Ironclad
Strength, Exhaust, and block scaling
Ironclad wins by turning HP and cards into permanent combat advantage: Strength makes attacks matter, Exhaust trims the deck, and Barricade-style block engines buy enough time for boss fights.
Strengths
- Fast damage scaling
- Excellent exhaust engines
- High boss-fight ceiling
Risks
- Can spend a full turn setting up Powers
- Weak decks bloat quickly
- Needs either burst damage or reliable block by Act 2
Core Builds
Top Cards To Notice
Permanent Strength buff that improves every attack for the rest of the fight — the cheapest scaling Ironclad has.
Compounding Strength every turn snowballs out of control in long fights, though the 3-cost turn it lands is a tempo hit.
Two energy and three cards for free is the strongest single-turn burst enabler in the game — HP is a resource here.
Thirty Block in one card is a lifesaver against boss burst turns; Exhaust keeps it out of your deck the rest of the fight.
Turns Ironclad’s Exhaust theme into a draw engine — with enough exhausters it refills your hand every turn.
Permanent Max HP growth off kills is how Ironclad survives the long climb — snowballs hard against fodder enemies.
Dumps all energy into multi-target damage — indispensable for multi-enemy rooms.
Free Skills turn every defensive card into tempo and fuel Dark Embrace draw — the centerpiece of the Exhaust archetype.
Block stops decaying, so it stacks all fight — turns Ironclad into an unkillable wall and enables Body Slam turns.
Converts a defensive deck into a damage engine; pairs with Barricade for huge repeated hits.