In the late 2000s and early 2010s, there was a huge rise in rogue-like games coming out of the indie scene. In the late 2010s, partially due to the advent of microtransactions as a primary income model and the popularity of previously nerdy subcultures, there was a rise in the digital card game. It was inevitable then that Slay the Spire would come in to existence, combining both elements into one game (without microtransactions, of course, lest the rogue-like half be entirely broken). Slay the Spire is particularly interested in something generally found in paper card games called a draft. A draft is what it sounds like: a group of players buy a handful of packs and try to construct a deck with what they pull, and then play each other. In hindsight it seems obvious to say that this emulates the basic principles of a rogue-like, but in dissection the relationship becomes even more enriched. Rogue-likes aren't just about randomness. They are about a strict set of rules that are knowable, that can be exploited or hedged against in order to proceed, despite the random nature of the game.
Rogue-likes are about quick thinking and planning on the fly as information comes to you. They generally aren't unfair for a vast majority of runs, finely tuned to make sure that there are ways to succeed no matter what it is you get, just so long as you are good enough and knowledgeable enough to use the game to your advantage. What loot you get on your run, the collectible or gear or items or spells that mark your progression through the run, might as well be cards as anything else. After all, loot is little more than an icon with stats. But there is a particularity with cards that can be utilized as a mechanic, one that finds itself relevant to the rogue-like genre.
When building a deck in any deckbuilding game, the deck needs to have a synergy that keeps it tight, and lowers the randomness from pulling cards. In Magic: The Gathering, this means often having multiples of the same card to reduce the chance you don't get your combo by the second or third turn. All of the pieces of your deck have to work together in a seamless engine of attack, defense, and rule tweaks that give you the advantage. Players of most card games will tweak and refine their decks for a long time, slowly accumulating the cards needed to make it an unstoppable machine (or as best as they can attain that). A rogue-like, however, doesn't give you the leniency of time and patience in order to refine your deck. Rather, it exploits this weakness in the card building mechanics to force you into a state of resourcefulness: I can pick up this card, but will it bloat my hand? I can buy this card, but does that play into my current deck build, or is it starting to teeter into another? Should I shake up my deck build now, since I'm getting so many of these cards, or should I hedge my bets and split my deck, hoping one of these builds will be favored in my future pulls? The process of building your deck is active, changing after every encounter, needing to be addressed constantly in order to proceed. It is no surprise that taking cards out of your deck comes at a cost, because slimming your deck and improving its efficiency is nearly as important as gaining.
Slay the Spire works within RPG tropes. You choose a class which has a starter deck that is the same every run, with a "color" specification of cards that you will find. You can gain cards from other classes through relics or potions, but generally you will be stuck with whichever limited card stock is available to your particular class. As you play through the game, you will rack up a score that, when you win or are defeated, will be applied to an XP bar of sorts that will unlock a new set of cards to be added to the random pool of potential gets. Usually, these cards are all of a similar vein: one set will be four powerful cards built around poison status affects, another will be around the shiv mechanic. There are only four unlocks for each of the four classes, but each of these tempt you into a new style of play for future runs.
The general rules of Slay the Spire are pretty simple. You have three types of cards: skill, attack, and power. Skills will give you block (a number of how much damage will be soaked up before rolling over to your health), manifest orbs if you are the elemental type class, etc. or inflict debuffs such as weaken or negative strength (enemies deal less damage), vulnerable (enemies take more damage), etc. Attacks are outright damage, but can often come with special features such as variant damage ("Do 6 damage for each skill in your hand"), increasing energy next turn, or applying poison or focus. Power cards usually add a permanent buff for the rest of the encounter, such as poisoning at the end of every turn, or will otherwise add flat buffs such as dexterity or strength that decrease each turn. These cards are well designed with different variations of interplay between them. Coming up with strategies is part of the fun of the game, and the other part is the on-the-fly modifications of that strategy as the cards you need fail to manifest. If the game allowed for deck construction outright, it would be near broken because of the way the cards can interplay with one another (I've had extensive turns run nearly ten cards before), but as the game's deckbuilding is laid out through random chance and pulls, those perfect decks become patchwork of different ideas being refined in real time to create something cohesive.
Slay the Spire is a rogue-like first, and deckbuilder second, and that is an important distinction. The deckbuilding side of the game becomes the language in which the game's mechanics function. Rather than searching through stat menus and seeing how different equipment modifies them, the stats and modifications are right there on the card. It is immediately readable and palatable. The rogue-like elements come in inbetweens, in the methods in which you gain or lose cards, and in a mechanic called relics. While cards are collected after every encounter or by purchasing them at the store, relics can only be attained at the store or after defeating a boss or miniboss. Cards and relics and potions can also be collected at certain "events" that happen in "?" encounters, but those are bound to random chance. Relics generally add buffs (and occasionally debuffs) that modify play, adding another layer to the rogue-like side of things, as well as shaking up any plays you may be planning on. They can be as simple as allowing you more gold after every encounter to giving you a baseline of block at the start of an encounter. Some allow you more energy (this game's "mana"), but will often cost you a feature such as no longer being able to rest at rest stops or no longer gaining gold from enemies. Relics are the truly random aspect to Slay the Spire, but they are essentially all plus, usually allowing you some leniency in one aspect or another. Potions can also be gathered which add little "get out of shit" quick pulls for when you are in a desperate place. To limit the abuse of potions (as some of them are very strong), you are limited to three unless a particular relic has been dropped.
While it certainly won't tilt the rogue-like or deckbuilding genres on its collective heads, Slay the Spire is an incredibly tight and replayable (downright bingeable) rogue-like, and my favorite game in the genre in years. For me personally, it sits up there with titans like Binding of Isaac and Spelunky as one of those games I played until I got sick of looking at it anymore. Rogue-likes always feel like a hard sell to me, because for a rogue-like to really capture my attention - perhaps obsession would be a more honest word - it needs to have palatable rules that feel usable, rather than random for the sake of random. Loot shouldn't be the end, it should feed into mechanics, and Slay the Spire is one of the most mechanic-heavy rogue-likes I've played in awhile, and I'm likely to continue playing for an exhausting time to come.
9.0
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