How powerful are Powers?

Overview

This guide is gonna go in deep detail on all of the powers in Slay the Spire and be rated on how flexible they are, the power of their archetype, and their matchups.

Short introduction: Who am I?

Hello and welcome to my first steam guide. I have been playing this game for about a week or so as of the initial writing of this guide but have previous experience with other card games such as Yu-Gi-Oh!, Magic The Gathering, and Hearthstone, with tournament participation experience in MTG and HS.

I’ve beaten the game numerous times as both available classes with multiple archetypes, but there’s one archetype that stands out from the rest and I don’t see anyone talking specifically about this one: Power Stacking.

Let’s get into the guide, shall we?

Overview: What powers are there and what do they do?

Let’s start with the powers in the neutral class, as they are short, sweet, and there are only two of them.

Panache

Cost 0
Rare
Every time you play 5 cards in a single turn, deal 10 damage to ALL enemies.
When upgraded, damage increases to 14.
When stacked, even multiple on the same turn, run on the same card counter and only stack damage.
This is repeatable, as in if you play 10 cards, you will dead 20/28 damage to ALL enemies

Sadistic Nature

Cost 0
Rare
Whenever you apply a debuff to an enemy, they take 3 damage.
When upgraded, damage increases to 4.

I have not played a lot with this power myself so I don’t know what happens if you apply multiple debuffs at once, but it’s safe to assume that you deal damage for each debuff applied. AoE debuff applications deal damage to each target seperately.

Let’s move on over to the starter class: The Ironclad

Combust

Cost 1
Uncommon
At the end of your turn, lose 1 HP and deal 4 damage to ALL enemies.
When upgraded, damage increased to 5.
Stacking causes you to take one additional damage and deal 4/5 damage in one chunk at the end of turn.

Corruption

Cost 3
Uncommon
Skills cost 0. Whenever you play a skill, Exhaust it.
When upgraded, cost reduced to 2.

Haven’t played a lot with this one either, so I suspect that stacking this is literally useless since you can’t exhaust a card twice, which I learned by playing Double Tap and then Fiend Fire. Practice makes perfect!

Evolve

Cost 1
Uncommon
Shuffle 2 Wounds into your draw pile. Whenever you draw a wound, draw 1 card.
When upgraded, draw 2 cards instead of 1.

Another card I haven’t used a lot and never really noticed. I suspect stacking causes this to shuffle an additional 2 Wounds of course, and lets you draw another 1/2 cards when a wound is drawn, which can definitely be overwhelming unless your deck is stacked with angers.

Feel No Pain

Cost 1
Uncommon
Whenever a card is Exhausted, gain 4 Block.
When upgraded, gain 6 Block.
Stacking causes you to gain an additional 4/6 Block when you Exhaust a card.

Fire Breathing

Cost 1
Uncommon
At the end of your turn, for each attack played this turn deal 1 damage to ALL enemies.
When upgraded, cost reduced to 0.
Stacking causes you to to deal an extra AoE damage for each attack played.

Inflame

Cost 1
Uncommon
Gain 2 Strength.
When upgraded, gain 3 Strength.
Stacking gives you an additional 2/3 Strength.

Metallicize

Cost 1
Uncommon
At the end of your turn, gain 3 Block.
When upgraded, gain 4 Block.
Stacking gives you an additional 3/4 Block.

Rupture

Cost 1
Uncommon
Whenever you lose HP from a card, gain 1 Strength.
When upgraded, cost reduced to 0.
Stacking causes you to gain an additional Strength.

Barricade

Cost 3
Rare
Block no longer expires at the start of your turn.
When upgraded, cost reduced to 2.
Stacking does nothing.

Berserk

Cost 1
Rare
If your HP is at or below 50%, gain 1 energy at the start of each turn.
When upgraded, cost reduced to 0.
Stacking gives you an additional energy while under 50% hp.

Brutality

Cost 0
Rare
At the start of your turn, lose 1 HP and draw 1 card.
When upgraded, is placed in your starting hand. Will be shortened to Innate from now on.
Stacking causes you to lose 1 more HP in a chunk and draws you an additional card.

Dark Embrace

Cost 2
Rare
Whenever a card is Exhausted, draw 1 card.
When upgraded, cost reduced to 1.
Stacking causes you to draw an additional card whenever you Exhaust a card.

Demon Form

Cost 3
Rare
At the start of each turn, gain 2 Strength.
When upgraded, gain 3 Strength.
Stacking causes you to gain an additional 2/3 Strength at the start of each turn

Juggernaut

Cost 2
Rare
Whenever you gain Block, deal 3 damage to a random enemy.
When upgraded, damage increased to 5.
Stacking causes you to deal an additional 3/5 damage to a random enemy whenever you gain Block.

Now let’s move on to the Silent.

Accuracy

Cost 1
Uncommon
Shivs deal 3 additional damage.
When upgraded, damage increased to 5.
Stacking causes Shivs to gain an additional 3/5 damage.

Caltrops

Cost 1
Uncommon
Whenever you are attacked, deal 3 damage to the attacker.
When upgraded, causes attacker to take 5 damage.
Stacking causes an additional 3/5 damage to the attacker.

Footwork

Cost 1
Uncommon
Gain 2 Dexterity.
When upgraded, gain 3 Dexterity.
Stacking causes you to gain 2/3 additional Dexterity.

Infinite Blade

Cost 1
Uncommon
At the start of your turn, add a Shiv to your hand.
When upgraded, gains Innate.
Stacking causes you to gain an additional Shiv at the start of your turn.

Noxious Fumes

Cost 1
Uncommon
At the start of your turn, apply 2 Poison to ALL enemies.
When upgraded, applies 3 Poison.
Stacking applies an additional 2/3 Poison.

Well-Laid Plans

Cost 0
Uncommon
At the end of your turn, you may choose 1 card to keep in your hand. Keyword is may, does not have to keep a card.
When upgraded, allows you to Retain 2 cards.

Not a card I’ve ever felt I should get two of so I have never tried having two of them, but it is safe to assume that if you stack you get to Retain another 1/2 cards.

A Thousand Cuts

Cost 2
Rare
Whenever you play a card, deal 1 damage to ALL enemies.
When upgraded, deal 2 damage to all enemies.
Stacking causes you to deal an additional 1/2 damage to ALL enemies.

After Image

Cost 1
Rare
Whenever you play a card, gain 1 Block.
When upgraded, gains Innate.
Stacking causes you to gain 1 additional Block per card played.

Envenom

Cost 2
Rare
Whenever an attack deals unblocked damage, apply 1 Poison.
When upgraded, cost reduced to 1.
Stacking causes unblocked damage to apply 1 additional Poison.

Tools of the Trade

Cost 1
Rare
At the start of your turn, draw 1 card and discard 1 card.
When upgraded, cost reduced to 0.
Stacking causes you to draw and discard 1 additional card at the start of each turn.

Wraith Form

Cost 3
Rare
Whenever you play a Skill, deal 3 damage to a random enemy.
When upgraded, damage increased to 5.
Stacking causes you to deal an additional 3/5 damage when you play a skill.

And that’s it for all the powers, what they do, their upgrades, and how they react to stacking, next we’ll move on to the powers archetypes, synergies with other powers, and how well I rate their synergies, archetypes, and stacking them.

Archetypes: Your gameplan and strategy, and how to make them work through synergy cards. Part 1

As with every type of card game, there are so-called “archetypes” that follow certain strategies to achieve victory. But Slay the Spire is not your typical card game, and so does not fall under all typical rules of card games. Some rules still apply however, such as draw and ramp is king, control (or “turtle” that the StS community calls it) takes a long time to master and win, aggro wins fast or lose fast, midrange is overpowered, and no one really likes combo.

Let’s start with the neutral powers to keep the pattern from the last segment.

Let me first talk about Sadistic Nature. I don’t play a lot of turtle but when I do, I don’t pick a lot of debuffs. There are some pretty decent AoE debuffs, such as Thunderclap, Shockwave, and Malaise, however this card is a rare quality card so more often than not you’re gonna have better options if it would come up as a pick, and not worth the amount of gold you would spend on it in a shop. But it’s still a 0-mana power, a free permanent effect you will never draw again the combat it’s played, and that is not to be underestimated as you always start with one debuff and can pick in to decent cards to compliment it. Overall, slim usability in turtle archetypes, but it’s free and you will draw your debuff card at some point in the game. I rate it 2/5 Edit: Does have great synergy with poisons, Noxious Fumes+Envenom, so could work really well with poison turtle decks.

Panache, THE best card in the game, period. It’s just way too good. You can pull off the trigger every round unless your mana is not complimentary to your hand or if you’re meeting a mob that just fills your deck with statuses. The damage it deals during boss fights is so stupidly high, and it deals with both single target and AoE monster fights really well, but the most important thing with it is that it’s free and you’ll never draw it again once you play it (which goes for every power but you know what I’m talking about). It works really well with every archetype and is an easy win condition for aggro Ironclad and Shiv Silent, but also works really well with any archetype, unless its gameplan is to play only a couple powerful cards each turn, but either way it cant hurt to have Panache in that deck since it’s a free card and you’ll never draw it again afterwards. Great synergy with powers and cards in both Ironclad and Silent, it’s free, no drawback, condition is easily met, does so much damage, fits in every archetype. Simply the best card in the game 5/5

Now let’s get to Ironclads powers.

Combust is first up, and it’s a card I have really underappreciated before actually trying it. The drawback of losing 1 hp a turn is almost nothing if you’re good at managing your hp, especially with vampire event. Really good synergy with rupture and gets better for each Rupture you have. Overall decent card, only one really good synergy, very straightforward and fits both turtle and aggro archetypes, although has the potential to kill you. I rate it 3/5

Corruption is a part of the Exhaust archetype which has both turtle and aggro aspects to it, but none of the good parts of either except for a potential of incredible burst, but will ultimately fall extremely short on bosses. But don’t get me wrong, making your skills cost 0 is amazing, exhausting a big chunk of your deck could be amazing if you can manage to only have Angers or other free attack cards in your deck and you have an Unceasing Top relic, which equals an automatic win, which is not impossible but is pretty hard to achieve as the relic is a rare one. However if you have Dark Embrace, this gameplan can work pretty consistently, but that is a rare power and you need to thin out the rest of your deck somehow. Also works really well with Panache since all your skills are free, you can cycle through your entire deck with draws and get of a ton of Panache triggers, which is pretty nice. Having few synergies and only one fitting archetype which needs very specific cards to function, a lot of them being rare cards as well, but the potential of the archetype and this card can’t be overlooked that easily, stacking does absolutely nothing. I rate it 2/5

Evolve is a really underappreciated power, especially when upgraded. It has decent synergy with most of the archetypes and no direct synergy with any other powers, however it does have direct synergy with a boss relic called “Mark of Pain” which shuffles 2 Wound cards into your draw pile at the start of combat and gives you an additional energy, and some synergy with otherwise pretty useless cards that Ironclad has. Overall pretty flexible card, fits in most archetypes, stacking could cause you to draw too many cards for you to handle, few and indirect synergies with other powers but as I said earlier, draw is king. I rate it 4/5

Feel No Pain falls into the same category as Corruption, but it has a place outside of the Exhaust archetype, mainly in turtle but also can find a place in aggro Ironclad. This power mainly helps you survive while you’re killing your deck, kinda funny isn’t it? Has great synergy with Barricade, Corruption, and Dark Embrace. Pretty flexible power, fits in multiple archetypes, stacks fairly well, overall very solid power. I rate it 4/5

Fire Breathing is mostly a part of the archetype I like to call “powerspam” which just goes for a whole lot of cheap draw and obviously powers, but also has a spot in combo and aggro Ironclad. No real synergy with other powers and doesn’t fit very well in any archetype with no great effect but also no drawbacks and with it also being free when upgraded makes it not half shabby and is just free damage at the end of your turn, stacks fairly well though. I rate it 2/5

Inflame is very straightforward and is a great pickup for any deck, works especially well in decks where you have gone for multiple hit cards like Whirlwind, Double Strike, Pummel, but also even Anger since its just free damage, but it will eventually fill your deck and you will draw 2 or 3 sometimes even have your whole hand be Anger, which may or may not be a problem. And of course Heavy Blade. No synergy with other powers, fits in every archetype Ironclad has since Strength scales with all Attacks, not very flexible since its only purpose is dealing more damage, stacking does fairly well but falls off after the 2nd one. I rate it 5/5 but I value it under Footwork and would pick that over Inflame if I ever had the possibility, unless I’m going for a multihitting deck.

Metallicize is just amazing. Free armor that is unaffected by Frail every turn? Sign me up. Unless your deck revolves around getting to 50% hp as soon as possible to get value out of Berserk and Red Skull relic, where it still is extremly good after hitting 50% hp, I can’t think of an archetype that wouldn’t benefit from this power. Stacking this power is beyond good. Overall this card is just unbearably good. I rate it 5/5

Rupture is one tricky card. To the naked eye there are only 3 cards that will trigger this power, but after exploring and testing, there are actually 2 other powers that will trigger Rupture, and if you have all 3 powers active, you will gain 1 extra card, deal 4/5 extra damage, gain 2 Strength, and lose 2 hp. That is a whole lot of value, all for the low low price of 1 mana if all 3 are upgraded. However as a stand alone card it’s horrible and you NEED to have either Combust or Brutality to make it work well, as the supporting cards are all bad except for Offering and upgraded Offering which is crazy good. Stacking this is really good if you have either Combust or Brutality and it just gets even better if you have both and vampire bites to manage the drawback of those cards better. This card has no real home and fits into every deck that either Combust or Brutality can find a home in, which is almost every single archetype, but Rupture must be a second hand pick. I rate it 0/5 without either Combust or Brutality, 3/5 with one, 5/5 with both.

Archetypes: Your gameplan and strategy, and how to make them work through synergy cards. Part 2

Barricade suffers a lot if you don’t have a ton of Block generation, but once you can generate a decent chunk of Block each turn the value of this card shoots through the roof. Although this card has great potential to make you immortal, it only fits into the turtle archetype. Also, unless you upgrade it there’s just going to be a turn where you basically do nothing unless you have some setup prepared for it. Stacking this card is useless. I rate it 3/5

Berserk is a high risk high reward power. If you can manage to keep alive at or under 50% hp, this power is easily the 2nd best in the game, and if you have 2-3 of these then you are in for the money. This card fits best in turtle where it’s easy to not take damage and enjoy the full value of this power while barely suffering from the drawback of having only 50% health, but can fit in almost any deck as it is free if you upgrade it and would be free ramp if you were to fall under 50% health during the fight. As I said earlier, ramp is king. I rate it 5/5

Brutality is just great. Sacrificing 1 hp per turn for 1 card is not a bad deal. Has great synergy with Rupture, but otherwise it’s very neutral. Not very good at stacking since you take the damage in a chunk which makes stacking also a higher risk of just dying randomly even with vampire event. Fits in every archetype Ironclad has but it has the potential to kill you. I rate it 4/5

Dark Embrace is the only reason why the Exhaust could ever work, but it’s not enough to make it a good one and it’s not good enough to make it on its own, also no synergy with most other powers. It does stack pretty well if you have a couple of Exhaust cards so that gives you some free cards which isn’t horrible. I rate it 2/5

Demon Form is a win condition power. 2/3 Strength every single turn is very powerful, this card can find a home in every archetype Ironclad has and especially turtle, but it does have a pretty huge drawback that is not apparent if you’re a novice. You basically skip a turn unless you have some ramp or setup going on and that could actually kill you soon after. I do not recommend stacking this but if you are confident that you can skip two turns during a fight then go ahead. But the powerspike this provides you with is too huge no not rate it as high as I would. I rate it 5/5

Juggernaut is fairly decent and has quite a lot of synergy with the other powers and one card in particular comes to mind when I see this card, Rage. You would think that Juggernaut is clearly cut out for the turtle build but I do think it fits better in a defensive aggro type of deck. Stacking this could actually make for some powerfully hilarious shenanigans. I rate it 3/5

Wow we’re finally done with Ironclad, and he’s not even my favorite to go powerspam on. Time for The Silent.

Accuracy is very straightforward, Shiv is probably the heaviest supported card in the whole game. Shiv is just a 0 mana 4 damage attack, but with this it’s gonna do 7/9 damage. This power is extremely good if you have a lot of Shivs in your deck, but only has one real synergy with any other power, Infinite Blades. Stacking this just makes Shivs and Infinite Blades better. The archetypes it fits in is wherever you can fit Shivs, like turtle. Not very flexible, only offensive and one synergy with powers but lots of synergy with other cards. If you have no Shivs this card is literally useless, but the more you have the better it is. I rate it 3/5

Caltrops is also very straightforward, take damage to deal damage. Stacking it just lets you deal more damage while taking damage, and it excels versus multi-hitting enemies, specially in the second level. No direct synergies but is a great addition to the turtle build. I rate it 3/5

Footwork I have nothing more to say about that hasn’t been said about Inflame. It’s just incredibly good, stacking it is amazing, although doesn’t really fit as well in aggro that Inflame would. I rate it 5/5

Infinite Blades there’s not much to talk about. It’s Shivs, free 4 damage every turn without Accuracy, it does have really great synergy outside of Accuracy that Accuracy doesn’t have. It goes extremely well with Panache, A Thousand Cuts, and also Envenom. I’d say Shiv overall is a midrange archetype in and of itself, you need a little time to ramp up but when you got the ramping done you’re gonna steamroll so hard your computer will turn itself off in disgust, but it isn’t shy from going into the turtle territory and just being free damage. Stacking this is really great, even if you have 3 or 4 of these at a time and you need to draw, you can just play some Shivs and then you can play your draw since the Shivs are free, stacking more than 5 is when it starts losing value, unless you have a couple of Accuracy going as well, since you start losing actual draws and you could lose out on needed Block. I rate this 4/5 since you need synergy to make this power really work.

Noxious Fumes is just too underappreciated, I love this power. It’s free 2/3 damage every turn in AoE that just keeps ramping up, and having a Corpse Explosion can turn it in to a lot of burst. Overall it doesn’t have any direct synergies but it does get rid of those pesky Artifact debuffs, it does slow, ramping damage which is great for those tanky monsters and also in AoE situation if your deck focuses around oneshotting single target. I’d say this card fits very nicely into midrange and turtle Silent, but this card is just a very slow win condition, all you need to do is stay alive and let it do the work. Very flexible, works great if you stack it, but no real synergies. I rate it 4/5.

Well-Laid Plans is a very interesting card. You get to choose 1/2 cards to keep after every round which can set up some combos, like in one deck where I had a Nightmare that I used strictly for Panache, and WLP helped me out to a ton to get that combo. Very flexible card, it’s free, helps with setups and combos, and as such can fit into any archetype, but it really has no impact and is just an assistance tool, and stacking it doesn’t really do anything because at most you’re gonna have 2 or 3 cards left in your hand at a time. I rate it 3/5

A Thousand Cuts, holy moley this card is a beast in and of itself. Deal 1/2 damage per card played, and having this in a Shiv deck is just gg since it gives Shiv the instant AoE that it really needs, still technically worse than Panache but is very close. However, the big difference between this and Panache is that ATC costs 2 mana which is a huge drawback in comparison. I’d say this fits best in a Shiv deck, combining this with Envenom is just ridiculously strong, but it’s just free damage in a turtle deck as well. Very flexible card, has great synergy with other powers, and stacking it is incredible. I rate it 5/5

After Image is a beast. Just period. Free armor unaffected by Frail for every card you play really adds up, especially in a Shiv deck, is just too good to not have in your deck. Has great synergy with Infinite Blades for obvious reasons. Fits best in a Shiv deck, but is just free armor in any archetype you go for and that can’t be ignored, stacking this is just way too good. I rate it 5/5

Envenom, wooh boy. Another win condition card, this works best in a Shiv deck. You’re gonna ramp up the poison stacks so fast with this in a Shiv deck, and the initial 2 mana cost unupgraded isn’t that big of an issue in a Shiv deck where most of your cards are free anyway. This can work in other aggro decks that aren’t focused around Shivs, but will be nothing in comparison to the potential in a Shiv deck. Not very flexible, few synergies, stacking this does work pretty well, but ultimately only works in Shiv decks. I rate it 2/5

Archetypes: Your gameplan and strategy, and how to make them work through synergy cards. Last part

Tools of the Trade is on the surface an amazing card. You get to draw a card for free? That’s awesome! But the problem is you HAVE to discard a card, which equals to plus/minus 0. However, you can shuffle away curses and statuses that would hurt or hinder you from playing your cards this turn, which is nothing to scoff at. But there’s one archetype that I haven’t mentioned yet that this card heavily supports, Discard. Discard a card to gain an energy, draw a card, or deal damage to a random enemy would be pretty damn good when you get to do this for free at the start of each turn, but this archetype falls short due to sheer RNG, but I haven’t tried it myself so I can’t say for certainty. No real synergy with other powers, but draw is draw, and if you’ve stacked a couple you can get perfect draws every turn so there’s great potential in this card. I rate it 4/5

Wraith Form is a card I have not played a lot for obvious reasons. It costs 3 to play so that is basically a whole turn gone to play it which can be fatal, but afterwards you get 3/5 damage every time you play a skill. As for fitting archetypes, powerspam comes into mind where I usually stack a lot of skills to keep myself drawing and playing Blocks, but ultimately this card fits perfectly into a turtle deck where skipping a turn is rarely fatal, and since turtle stacks quite a few skills you’ll definitely get the worth out of it and is probably one of your win conditions as turtle, however I still think Panache or ATC is a better card. There’s potential in it but no synergy with other powers, stacking this would skip too many turns even as turtle, only one really fitting archetype, RNG, not very flexible, horrible card imo. I rate it FitsBetterInHearthstone/5, jokes aside 1/5. This goes to say for every other power as well that is on the higher cost, but Mummified Hand relic is a pretty great pickup for this card since it doesn’t kill your turn completely, but I still feel like it doesn’t give it justice or balance it out, since most of the time you would have artificially 4 mana’s worth of a turn with no energy items and you still not doing a lot on the turn. With MH in mind, I’ll give the card a 3/5 since the card is still just way too slow and don’t do enough, a suggested change I have would be that it is lowered to 2 mana, deals 3 unupgraded and 4 when upgraded, or same mana cost unupgraded but lowered to 2 mana and deal 4 when upgraded, but perhaps either change would be too OP.

Closing words

And that is the end of my powers review. I hope you enjoyed the longass read and learned something about the powers available in STS, and from now on can make better decisions or feel more inclined to picking powers more often than you did before. If you like the guide, please thumb it up, if you really liked it, please do give it a favorite. If you have further questions, I will answer them in the comments, if you would like to hear my annoying voice answering them instead I stream over at [link] (always be pluggin’).

And with that this guide is concluded. Good luck.

Slay the Spire Guide