Slay the Spire 2 Silent Card Tier List (Patch v0.102.0)
Accuracy, Catalyst, and Sly: every Silent card ranked
The entity:silent runs three distinct archetypes in v0.102.0: Shiv, Poison, and Sly Discard. Where you land in Act 1 depends almost entirely on which S-tier card you see first.
This list covers the cards that shape those archetypes, the ones that hold their own across all three, and the ones that look useful on the surface but fade out fast once your engine comes together.
S Tier
These three cards define the entity:silent's ceiling in v0.102.0. If you see any of them in Act 1, your build direction is set.
entity:accuracy (Power, Uncommon)
Every Shiv you play deals 4 base damage. entity:accuracy doubles that. Stack two entity:accuracy and a single Shiv hits for 16. Stack three and you hit for 32 per Shiv.
Combine this with entity:infinite-blades generating one Shiv per turn, plus entity:cloak-and-dagger or entity:blade-dance dropping three or four more, and a single turn can produce 100+ damage without touching an Attack card. entity:accuracy is the single card that transforms a pile of zero-cost tokens into a win condition. Take it every time you see it, regardless of how your deck looks when it shows up.
Best with: entity:infinite-blades, entity:cloak-and-dagger, entity:blade-dance, entity:ninja-scroll relic
entity:catalyst (Skill, Rare)
Doubles current Poison stacks on a target. entity:catalyst+ doubles it twice.
Stack 20 Poison with entity:deadly-poison, Poisoned Stab, or entity:bouncing-flask, then play entity:catalyst. The target now has 40 Poison ticking 40 + 39 + 38 + ... for roughly 820 total damage. Play entity:catalyst+ and the stack goes to 80 before the first tick. No boss in the game survives that.
The Poison archetype exists because entity:catalyst exists. Without it, Poison is a slow, chip-damage strategy that takes too many turns to close out Act 3. With it, you win in one action.
Best with: entity:noxious-fumes, entity:deadly-poison, entity:bouncing-flask, entity:ice-cream relic
entity:infinite-blades (Power, Rare)
Generates one Shiv at the start of every turn. Upgraded, the card gains Innate so it starts in your opening hand each fight.
The key word is "every turn." Unlike entity:blade-dance or entity:cloak-and-dagger, which require a card play and energy, entity:infinite-blades delivers a free Shiv on your upkeep forever. In a run with two or three entity:accuracy stacks, that passive Shiv alone starts dealing 16 to 32 damage per turn before you play a single card from hand. Across a long boss fight, it is free damage that adds up fast.
Best with: entity:accuracy, entity:ninja-scroll relic
A Tier
These cards are build-enabling or strong enough to include in any entity:silent deck without a specific combo payoff.
entity:blade-dance (Skill, Common)
Generates 3 Shivs. Low cost. Pairs directly with Accuracy to produce burst turns, and counts as a discard-eligible card (post-play) in some Sly configurations. One of the earliest indicators that a Shiv build is viable, because you can see it in Act 1 and know it will stay useful all run.
entity:cloak-and-dagger (Skill, Common)
Block plus a Shiv. Covers two needs in one card slot, which is worth a great deal in a deck trying to stay lean. In the late run with Accuracy stacks, the Shiv half scales to match damage from dedicated attacks. The block half keeps you alive in Act 3 fights where missing a defensive card costs 30 HP.
entity:bouncing-flask (Skill, Uncommon)
Applies Poison to a random target three times, 3 stacks each hit (9 total across the three applications, distributed randomly). In single-enemy fights that's 9 stacks on one target. In multi-enemy rooms it spreads, which clears trash efficiently.
The random targeting is a genuine drawback in boss fights if you have only one entity:catalyst and need maximum stacks concentrated on one target. Pair it with entity:deadly-poison for deterministic single-target application and use entity:bouncing-flask to clean up room fights.
entity:noxious-fumes (Power, Uncommon)
Applies 2 Poison per turn to all enemies. The ramp is slow but free. By turn four in a boss fight, that is 8 Poison sitting on the target before you play a single Poison card from hand. By turn six it is 12. entity:noxious-fumes makes Catalyst hits proportionally larger because the baseline stack is higher when you finally play the doubler.
entity:blade-of-ink (Attack, post-v0.102.0 redesign)
Before v0.102.0 this card had a different effect. The redesign turned it into an Attack that generates Inky Shivs, a modified Shiv variant that deals 2 bonus damage and applies 1 Weak on hit.
That Weak application is significant. Weak cuts enemy attack damage by 25%. In fights where you need defensive breathing room, one entity:blade-of-ink generating two or three Inky Shivs can drop incoming damage by several hits worth of HP. In a Shiv deck with Accuracy, the 2 bonus damage on each entity:inky-shiv also scales aggressively. A card worth picking in the Acts where you have neither Accuracy nor Catalyst locked in.
entity:deadly-poison (Skill, Common)
Cheap, reliable, single-target Poison application. Sets up Catalyst turns without the randomness of entity:bouncing-flask. In a Poison archetype this is core infrastructure. Even outside a dedicated Poison build, the chip damage is real in elite fights where every turn of stalling costs HP.
B Tier
Solid cards that earn their place in most entity:silent decks, particularly in early Acts before your archetype is locked in.
entity:neutralize (Attack, Basic)
Starter card. Deals small damage and applies 1 Weak to the target. Weak cuts enemy attack output by 25% for one turn. With entity:paper-phrog relic, Vulnerable pairs better, but entity:neutralize is always in your deck and reliably reduces the nastiest single-attack in any given fight. Upgrade it early. The upgrade adds 1 more Weak stack, which on a multi-attack enemy turn saves meaningful HP.
entity:survivor (Skill, Basic)
Block plus discard. In a base deck it is defensive filler. In a Sly Discard build, the discard half becomes an engine trigger. If you discard a Sly card, it auto-plays for free. entity:survivor is one of two free discard enablers in the starting deck (Acrobatics being the other), which is why the Sly archetype is accessible without specific uncommon picks.
Poisoned Stab (Attack, Uncommon)
Damage plus Poison in one card. Useful in hybrid runs where you want both archetypes online at once, or in early Acts before you find entity:deadly-poison or entity:bouncing-flask. Falls behind in single-archetype decks once the core stack is established; you stop needing more Poison applicators once entity:noxious-fumes or Catalyst is in play.
Underhanded entity:strike-defect (Attack)
Deals bonus damage when the enemy is Weak. In a deck running entity:neutralize and occasional Weak applicators, this hits harder than its base damage suggests. Late run with consistent Weak uptime from Inky Shivs or entity:blade-of-ink, it becomes a reliable filler attack. Not a priority pick but worth taking when your damage output needs reinforcing before Accuracy shows up.
C Tier
These cards do work early but tend to become obsolete or actively wasteful once either Accuracy or Catalyst lands.
entity:strike-ironclad variants, entity:defend-defect variants: Starter filler. You want fewer of these as the run goes on. The v0.102.0 Inflation modifier made card removal more expensive at Ascension 6+, so you are stuck with more of them longer at high Ascension. Below A6, remove them at the first entity:merchant.
Setup cards without a payoff: Cards that apply small amounts of Poison or generate single Shivs without Accuracy or Catalyst in the deck. They deplete fast in terms of usefulness once your engine is running.
The general rule: if a card only matters without your archetype online, it is a C-tier placeholder. Once S-tier cards are in the deck, revisit every card that doesn't interact with Accuracy or Catalyst and cut it if you can afford the entity:merchant cost.
Tier Summary
| Tier | Cards |
|---|---|
| S | Accuracy, Catalyst, entity:infinite-blades |
| A | entity:blade-dance, entity:cloak-and-dagger, Bouncing Flask, entity:noxious-fumes, entity:blade-of-ink (v0.102.0), entity:deadly-poison |
| B | entity:neutralize, entity:survivor, Poisoned Stab, Underhanded entity:strike-necrobinder |
| C | entity:strike-regent variants, entity:defend-ironclad variants, single-application cards without archetype context |
FAQ
What's the best entity:silent archetype in v0.102.0?
The community places Poison slightly ahead of Shiv at high Ascension because Catalyst turns are more consistent against boss HP totals than Shiv burst. Sly Discard is still being mapped by the community and has a higher skill ceiling. Shiv remains the strongest in early-to-mid Ascension ranges where game sense is still developing, because Accuracy is visual and easy to evaluate mid-run. If you don't know what you're doing, pick the first Accuracy you see.
How does the Sly keyword work?
Any card with the Sly tag, when discarded, auto-plays for free instead of going to the discard pile. This flips the discard mechanic from a drawback into a payoff. A card that says "discard 2" normally costs you two cards. In a Sly deck, a "discard 2" effect turns into two free card plays. entity:survivor and Acrobatics (discard triggers, both in the starting deck) become engine pieces rather than defensive filler.
Should I build Shiv or Poison?
Build whichever S-tier card appears first. If you see Accuracy in Act 1, commit to Shiv. If you see Catalyst, commit to Poison. Do not try to keep both options open past Act 1. Splitting picks between the two means you arrive at Act 3 with a weak Shiv stack and not enough Poison for Catalyst to matter. The archetypes are not compatible mid-run.
What did entity:blade-of-ink change in v0.102.0?
entity:blade-of-ink was redesigned to generate Inky Shivs: modified Shiv tokens that deal 2 bonus damage and apply 1 Weak on hit. The Weak application gives it defensive value (reducing incoming damage) on top of the damage output. In a Shiv deck running Accuracy, the 2 bonus damage per entity:inky-shiv scales the same as standard Shivs do, so the card gains alongside the rest of the engine rather than plateauing. The old version did not have this interaction.
Is entity:noxious-fumes worth picking without Catalyst?
Yes, but with a clear-eyed read on timing. Noxious Fumes passively stacks Poison every turn, which wears down elites and bosses even without a doubler. The issue is time: slow Poison kills cost more turns of taking damage. Without Catalyst, you are betting on fights ending in 8 to 12 turns through attrition rather than 2 to 4 turns through a Catalyst burst. In Act 2 elite fights that is fine. In Act 3 boss fights against high-damage enemies, plan to find Catalyst before that room or the attrition trade goes negative. If you reach Act 3 with Noxious Fumes and no Catalyst, play conservatively and pick up as much block as possible to survive the extra turns.