I loved Unnamed Tome even before the DLC, just for the ability to stop the scaling level 7 boss and blights. With the DLC, the one upgrade that it takes (very) well that you didn't mention is Intrinsic. The combination of Intrinsic and Permafrost makes for a perfect answer card, but for other spells that you want other upgrades on, you can't usually spend both upgrade spots that way.
Okay man, unnamed tome is very good and definitely deserves a spot on the list, but Engraft can fix runs on its own. If you give engraft holdover and +10 magic power, your units are constantly being healed. If you give it -1 cost instead of the magic power, it becomes a free additional ember. I really don’t see why engraft isn’t on the list. I would love to hear your opinion on the card, but I really think the card is crazy and has some incredible synergies.
It's pretty good, I'll admit, but oftentimes does nothing for a run and is really reliant on Holdover to completely pop off. Ensnare is just objectively superior because its effect is always useful.
I think I agree with most of the list, though it's hard for me to order the best cards. I think I would rate fade higher, just because you start with her, you don't need pivots, it's allways something you can plan for from ring 1. Don't know about unamed tome as #1, but I also allways click the card, so can't argue with that. I did miss some daze cards in this list, I think the one that discards your hand is my favourite daze effect, but it also doesn't solve relentless as well as some of the others, maybe tiresome climb is the most solid just because it can be used on waves and bosses, and the only real downside is that you can't use it on a boss on the last floor. Sirens song is also very powerful, but has a floor requirement and also climbs the entire floor which can sometimes be a problem. The wurmkin daze card requires echoes and sometimes you already need those for something more important or maybe you don't have enough in the floor the boss is in when you draw it, still is somthing I almost allways click. Immortal trade I think I would put lower, because armor and other survavability means exist, it's not as close as a 100% click for me like unamed tome, and it has more downsides, like needing frozen or taking more draws even when you don't need it, losing effectiveness if you have multistrike or sweep. Returned soul is an interesting one, it's the only fetch card in the game right? Those are allways OP in any card game, maybe reform cards can be considered sort of fetch effects, but not nearly as good. And this also cleans up your deck with consumes so it becomes more consistent the more you use it. Maybe I'd have this as my #1.
I bounced back and forth on Tiresome Climb and Frenzied Swarm in-particular, but they ended up placing out of my top ten largely because of the need to hit Holdover. Every other card at this level is exceptional regardless of upgrades, even if they do have some they like more than others. Siren's Song is really good, too, but is a dangerous play for much of the run if you lack certain synergies (AOE Frostbite / Dropcage / etc). And yeah, Returned Soul is so overtuned it's unbelievable it is printed as-is. You could nerf it three different ways and I'd still snap pick it basically every time.
i interpret a "niche problem" as a specific type of problem that needs a specific answer to it, as opposed to a more general problem that has multiple answers like a "niche" card might be a card that solves a specific problem and only that problem, but that problem happens to be a common problem that appears in almost every run, but the downside is if you take that card and the problem it answers doesn't appear, then it's just taking up space. but if the problem that needs that niche card is a common problem, then it's still worth taking that card, just in case. contrast it with a card that can solve multiple problems even when some of those problems don't appear in a run, the card is still useful and a solid, because it can solve many problems. a bad pick might be a niche card that solves a problem that rarely pops up, so you might waste a pick on a card that likely won't ever get used, or maybe some other card solves that problem better.
Honestly I think Sentry is to Monster Train as Stealth Rocks are to competitive Singles Pokemon. Is it flashy? No. Does it answer so many small problems in a compact package? Yeah. Does nearly every team want it? Absolutely.
I'd also love to see one on your 10 favourite or maybe most well designed cards. Those that maybe don't allways win runs, but allways makes you want to click it even though it's not the best choice
Love these types of videos!! Wouldn't mind if you did a top 10 artifacts either, would be curious to see where we line up and differ hehe. I think mine top 10 hopefully lines up decently, but I'm going to blind post these before looking through yours to make sure I'm not influenced by your top 10: 1. Tiresome Climb 2. Fledgling Imp 3. Soulcrushing Guilt 4. Awoken's Rail Spike 5. Transcendimp 6. Unnamed Tome 7. Umbra Stone 8. Preserved Thorns 9. Ritual of Battle 10. Imp-portant Work
*SPOILERS LOOK AWAY THOSE WHO HAVEN'T WATCHED* Follow-up after viewing: I can't argue w/ any of your top 10, those are all amazing cards! I especially like Unnamed Tome at number 1, honestly when I look at my data I can't disagree w/ that being number 1 (40 wins 2 losses since July 1st w/ decks that have unnamed tome) Thoughts on each of your 10: 10 - I am not surprised to see Hot Shark show up in your list, I'm actually surprised it wasn't higher! I owe you specifically for making me fall in love w/ this unit again, the self infusion in particular was key in figuring out how valuable it is. Honestly I forgot about banner units when doing my list, I think I'd put in my top 10 as well perhaps, it could be more consistent than maybe my number 8 and below. 9 - I also hadn't thought of champs when I did mine, but hard to disagree here (though I might argue it should just be 1st overall if champs are included hehe). I think I might throw in a vote here though that I don't actually think spine chief is that far behind fire light. Functionally since you'll always get either decayer or corrupter I think you get 2 champ paths that are very close to if not equal to the Fade paths, and equally sort of just "always central" to being included in a run, rarely ever a throw away champ in the same way little fade is. I think I love decayer slightly less than most so I do think decayer is a slightly lower than Corrupter/Fade paths, but still good enough that it can more often than not clear every wave by itself. 8 - Another one that if I had thought of banners definitely makes the list - might even be my #1 overall. I think it's so incredibly rare that this unit isn't just completely busted in a run. They should probably nerf it to like a 3 cost honestly, and it'd still be amazing 7 - Hey we lined up perfectly here! Love this card, your analysis is spot on, while the ceiling isn't that of the likes of furnace tap, the floor and p50 crush it. This is one of those "always takable" cards that always adds a great deal of value. 6 - Hard to argue this one either. The emberdrain is low enough that you can play it here and there to stack up lifesteal even w/out an "emberdrain deck", and it's such a great permafrost target to guarantee relentless. I do think I value space prism, mine collapse, and perils over it in a general sense, but these 4 commons to me make up the "big 4" of amazing umbra commons. Truthfully ally umbra commons outside of antumbra assault are at least A tier for me even. 5 - Very solid pick. I think I would maybe switch out preserved thorns for this in my list actually, not sure why I didn't think of ensnare. It's 48/6 in my data since Jul 1, showcasing just how "always takable, always good" this card is. A lot of times I will watch other people play the game and skip this card (like actually skip for gold) and I can't tell you how many times they die to divinity and I think to myself "if they had just taken that ensnare..." 4 - This one is really good, and I am not surprised to see it make your list as I know you have said often it's always worth taking, which I would agree w/. I think for me though there are other HH cards that typically just win runs so solidly that I still rank them above inferno, fledgling imp, transcendimp, tiresome climb to me are generally just such crazy "I win" type cards that I see them represented in my data a lot more than inferno. 3 - Not sure how this one sneaked its way out of my list. Delete a unit for hardly any cost? Yeah pretty good card. 2 - Hard to deny the greatness of this one, though I do think at least for my playstyle I'd generally prefer soulcrushing guilt as far as wurmkin uncommons go (43/3 vs. 34/5 respectively). I think I just value dazed so highly with how much it guarantees a top floor setup and also it hard counters nearly every boss in the game. It also represents pseudo-removal as long as your pyre can handle it. 1 - As I said above I actually love this pick as the #1, it's not the one you'd suspect but it's also impossible to argue against it. Hard counters some bosses, prevents harvester tanks from being crazy in the divinity waves, stops scourge shufflers in their tracks, seraph the patient, 0 cost targetless permafrost, just an amazing card
I thought Imp-portant Work would make the lower part of the list as well. Hearing RisingDusk talk through all his points though, I understood and couldn't find fault.
I really like your list because it showcases a totally different appreciation for certain answers. It's very clear to me that stopping Divinity's attacks is really important to you, whereas for me I rated them slightly out of my top ten because they want certain upgrades to be super effective. Seeing a couple damage scalers in the top ten also makes sense when thinking about different angles, too, whereas for me I'm thinking about universally-good cards in basically any circumstance. Love reading this kind of stuff!
The lack of glug, and wilting sapwood is saddening. How can these rare units not be run defining. Also ambient charge exists and therefore these cards are top 3.
On Returned Soul: I suspect this was one of the situations where the developers were balancing for no covenant/covenant 1. Without all of the extra trash spells added into the deck, Returned Soul can become a curse fairly quickly if the player doesn't find ways to generate/return spells over the course of a battle. The general trend for card design seems to have been starting by balancing for cov1, then buffing the numbers to make the card viable on cov25 (as we saw with the game's first few rounds of balance updates). Returned Soul just doesn't fit into that workflow.
I'm curious where you roughly rank Fledgling Imp Dusk. It isn't the literal most flexible card in existence, but it doesn't take a ton of work to enable it, and it does it'd job better than just about anyone else. Also I second the top 10 worst cards list next.
Well it certainly is no alpha fiend but I can 2nd the love for fledgling imp, I debated between it and tiresome climb for my #1 but I went w/ tiresome because there are rare runs where fledgling can't be used (usually because overstacking just sort of came together). I can't think of a single run that wouldn't want tiresome climb.
Fledgling Imp is nuts, but it basically has to hit Endless or it's a one-time and fairly low impact card that locks up a space on your floor or ultimately just gets removed. One thing about all of the cards in this video is that they have "optimal" upgrades but otherwise are useful even without any upgrades whatsoever (yeah, including Apex Imp). Furthermore, once they're in my deck I cannot imagine a scenario outside of an infinite where I'd remove any of these. I think he ended up around the mid-upper teens in placement. Tiresome Climb came in real close to placing as well, but after my review ended up at #11 because it has pretty stringent upgrade requirements. I really did go back and forth on whether it or Titan Sentry deserved the #10 slot, but ultimately settled on Hot Shark because even without Endless you can slap him down and clear 8 rings of backlines comfortably.
The top 3 cards don't make sense to me compared to some of the other heavy hitters, but I am playing on lower difficulties so I trust there is a logic there that will make more sense as I advance. I'm excited to give this game another try with some of these tips!
Part of it is just understanding how I rate things, right? The most consistent cards you should never skip tend to be my highest rated, while the ones that simply offer the greatest, but more niche, highrolls are lower.
i feel like resin removal and steelsinger should really be on this list and im not sure about immortal trade. yeah immortal trade basically wins relentless but if youre using a tank with low attack it’s negligible, and also a bad draw can wreck the card if you’re not playing the emberdrain line
Big fan of these types of videos and definitely look forward to more in the future. On another note, what makes you think the developers have moved on to other games? Didn’t we just get an update from them in late November that they are looking forward to working on the game further?
I can't confirm anything, but modders (including myself) confirmed by code inspection that they turned off balance data analytics collection in the 2.2 patch. With that being off, I can't really imagine they'd be able to do anything balance-wise with the game and have most likely moved on.
@@RisingDusk wow that’s incredibly disheartening to hear. This game is wonderful and I would’ve loved to see how it evolved. Hopefully they reconsider.
I'm surprised hallowed halls didn't make the list. It just feels like a free win whenever I see it. I suppose it might not be good in a run where you already have a non-reform oriented stratagem established. The number 1 also surprised me. I expected it could be in the list but was definitely not expecting it to be in the number 1 slot!
It's a really good card, but doesn't always make sense for a run (definitely not snap-click). That said, it was in the top 15 that I had to sort through to actually settle on my top 10, though.
#2 the card that pulls from discard and makes it a consume card. . there's another wurmkin card that give you 5 consumed cards back, so yeah, if someone is worried about consuming a card they don't want to consume, they can take that other card if they see it. also, hellhorned has an imp that can return consumed cards, so a hellhorned/wurmkin run could utilize that.
@RisingDusk Would you revist this list? For 200+ shards? My ranking after playing this game a lot more: 1. Little Fade (Eternal Flame) - As said 2. Soulcrushing Guilt - Trivializes Endless 3. Awoken Raispike - At least a solid card, too often game breaking 4. Crushing Demise - As said 5. Inferno - As said 6. Hot Shark - As said 7. Bounty Stalker - Snap ring 1 and often 2 8. Morsel-Made - Snap ring 1 and often 2 9. Razonsharp Edge - Best easy to obtain scaling card in the game 10. Echo Transfer - Second best easy to obtain scaling card in the game Apex Imp - Too situational, anti-synergy with Shardtail Queen's best line Returned Soul - Very good, but doesn't carry runs like the other cards listed do Unnamed Tome - Same
More than anything, it's determined by how you evaluate cards. This list of mine is very centered in "how likely am I to draft this card" and isn't necessarily talking about highrolls involving it. I literally never skip Unnamed Tome, even if I don't think it's always the most impactful card. I'll consider revisiting for 200, but I do disagree with listing a bunch of rare units, you know? Like obviously their power ceilings are higher, but they're nerfed by their rarity.
@@RisingDusk Most of the rare units are not very good or require a lot of support. I called those 2 out because they're very easy to work into most decks. I legit think the Apex Imp was a miscall. The Shardtail Queen interaction, need for Armor support (not a given) and only swinging once makes him require more support than at least a half dozen units I snap over him. Unnamed Tome answers Patient Saraph, the Harvester Floor and Mr. Emberdrain Sweep. All are late game problems with other answers, including just over-powering the floor. Daze/Stealth are so highly valued at high shards that countering Patient isn't a thing very often.
No Transcendimp? That said, great list. Helped me get my bearings a lot figuring out what is good as a new player with hundreds of hours of StS experience.
knew unnamed tome was going to be on the list but didn't expect it's your #1 which I would easily agree on. thinking #6 and 7# could be a little bit higher too especially #6 immortal trade
It's been a bit of a contentious pick, but I think it's still a card I will literally never skip and am genuinely happy to take multiple of. It's that good!
Unnamed Tome is very strong (anything that shits on Patient is fantastic in my book), but I think Resin Removal might have it beat for versatility. While it really needs Intrinsic/Permafrost and Holdover to shine, it debuffs entire waves of enemies and mini-bosses (Crystal Cloak and nearly every wave against the Divinity comes to mind) and clears your units of everything except Burnout. Maybe it deserves a place on this list?
Resin Removal was close to reaching top ten, but the fact that it costs 1 and needs to be given Permafrost at a shop are the real reasons it didn't make the cut. That said, I super agree with Resin Removal becoming excellent in the DLC!
I'm surprised rootseed isn't in there, like, it's not the best card as a card in a vacuum, it's just good, but as a starter card? it basically guarantees you have solid scaling and if you either generate ember or reduces their cost it thins out your deck significantly, it also synergizes with incant and inspire. If you had to get it from a draft pick would you get it? probably not (but there's an argument for yes in some cases) but it's so far ahead other starter cards it's ridiculous.
@@RisingDusk yeah I guess it depends how you see it, like, I'm mostly looking at how having it as a starter makes your average card quality skyrocket but it's definitely not a flashy "win the run" card
My only interactions with monster train have been the Person seed series I see you pick Titan sentry almost every time it becomes available I haven't watched the rest of the video yet, but I was pretty startled that shark lad was so low
Not serious here, just the customary "bah bah bah your opinion is objectively wrong, bah bah" but hopefully in a funny way. Okay that out of the way, first off, the uncontested number 1 card is glugsider, because he is a chonky large lad and I love him. Second of all, where is plink? The most beloved and reliable card of the game. It lets you take an easy mark of invasion trial early on! And if you put spell power in it you get that delightful rush of adrenalin, when itmisses the mid floor collector twice and hits a tank! And that is as far as I will take this joke, heh.
Hi Sorry for the crash in. Do you ever cover any other card games or would you consider reviewing a different game? Again sorry for the crash in. Good luck and take care C
No worries! I play a lot of card games, but I'm not really recording any others consistently. StS content creation is saturated, whereas I don't know what kind of content I could/should make for others were I to play them. Definitely open to suggestions!
returning to this a year later after i finally got past covenant 25. I think the big eye brow raiser is immortal trade vs perils of production. A perils of production makes all of the ember drain cards functional with other parts of the deck. i guess the argument is that without holdover, you cant count on it? But enabling so many strong cards makes it seem like a good gateway to me
Perils of Production is really strong, but it speaks to Immortal Trade's power that it is incredible both with and without Perils activating or enabling it. I am always happy to pay the ember over the next 2 turns for that Lifesteal if I have a unit who can benefit from it. Perils on its own is too upgrade-dependent to make this list, IMO.
You can count on perils without holdover similar to runs where you don't find it. 3 perils + double draw + small deck with a bunch of 0 cost cards and/or ways to cheat ember ex hell's banner and grovel. I also think perils is better, since immortal trade is on many occasions dead both within and out of the clan. Immortal trade can be dead with tanks that lack damage is bad with hellhorned since umbra units are bad and hellhorned mostly builds armor, is bad with incant armor stone which is very common within stygian strategies and in general is bad when it conflict with other damage mitigation effects. That is the problem with lifesteal in general. Within the clan also, lifesteal and damage shield don't work well together on the same unit i.e if the amount of lifesteal stacks run out faster than damage shield. Void binding is better than immortal trade imo. In those runs that there is lack of scaling void binding can still carry in multiples with just a 25 gold investment. Example awoken/umbra runs with no razorsharp-edge, no perils void binding buffs and protects which helps to clear waves, while immortal trade is generally good for relentless but doesn't help with scaling. Let alone the fact that it can protect primordium if you don't find superfood ii top floor.
(If this is something you’re not comfortable sharing, feel free to disregard) I’m trying to figure out your accent. If I guess Pennsylvania somewhere, am I close?
I've just started playing the game so I'm pretty n00bish right now, but I'm not understanding exactly what makes Titan Sentry powerful. My understanding of frostbite is probably completely off as I thought 3 frostbite would only translate to 6 damage across 3 floors (bottom floor 3 damage, middle floor 2, top floor 1).
He applies 3 Frostbite to the entire floor for each time he is hit. Enemy floors hit him anywhere from 4-12 times per round, which quickly adds up to incredible amounts of damage. He not only solves backlines, he significantly hits heavies, and makes your steel shops stronger since he wants endless.
@@RisingDusk Can you actually target the unit yourself with light hits to trigger this? I guess I'll have to try the unit again. I've embarrassingly avoided it thinking it wasn't a good card.
It's a good idea! I feel like a lot of that would be pretty context-sensitive, though. The winners would all be "always good" banner units, which is probably pretty obvious for the viewer. I'll see what I can draft up.
It's a really good card, but frequently ends up being played for 0 because other cards in-hand must be played, essentially costing you a draw for no value. I think pre-nerf I would've put it top-10 just narrowly, but not since it only gives -1 ember.
I disagree with you! Fight me! Err.. I can't back that up. 😅 Very cool discussion video. I'd like to add my own honorable mention. When things aren't quite going well in a run and you open up that fresh new clan pack! #11 on the list... Skip +10 gold. I like money, and at least I didn't add even MORE mediocrity to my run. Edit: I guessed Returned Soul to be #1 right after you mentioned that the top 7 were all spell cards. Edit the 2nd: Overlooked, underappreciated infusions guide?
I would only really swap hot shark and tome. The only time you don't want hot shark is when you have to play the other banner unit on turn 1. Otherwise hot shark answers just about everything, and even as a base unupgraded card is better than almost all consume spells.
There is no official source for this, though I have been trying to work with the devs to make that data public. For now I have some insight into it from discussions with them, but no proper numbers to share.
Yes, it is. It's actually much higher than that if you include the Train of Thought series, though I specifically turn on a mod to disable winstreaks and lower stress haha.
Lost a run with a multi-strike, large stone, 1pip, Apex Imp and 2 Endless, 0 ember Titan Sentrys. My Apex Imp had over 2000 damage when I lost against Divinity. I dunno how I managed it tbh.
Yeah, honestly, that line sounds ridiculously powerful! I'll give it a run myself just to experience it, but that should definitely be a solid, cruise-control victory!
I did do one of those a while back, actually! It's here if you'd like to check it out, has a little section at the start with lots of tips: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-3G9Oc5kxGew.html
