. This is thinning you trigger on demand.
# When to skip cards
The skip button is one of your strongest tools. Adding the wrong card is often worse than adding nothing, because it permanently lowers your draw quality. Skip when:
- None of the three cards advances your win condition or covers a real weakness.
- Your deck is already tight and consistent — every add dilutes it.
- The card needs an upgrade or a combo piece you don't have and won't reliably get.
- You're winning fights comfortably; don't fix what isn't broken before the boss.
- It's a strong card for a plan you've already passed on — resist the shiny.
# Scaling vs. frontload
Every deck sits somewhere on a spectrum between frontload (burst that ends fights fast) and scaling (engines that win long fights). Matching your draft to the act's fight profile is one of the biggest sources of free win rate.
Frontload wins when
- Fights are short and you want to take zero damage.
- Enemies scale or summon — kill them before they snowball.
- You're racing a ramping elite or a multi-enemy room.
Scaling wins when
- Bosses have huge HP pools that outlast burst.
- You have block to survive the ramp-up turns.
- Strength, Focus, or Poison can compound across the fight.
# Elite & boss expected value
Elites trade HP for a relic; that relic can define a run. The decision is an expected-value question, not a bravery test. Ask: how much HP will this elite realistically cost, what does a relic do for my plan, and do I have a rest or shop to recover after?
Take the elite when
Your deck clears it without dipping below a safe HP threshold, you can path to a rest afterward, and you need relics/scaling more than you need HP. Early relics compound for the whole run.
Skip the elite when
Your deck is still assembling, you can't recover the HP before the boss, or the path offers a chest/shop that fixes your real weakness. A dead run gets zero relics.
For bosses, scout your damage and block ceiling against a long fight. If you can't both survive its biggest telegraphed hit and out-damage its HP in a reasonable number of turns, your last rest/shop should fix the gap — a block spike, a remove for consistency, or an upgrade on your key card.
# The 30-second pre-pick checklist
- 1.What's my win condition right now — and does any card here serve it?
- 2.Am I short on floor (survival) or ceiling (boss damage)?
- 3.Will this card improve my average turn, or just sit in my hand?
- 4.Can I afford the dilution, or should I skip and stay tight?
- 5.Does my path give me a remove/upgrade to make this card pull its weight?
Ready for the next layer?
The expert guide covers decision theory, risk, and fight-by-fight prioritisation.