So I have been playing a lot of slay the spire 2, I just passed 200 games and have gotten to around a 70% A10 winrate on every character except ironclad (where I am in the gutter at 30%, how do you play this character if you don't get the vulnerable cards? How do you play the vulnerable cards against aeonglass with 3 artefact?).
I've been entirely on the beta branch for context.
This game fascinates me, it's one of if not the best strategy games I have played. Feedback for most things is extremely salient, you makes a judgement call and then a turn or 2 later you have lost N or N+M health and can evaluate your tactics. The thing that keeps me coming back though is the less salient stuff, the layers and layers of thinking to pathing.
As I improve (I would consider myself approaching mediocre at the game, I think 90% winrate is when you can probably say you are good) I find myself evaluating turns on a much deeper level, asking questions like "the elite that's coming up has a big attack on turn 3, given that and how many skills I play each turn what number should tuning fork be on so that it goes off that turn?"
I think people think of the game as requiring luck but my experience seems to be outside of rare occurrences (like an awful 1-in-a-large-number shuffle against a boss you struggle at) luck is not usually a major factor. If I don't die in the first few floors of act 1 (or reach a state I cannot recover from because I am bad) I usually die on the act 3 second boss.
One of my favourite aspects is how A10 forces you to build for all 3 act 3 bosses, since there is a 2/3 chance you face them. This really tickles your brain to get you to think of how you're going to make your deck do everything it needs to win.
My one criticism of the game is that almost all the interesting enemies are in act 1, although with the recent (oppressive, halp!) changes to infested prism and aeonglass I think that things are on the right track.
If you're into deck builders, or just marvelous strategy games, I unreservedly recommend it.
Oh that's good, I did hate when I got an event that was just like "lose one of your three best cards and completely ruin your deck's synergy." I think I might still wait a little bit before getting it, but I'm glad to hear it is developing well!
Well there is one event like that haha, although you can pay HP to randomise a different choice.
There's also a really cool enemy that steals an uncommon and even if you win you don't have to take it back. So you can take an act 1 uncommon that is bad later and lose it deliberately.
and if you do take it back any picking a card bonuses apply to it like eggs, ceramic fish, or various new relics.
sts 1 falling event is a skill issue you have to plan ahead for, and is very rarely your actual three best cards.
I know, most of the time it's usually a "hell yeah, I can get rid of that last strike card that I couldn't get rid of." kind of event, but an event that can just make your deck worse through bad luck isn't a fun event.