Innate Deck

Introduction

Innate deck works best with a Silent, though the other two can see some benefits of a strong innate hand.  It just requires them to leverage the two colorless cards to make it effective.

The core of an innate deck is to get 10 innate cards together.  An innate card doesn't give you an extra draw, so if you only draw 5 cards, it replaces one of those cards.  If you have more than 5 cards, then each innate card ends up in your hand until you hit the 10 card cap.

If you have more than 10 innate cards, then they roll over into your next draw.

Notes

A quick note on Bottled Relics (see below).  Each of these ADD a specified card to your starting hand each combat.  Note, however, that they add cards in AFTER your draw occurs, so if you have 10+ innate cards, they might not make it into your hand.

Strategies

• This is an attackers deck, so you want to do as much damage with your opening hand as possible.  
• Zero cost innate cards are king with this style of play.  Dramatic Entrance does 6/8 HP damage to ALL enemies and its boosted by STR.  If you have an STR boost on turn one or can take a potion, you can blast all enemies for solid damage.  Especially if you have several of these.
• Another high damage winner is Mind blast, especially if you have a good sized deck.  Mind Blast cost 2/1, so having 1 or 2 of these in your innate draw is powerful.  Two of them with a deck of 25 or more can take out most single met foes and three can take out most elites alone.  If you have the Necronomicon relic, the non upgraded version of Mind Blast will be played twice.
• Silent
• After Image combined with Backstab, Dramatic Entrance and Mind Blast make for a killer combination.  You get to do a ton of damage right off the cuff and get Block for it.
• As a power starter, having multiple Infinite Blades provides you a strong second turn, especially if you also have Shiv upgrades or the Wristblade relic to bump their damage.
• Defect
• The innate cards for the Defect are setup for cold, so filling and cycling through a bunch of Frost is easily possible.
• If you add in Storm, especially multiples of the card, you can cycle through a couple of powers rapidly to load up on Lightning.  If you have the mummified hand relic, it will make a random card cost (0) this turn for each power, allowing you to effectively play an entire hand rapidly.  

Colorless Cards

• Dramatic Entrance -- Zero cost card that does 6/8 to ALL enemies.
• Mind Blast -- Costs 2/1 but does damage equal to your deck to one enemy.

IronClad

• Brutality (after upgrade)  -- zero cost card that at the start of your turn, lose 1 HP and draw 1 card.

Silent

• After Image (after upgrade) -- This puts a ton of block in your hand and is useful.
• Backstab -- Does 11/14 HP damage.
• Infinite Blades (after upgrade) -- Puts a shiv in your hand each turn.

Defect

• Chill (after upgrade) -- Zero cost card that will channel 1 Frost for every enemy in combat.  Exhausts.
• Storm (after upgrade) -- Whenever you play a power, channel 1 Lightning.

Relic Synergy

• Bottled Flame -- This adds a selected (at time of receiving the relic) Attack into your hand.
• Bottled Lighting -- This adds a selected (at time of receiving the relic) Skill into your hand.
• Bottled Storm --This adds a selected (at time of receiving the relic) Power into your hand.
• Enchiridion -- This relic gets a shout out because it adds a random Power into your hand at the start of combat, similar to innate cards.
• Nilry's Codex -- This relic gets a shout out because it lets you select from three cards at teh end of your turn to add to your draw pile.

Silent Deck Strategy II

Introduction

Use zero to low cost cards to make a run on attack cards and then end with the Finisher card, which does 6/8 HP damage for every attack you have done.  With bonus strength, it does even more for each attack card you played.

Requirements

• Zero cost heavy deck, especially with shivs, backstab and other high damage, no cost cards.
• Finisher card provides the coup de grace of this approach.  Playing a number of zero-cost cards, especially attacks, racks up the amount of damage the Finisher card does when it goes off.  Just remember to keep at least one energy to launch it.

Relic Synergy

• Prismatic Shard -- just to get the full spectrum of cards.  If you can add Anger [IronClad] card into your deck, then this really beings to shine hard as it adds a copy each time played.
• Bag of Marbles -- Just so your enemies are vulnerable on the first turn.  Allows you to do more damage right off that bat without playing a card.
• Mummified Hand -- this shriveled beauty can be leveraged to make other cards cost zero after you play a power.
• Shuriken -- Just for the bonus strength gained after playing three attacks.
• Warped Tongs -- Just for the random card upgrade when you make a draw that turn.

Strategy Synergy

Only going to cover items that are in addition to a basic zero-cost hand strategy.

• Poison hand.  This approach goes very well with a poison heavy deck that applies poison per attack.
• Exhaust deck.  Exhaust deck really shines when combined with a zero-cost deck cum finisher approach.
• Innate deck.  The core of an innate deck is having a full hand of zero-cost or tactically overwhelming cards in the first draw.  With a hand max of 10, you want to fill this amount and have cards in that draw that will let you draw more, especially attacks in this regard.  If one of those happens to be the Burst card, then you can duplicate skills, especially those that give you more attacks to stack up the Finisher finale.
• Zero-cost deck with Choke.  This deck hand pairs extremely well with Finisher, since it adds even more damage into the mix even when you play non-attack cards.
• Discard deck.  Discard decks focus on discarding cards to do damage and the light requirements of his combination pair decently, especially if you are leveraging a large number of Sneaky Strike, Heel Hook, and similar cards to gain back energy.
• Strength deck.  Pairs extremely well with a deck that focuses on high Strength gain to do enormous damage.

Silent Deck Strategy I

Introduction

The heart of this strategy is to build a deck with numerous Innate, zero-energy or 1-energy exhaustible cards.  Combined with the Dead Branch relic, each card you exhaust will be replaced with a random new one from your color deck, giving you a renewing supply of cards to play.

Its possible to play an extended hand in this manner, running a dozen, two dozen or even more cards with the right balance of play.

A core to this to focus on putting cards in your deck that are innate exhaustible and those that introduce exhaustible cards, like Cloak and Dagger, which provide block and 1/2 Shivs.  Same for Blade Dance which provides 2/3 Shivs as well.

Storm of Steel can be leveraged very effectively, even with a low 3-energy turn.  It costs two, but if zero-cost exhaustible cards are ran first, it can allow you to convert the rest of the cards you have in your hand to exhaustible Shivs to cycle through again.  Use this after you have ran out of all other possible combinations of introducing cards or adding effects.  Equally, if you have a lot of energy to burn, you can use this to replace your hand with a random but possibly usable amount of cards.

Requirements

• Dead Branch [Relic] is provides a random card for every card you exhaust.
• Zero-cost INNATE cards, as many as possible.  Backstab is the best card to have, since its innate, costs zero, and does 11/14 HP damage.

Relic Synergy

• Bag of Preparation lets you draw two additional cards at the start of combat.
• Kunai provides +1 Dex every 3 attacks played in one turn.
• Letter Opener does 5 HP damage to all foes every 3 skills played in a turn.
• Mummified Hand makes a random card in your hand cost zero (0) that turn when you play a power card.  Incredibly useful when playing a long hand.
• Ninja Scroll provides you with three (3) Shivs at the start of Combat.
• Nunchaku provides you with a bonus energy for every 10 attacks.  Your chance to chain attacks is incredibly high, especially if you are leveraging a zero-cost deck or shiv deck.
• Ornamental Fan provides 4 Block every 3 attacks you play in a turn.
• Pen Nib lets you do double damage every 10 attacks.
• Runic Pyramid lets you keep your hand at the end of the turn.
• Shuriken provides +1 Strength every 3 attacks you play in a turn.

Card Synergy

• A Thousand Cuts provides an endless source of damage as you play cards, as it hits foes for 1/2 HP damage with each card played.  Zero cost cards means damage per card.
• Adrenaline is a zero cost card that allows you to draw cards and gain energy, while also exhausting.  Perfect for this kind of deck.
• After Image card does what A Thousand Cuts does but for Block, providing an endless stream of useful block to go along with card creation (and hopefully good damage).
• Backstab card is the absolute best for this kind of strategy.
• Blade Dance provides 2/3 Shivs.
• Bullet Time card reduces the cost of all the cards in your hand to zero, but keeps you from drawing more cards.  It does not stop exhausted cards being replaced by a random that the Dead Branch provides.  This means you can play all your cards that provides draws, use bullet time and then exhaust cards and get replacements -- though they won't be at zero cost.
• Choke card can really shine here.  It not only does 12 HP damage but 3/5 follow up damage for each card played.  If you are running zero-cost cards or pulling shivs into your hand (same principle), then Choke can rack up an enormous amount of damage.
• Cloak and Dagger card provides Block and 1/2 Shivs depending on its upgrade status.
• Die Die Die card costs 1 energy but hits all enemies before exhausting.  A good damage producer that will prompt the Dead Branch to provide a replacement card after it does damage.
• Dramatic Entrance [Colorless] is innate, zero cost, exhausts and hits all enemies.
• Envenom card costs 2 energy but is a favorite since it provides 1 poison for every unblocked damage you do.
• Exhume [ IronClad] card lets you place a card from your Exhaust pile into your hand.  It then exhausts.
• Echo Form [Defect] card makes the first card you play be played twice.  This can be useful if you make that first card an exhaustible once to prompt the Dead Branch to provide two random cards.
• Panache [Colorless] does damage after 5 cards are played, making it a great play for a long term strategy that this supports.
• Sadistic Nature [Colorless] does HP damage every time you put a Debuff on the enemy, also making it a good play for this deck.
• Shiv cards are your best friends for this.  Not only do they do damage, but that damage can easily be cranked up with the application of Strength or power cards that boost Shiv damage.  Equally, they exhaust, providing a stream of new cards via the Dead Branch.
• Storm of Steel card costs 2 energy but discards your entire hand (important if you have effects that proc on Discard) and replaces it with Shivs (or upgraded ones if upgraded).  That allows you to continue to exhaust and replace cards.

Add-on Strategies

• Adding more cards into your hand.
• Use Nightmare card, which will let you add three (3) copies of the card to your hand the next round you use it.  Its a skill and is not exhausted on use, so you can use Nightmware again to repeat the effect.
• Use Dual Wield [Iron Clad] card, which will add a copy (or two if upgraded) into your hand that turn.  Its a skill and is not exhausted on use, so you can use Dual Wield again to repeat the effect.
• Other cards that provide benefits for Exhaust.
• A variety of Ironclad cards provide benefits for exhausting cards.  If you have access to them, then including them makes this approach that much more powerful.  Having the Prismatic Shard or the "Note to Yourself Event" is probably the two easiest ways to get cards of other colors.
• Colorless cards that exhaust, like Bandage or Ritual Dagger.

Doable Achievements

• Play 10 Shivs in one turn.  
• Play 25 cards in one turn.
• Kill a Boss on Turn 1

Innate Card designation

Innate is a special designation that puts a card in your hand for the first turn of combat (opening hand).  Its in addition to your normal hand size, versus replacing a card in it; that is, unless you have more innate cards than normal ones in your deck.   Then, you will get a hand of all innate cards.

Notes

• Think of it as your draw + innate cards + additional cards.

Card Synergy

• Cards that add a card into your hand at turn start, put their cards into your hand first.  They are in addition to your normal hand + innate.  This normally isn't an issue, since you rarely start with that situation except from relics.

Relic Synergy

• All the Bottled relics allow you to put a power, skill or attack in your starting hand.  These are in addition to innate cards, your normal draw hand and bonus cards.
• Hovering Kite (Silent only) can be useful when your hand is overflowing with innate cards, since it allows you to discard two of them to make replacements.
• Ring of the Serpent (Silent only) provides an additional card.