The best Slay the Spire 2 cards for each character

If you're looking for the best Slay the Spire 2 cards, the sort that can turn a tricky run into a leisurely trip to take on The Architect, we've got you covered. In this guide, you'll find our card recommendations for each of the game's five characters, as well as which colorless cards benefit specific build types. The only thing we can't guarantee is that you'll come across the cards you're looking for on your next run, but hey, there's always time after that (and the time after that and the time after that).

Before we get into this guide, it's worth noting that Slay the Spire 2 is still in early access, so we expect our picks to change as the game receives balance and patch updates in the future. This list is also based on our own experience, so as we continue to grind through Ascensions and simultaneously develop our Slay the Spire 2 tier list, we'll be back to add any cards that have come in clutch and saved a run.

Here are the best Slay the Spire 2 cards for each character:

The Ironclad

Here are the best cards for The Ironclad:

In terms of scaling strength, Demon Form remains a fantastic card. There's a trade-off in that it's only useful if you draw it in your first few turns, and its high cost will likely leave you open to attacks for at least a single turn, but if you can use it at the start of an elite or boss bout, it can be the difference between winning and losing.

If you're building a Strike deck, Hellraiser is the best possible card you can add to your deck, as it means you can play any Strike cards without using your energy. If you combine this with Demon Form, you can deal upwards of 50 damage without wasting any of your energy every turn.

Offering has a pretty obvious upfront cost in that it requires dealing six points of damage to yourself, but that's not a massive loss considering that The Ironclad restores six HP after every combat. Like our other suggestions for The Ironclad, Offering is a single card that can turn a decent turn into a game-winning one. It's also great for setting up Demon Form in a boss or elite battle, as you can use the extra two energy to set up some blocks before ending your turn.

Fiend Fire is another risky card, as it means effectively sacrificing a decent chunk of your deck for the rest of a battle, but if you time it right, it can take an enemy out in one fell swoop. If you combine this with cards that allow you to draw until your hand is full, plus anything that boosts your strength or makes an enemy vulnerable, you can deal upwards of 100 damage points for just two energy.

Expect a Fight is a card that is particularly useful in regular battles or when you're close to finishing off an enemy, as it can give you extra energy to use all your attacks in hand in a single turn. Just keep in mind that this card doesn't pair well with Hellraiser, as you won't have many attacks in hand to use for pooling energy.

The Silent

Here are the best cards for The Silent:

Poison remains one of the most devastating status effects in Slay the Spire 2, and Accelerant is the best way to inflict it on your opponent consistently. Like most of the game's best power cards, it's most effective if you can play it in the early game, and it's most useful against bosses or elites, enabling poison to deal damage more quickly while setting up block cards to protect yourself.

Shadow Step is the ideal card for any deck that utilizes the new 'Sly' keyword mechanic, allowing you to discard your whole hand and setting up double damage for the following turn. It only costs one energy or is free to play if you've upgraded it, so you can use your turn to play all your regular cards before discarding the likes of Untouchable to gain some Block or Ricochet to deal some damage.

If you're running a Shiv deck, you want as many copies of Accuracy as you can get your hands on. It might only add four points of damage to each Shiv attack, but if you stack a couple, that more than doubles the original damage output of your Shivs. Then it's just a case of loading your deck with cards such as Cloak and Dagger, Blade Dance, and Hidden Daggers, so you're consistently adding Shivs to your hand.

Unlike a lot of The Silent's best Slay the Spire 2 cards, Adrenaline fits perfectly into any build, be it Shiv, poison, or Sly-oriented. The reason why it's so good doesn't require much explanation. It gives you a free energy and two card draws for no cost at all, and it's even more generous if you upgrade it. It also pairs well with the next card in our list, Calculated Gamble, as it gives you even more resources to discard and thin your deck out.

Like Adrenaline, Calculated Gamble is another fantastic card for any The Silent build. Essentially, it allows you to recycle anything from a couple of cards to your whole hand, without sacrificing any energy. Calculated Gamble is at its best in a Sly build, but even if you're running poison or Shiv builds, it can help you thin your deck to access your most powerful cards.

The Defect

Here are the best cards for The Defect:

Defragment is an absolute staple of any Focus build that wants to make the most of The Defect's orb potential. If you're looking to consistently deal damage with lightning orbs while using frost orbs to block damage, we'd advise aiming to pick up two copies of Defragment and upgrading them both as soon as possible.

The Defect doesn't have loads of options for dealing a massive amount of damage in a single turn, but Voltaic makes up for that. It's useless if you're not chaining lightning orb cards, but if you're using a lightning-oriented build, this card can easily end a battle, channeling a lightning orb for each you've used so far in the round.

Modded is a fantastic utility card, giving you an extra orb slot and an extra card for your hand for a low cost. It's not great if the battle goes on and on, as it's not useful enough to spend two energy on after using it the first two times, which can make it a bit of a burden in tricky boss battles. Still, it can also save your run with its free draw power, so it's worth adding to your deck as early as possible.

If you're worried about bricking your hand with The Defect's tech cards, Multi-Cast is a smart addition to any build. You can use it to evoke your rightmost orb multiple times, for a cost of one energy each, which should provide enough lightning damage or frost block protection to either see off an enemy or keep you from taking fatal damage on the next enemy turn.

Finally, there's All for One. Most of our picks are for orb-adjacent builds, but if you're a Claw lover, and I know you're out there, All for One is a must-have. The idea here is simple: you attack your opponent with all your 0-cost cards, then play All for One to hit for another ten points of damage while recycling all those 0-cost attacks back to your hand to use again.

The Regent

Here are the best cards for The Regent:

CHARGE!! is one of the best Slay the Spire 2 cards by some distance, turning any two cards in your deck - including those annoying starter cards - into Minion Strikes, which deal seven damage and allow you to draw a card. Not only are Minion Strikes great for dealing damage and drawing a card, but they also exhaust, which helps to thin your deck. It's staggering that this card costs just one energy, and we wouldn't be surprised to see that change in a future update.

Void Form is The Regent's equivalent to The Ironclad's Demon Form, and just like that card, it's a bit of risk for a lot of reward. The risk comes in that it costs three energy to play, leaving you little wiggle room for blocking cards, but once you've activated it, you're getting two free actions the following turn, no matter how much energy or star energy your cards would normally cost.

If you're playing offensively and with a deck that generates and utilizes blue star resources, Child of the Stars is a great way to keep your defenses up. Once you've played it, you get three block points for each star you use. Combine that, for example, with Seven Stars, and you're dealing 49 damage while receiving 21 block, and you should withstand anything outside of a late-round hit from an elite or a boss. Better still, it's a power card, not a skill, so you don't have to sacrifice an energy point to activate it each turn.

GUARDS!! is another easy pick for any run starring The Regent. You can use it to transform any two cards in your hand into Minion Sacrifice cards, which cost nothing to play and provide you with nine points of block or 18 if you play them both on the same turn. It's one of those cards that comes in handy in a pinch, especially if you find yourself with no block cards in your hand and can see the enemy is gearing up for a powerful attack.

Heavenly Drill is quickly proving to be one of the most divisive Slay the Spire 2 cards, but there's no denying how powerful it can be if you fulfill its true potential and use four or more energy to power its effect. Combine this card with energy boosters such as Hegemony, Big Bang, or Convergence, and it's potent enough to see off some enemies in one hit.

The Necrobinder

Here are the best cards for The Necrobinder:

As far as set-up cards go, they don't get much better than Dirge. This card boosts the health of your skeletal hand companion, Osty, shielding you from the next attack while adding three Souls to your draw pile to enable deck thinning on the following turn. It works even better if you've already set up Necro Mastery, as that means Osty isn't just soaking up damage but dealing it back to your opponent.

At the time of writing, Eradicate is one of the best finisher cards in the game, dealing 11 points of damage for each energy spent, and it stays in your hand until you're ready to use it. It also synergizes beautifully with Neurosurge, and while that card inflicts three points of doom on the Necrobinder, the three additional energy points it provides make Eradicate even more devastating, capable of wiping the floor with almost any common enemy before the end of the second act.

Unlike The Silent's poison affliction, scaling doom can prove tricky. That is, unless you're packing No Escape. It's one of those cards that is useless in the first couple of turns, but once you've started stacking doom, No Escape can double it or more in a single turn. It also costs just one energy, so if you combine it with Borrowed Time, you can then unleash End of Days to take out the enemy without waiting for doom to kick in after their next attack.

Speaking of End of Days, that's another card that can put a battle to bed. Doom is a powerful affliction, but having to wait until after the enemy attacks for it to kick in can be the difference between winning and losing a run. With this card, you don't have to wait. It's one where you have to make sure your math is right, as, unless you've used another card to boost your energy, its three energy cost will likely wipe you out until the next turn, but it makes up for its high cost by hitting all enemies, which comes in handy in some regular and elite rooms.

Neurosurge is a dangerous card, as it inflicts three doom on the Necrobinder each turn. However, its ability to give you three extra energy while drawing two cards for the cost of no energy spent is often enough to win you the game in a single turn. As we've already pointed out, it works best with Eradicate, but it also makes it easier to play End of Days or Banshee's Cry, a six-cost card, without using Ethereal cards to lower the energy required.

Colorless cards

Here are the best colorless cards:

If you're using a build that leans into drawing as many cards as possible each turn, Automation is an elite colorless card, giving you an extra energy point for every ten cards you pull. Like most colorless cards, this pick benefits all deck types, but it's particularly useful if you're playing a Sly build with The Silent or using other colorless cards, such as Thinking Ahead or Impatience, to fill your hand.

For builds that often see you use all the cards in your hand with energy left over, Scrawl is a must-have. It draws from your deck until your hand is full, maximizing efficiency so you don't have to end a turn with wasted energy. This card is great alongside something like The Ironclad's Hellraiser, which often sees you end up with small hands while dealing damage, or CHARGE!!, giving you access to your Minion Strikes without having to wait to draw them on the next turn.

Production is an asset to any deck, rewarding you with two extra energy points for no cost outside of exhausting the card itself. There's no further explanation necessary there; it's just great resource management, especially if you're running a build that features a few cards with high energy cost requirements.

Panic Button is very much a last-chance saloon card, trading off 30 points of block to get locked out of blocking for the following two turns. That said, it's exactly what you want to see if the enemy is on low health, but you've just bricked your last hand. You can use it to fortify your defenses for a single turn before hoping for a better draw on the next opportunity. If you're running a glass cannon build, it's always worth adding just in case.

Finally, there's Stratagem, which works in every build. It's pretty simple; every time you shuffle your draw pile, you can put a card in your hand. What that basically means is that you never have to wait around for the single best card in your deck after shuffling and can play it right away. If you see Stratagem in a shop, any shop, pick it up. You won't regret it.