ironclad

Vulnerable

Tier A

Beta

“Use excessive amounts of Vulnerable to scale”

Core idea

The Ironclad has several ways to benefit from Vulnerable: Dominate grants Strength, Colossus grants defense, Vicious grants draw and Cruelty grants bonus damage. Since Dominate exhausts, feel free to pick up a few copies to set your Strength absurdly high and bowl over elites and bosses. Tremble and Molten Fist pair nicely with Dominate and Bully. Keep an eye out for Shockwave in shops, providing high amounts of area Vulnerable but also Weak.

When to commit

When you find Vicious or Dominate early

Key cards and relics

Key enchantments

Corrupted

Deal 50% more damage, but lose 2 HP each time played.

Support plan

Any source of Vulnerable is useful for this build. Notably, Thunderclap can trigger Vicious multiple times in some combats. Uppercut gets a special mention as it's the only source of Weak in Ironclad, so always a good pick. Since Vicious can be a really powerful draw engine, consider picking up some energy generation like Offering. Headbutt can help line up your Colossus for the turns you need it, or pull back a Dominate that you couldn't afford to play earlier. Any multi-hit effects scale very well with Strength, so cards like Whirlwind are a great addition. Expose can be a huge help to this deck, countering Artifact while applying cheap Vulnerable, if you can find some way to get your hands on it.

Support cards and relics

Weaknesses

Defense can be a challenge for this deck, so be sure to pick up plenty of defensive powers and skills. Enemies with lots of Artifact like the Act 3 Goblin Elite can be challenging for this deck.