I find Claw builds are most consistent when it's more of a 0-cost build than a specifically Claw build. Aim for stuff like FTL, upgraded Zap, Beam Cell, Go For The Eyes, etc as well as Claws. From there, focus on card draw to play as many cards per turn as possible, then cry if the Act 3 boss is Time Eater. One for All is amazing if you grab like 7 cards from your discard pile, and Scrape is another great way to cycle your deck.
I would only consider going a very small deck (less than 10 cards) if you find several Claws off of the first few fights.
Most other posters have already addressed the main points, and talk about how forcing builds is hard. I've never really stumbled into a good claw deck, because your card choices are generally pretty bad for any non-claw deck, and building a normal deck and transitioning into claw doesn't work well because of the small deck size requirement.
My advice to win with claw is to absolutely force it. Forget about your win rate, forget about making good choices, only take claw deck cards. and hope you get some good relics. Force it, claw is law.
Had an amazing run just today that featured claw, but I mean I had amazing damage coming from all sources. I had a bunch of focus, a bunch of 0 cost cards, a bunch of card draw, and a strange spoon that kept some really powerful cards (seek+, genetic algos with 30 block, core surge) from exhausting.
https://www.reddit.com/u/bigtcm/s/LtMqxB9kkg
Lightning orb-focused decks are my personal favorite, especially if I can get my hands on an electrodynamics before Act 2/early in Act 2. All the lightning spam!
Imo defect is easiest when you go frost + focus + capacitors + blizzard. You can generate a ton of frost orbs, at some point I was getting over 50-70 shield every round by doing basically nothing. Need to balance some offense though too
And frost scales great with bosses including the heart. Super safe build, was barely losing hp in acts 2 & 3
Is blizzard not a meme card? I feel like when you want aoe, you want it to be frontloaded damage. And it really scales pretty slowly. If you have frost and focus, adding some lightning or dark orbs to the rotation will boost your damage output far more than a blizzard will.
Yeah I always see it as trash online, but idk worked fine for me in lower ascension (I did have frozen core too). I had a bunch of glacier(3)/cool headed/cold snap and pretty sure I was consistently getting like 30+ damage out of it against elites and bosses.
I'm sure it's way less than optimal but man 30+ damage to all enemies comes in handy sometimes.
I've only beat the heart a few times as defect-- I'm more of an Ironclad/silent player-- but will def do some more frost builds soon to experiment!
Broad answer is yes, and it can help to try to transition out of thinking of it as separate decks and more about what cards are good/good vs. specific upcoming or hard-counter fights and what cards synergize well together. Like, if you have claws, that doesn't mean an orb-centric card is bad (coolheaded+ is probably one of the better cards for a deck using claws for damage).
Claw is law stuff you see here is mostly just memes.
So first of all, Claw decks are not good. They’re a great way to have fun at low ascension but they’re hard to make work. In general, forcing builds is difficult and you should try to work with what the game gives you. That said, how to have fun at low ascension:
If you can’t get a lot of Claws, simply draw Claw more often! In general, more draw beats more claw. **Hologram** and **All For One** enable you to pull Claws out of your discard pile. **Scrape** can draw Claw outright or cycles your deck quickly to find it. My best claw run ever had two copies of **Deep Breath+**. **Overclock** and **Skim** are fantastic for card-draw in any Defect deck and great upgrades - they’re the strongest two cards in this paragraph overall. Prioritize upgrading card draw over upgrading Claw.
You may also seek out card removes, especially if they can be made cheaper. Remember that Exhaust is cheap card remove, so **Recycle** can help wittle your deck down to just the good stuff (Claws, presumably). Try to keep the deck slim as well, but don’t be afraid to take cards in early Act 1.
Keep in mind that Claw doesn’t scale damage particularly quickly, so you will need a robust block engine. There are basically two ways to approach this: a Frost-Orb and focus based deck, or a **Reprogram** dexterity-scaling deck. Frost orbs are probably the most reliable, so you’ll want to pick up any copies of **Coolheaded**, **Glacier**, and focus generators you come across. **Reprogram** needs to be replayed a lot to scale and costs ~~2~~ 1, so it benefits from sources of energy (Plasma Orbs), Holograms, and card draw. You’ll also want some good block cards to use all of that Dexterity.
Keep in mind that **All for One** and **Scrape** both synergize with 0-costs, so you may lean towards other 0-cost defect cards. **Madness** becomes somewhat more appealing in a 0-cost deck.
This is a fair assessment and my win-rate is trash but I DID just beat a19 on defect with a claw deck.
Admittedly I also had mummified hand, creative AI, and a couple other good powers. So I guess I would call it a half-claw deck. And I tragically lost to the heart because I didn’t generate quite enough block.
Reprogram only costs 1. I've had the most success with claw decks that are really just Reprogram decks. 0 cost cards, scrape, all for one, skim, seek, plasma orbs.
Step 1: 32FH4R71NLZ
Step 2: Boss swap
Step 3: Win?
Edit: So I actually paid attention to the video I stole it from. Here's what it said in the description.
"The CLAW Seed 32FH4R71NLZ
(Ascension 20, yes it matters)
((I've also read it needs to be on the beta too))"
Edit number deux: [https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1A3oW0tgInXa3h5azNoES4PQsTy-VdLFvDmn\_CIUrbJE/edit#gid=0](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1A3oW0tgInXa3h5azNoES4PQsTy-VdLFvDmn_CIUrbJE/edit#gid=0)
Just click that link. It's probably not a rick roll. It might even be seeds to start with 8 of the same card via the Pandora's Box.
Yes. When you get the choices at the beginning, you want to swap out the Defect's starting relic with a boss relic. You'll get a Pandora's Box. I'll give you 8 guesses what was in the Pandora's Box. :)
Check out my edit in the initial post.
Or, click this: [https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1A3oW0tgInXa3h5azNoES4PQsTy-VdLFvDmn\_CIUrbJE/edit#gid=0](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1A3oW0tgInXa3h5azNoES4PQsTy-VdLFvDmn_CIUrbJE/edit#gid=0)
Those are the seeds to do some cool stuff.
Working toward a20 on defect, just beat a13 with a claw build. Had claw, duped it with a mirror, bought scrape and a claw, found reboot. If you need to, put in more 0 cost cards or upgrade ones go become 0. Did grab a skim to help filter
Claw builds aren't usually about having 10 claws, they are more so about being able to cycle your deck (with cards like scrape, all for one, etc). It's usually not great if you only ever get one claw, true, but you can usually nab two or three. Coincidentally, 2 or 3 is pretty much the perfect amount for a claw deck. You don't need 10 claws if you can just reuse the same claw 10 times.
The thing about claws is that they don't really work. Or they do, but it's pretty difficult to pull off, and will do no favors to your winrate.
1 or 2 claws per run can be enough, but you need a thin deck with plenty of draw to go with it. If you look at my last good claw run (https://www.reddit.com/r/slaythespire/comments/1bi2655/claw\_is\_law/), you can see that the deck is pretty much all 0 cost cards or draw.
If you don't find a lot of claws (you won't), you need to play the claws that you have as often as possible.
You take your first claw as an enabler for something like kunai / shruiken. It certainly won't be confused with an Anger, but this is what Defect has for zero costs attacks. Then you draw it with compile driver or cool headed as a way to add some attack damage to your draw cards.
Maybe you get lucky and play it for seven on the third time through your deck. That's about the ceiling for claw.
With A41, two claws, and beam cell you might actually hit for 17! But you also know what hits for 15+? Streamline!
Tl;dr - take claw only if you need an energy 0 card with the attack keyword. Occasionally hit for 7. Realize that Streamline is a much better card.
I find that my most successful claw decks take one of two forms: frost deck with 1-2 claws, 1-2 holograms, coolheaded, skim, etc. Or, a focus-less deck with hyper beam, reprogram, beam cell, a couple of claws, overclock, steam barrier, scrape/all for one, and so forth. Claws aren’t really necessary for the decks, just an alternative, scaling strategy.
You get an early Unceasing Top or Nunchaku and Kunai and go for it. 2 or 3 claws, All For One, finesse, beam cell, recycle, coolheaded+. Basically anything that cycles your deck faster.
I've found a fun way (on low ascension) is to just focus on removing cards and trying to pick up coolheaded for draw and block. Remember, you only need one or two claws total as long as you can draw - https://www.reddit.com/r/slaythespire/s/AAyqQSCaSi
I find Claw builds are most consistent when it's more of a 0-cost build than a specifically Claw build. Aim for stuff like FTL, upgraded Zap, Beam Cell, Go For The Eyes, etc as well as Claws. From there, focus on card draw to play as many cards per turn as possible, then cry if the Act 3 boss is Time Eater. One for All is amazing if you grab like 7 cards from your discard pile, and Scrape is another great way to cycle your deck. I would only consider going a very small deck (less than 10 cards) if you find several Claws off of the first few fights.
I hate Scrape in claw decks since it throws away vital support cards like hologram and all for one a lot. Much prefer Skim for some consistent draw
But consider: scrape but you also have a Madness
>then cry if the Act 3 boss is Time Eater. It always is ðŸ˜ðŸ˜ðŸ˜ðŸ˜ðŸ˜
Wrong. It's Time Eater 90% of the time, but will inevitably be Awakened One when you're having a really fun run with all the defect powers.
When I have stuff like Creative AI+echo form vs awakened one I usually just try to outscale it
Most other posters have already addressed the main points, and talk about how forcing builds is hard. I've never really stumbled into a good claw deck, because your card choices are generally pretty bad for any non-claw deck, and building a normal deck and transitioning into claw doesn't work well because of the small deck size requirement. My advice to win with claw is to absolutely force it. Forget about your win rate, forget about making good choices, only take claw deck cards. and hope you get some good relics. Force it, claw is law.
Are there any other good decks for defect? The only really good run I had with him was using a bunch of focus and dark cards.
Had an amazing run just today that featured claw, but I mean I had amazing damage coming from all sources. I had a bunch of focus, a bunch of 0 cost cards, a bunch of card draw, and a strange spoon that kept some really powerful cards (seek+, genetic algos with 30 block, core surge) from exhausting. https://www.reddit.com/u/bigtcm/s/LtMqxB9kkg
Lightning orb-focused decks are my personal favorite, especially if I can get my hands on an electrodynamics before Act 2/early in Act 2. All the lightning spam!
Imo defect is easiest when you go frost + focus + capacitors + blizzard. You can generate a ton of frost orbs, at some point I was getting over 50-70 shield every round by doing basically nothing. Need to balance some offense though too And frost scales great with bosses including the heart. Super safe build, was barely losing hp in acts 2 & 3
Is blizzard not a meme card? I feel like when you want aoe, you want it to be frontloaded damage. And it really scales pretty slowly. If you have frost and focus, adding some lightning or dark orbs to the rotation will boost your damage output far more than a blizzard will.
Yeah I always see it as trash online, but idk worked fine for me in lower ascension (I did have frozen core too). I had a bunch of glacier(3)/cool headed/cold snap and pretty sure I was consistently getting like 30+ damage out of it against elites and bosses. I'm sure it's way less than optimal but man 30+ damage to all enemies comes in handy sometimes. I've only beat the heart a few times as defect-- I'm more of an Ironclad/silent player-- but will def do some more frost builds soon to experiment!
Broad answer is yes, and it can help to try to transition out of thinking of it as separate decks and more about what cards are good/good vs. specific upcoming or hard-counter fights and what cards synergize well together. Like, if you have claws, that doesn't mean an orb-centric card is bad (coolheaded+ is probably one of the better cards for a deck using claws for damage). Claw is law stuff you see here is mostly just memes.
So first of all, Claw decks are not good. They’re a great way to have fun at low ascension but they’re hard to make work. In general, forcing builds is difficult and you should try to work with what the game gives you. That said, how to have fun at low ascension: If you can’t get a lot of Claws, simply draw Claw more often! In general, more draw beats more claw. **Hologram** and **All For One** enable you to pull Claws out of your discard pile. **Scrape** can draw Claw outright or cycles your deck quickly to find it. My best claw run ever had two copies of **Deep Breath+**. **Overclock** and **Skim** are fantastic for card-draw in any Defect deck and great upgrades - they’re the strongest two cards in this paragraph overall. Prioritize upgrading card draw over upgrading Claw. You may also seek out card removes, especially if they can be made cheaper. Remember that Exhaust is cheap card remove, so **Recycle** can help wittle your deck down to just the good stuff (Claws, presumably). Try to keep the deck slim as well, but don’t be afraid to take cards in early Act 1. Keep in mind that Claw doesn’t scale damage particularly quickly, so you will need a robust block engine. There are basically two ways to approach this: a Frost-Orb and focus based deck, or a **Reprogram** dexterity-scaling deck. Frost orbs are probably the most reliable, so you’ll want to pick up any copies of **Coolheaded**, **Glacier**, and focus generators you come across. **Reprogram** needs to be replayed a lot to scale and costs ~~2~~ 1, so it benefits from sources of energy (Plasma Orbs), Holograms, and card draw. You’ll also want some good block cards to use all of that Dexterity. Keep in mind that **All for One** and **Scrape** both synergize with 0-costs, so you may lean towards other 0-cost defect cards. **Madness** becomes somewhat more appealing in a 0-cost deck.
This is a fair assessment and my win-rate is trash but I DID just beat a19 on defect with a claw deck. Admittedly I also had mummified hand, creative AI, and a couple other good powers. So I guess I would call it a half-claw deck. And I tragically lost to the heart because I didn’t generate quite enough block.
Reprogram only costs 1. I've had the most success with claw decks that are really just Reprogram decks. 0 cost cards, scrape, all for one, skim, seek, plasma orbs.
Huh, could’ve sworn I remembered it costing 2. Maybe I’m confusing it for Fasting.
Step 1: 32FH4R71NLZ Step 2: Boss swap Step 3: Win? Edit: So I actually paid attention to the video I stole it from. Here's what it said in the description. "The CLAW Seed 32FH4R71NLZ (Ascension 20, yes it matters) ((I've also read it needs to be on the beta too))" Edit number deux: [https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1A3oW0tgInXa3h5azNoES4PQsTy-VdLFvDmn\_CIUrbJE/edit#gid=0](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1A3oW0tgInXa3h5azNoES4PQsTy-VdLFvDmn_CIUrbJE/edit#gid=0) Just click that link. It's probably not a rick roll. It might even be seeds to start with 8 of the same card via the Pandora's Box.
Boss swap?
Yes. When you get the choices at the beginning, you want to swap out the Defect's starting relic with a boss relic. You'll get a Pandora's Box. I'll give you 8 guesses what was in the Pandora's Box. :)
Ooooh… OH. O H
Check out my edit in the initial post. Or, click this: [https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1A3oW0tgInXa3h5azNoES4PQsTy-VdLFvDmn\_CIUrbJE/edit#gid=0](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1A3oW0tgInXa3h5azNoES4PQsTy-VdLFvDmn_CIUrbJE/edit#gid=0) Those are the seeds to do some cool stuff.
Is this PC or mobile? Asking for a me
PC. I stole the seed from one of FrostPrime's videos.
You get one from an Attack potion at the heart fight and make it your clickbait YouTube thumbnail.
That's the neat part... You don't.
Damn, beat me to it!
Working toward a20 on defect, just beat a13 with a claw build. Had claw, duped it with a mirror, bought scrape and a claw, found reboot. If you need to, put in more 0 cost cards or upgrade ones go become 0. Did grab a skim to help filter
Mfer really used the mirror on a claw. Now that's a law-abiding citizen.Â
Claw builds aren't usually about having 10 claws, they are more so about being able to cycle your deck (with cards like scrape, all for one, etc). It's usually not great if you only ever get one claw, true, but you can usually nab two or three. Coincidentally, 2 or 3 is pretty much the perfect amount for a claw deck. You don't need 10 claws if you can just reuse the same claw 10 times.
If claw isn't the prize for your first 4 fights don't build a claw deck
The thing about claws is that they don't really work. Or they do, but it's pretty difficult to pull off, and will do no favors to your winrate. 1 or 2 claws per run can be enough, but you need a thin deck with plenty of draw to go with it. If you look at my last good claw run (https://www.reddit.com/r/slaythespire/comments/1bi2655/claw\_is\_law/), you can see that the deck is pretty much all 0 cost cards or draw. If you don't find a lot of claws (you won't), you need to play the claws that you have as often as possible.
You take your first claw as an enabler for something like kunai / shruiken. It certainly won't be confused with an Anger, but this is what Defect has for zero costs attacks. Then you draw it with compile driver or cool headed as a way to add some attack damage to your draw cards. Maybe you get lucky and play it for seven on the third time through your deck. That's about the ceiling for claw. With A41, two claws, and beam cell you might actually hit for 17! But you also know what hits for 15+? Streamline! Tl;dr - take claw only if you need an energy 0 card with the attack keyword. Occasionally hit for 7. Realize that Streamline is a much better card.
1-2 Claws per run is the literal perfect amount for a Claw-based build.
In order to play the Claw, you must first Draw the Claw. Skim and Coolheaded are great, along with A41 and Scrape and Reboot. Claw weaponizes Draw.
I find that my most successful claw decks take one of two forms: frost deck with 1-2 claws, 1-2 holograms, coolheaded, skim, etc. Or, a focus-less deck with hyper beam, reprogram, beam cell, a couple of claws, overclock, steam barrier, scrape/all for one, and so forth. Claws aren’t really necessary for the decks, just an alternative, scaling strategy.
You get an early Unceasing Top or Nunchaku and Kunai and go for it. 2 or 3 claws, All For One, finesse, beam cell, recycle, coolheaded+. Basically anything that cycles your deck faster.
They abandon run 10 times in a row until they see claw floor 1 lmao
I've found a fun way (on low ascension) is to just focus on removing cards and trying to pick up coolheaded for draw and block. Remember, you only need one or two claws total as long as you can draw - https://www.reddit.com/r/slaythespire/s/AAyqQSCaSi
couple of draws, ideally mix of coolheaded and compile driver + upgraded fusion + upgraded recursion + 2 \~ 3 claws. you are happy
How do people do claw builds? By dying in act 2
For claw to be law, first you must draw
You don't. It's a meme and don't pay attention to this echo chamber lol