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Character Archetypes

Archetypes are recognition tools, not drafting instructions. A run rarely offers every named piece, and a hybrid deck with a complete small package is usually stronger than a deck forcing a famous package without its enablers. Start from the cards and relics already present, then identify the shortest path to a reliable engine.

Ironclad

Ironclad can turn cards, health, Strength, and Block into long-term resources.

Exhaust engine

Corruption, Dark Embrace, and Feel No Pain demonstrate the engine's three outputs: energy efficiency, draw, and Block. The package becomes reliable when the deck has enough Skills to consume and enough immediate defense to survive before its powers are active.

Do not assume Exhaust means losing value. Exhaust can remove low-impact cards from the current combat and improve later shuffles. The risk is exhausting the only answer to a longer fight, so distinguish expendable fuel from essential defense.

Block retention and payoff

Barricade lets excess Block persist. This plan values large defensive turns, but it still needs a way to end fights. Treat retained Block as time purchased for a damage engine, not as the victory condition by itself.

Strength and repeated attacks

Strength is most valuable when the deck can apply it repeatedly. Multi-hit or frequently replayed attacks improve the return on each point. The practical constraint is setup: adding Strength without enough playable attacks creates a strong statistic and a weak turn.

Silent

Silent often wins by converting card flow into precise offense: Poison, Shivs, discard interactions, and Sly cards can overlap in the same deck.

Shivs and repeated-card payoffs

Blade Dance is a compact Shiv producer, while Accuracy rewards each Shiv. The package wants enough production to justify the payoff and enough draw or energy to avoid clogging the hand with setup.

Effects that trigger whenever a card or Attack is played can broaden the package. That is useful, but count how many trigger cards the deck creates in an ordinary turn rather than imagining the maximum turn.

Poison and inevitability

Noxious Fumes applies Poison repeatedly and to all enemies, making it a scaling and coverage tool. Poison plans still need immediate damage for targets that cannot be allowed several turns and defense for the time Poison takes to grow.

Draw, discard, and Sly

Silent has a large Skill pool and can see many cards, but draw needs an energy plan. Discard effects are strongest when discarding is a resource conversion rather than a tax. Sly rewards can complement this by turning precise card sequencing into value. Favor pieces that remain useful before the full engine appears.

Defect

Defect's Orb system rewards both output per Orb and control over which Orb acts.

Focus and Orb capacity

Defragment raises Focus, Capacitor adds Orb Slots, and Loop repeats a passive. These effects multiply one another only when the deck can generate the right Orbs. Capacity without generation is empty infrastructure; generation without control may evoke the wrong Orb at the wrong time.

Evoke and cycling

An Orb deck can scale by holding valuable Orbs or by cycling them rapidly for evoke effects. Decide which behavior the current cards support. Adding slots can slow a deck that wants frequent evocation, while forced cycling can disrupt a carefully arranged passive plan.

Power-heavy scaling

Defect has many Powers, including Echo Form, but setup density matters. A hand full of long-term value can fail the current turn. Add draw, energy, or immediate defense before treating every appealing Power as automatic.

Necrobinder

Necrobinder combines Osty, discard-pile access, Replay, Retain, Ethereal cards, and attack amplification.

Discard-pile recursion

Dredge returns several cards from the discard pile, while Graveblast deals damage and recovers one card. Recursion becomes a consistency engine when the discard pile contains a specific high-value target. Without selection discipline, it can simply refill the hand with ordinary cards.

Replay and high-value actions

Transfigure adds Replay to a card at an additional energy cost. The best target is not necessarily the largest number; it is the action whose second use solves the turn or compounds an engine. Energy generation and cost control determine whether Replay is a payoff or an expensive promise.

First-attack amplification

Lethality rewards the first Attack each turn. That shifts sequencing: lead with the attack that benefits most, then use utility attacks later. A deck with several small attacks may want a different payoff than a deck built around one concentrated hit.

Osty-related cards can provide another axis of value. Keep enough direct defense for turns when the companion package is not assembled.

Regent

Regent can build around Stars, created cards, Forge interactions, and concentrated cosmic payoffs.

Star economy

Black Hole rewards both gaining and spending Stars with area damage. A Star package needs generation, useful ways to spend the resource, and a payoff. Too many spenders without generation sit idle; too much generation without conversion delays the win.

Created-card engine

Pillar of Creation converts created cards into Block, while Arsenal converts them into Strength. Together they can turn generation into offense and defense, but each Power increases setup cost. A single payoff with reliable creation is often healthier than several payoffs waiting for the same missing enabler.

Forge and large actions

Forge-oriented cards can reward investing in fewer, stronger actions. This plan benefits from consistency and protection during setup. Check whether the deck can find and afford its important card before adding another expensive payoff.

How to Pivot

A pivot is justified when a new card or relic solves more than one missing piece. Ask:

  • How many current cards already enable this plan?
  • Does the new payoff work on its own?
  • What existing weakness becomes worse if the pivot consumes more draw or energy?
  • Can the deck keep its current early-fight plan while adding the new engine?

Use the card filters to inspect the full pool by character, type, rarity, and cost. Then test the chosen package against the encounter questions in Boss Preparation.