Slay the Spire - Northernlion Plays - Episode 321 [Costanza]

Slay the Spire on Steam: store.steampowe...
Slay the Spire is a roguelite with deckbuilding mechanics, similar to Darkest Dungeon meets Hearthstone. Let's go!
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About this game:
We fused card games and roguelikes together to make the best single player deckbuilder we could. Craft a unique deck, encounter bizarre creatures, discover relics of immense power, and Slay the Spire!

[@Haube85]

2:30 upgrades a defend over neutralize. i should not even wonder anymore

[@icescream631]

i hurt myself facepalming

[@damon180]

On my lunch break at work, literally choked on water somehow when he made this play lol. Too good :-)

[@SamuraiFoochs]

What makes it worse is HE LITERALLY MENTIONED UPGRADED NEUTRALIZE like less than a minute earlier.

[@nicklemay8056]

I literally yelled what

[@Xeroxias]

13:20 I can't stop watching that 12 damage attack get blocked by only 10 block.

[@ryanphillips5483]

Wtf?

[@TheHotPie5]

The fuck is this sorcery.

[@ExemplarKyle]

Philosopher's Stone bugging out, maybe?

[@aidenmaskell9816]

Nl actually controls the spire

[@Xeroxias]

His misplays are so strong the Spire is misplaying right back.

[@sirevilmustache9567]

>"Let's try upgrading defends" How about we don't do that

[@tedtran4711]

I'm tempted to become a powder keg fan that comment about how NL has a small pp every time I see his horrific misplays.

[@garrettmarshall706]

I dont even own the game and right when he did that just off of watching like 20 of these vids I knew that was wrong.

[@Anaverageguy41]

"How bout I do anyways"

[@willweede7314]

"We need shivs" *Takes Accuracy instead of Blade Dance* "Now, we don't have any shivs yet"

[@lincolnnoronha4128]

Will Weede he thinks corruption/barricade is a good deck and thinks he is good at the iron clad because of it. Man is q doorknob

[@Haube85]

it becomes even funnier when after this point everytime he draws accuracy you imagine the shiv value

[@cheatyhotbeef2636]

13:20 70 HP 10 Block Enemy deals 12 damage 70 HP 0 Block

[@damon180]

Wife listens to me yell at NL while he plays and laughs. I now know why people yell at sports games

[@snork_games]

non-gamer GF is learning STS strategy from my frustrated commentary

[@ExemplarKyle]

Oh God, what game are we playing? WHAT GAME ARE WE PLAYING?? *HE DIDN'T SAY AT THE BEGINNING!!!!" *panic panic panic*

[@theguyinurbed]

Did NL just upgrade a basic defend

[@kostaras11]

He did. Instead of upgrading Neutralize.

[@owenseee]

It's not a bad play if you have no other good upgrades and need a defence boost, but he had a neutralise for god's sake.

[@curtisehoffman]

George Costanza meta might be my favorite new thing.

[@poppyuwu4710]

321 episodes? Must be a let's look at.

[@dogboy__]

Darien Hunter in episode one he calls it a quick miniseries

[@NihongoWakannai]

@@dogboy__ "it'll just be a quick 500 episodes or so, not like 3000"

[@NihongoWakannai]

John Ryan well to be fair, it would be career suicide if he were to still be playing isaac in 2018

[@tomaszprzyby784]

If we are so bad that we can't kill the first boss, we should do everything completely the opposite way. Egg gets first relict and back paddles immediately. "Roll a thin deck as much as possible. But if we can get a thicc deck...". Me changing the background music to IHurtMyselfToday.mp3

[@EpicNade]

> "We're gonna do the opposite of what I'd normally do" > still doesn't remove strikes or defends asap in what parallel universe does one have to be for ryab to remove cards

[@publicaccess9573]

An hour long, huh? Guess I'm gonna have to split this comment. TL;DR (first half) - Run Strengths 6/10 + 3/10, Tactics 6/10 Strategy 4/10. Yeah, uh, not good so far, but tbh there wasn't much to talk about. As soon as the boss swap gave NL Philo and the boss was the Guardian that run was pretty much over. > Still want to see better pathing to maximize campfires and get elites as late as possible. > Upgrade Neutralize - status effect duration is incredibly strong. It's like upgrading Uppercut, except this Uppercut is free. > Definitely too fixated on Shivs. There's a plethora of other options that the Silent can run. Act 1: - Look at the map, my dude. Fight Elites late in the act when you're stronger, and take cards that let you do that. - I do like the early Riddle pick here, because having damage is better than not having damage. Would also like to see a Flask for some backloaded damage, but oh well. - I hate hate hate upgrading Defends. It's not like an upgraded defend is terrible, but Neutralize+ is one of the best cards in the Silent's repertoire - the weak carrying over to next turn is huge for reducing the variance of the card. Egg does not respect extra duration on the debuffs enough. In addition, there's a decent chance of getting Simplicity to upgrade all the defends anyways. - Dagger Spray is much better than Accuracy, especially with Slime Boss right there. - I definitely think he could have gotten away with upgrading something, especially with a Neutralize upgrade to make Slam do 28 instead of 38. Committing Str potion for an upgrade is probably worth it for sure. - Adrenaline is probably the pick, but Phantasmal has a place for actually doing damage. Relicwise I'd probably also pick Ring of the Serpent, but NL's gonna have a rough time in act 2 regardless. Snecko would have been the choice if he'd taken that Flask. Act 2: - Boss is Automaton which might be a little rough. Not likely that he'll be able to straight up tank Hyper Beam. - NL, your deck is nowhere near strong enough to fight Act 2 Elites with 3 energy and only one combat relic. - Acrobatics isn't a discard card - Calculated Gamble and Concentrate (and the obvious Tactician and Reflex) are pure discard cards. Acrobatics is useful if you need card draw for whatever reason, be it Bullet Time, digging for powers, or, well, discard combo. It's really not that useful on 3 energy though. - Double Chosen this early on is a death sentence for NL's deck. It definitely wasn't going anywhere, but still. Act 1, part 2: - Philo Stone is kind of a death sentence against 2/3 bosses. - Hopefully NL doesn't go full bore into Shivs again with the Choke pick, although it is the right call. - Resting at 51 HP hurts so bad. You can always pivot off the second Elite if it goes poorly! - Well, it went a little more than poorly. Honestly, don't know how much you can blame NL on this one, apart from the requisite issue of pathing. Philosopher's Stone is incredibly bad and there weren't very many interesting decisions to make this run because of that.

[@publicaccess9573]

And now for the real run: TL;DR - Run Strength 9.5/10, Tactics 6.5/10, Strategy 5.5/10. Admittedly, the run dovetailed with his favorite deck more than he drafted towards it, but his play was much better and (apart from taking Accuracy over Blade Dance) his card choices were mostly defensible. > Target priority is a little weak in multi-enemy fights, I think. Go for the ones that present immediate damage, since you have Dead Branch and a thicker deck. > Dead Branch works on Slimeds too - it's a very valuable source of psuedo- card draw and should be played towards more in the future. > Look at the entire path, please. You very nearly went the entirety of act 2 without a single campfire - this can and will end runs. Take as much time as you need, really - once you get into the habit it becomes relatively quick. > Potion usage could definitely use a little work - if possible, permanent benefit potions (Strength, Dex, Focus, Power) should be saved for bosses. Act 1, part 3: - NL going for the tilt play and getting punished. Look at all those shops you could have went in with 250 gold to. At least Flechettes is decent if you play towards it. - Dead Branch might just save the run. Of course, now he has to go for Shivs again, but still. - No, you're 100% correct in this one. Just, you know, take the card that actually makes shivs rather than the card that buffs Shivs. - Dead Branch destroys Sentries, so that's nice. Would probably have rather him go on the right for the campfire, but oh well. - NL forgetting that he just played Neutralize is pretty classic NL. - Flechettes is actually pretty bad in the average deck because of its unreliability, but if he builds for it (Runic Pyramid, Acrobatics, etc etc) it can do some work. - This run is doing well because you have 2 Leg Sweeps and Weak spam is very good. Also Flechettes is some good frontloaded damage. - Using the Smoke Bomb instead of just killing the Pointy Gremlin and then slowrolling the rest of the fight is a really bad play, though. - He has a good matchup into Slime Boss since all the Slimeds give him random cards. Just depends on the Flechettes luck, really. - Exhaust the Slimeds, please! Thankfully, he figured it out finally, which gave him the win. Also, with Dead Branch thin decks aren't as great, so you might as well go thick. Cursed Key and After Image are always good takes, especially with Du-Vu Doll. Act 2, part 3: - Noxious is by no means your win condition. The real win condition is just outvalueing the enemy by blocking all their damage and getting random stuff from Dead Branch. - Storm of Steel is a huge pickup for a Dead Branch deck. - NL finally getting punished for his pathing choices. Hopefully he actually starts looking now. - Shuriken, oh man. Is there a chance? It'll all depend on this elite... - Thankfully he's starting to realize the Weak power. - Ornamental Fan. It's happening. - I would have liked to see Impatience come out on that Shop, since dead drawing is a very real possibility in this deck. The potion buys are good too though. - Save the Power Potion for the Boss, NL. - There's actually a reason to hold on to Parasite - an extra card to discard to Storm of Steel. - Discarding Leg Sweep almost cost NL the run here. You have Well Laid Plans! - Second After Image is absolutely worth. Here I'd go Runic Pyramid for sick sick Storm of Steels, but Busted Crown is fine as well. TBH, the biggest benefit was getting all that health back. Act 3: - Dead Branch is the real power player here, IMO. - Absolutely agree with the Innate After Image. That will save far more than 20 HP over the act. - The second one is probably overkill, to be honest. - Getting that Omamori is hilarious - not only does he have Du-Vu Doll, he's likely to never get another curse anyways. - Hopefully he'll hold the Accuracies - he has scaling on the Shivs anyways with Shuriken and the extra damage really hurts. The After Images are definitely worth it, though. Doesn't end up mattering, though, since NL just threeshots the first phase anyways. - Dominant off the back off Dead Branch Shuriken Du-Vu Doll Cursed Key, but dominant nonetheless. GG.

[@wilddogspam]

@@publicaccess9573 holding curses with well laid plans also prevents or delays drawing them later. Should always be done.

[@hockeyhacker97]

47:24 ... But it does do something if you have draw 2 discard 2 cards type of cards, it gives you trash to discard to keep better cards... I know you didn't draw any of those cards, but point is curses that don't hurt you that are just a waist of card space can be useful to save if you have a discard card.

[@xxsimproxx5601]

A big problem on all your runs at all times is that you overvalue resting like crazy. Sure, longterm those 20 extra hp could be valuable. But a good upgraded card might carry you over the gaps you coudnt cross before and have that extra bit of oomph, defense, card draw-power or especially debuffing (the neutralize, you should really make it your top priority to upgrade that ASAP) and give you not just in the short run, but especially in long run a seriously improved chance of success. So even when your at 20% max hp, upgrading is often times your best chance of turning the rudder. And dont ever even think about resting when you´re at 50/75 hp.

[@jellywillreturn]

36:27 A ghost from 2008 KZbin briefly haunted this video.

[@angrbxtha]

27:40 Use the fletch on the sneaky gremlin you nimrod, you'd still have enough to block without wasting a smoke bomb

[@ryanphillips5483]

9:18 Pardon me, but didn't he have lethal? 27:35 Wait, why did he smoke bomb? Am I missing something?

[@Pixelwave88]

i thought the same thing

[@ryanphillips5483]

Oh yeah, my bad! I forgot that it's the upgraded dagger spray that does 12.

[@brr4519]

in my head i was yelling at him super hard to play the flechettes on the minion in the front doing 10 but NL was deadly locked in on being 1 short of killing the guy in the back

[@palejr1254]

Has no shivs. Refuses to stop talking about shivs

[@HavocRedProductions]

Upgrades defend. then wins the NL way. Galaxy brain plays on every run.

[@Pixelwave88]

when youve only lost 20hp no one was saying you have to rest

[@tonyeighta8]

I'm at 33:12 That Accuracy is still just sitting there... doing nothing... Edit: Alright, the MadMan actually got a really good shiv deck

[@usagin0te]

2:30 "it hurts"

[@UM96lol]

'That stone is so oddly smooth...' -NL, always

[@maxmach4361]

27:40 He did so well and suddenly for no reason he started to think again and the result was.. as usual.

[@Not__Steven]

Another thin-deck victory, boys

[@tonys7524]

NL, if you save and quit twice when talking to Neow you can get the blessing even if you didn't make it to the boss

[@n07ju57hum4n]

It's working and I'm scared 😂😂😂

[@acriticaloversight]

All these people yelling about how nl took accuracy over blade dance and I'm just sitting here thinking about how common shiv-generators are and how accuracy is one card out of I-don't- know-how-many. Let him be, he won.

[@HoytTheMage]

1 hour run lets gooooo

[@ruthi3806]

Hoyt cmon like the video

[@raddestoflads7771]

CHOKE AND ACCURACY FOR A SHIV DECK AAAARGH EGG DADDY YOU’RE KILLING ME

[@steelgunsuit]

27:25 what was that?! that was an easy win, what was he thinking?

[@drewjurgenson6181]

Ok someone explain how NL took 0 damage at 13:20

[@GrimKhazi]

bug, sentries dont get str buffed applied. Necroed

[@bubbles69138]

+Northernlion corpse explosion is 100000x better than after image :P

[@matversion2]

5 loss length, let's go Bois!

[@itsokaytobewhite3905]

Ryan has ascended from a lowly NPC to a real human being

[@mishking9547]

Always said from the very begining, Flechette skill build is really fricken good

[@IamAManNotAMadHobo]

13:20 He blocked for 10 and got hit for 12 but took no damage?

[@Marzipaniv]

this is like the 4th time he has upgraded a basic defend instead of neutralize and it is still so triggering

[@vulpezerdavulcan9055]

Some of this music sounds a lot like Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory…I like it

[@theburningruler7279]

2:34 why are we here... just to suffer...

[@Black-Light]

So why not retain curses? One of your biggest enablers is storm of steel. Retaining a curse that does nothing is just one more shiv or discard fodder.

[@FilledCircle]

Does anyone complain about him using shiv meta? It's one of the best ways to play the Silent. Don't worry about taking shivs Ryab.

[@zmatt007]

It makes me so incredibly salty how this scrambled egg has made it so far into the ascension when all I do is eat shit

[@Soul688]

I'm not sure if NL knows what agnostically means

[@Soul688]

or many other of his long words

[@Marzipaniv]

NL only apologizes for Cloak And Dagger when it is the only good card he has ever thought was good.

[@UndeadPasta]

12:15 Why not play choke on the big slime and kill the small one with the strikes? It would do more damage to the big guy....

[@icantnotthink3282]

Out of curiosity, how good is Grand Finale in a super thin deck? Like, 6-12 card decks where every other hand will make it empty

[@kyle1806]

I've seen your wife NL, I'm definitely not jealous

[@EpicNade]

nothing pains me more than seeing a shop on the third floor with the option to remove a card for 75 gold, and NL passing it up

[@Marzipaniv]

smoke bomb play

[@lGuzikl]

20:24 Did he have a stroke?

[@aidenmaskell9816]

He’s done it

[@danielschneider5804]

Isnt Accuracy a trap card anyways? it never ramps up enough to deal with lategame if you dont get strength from somewhere else... like shuriken and if you go envenom you deal the dmg over the poison anyways?

[@danielschneider5804]

I was never able to make it work by itself and if I get shuriken then yes.. but then shuriken and Blade dance and cloak and dagger carry the run anyways... and I would rather pick cards like after image to get my block up. Accuracy just feels like a trap to me because it cant carry you by itself.. not like for example noxious fumes can (or lets say the cards to carry a noxious fumes run are much easier to get)

[@nicklemay8056]

Ok but why did he smoke bomb at 27:40 He could have just used Flechettes to kill the 10dmg attacker and then blocked for 5

[@MrPranz103]

Looking through the comments already got me mad. Does this egg win at least? Edit: I love when the egg rest all the time LOL

[@M7008]

Must be a speedrun

[@shanadir]

Ffs upgrade neutralize! It's one of the best upgrades you can get!

[@GoodbyeCeci]

21:55 ...

[@infamousDynaset]

silent is hard af

[@metsleeth6904]

You could run shiv deck every time and I wouldn't care. Just wish you would slow down and play

[@NoMoreENRG]

when will we ever see good plays from nl?

[@madeofmarble8514]

must be a slowrun

[@Max-Everest]

More like; Can't-stand-ya!

[@samuelkland6029]

777 likes on the video rigth now 😯

[@GSPBJJ]

NL I love you like a brother my man. You are a fantastic person and a true inspiration. But you are amazingly bad at this video game. You need to take some time and watch good players. Most importantly you need to slow down and think about pathing and card decisions. Just think about your deck, what it does, and what it needs.

[@zaftik9904]

Nl you take way too many cards. Keep a smaller deck and stop taking cards because they’re just good

[@owenseee]

I think Silent actually benefits from thicker decks since it has access to so much card draw.

[@dinorore6783]

don't you take cards because they are good? why else would you ever take cards? (i get what you're trying to say but try rephrasing )

[@rokfish7242]

Yh the trash cards are rough on ascension. Slime King hits you with like 5 on turn 2.

[@LeDore38]

Yeah, and thin decks are quite inconsistent anyway because contrary to regular TCGs where thinning is almost always good, in the slay the spire you start with a low quality deck and the goal is not to finish with the best deck possible but build a good enough one to beat the increasing difficulty. Basically making a thick deck goes for somewhat linear scalling through the run with low variance while thin decks bring convex scaling and high variance. The later feels very good when it clicks but is a suboptimal strategy to win consistently. Also, by accepting "better than starter deck but underwhelming" cards a thick deck will usually be stronger at the start of the game, allowing for more elite fights and/or upgrades at campfires. Last thing, there are different kinds of fights with more or less emphasis on frontloaded damage/ mitigation/ scalling. Before it reaches its OP status (like killing everything instantly or being almost unkillable from turn 1), a thin deck tend to be too specialized.

[@alastairvanmaren5243]

If there's anything I've learned from watching Rhapsody's high ascension grind, it's that trying to get a thin deck just doesn't work on high ascension (obviously a generalization, but you get the idea).

[@ruthi3806]

Hey dude like

[@steelgunsuit]

bad plays

[@amaro6603]

my guy. don't skip phantasmal killer like that. please

[@ruthi3806]

First👍🏻