Slay the Spire 2 Ironclad Card Tier List (Patch v0.102.0)
Every Ironclad card ranked, from Demon Form to Strike
The entity:ironclad's card pool rewards you for picking a lane and committing to it. Most builds pivot around a single power card. Find that pivot, and the rest of the deck writes itself. This tier list reflects the v0.102.0 patch (April 2, 2026), after the Hellraiser infinite was closed and the Inflation modifier replaced Gloom at Ascension 6.
Cards are rated by floor-to-ceiling consistency across runs, not theoretical maximum output. A card that wins one in ten runs on a spectacular turn is lower than one that quietly wins eight.
S Tier: Run-Defining Powers
These three cards are pivot points. When you see one in a reward screen, your deck builds around it.
entity:demon-form is the best Strength engine in the game. Play it once and gain +3 Strength at the start of every subsequent turn for the rest of combat. A fight that lasts five turns past entity:demon-form means +12 Strength on your attacks by the end. With a multi-hit card in hand, that number compounds fast. The energy cost (3 cost) is steep in Act 1 but becomes irrelevant once the ramp starts paying off. No other card does what entity:demon-form does at this scale.
entity:limit-break pairs with entity:demon-form the way a second key pairs with a safe. After entity:demon-form has been running for two or three turns, entity:limit-break doubles your current Strength total. Eight Strength becomes sixteen. The Exhaust keyword means you only get one use per combat, but one use is usually enough to end the fight inside the same turn you play it.
entity:corruption slots into a different archetype (the Exhaust deck), but its power is just as absolute within that archetype. Every Skill in your hand costs 0 and exhausts on play. That sounds like a steep downside until you have entity:feel-no-pain and Dark Embrace active: each exhausted Skill generates block and draws a card. entity:corruption turns a mediocre Skill-heavy hand into a zero-cost engine that blocks, draws, and thins the deck simultaneously.
A Tier: Strong Picks That Earn Their Slot
entity:inflame is the fastest Strength ramp available before entity:demon-form. Play it for +2 Strength immediately, permanently, for that combat. In Act 1 before you find Demon Form, entity:inflame is the card that makes your Strikes hit hard enough to matter. Pick it when offered.
entity:bludgeon deals 32 damage to a single target for 3 energy. No conditions, no setup. In a Strength build with 5+ stacks active, entity:bludgeon hits for 37 damage in one card. For boss fights where you need raw single-target burst, nothing in the entity:ironclad's Attack pool beats it per-energy at high Strength.
entity:feel-no-pain and Dark Embrace are the Exhaust build's secondary engines. entity:feel-no-pain gives you 3 block per Exhaust trigger. Dark Embrace draws a card per Exhaust trigger. Neither one does anything without Exhaust triggers, but with entity:corruption running, both fire every turn. Take whichever you see first if you're building Exhaust; take both if possible.
Heavy Blade deals 14 damage base but adds triple your Strength bonus to that single hit. At 6 Strength, Heavy Blade hits for 32 (14 + 18). It scales harder than any other single-hit attack the entity:ironclad has. The downside is that it does nothing until you have Strength, so it's a dead card in the early acts unless you have entity:inflame or Spot Weakness working already.
Whirlwind costs X energy and hits all enemies twice per energy spent. At 3 energy and 6 Strength, that's 6 hits of (6 + Strength) = 6 hits of 12 = 72 damage spread across the room. In multi-enemy encounters, Whirlwind with Strength active is the strongest AoE in the entity:ironclad's kit.
Sword Boomerang hits three random targets for 3 damage each, scaling with Strength. At 4 Strength, that's 3 hits of 7 = 21 damage from a single 1-energy card. Against a single-target boss, all three hits land on the same enemy for a clean 21. It's one of the most efficient multi-hit converters in the game.
Body Slam deals damage equal to your current block. In a Block/Body Slam archetype, you spend turn one building 25+ block, then slam for 25+ on turn two. In a Strength deck that happens to have block generation, it's a free damage card. Never take it in a deck that isn't generating substantial block.
entity:bloodletting costs 0, loses you 3 HP, and generates 2 energy. entity:burning-blood heals 6 HP after every fight. entity:bloodletting is effectively a 0-cost "gain 2 energy" with a deferred payment that entity:burning-blood covers. In a deck that needs one extra energy to play Demon Form and an attack in the same turn, entity:bloodletting is the bridge.
entity:perfected-strike scales with the number of cards named "entity:strike-defect" in your deck. A base entity:ironclad deck has five Strikes; Perfected entity:strike-ironclad at five Strikes deals 25 damage for 2 energy. If you add more Strikes via entity:pommel-strike or Iron entity:strike-necrobinder, the damage climbs. It's worth taking if you haven't replaced your starting Strikes yet and want to run a entity:strike-regent-count build.
B Tier: Situational Cards That Earn Consideration
Spot Weakness grants 3 Strength when the enemy intends to attack. Conditional, but Strength is permanent: that 3 Strength carries through the rest of the fight and multiplies on every subsequent hit. In Act 1 fights where enemies attack often, Spot Weakness patches the gap before entity:inflame or Demon Form show up.
Pommel entity:strike-silent deals 9 damage and draws a card. For 1 energy, you get a small attack and one draw. It's a reasonable 1-drop in a deck light on cycling, and it counts as a entity:strike-defect for entity:perfected-strike. Never a priority pick, but it plugs gaps in thin decks.
Iron Wave deals 5 damage and gives 5 block for 1 energy. Fine in Act 1 when you need both attack and defense from a single card. Scales poorly into Act 3.
Thunderclap hits all enemies for 4 damage and applies Vulnerable. The damage is minor, but Vulnerable on a crowded room means your multi-hit follow-ups deal 50% more (75% with entity:paper-phrog). In a room with three enemies, landing Vulnerable on all of them before a Whirlwind is a real damage multiplier.
Twin entity:strike-ironclad hits twice for 5 each, scaling with Strength. At 4 Strength, that's 2 hits of 9 = 18 damage for 1 energy. Efficient Strength conversion for a common card; take it in Act 1 if multi-hit is your plan and you don't have Sword Boomerang yet.
C Tier: Dead Weight
entity:shrug-it-off gives 8 block and draws 1 card for 1 energy. In theory, both effects are good. In practice, an entity:ironclad deck with entity:burning-blood doesn't struggle for HP sustain, and dedicated block cards outperform it in a Block/Body Slam build. It fills the "generic survival" role that entity:burning-blood already covers, making it redundant unless you're far below 50% HP entering elites.
Sneaky entity:strike-necrobinder deals 12 damage and gives 2 energy if you've discarded a card this turn. Outside of specific discard-loop decks that Ironclad doesn't run well, the condition rarely triggers. The base 12 damage for 2 energy without the condition is worse than entity:strike-regent. Niche skip.
FAQ
What is the best Ironclad card in Slay the Spire 2?
Demon Form. No other card matches its damage ceiling across a full run. Play it once in Act 1 and its effect compounds through every subsequent fight in that act and into Act 3. entity:limit-break is the better card in a single combat once Demon Form has already been running, but without Demon Form, entity:limit-break doubles a much smaller number.
Is the Hellraiser infinite still viable after v0.100.0?
No. Patch v0.100.0 (March 19, 2026) changed how Hellraiser interacts with copies of itself in the draw pile, closing the loop that produced unlimited-damage turns. The patch was controversial enough that v0.101.0 reverted several changes, but the Hellraiser infinite itself stayed closed. The standard Strength build was largely unaffected by this nerf.
Should I pick Bash in Act 1?
Bash is your starter card, already in your deck. You don't pick it; it's there from the beginning. Bash costs 2 energy, deals 8 damage, and applies 2 Vulnerable. Vulnerable makes the target take 50% more damage from attacks for 2 turns (75% with entity:paper-phrog). Bash into a heavy attack is the Ironclad's core Act 1 turn pattern.
What is the difference between Demon Form and entity:limit-break?
Demon Form is persistent generation: +3 Strength per turn, every turn, for the rest of that combat. entity:limit-break is a one-time doubler: it doubles your current Strength total and exhausts. They work together, not instead of each other. The correct order is Demon Form first to accumulate Strength over several turns, then Limit Break to double whatever you've built. Playing Limit Break before Demon Form doubles a smaller number and wastes most of its potential.
Is Whirlwind worth picking without Strength powers?
At base damage with no Strength, Whirlwind hits enemies for the card's printed damage value per energy spent. That's functional in multi-enemy rooms but not exceptional. Without Strength, other AoE options like Thunderclap or twin-targeting attacks are often more efficient. Whirlwind becomes a priority pick once you have at least one Strength source confirmed in your deck.