Slay the Spire 2 Ironclad Card Tier List (Major Update 2)
Every Ironclad card ranked after the 0.107 reworks
TL;DR
Demon Form is still the single best Ironclad card, and the Strength plus Exhaust gameplan is still the backbone of the class. What changed in Major Update #2 (v0.107.1, June 19, 2026) is the Act 3 boss. Doormaker is gone. The new boss, Aeonglass, jams unplayable Wither cards into your deck as you play and ramps hard past turn 10 to 12, so the cards that matter most now are the ones that close fights fast and clear clutter. Draft for a finish before the ramp, and value Exhaust payoffs higher than you used to.
The 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. 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 ranks below one that quietly wins eight.
For the full deck-building path around the top picks, see our Ironclad Strength Build Guide.
What Major Update #2 changed for Ironclad
The headline is the boss swap. Aeonglass adds a Wither (an unplayable status card) to your deck roughly every six cards you play, and those Withers no longer Retain. Every three turns, Aeonglass upgrades the Withers it has planted for more damage each. The fight punishes pure block-and-stall, because the longer it runs the worse your draws get and the harder it hits. Practically, that means every Ironclad deck now needs scaling damage and a way to flush clutter. Exhaust handles both, which is why item:corruption, item:feel-no-pain, Dark Embrace, and the reworked Drum of Battle all gained relevance this patch.
Two cards were rebuilt outright. Conflagration now deals 2 damage to all enemies four times at base (five times upgraded). It is a multi-hit AoE card now, not a play-count scaler, and because every hit takes your Strength bonus it scales cleanly in the same builds that already want Demon Form. Drum of Battle is now a 1-cost Uncommon Skill that draws 2 cards and grants 2 Energy (3 upgraded) when it Exhausts. That is a cantrip and an Exhaust energy payoff in one card, and it slots straight into Corruption, Feel No Pain, and Dark Embrace decks.
A handful of cards got quieter buffs. Howl from Beyond now triggers on the turn you exhaust it instead of waiting until your next turn, which is a real upgrade. Entrench can gain extra Block from enchantments like Nimble, helping Block and Body Slam lines. Unrelenting now hits for 14 (20 upgraded). Juggernaut's block-to-damage was nudged up as well.
Community run data puts Ironclad mid-pack right now, in the same band as the rest of the cast. Treat that as directional. The population is only days into the Aeonglass meta, and the spread between best and worst class is narrow.
S Tier: Run-Defining Powers
These three cards are pivot points. When one shows up on a reward screen, your deck builds around it. None were touched in Major Update #2.
Demon Form is the best Strength engine in the game. Play it once and gain 2 Strength at the start of every turn (3 upgraded) for the rest of combat. A fight that lasts five turns past Demon Form means 12 Strength on your attacks by the end, and a single multi-hit card turns that into a wall of damage. The 3 energy cost stings in Act 1, but it stops mattering the moment the ramp starts paying. Nothing else does what this card does at this scale.
Limit Break pairs with Demon Form the way a second key fits a safe. After Demon Form has run for a few turns, Limit Break doubles your current Strength total. Eight becomes sixteen. Exhaust limits you to one use per combat, and one use usually ends the fight on the turn you play it.
Corruption lives in the Exhaust deck, and its power is just as absolute inside that archetype. Every Skill costs 0 and exhausts on play. That reads as a downside until Feel No Pain and Dark Embrace are active and each exhausted Skill blocks and draws. Corruption turns a clumsy Skill-heavy hand into a zero-cost engine that blocks, draws, and thins all at once, and against Aeonglass it shreds the Wither cards the boss keeps planting.
The turbo version of this Strength shell is mapped out card by card here:
Build: b5fe26a061fbRun the shell against an Act 3 ascension wall to see how fast the Demon Form curve closes the fight before the late-turn ramp:
A Tier: Strong Picks That Earn Their Slot
Inflame is the fastest Strength ramp before Demon Form: 2 Strength immediately, for that combat. In early Act 1 it makes your Strikes hit hard enough to keep up.
Bludgeon deals 32 damage to one target for 3 energy with no setup. In a Strength build with five stacks active it lands for 37 in a single card, and nothing in the Ironclad's Attack pool beats it per-energy for raw boss burst.
Feel No Pain and Dark Embrace are the Exhaust build's secondary engines. Feel No Pain gives 3 block per Exhaust trigger; Dark Embrace draws a card per trigger. Neither does anything without Exhaust, but with Corruption running both fire every turn, and both help you blow through Aeonglass clutter. Grab whichever you see first if you are building Exhaust, both if you can.
Heavy Blade deals 14 base and adds triple your Strength to that one hit. At 6 Strength it lands for 32. It scales harder than any other single-hit attack the class has, and it does nothing until Strength is online, so it is dead in the early acts without Inflame or Spot Weakness already working.
Whirlwind costs X energy and hits all enemies twice per energy spent. At 3 energy and 6 Strength that is six hits of 12, spread across the room. With Strength active it is the strongest AoE the Ironclad owns, though Conflagration is now a real competitor when you want multi-hit AoE that scales without spending your whole turn's energy.
Sword Boomerang hits three random targets for 3 each, scaling with Strength. At 4 Strength that is 21 damage from a 1-energy card, and against a lone boss all three hits land on the same target. One of the most efficient multi-hit converters in the game.
Body Slam deals damage equal to your current block. In a Block deck you build 25 or more block on turn one, then slam for that on turn two. Entrench's new enchantment scaling feeds this line directly. Never take it in a deck that is not generating real block.
Bloodletting costs 0, loses 3 HP, and gives 2 energy. Burning Blood heals 6 after every fight, so the HP cost is paid for. When you need one extra energy to play Demon Form and an attack in the same turn, Bloodletting is the bridge.
Perfected Strike scales with the number of cards named Strike in your deck. A starting deck has five, so Perfected Strike lands for 25 at 2 energy, and it climbs as you add more Strikes. Worth taking if you have not replaced your starters yet and want a Strike-count build.
B Tier: Situational Cards That Earn Consideration
Spot Weakness grants 3 Strength when the enemy intends to attack. Conditional, but the Strength is permanent and multiplies on every later hit. In Act 1 rooms full of attackers, it patches the gap before item:inflame or item:demon-form arrive.
Pommel Strike deals 9 and draws a card for 1 energy, and it counts as a Strike for Perfected Strike. A fair 1-drop in a deck light on cycling, never a priority pick.
Iron Wave deals 5 and gives 5 block for 1 energy. Fine in Act 1 when you want both from one card. Scales poorly into Act 3.
Thunderclap hits all enemies for 4 and applies Vulnerable. The damage is minor, but Vulnerable on a crowded room means your follow-ups deal 50% more. Landing it on three enemies before a Whirlwind is a genuine multiplier.
Twin Strike hits twice for 5 each, scaling with Strength. At 4 Strength that is 18 for 1 energy, solid Strength conversion on a common. Take it in Act 1 if multi-hit is your plan and Sword Boomerang has not shown.
C Tier: Dead Weight
Shrug It Off gives 8 block and draws 1 card for 1 energy. Both effects read well, but an Ironclad deck with Burning Blood does not struggle for sustain, and dedicated block cards beat it in a Block build. It fills a survival role Burning Blood already covers.
Sneaky Strike deals 12 and gives 2 energy if you discarded a card this turn. Ironclad does not run discard loops well, so the condition rarely fires, and the base 12 for 2 energy is weak without it. A niche skip.
For how these picks compare against the other classes, see the Defect Card Tier List and the Necrobinder Card Tier List.
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 the effect compounds through every fight after. Limit Break wins a single combat once Demon Form is already running, but without Demon Form it doubles a much smaller number.
Drop your current pile in to see which archetype it leans toward and what it still needs:
Does the old Hellraiser infinite still work?
No. The loop that produced unlimited-damage turns was closed and has stayed closed through every patch since, including Major Update #2. The standard Strength build was never built on that interaction, so this changes nothing about how you draft the class today.
Should I pick Bash in Act 1?
item:bash is your starter, already in the deck, so there is nothing to pick. It costs 2 energy, deals 8 damage, and applies 2 Vulnerable, which makes the target take 50% more from attacks for 2 turns. Bash into a heavy attack is the Ironclad's core Act 1 turn.
What is the difference between Demon Form and Limit Break?
Demon Form is persistent generation: 2 Strength per turn (3 upgraded), every turn, for the rest of combat. Limit Break is a one-time doubler that exhausts. They work together. Play Demon Form first to stack Strength over several turns, then Limit Break to double what you have built. Reversing the order doubles a smaller number and wastes most of the card.
Is Whirlwind worth picking without Strength powers?
At base, Whirlwind hits for the card's printed damage per energy. That is functional in multi-enemy rooms but nothing special, and Thunderclap or twin-targeting attacks are often better value. Whirlwind becomes a priority pick once you have at least one Strength source confirmed in your deck.