Slay the Spire – Common & Uncommon Red Cards

by Falagar / Articles, Slay the Spire Guides / 19 Jan 2018

Red Cards – Common

Bash: 2 Energy, Deal 8 (10) damage. Apply Vulnerable for 2 (3) Turns.

Great starter, upgrading it is usually a good choice, especially as a starter

Defend: 1 Energy, Gain 5 (8) Block.

Bad card, too weak, get rid of this starter if you can.

Strike: 1 Energy, Deal 6 (9) damage.

Bad card, too weak, get rid of this starter if you can.

Bite: 1 Energy, Deal 7 (8) damage. Heal 2 (3) HP.

Sounds amazing, but requires an event to obtain, which is really costly. Often times not worth its price.

Anger: 0 Energy, Deal 4 (6) damage. Place a copy of this card into your discard pile.

Free damage is good, but only pick this up, if you have enough card draw and no limits on how many cards you may play.

Armaments: 1 Energy, Gain 5 Block. Upgrade a card (ALL cards) in your hand for the rest of combat.

Great card, used most often for its upgrade effect more so than its defensive capabilities. Upgrading this card is very good.

Body Slam: 1 (0) Energy, Deal damage equal to your current Block.

Great card in a defensive build, bad otherwise. Its effect is boosted by special effects like other cards. Upgrading this card is usually of low priority.

Clash: 0 Energy, Can only be played if every card in your hand is an Attack. Deal 14(18) damage.

A great card in theory, but usually you will have some kind of injury, curse or skill in your hand, that you can’t get rid of easily. Tends to be dead weight.

Cleave: 1 Energy, Deal 7 (10) damage to ALL enemies.

Better than a strike, hits all enemies, good card.

Clothesline: 2 Energy, Deal 12 (14) damage. Apply 2 (3) Weak.

I do not like high cost energy cards that much, since too often it prevents you from using combos. If you have some energy gaining relics, this card might be okay, otherwise, this is a bad card.

Dual Wield: 1 Energy, Create a (2) copy (copies) of a card in your hand.

This card got a lot better, since it now doubles/triples a card in your hand. Requires multiple cards good enough to copy in your deck and is hard to use. Usually a bad card.

Why use ‘a card’ here, when other cards with effects say ‘1’ (Pommel Strike, Shrug It Off)

Flex: 0 Energy, Gain 2(4) Strength. At the end of your turn, lose 2 (4) Strength.

Amazing card, highly recommended. Upgrading it is usually worth it. Use Limit Break to keep the bonus.

Havoc: 1 (0) Energy, Play the top card of your draw pile and Exhaust it.

Hard to use, but really good for powers and expensive, strong cards as well as a risky finisher for a fight. Hard to use, therefore only an okay card.

Headbutt: 1 Energy, Deal 9 (12) damage. Place a card from your discard pile on top of your draw pile.

Better than a strike in all possible ways. Can be used to recycle cards like Flex. Really good card.

Heavy Blade: 2 Energy, Deal 14 Damage. Strength affects Heavy Blade 3 (5) times.

High cost card, but better damage than two regular strikes. An okay card, that gets and amazing card rating if played with at least 1 strength.

Iron Wave: 1 Energy, Gain 5 (7) Block. Deal 5 (7) damage.

Combine strike and defend in a single card and you get Iron Wave (almost). Really good card in many builds.

Perfected Strike: 2 Energy, Deal 6 damage. Deals an additional +2(+3) damage for ALL of your cards containing “Strike”.

Might not effect itself, though. Other than that, this card can be decent in a strike heavy deck, otherwise a really bad card, as it is too expensive.

Pommel Strike: 1 Energy, Deal 9 (10) damage. Draw 1 (2) card(s).

One of my favorite cards for cycling my deck. Really good card.

Shrug It Off: 1 Energy, Gain 8 (11) Block. Draw 1 card.

An okay card in a regular deck, better than defend, Great in a defensive deck.

Sword Boomerang: 1 Energy, Deal 3 damage to a random enemy 3 (4) times.

Decent card as it has multi-hit, which helps with certain enemies (Nemesis, Byrd), deals 9(12) damage against single enemies, which is quite good and scales with strength, making it an amazing card in strength based builds. Upgrading it is a 33% damage boost, which might be quite substantial.

Thunderclap: 1 Energy, Deal 4(7) damage and apply 1 Vulnerable to ALL enemies.

Great way to start an offense, hitting all enemies is great and still does some damage, which helps against artifact enemies. Okay card, upgrading usually is a low priority as its main usage is to boost further attacks.

True Grit: 1 Energy, Gain 7 (9) Block. Exhaust a random card (a card) in your hand.

Okay card in many builds as it can remove status cards. Great for cursed runs, but it is highly recommended to upgrade this card, if used for that purpose.

Twin Strike: 1 Energy, Deal 5 (7) damage twice.

I like multi-hit attacks. Better than a strike, scales good with strength. Okay card.

Warcry: 1(0) Energy, Draw 2 cards. Place a card from your hand on top of your draw pile. Exhaust.

Fairly bad card, single use, hard to use, requires upgrade to be actually useful, good as a combo with Havoc

Wild Strike: 1 Energy, Deal 12 (17) damage. Shuffle a Wound into your draw pile.

Good card in medium to large decks, great finisher, amazing with card removal or Evolve

Red Cards – Uncommon

Battle Trance: 0 Energy, Draw 3 (4) cards. You cannot draw any additional cards this turn

If you are lacking card draw, this is an amazing card, decent otherwise.

Blood for Blood: 4 (3) Energy, Costs 1 less Energy for each time you lose HP in combat. Deal 16(18) damage.

Unless you are running an armor build, this card is usually great. High damage for zero cost after a couple of turns is great.

Bloodletting: 0 Energy, Gain 1 Energy, Lose 4 (2) HP.

Berserker deck? Great card, otherwise mostly too expensive for anything above acceptable rating.

Burning Pact: 1 Energy, Exhaust 1 card. Draw 2 (3) cards.

Sounds simple, good card to remove annoyances. Quite expensive card-draw, though, so only pick up if you have spare energy.

Carnage: 2 Energy, Ethereal. Deal 18 (26) damage.

The Ethereal part makes this card really bad, especially with its high cost.

Combust: 1 Energy, At the end of your turn, lose 1 HP and deal 4 (5) damage to ALL enemies.

A really expensive card. Good if you can combo it with others, like Rupture

Corruption: 3 (2) Energy, Skills cost 0. Whenever you play a Skill, Exhaust it.

Since this is a power, it sticks around for the combat. Some skill overloaded decks might find this useful, especially with a ton of card-draw, otherwise junk.

Disarm: 1 Energy, Enemy loses 2 (3) Strength. Exhaust.

This strength reduction is permanent, which makes this a good card, especially in an exhaust build.

Dropkick: 1 Energy, deal 5 (8) damage. If the enemy is Vulnerable, Gain 1 Energy and draw 1 card.

If you can apply Vulnerable to an enemy reliable, this card is amazing, dealing damage and drawing a card for free is great. Otherwise it is somewhere between junk and acceptable.

Entrench: 2 (1) Energy, Double your current Block.

I never seem to get this card in a defensive build. Too expensive if not upgraded, decent otherwise. Might be dead weight sometimes, though as it does not provide any Block itself.

Evolve: 1 Energy, Shuffle 2 Wounds into your draw pile. Whenever you draw a Wound, draw 1 (2) card(s).

Rarely a useful card. Junk unless you add tons of wounds into your own deck and have no other card-draw. Upgrade makes this card flood your hand, might be worth, though I really dislike this card.

Feel No Pain: Whenever a card is Exhausted, gain 4 (6) Block.

Great card in an exhaust deck, otherwise junk.

Fire Breathing: 1 (0) Energy, At the end of your turn, for each Attack played this turn deal 1 damage to ALL enemies.

If this was a Silent card, it would be broken. With the Ironclad, though it is not worth picking up, unless you really don’t have any other cards that hit multiple times and you are afraid of Nemesis. Too little power to matter. If you got a ton of energy, though, this card might just be good.

Flame Barrier: 2 Energy, Gain 12 (16) Block. Whenever you are attacked this turn, deal 4 damage to the attacker.

Expensive but strong defensive card. I love using it, especially against Byrds and Nemesis. Helps you fight multi-hit opponents. In my opinion, upgrading this card is well worth it.

Ghostly Armor: 1 Energy, Ethereal. Gain 10 (13) Block.

Good card, powerful as two Defends. Ethereal makes this card into a decent card instead of a good one. Amazing in a defensive build.

Hemokinesis: 1 Energy, Lose 3 (2) HP. Deal 14 (18) damage.

While self-damaging cards sound scary, the upgraded variant of this card is really good, tons of damage for little energy. If you have a lot of card-draw and energy, better go with another card, though.

Infernal Blade: 1 (0) Energy, Add a random Attack to your hand. It costs 0 this turn. Exhaust.

Typically a good card, upgrading it makes it great, since many attacks it can give you, cost well above 1 Energy.

Inflame: 1 Energy, Gain 2 (3) Strength.

Amazing card early on, okay card later. Use with limit-break for an amazing rating all the way into The Beyond.

Intimidate: 0 Energy, Apply 1 (2) Weak to ALL enemies. Exhaust.

Junk card if not upgraded, still a bad card if you do. Wastes valuable card space. Exhaust decks might want to grab this, though.

Metallicize: 1 Energy, At the end of you turn, gain 3 (4) Block.

Good card. Free block every turn is great.

Power Through: 1 Energy, Add 2 Wounds to your hand. Gain 15 (20) Block.

Decent card. The fact that the Wounds go into your hand makes it great within decks, that can remove cards.

Pummel: 1 Energy, Deal 2 (3) damage 5 times. Exhaust.

Lots of damage in multiple hits. Amazing with strength, great against Byrds and Nemesis. I really like it.

Rage: 1 Energy, Whenever you play an Attack this turn, gain 4 (6) Block.

Usually as effective as a basic block, fairly bad card, unless you get some additional energy.

Rampage: 1 Energy, Deal 8 damage. Every time this card is played, increase its damage by 4 (8) for this combat.

Good replacement for Strike, amazing in small decks, where upgrading it is a must.

Reckless Charge: 0 Energy, Gain 1 Vulnerable. Deal 9 (12) damage.

If you have a lot of card-draw, this is a great free attack against all enemies, that don’t attack each turn. Really bad in some encounters.

Rupture: 1 (0) Energy, Whenever you lose HP from a card, gain 1 Strength.

Dead weight in most decks, but great in self-damage / berserker builds.

Searing Blow: 2 Energy, Deal 12 (+4 * Level) damage. Can be upgraded any number of times.

If you build your deck around this card and keep your deck tiny, this might be an amazing card, otherwise it is too expensive to be any good.

Second Wind: 1 Energy, Exhaust all non-Attack cards in your hand and gain 5 (7) Block for each.

If run in an exhaust deck, this card might be decent, otherwise its junk, as you will mostly gain more block from simply playing those cards. A Wound deck might be able to use this in a great way.

Seeing Red: 1 (0) Energy, Gain 2 Energy. Exhaust.

Not upgraded this card tends to be quite bad, good otherwise.

Sentinel: 1 Energy, Gain 5 (8) Block. If this card is Exhausted, gain 2 (3) Energy.

A better block. Amazing in exhaust decks, otherwise junk (see regular Block)

Sever Soul: 2 Energy, Exhaust all non-Attack cards in your hand. Deal 16 (20) damage.

Great card if you can keep your hand free of skills and powers, great against wounds and curses, otherwise dead weight until usable as a finisher.

Shockwave: 2 Energy, Apply 3 (5) Weak and Vulnerable to ALL enemies. Exhaust.

Quite expensive, but amazing if you got some spare energy and upgraded this card.

Spot Weakness: 1 Energy, If an enemy intends to attack, gain 3 (4) Strength.

Amazing card, but it tends to be dead weight from time to time, due to enemies doing stuff other than attacking.

Uppercut: 2 Energy, Deal 13 damage. Apply 1 (2) Weak. Apply 1 (2) Vulnerable.

Okayish card if you have additional energy, otherwise too expensive to be truly useful.

Whirlwind: X Energy, Spend all Energy. Deal 5(8) damage to ALL enemies X times.

Amazing card, scales like mad with strength. Upgrading is almost always worth it.

Falagar

He is the founder and editor of Magic Game World. He loved gaming from the moment he got a PlayStation 1 with Gran Turismo on his 7th birthday.

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