Du-Vu Doll

Notes

• Temporary curses gained during combat COUNT towards this bonus.

Strategies

The Du-Vu Doll lets you gain bonus strength for each curse, levering high strength to do enormous damage as your accumulate curses.  Its the next important relic to try and put in your portfolio to make the cursed deck work.  When you gain it is less important that HAVING it with curses in your deck to leverage.

Darkstone Periapt

Notes

• Temporary curses gained during combat do not count.

Strategies

• The Darkstone Periapt provides bonus HP for each curse.  However, you want it as early as possible, since its bonus HP only accumulate for curses you gather after you have it.  That restriction is one of the reason why its pushed down farther on the "good to own" list.

Cursed Key

Notes

• Curses are completely random when given.

Strategies

• This relic is hard to get early but if you can acquire it in Act 1 or at the beginning, it provides a path to get curses easy for each non-Boss chest.  If you have this relic, shoot for every question mark (?) on the path to try and get the non-boss chests.

Omamori

Strategies

Pretty straightforward.  Useful to counter curses, either from events or by relic pickup.

Calling Bell

The Calling Bell is nice because it provides a number of curses and relics to boost your deck's power.

Strategies

• Best used with a Cursed Deck, as it obviously boosts the number of curses and provides a bunch of relics to boot.
• Take this as boss loot when you don't mind the curse cards.  If matched with an Omamori, it can remove two of the three curses that will come with it.

Blue Candle

Notes

• Having it provides an avenue to play curses and get them out of your active hand.
• Removing a curse only costs 1 HP but doesn't require energy.

Card Synergy

Employing the Blue Candle lets you create synergies with cards that provide an effect from either exhaustion or from taking damage.  For example, a card that provides +3 block when you take HP damage from a card.  Or, a card that provides an effect that does damage to foes when you exhaust cards.

Strategies

Use it to handle curses.  If used in a full on Cursed Deck, it can become very powerful.

Self Forming Clay

Introduction

This happens to be a favorite of mine.  When combined well with cards or relics that do HP damage to you, it can provide a massive amount of block accumulation.

Notes

• Anything that causes the HP loss provides 3 block for NEXT round.
• Dexterity or bonuses to Block do not apply to this value.
• Self inflicted, e.g., your own cards hurt you, damage is the most controllable way to get a huge pile of block when you need it.

Card Synergy

• The Regret curse does HP damage equal to the cards in the hand at the end of the turn, providing an easy means to gain block.  Its a single HP loss, however, regardless of the card count, so it only provides 3 Block by itself.
• Brutality [Iron Clad] or Combust [Iron Clad] both cause 1 HP damage.  In combination with the relic, it would also generate 3 Block.  Keep in mind, if you have Combust stacked, it will 2, 3, 4, etc., amounts of damage equal to the times you have stacked this.  It only, however, provides the 3 Block for the total HP damage.
• Combined with the Blood for Blood card, it can rapidly drive this cost down to zero energy while providing 3 Block each time HP is lost.
• If combined with Barricade and a card like Combust that creates low level HP loss, it will provide a steady stream of Block that will not decay.
• The Offering card inflicts HP loss and trigger the effect as well.
• The J.A.X. card is a repeatable, non-exhausting card that inflicts 3 HP damage in return for 2 STR.  That also means it provides 3 Block when combined with this relic.
• The Burn card inflict 2 HP damage at the end of your turn, triggering the 3 Block effect.
• Hemokinesis card inflicts HP damage and triggers the relic.

Relic Synergy

• Runic Cube is a good match up, as it puts more cards in your hand as you take damage and stack Block.  
• Torii reduces 5 HP or less Attack damage to 1 HP.  This can greatly enable the strategy to take damage one turn to build block while minimizing the HP impact at the same time.
• Calipers relic can only reduces your accumulated Block by 15 each turn, versus losing it all.  This can help you maintain more Block across turns, especially when combined with an effect that ignores block to do HP loss.

Strategies

• Any effect that causes damage, especially those that only cause 1 HP damage can provide a high volume of continuous Block.  Combust is an excellent card to use.
• Pain Curse card with high energy can be leveraged to create a lot of Block quickly, since each card played will cause 1 HP damage and generate 3 Block accordingly.
• Can be combined with the Runic Cube to generate 1 extra card per HP loss.
• Can be massively effective against opponents who perform #x# of attacks.
• The Rupture [Iron Clad] card provides 1 STR whenever you lose HP.  Combined with another card that provides HP loss, you would gain STR and Block each time.
• The Act 4 Corrupt Heart can use the Beat of Death to inflict HP damage every time you play a card, triggering the relic.  You can use this to build up Block to balance its Blood Shot & Echo attacks, which can do 20, 40, 60 or more damage as the turns progress.  Combined with a healing strategy to regain HP, you can use this to your advantage.

Magic Flower

Introduction

Adds a 50% bonus to healing effects.  This is stronger than you might think, since it affects everything that provide healing during combat.

Notes

• Affects also extend to Burning Blood. Blood Vial and other relics or effects that occur at the beginning or end of combat.
• Includes healing effects from any source.

Relic Synergies

• Bloody Idol.  Gaining gold provides 5 HP of healing, or 7 HP of healing with the Magic Flower.  You can get gold by the Hand of Greed card that allows you to kill foes and gain 20/25 gold.
• Meat on the Bone.  When this kicks in to heal you at the end of combat, it healings 18 HP versus 12 HP.
• Burning Blood.  Heals 6 HP at the end of combat.  Heals 9 HP with the flower.
• Black Blood.  Heals 10 HP at the end of combat.  Heals 15 HP with the flower.
• Blood Vial.  Heals 2 HP (3 HP) at the start of combat.
• Pantograph.  At the start of boss combats, heal 25 HP + 50% more.
• Bird Faced Urn.  Provides 2 HP / 3 HP when you play a power.
• Lizard's Tail.  When you die, return with 50% HP.  Also affected by the Magic Flower effect, which provides 50% more of your 1/2 HP.

Card Synergies

• Reaper card when used against multiple enemies.
• Bandage is a zero cost card that provides 4/6 healing.
• Bite card is one of the best combinations.  Does damage and heals without being exhausted.

Potion Synergies

• Regeneration.  Five rounds of 50% more healing.

Strategies

• Acquire the Bird Faced Urn relic and stock your deck with power cards to take advantage of its 2 HP heal (3 HP with the Flower) when they are played.
• If you have the Toy Ornithopter, you can take advantage of 5 HP heal (7HP with the flower) when you use a potion.  Further combined with the White Beast Statue means each combat will provide one potion.  Potion belt will raise the cap to 5 potions versus three.
• Acquire a Hand of Greed card.  You will get not only gold but HP healing when you kill foes and turn them into money.  The card is repeatable, unlike the Feed card and can be used multiple times.
• Use the Feed card and the strange spoon relic.   The spoon provides a 50% chance that the feed card will only discard versus exhaust.  

Charon's Ashes

Introduction

This is one of the more critical relics you can find.  Its a rare one, so you have a possibility of getting it from NEOW as an option when you start the game or as a chance during encounters with elites.

Notes

• Only works on cards that you play and get exhausted.  Additions like "Daze" do not make its effect occur.
• Can stack with other card effects that provide an effect when a card is exhausted, such as "Feel no Pain".

Card Synergies

• The card "Endless Agony" is an excellent companion to this relic as it perpetually puts a copy of itself in your hand when drawn.
• Using "Feel no Pain" to add a +3 block effect to when cards are exhausted.
• Use the card "Corruption" in combination with a lot of skill cards to make a run on leveraging this relic.
• Use in combination with "Sever Soul" and a large hand to do damage en masse.
• Use the card "Fiend Fire", which will exhaust your hand and do damage per card for a bonus +3 per card. Best done with a large hand.
• Pair with the card Purity to exhaust 4 cards rapidly to do 12 damage to all enemies.
• Shiv cards and cards that provide Shivs will also assist here.  Storm of Steel will let you convert every card in your hand to shivs.  These are exhausted when used and will provide the damaging effect.

Relic Synergies

• The Blue Candle relic allows you to exhaust Curse cards.  It inflicts 1 HP damage but removes them from your deck.
• The Medical Kit relic can be purchased in the shop.  It allows you to play status cards, which will exhaust them.  Playing a status does not require Energy.

Strategies

• Build a deck with numerous exhaust cards to take advantage of this relic.
• Using a card that exhausts it.  Seeing Red, War Cry, Havoc, etc.  this provides the damage.
• Enemies that put playable exhaust cards into your hand can be used against them, such as the "Slimed" card.
• Pair the card Nightmare with Endless Agony to create a large number of Endless Agony cards quickly that will equally double as they are drawn (Endless Agony creates a copy when drawn and is exhausted when used).
• Pair with the curse "Pride" to create a new 1 energy cost card to exhaust every turn.