I'm struggling to beat roguelike/deckbuilder hybrid Slay the Spire, even with a well-balanced deck packed with powerful skills. All streamer RiskyCB needs is two cards, apparently. On a recent run he discovered the perfectly formula for a guaranteed win, getting rid of all but two cards in his deck to create an infinitely-looping combo of damage.
In the run, which you can watch above, he starts by pruning his deck at every opportunity. The cards fall in his favour, and the game gives him a Peace Pipe (which lets you remove a card at rest spots) and a relic that reduces the costs of removing cards at merchants.
He reaches the first boss with just five cards, and defeats it with an infinite combo featuring Bash—which applies the 'vulnerable' status to your enemy—and Dropkick, which deals damage, draws a card and adds energy (which is what you spend to play cards) if an enemy is vulnerable. By using Dual Wield to duplicate Dropkick, RiskyCB creates an endless loop whereby he's able to play an infinite number of attacks and never run out of energy.
But that's not the impressive part. By removing more cards, and stumbling across Flash of Steel, which deals damage for no energy cost and draws a card, he's eventually able to beat the game with a two-card deck, using Dual Wield to clone Flash of Steel first.
It's more than just entertaining, too. It's made me rethink how I approach the game. As somebody that doesn't play many deckbuilders, it's easy to get carried away and grab every shiny card you come across. But, clearly, limiting your deck to a few select cards can pay dividends. I'm going to show some restraint next time, and save up gold to remove cards at merchants.
Cheers, RPS.
