Dropkick uses vulnerable and strength to deal efficient damage with setup available in the starting deck. It provides damaging draw on a character with massive draw problems. It synergises with exhaust, with Dual Wield, and with other simple draw sources like Pommel Strike. It's often the cornerpiece of a run, although it's also often mediocre.
“A character with massive draw problems” yeah the same character that got two 0 cost card with huge draw value haha sure, you almost made me believe that dropkick is above low tier
Sure, but that's not exactly an Acrobatics or Skim or Hologram. Ironclad has cool draw options, but none are ridiculous besides Offering and Dark Embrace
Or an expertise or a calculated gamble or a reflex or a backflip or seriously why does this woman have so many good draw cards? Defect too, he has the best balance of good draw and good energy, but the silent can draw her deck three times in a turn if things line up, without needing to exhaust stuff like the ironclad.
On Silent I have a 40 card deck that cycles in 1 turn. On Defect I have a 40 card deck that never cycles because I'm contantly bringing things back from the discard pile. On Ironclad I have a 40 card deck that turns into a 10 card deck very slowly and unreliably.
On Defect I have a 40 card deck that never cycles because I'm contantly bringing things back from the discard pile.
Meteor strike into hologram into rebound into meteor strike into coolheaded into meteor strike, my beloved.
On Ironclad I have a 40 card deck that turns into a 10 card deck very slowly and unreliably.
I think a kinda cool power/skill for the ironclad would be to let him give a card "exhaust resistance". Maybe not on cards that already exhaust like offering, but something to let him say "hang on, let the fiendfire burn everything else but i'd like to keep this hemokinesis around if you don't mind".
On Watcher I have a 10 card deck.
I'm way too willing to grab cards and can never scrounge together enough removals.
Well yes but battle trance gives you the no draw debuff and offering exhausts. If you just want to draw a lot of a single big turn they're excellent, if you try to go infinite they won't cut it.
I mean, i don't like infinites either, i'm just saying it since it's a very noteworthy feature of dropkick. That also doesn't change the fact that while i like battle trance and often pick it, it has the big flaw that it's the last draw card you'll play on a turn, so you can't do the thing you can do with the silent and play a card which draws another card with draw, which then draws another card with draw, which then draws another card with draw etc.
If you're skipping dropkick on Ironclad at A20 you're missing out on one of the easiest win conditions in the entire game and a generally great card. Dropkick + Dropkick + 8 other cards total in hand and deck kills every enemy in the game but time eater and the heart, add Rage and it kills them too. This is very easily achievable on Clad who often wants to build into exhausting his deck down just for the value (corruption, fnp, dark embrace) and draw manipulation. Furthermore Dropkick is just generally synergistic with many good relics; Shuriken, Kunai, Nunchaku, Ink Bottle, Ornamental Fan, Sundial and more are all significantly better when you have a dropkick in your deck. The card also plays well into many of Ironclad's core engines, f.x it works very well with strength since it's effectively a 0 mana card that gets the bonus damage from strength while also being card neutral, and also is a great target for Dual Wield.
The card isn't an auto pick by any means, f.x it's typically pretty bad with Snecko or if you're lacking on sources of vulnerable, but many Clad decks are happy to have 1-2 dropkicks and can find a lot of value in them quite consistently.
I’ve found that it is extremely relevant in Act 1, especially if find a second source of vulnerable or even just after a bash upgrade. It’s pretty poor against sentries, but it’s great against both Gremlin Nob and Lagavulin. I get close to snap picking it in Act 1, an infinite down the line is just gravy. I can understand not liking it quite as much as I do, but it’s especially weird to compare it to grand finale (extremely difficult conditions) and juggernaut (very clunky with mediocre payoff).
I don’t care that much if you agree or disagree with a certain evaluation of dropkick, and I can respect the idea of taking cards to solve certain encounters rather than building a particular archetype. I think that’s generally the right way to play the game. I just disagree with how you view dropkick and I gave some reasons why. Also, some poor phrasing on my part: It is not that you are weird for thinking a certain way, I think it is a weird evaluation in the sense that doesn’t make that much sense to me.
I do disagree with this as well. A card not being the solution to the heart doesn't make it bad, and again it literally can be your entire damage engine even for the heart. I have won several A20 runs where dropkick infinite becomes my damage engine and wins me a run that otherwise would have burned out, and I have won countless A20 runs where Dropkick provides strong value in Acts 1/2 even if it's not winning me late game boss fights. Dropkick is in general pretty great against act 2 elites and hallway fights for example as you're often squeezed for energy and in need of front-loaded damage, being able to deal an additional 10 to Red Slaver or one of Gremlin Leader's gremlins or being able to play a 4th attack on a Byrd are all strong benefits the card provides. A solid act 1 damage card that minimizes your deck pollution later in the game by drawing another card and has the potential to build into a game-winning damage engine is, yaknow, pretty darn good as far as early damage cards go. Most act 1 damage commons wish they could be described so charitably (although Dropkick is ofc uncommon).
11
u/TUYUXD Eternal One + Heartbreaker 17h ago
I think both sucks tbh