Draft Decision Tool

Card Draft Advisor

Load the shell you are actually carrying, enter the three cards on screen, and rank the pick that fixes the real problem instead of chasing the prettiest text box.

Current shell10

Fast cycle · Lean size

Active relic hooks1

Burning Blood

First needDraw

Act 1 priorities are applied to every recommendation.

Best pickLoad 3 cards

Results appear when the offer is complete.

A-Grade Page Scope

Draft Advice Only Works When The Shell Is Honest

The advisor is supposed to patch the current deck, not flatter one flashy reward. That only works if the deck, act, and relic hooks actually match your run.

When It Helps

Use it for a real three-card reward screen

It is strongest when you can enter the current character shell, the active relic hooks, and the three offered cards without inventing future support.

Where It Lies

It cannot rescue a fake deck snapshot

If the current list is stale, the act is wrong, or the offer is entered with the wrong upgrades, the score will be precise about the wrong deck problem.

Input Boundary

Current shell plus the visible offer, nothing more

The page reads the entered deck, relics, act pressure, and exactly three offered cards. It does not model future routes, future removals, or speculative high rolls.

How It Works

How the Card Draft Advisor Scores a Three-Card Offer

This advisor compares each offered card against your current deck state, active relics, and act priorities, then ranks the three by how much each pick closes a real gap in the shell. It is scoring deck fit against the immediate run, not raw card power in a vacuum.

Reviewed2026-03-29
How to Use It

Load your deck state before entering the offer

The advisor scores each offered card relative to your current deck, not in isolation. Before entering the three cards on the reward screen, set your character, load the relics you are carrying, and adjust the deck composition sliders to reflect your actual shell. The more accurately you describe the deck you have, the more useful the recommendation becomes.

Once the offer is loaded, the ranked results appear immediately. The score beside each card is a composite of gap-closing value, act-phase fit, and relic synergy — higher is better. The top card closes the most important gap in your current shell given where you are in the run.

  • Set character first — card pools and theme weights are character-specific.
  • Load relics before the offer — several relics shift scoring thresholds meaningfully.
  • Adjust deck size and cycle estimate — these change how the tool weights draw and energy.
  • The act selector shifts priority weights: Act 1 favors survival, Act 3 favors throughput.
What It Models

Gap-closing score against the deck you described

The scoring model identifies the most pressing structural gap in the described deck — insufficient block, missing scaling, low draw density, energy deficit, or relic hook under-exploitation — and scores each offered card by how directly it addresses that gap. A card that does something the deck already does well scores less than a card that does something the deck currently cannot do.

Relic hooks amplify the score of cards that interact with active relics. If you are carrying a relic that rewards specific card types or keywords, offered cards that satisfy those conditions receive a bonus. This models the compounding value a synergy pick creates over the remaining run rather than treating each draft pick as independent.

Where It Stops

Scores reflect your input, not the full game state

The advisor cannot see your actual deck list, your current HP, the boss coming at the end of the act, or the event decisions ahead. It works entirely from the summary state you describe in the inputs. If your description is inaccurate — wrong deck size, missing relics, wrong act — the recommendation will reflect that inaccuracy.

Skip is always a valid draft option and the tool does not model it. If none of the three offered cards address a real gap and none synergize with your relics, the correct pick is often no pick. Use the advisor to identify which card is closest to useful, then decide whether that distance is short enough to accept.

Maintenance Signals

Who Maintains This Page

A calculator without ownership is just a fancy guess. These signals show who maintains the tool, which live ruleset it matches, and where the responsibility boundary stops.

Maintained bySTS2 Calculator Tools Desk

Independent fan-made editors and data maintainers. This is not an official Slay the Spire 2 or Mega Crit property.

Responsible editorSTS2 Calculator Site Operator

Final site operator and responsible editor. Final contact for corrections, rights notices, and maintenance triage via [email protected].

Last reviewedMarch 28, 2026

Visible copy, links, and page-level signals were checked in the latest review pass.

Patch verifiedCurrent Early Access draft-baseline set

If a patch moves the numbers, wording, or assumptions behind this page, the page gets revised, narrowed, or rechecked again.

Applies toThree-card draft scoring against the shell, relic hooks, and act pressure entered into the advisor.

Tool pages cover the math, tables, and assumptions surfaced by the current UI on this route.

DisclaimerTool output is only as honest as the current inputs and published assumptions.

Bad inputs, hidden fight modifiers, or unsupported edge cases still produce bad conclusions. The tool does not guess those for you.

What This Page Actually Reads

The advisor is blunt on purpose. It checks which jobs the current shell still fails, which relic hooks are already live, and whether the offered card helps now or merely promises a future that may never arrive.

Read the hole

Patch missing jobs first

A card that fixes draw, block, wide-fight damage, or curve pressure usually beats a narrower payoff when the shell is still missing core work.

Use the hooks

Relics and current themes matter

If the run already has poison, Doom, orb, Stars, or exhaust hooks online, the best pick often leans into that lane instead of starting over.

Act changes the ask

Act 1 and Act 3 are not the same draft

Early rooms reward immediate stability. Late rooms care more about cycle speed, scaling, and whether expensive turns still work when the stakes are high.

Interactive Inputs

Run Snapshot

Start from the correct character shell, then adjust the deck and relic bar until the page matches your run.

Character
Current act
Starter readIronclad starts with blunt damage and a sustain relic, so early card flow, clean block, and good Vulnerable payoffs usually matter more than another slow payoff.
Act focusAct 1 punishes slow starts first, so frontload, clean block, and enough card flow to stop awkward opening turns carry the most weight.
Starter relic
Burning Blood relic icon
Burning Blood

At the end of combat, heal 6 HP.

Block

4 cards

Covered

Defend

Draw

0 cards

Missing

No clean draw example in the current shell.

AOE

0 cards

Missing

No clean aoe example in the current shell.

Energy

0 cards

Missing

No clean energy example in the current shell.

Scaling

0 cards

Missing

No clean scaling example in the current shell.

Burst

6 cards

Covered

Strike · Bash

Current Deck

Add the cards you are actually carrying. If the shell is wrong, the advice will be wrong too.

Strike

Base copy · 5 total

Attack · Basic · 1 Energy
5
Defend

Base copy · 4 total

Skill · Basic · 1 Energy
4
Bash

Base copy · 1 total

Attack · Basic · 2 Energy
1

Current Relics

Relic hooks are part of the pick. Load anything that materially changes the card reward question.

Burning Blood relic icon
Burning Blood

At the end of combat, heal 6 HP.

Ironclad PoolStarterHealing

Three Offered Cards

Enter the exact reward screen. The advisor ranks only the cards you load here.

Load 3 more cards to get a pick order.

Act 1

Pick Order

The best card is not always the strongest text box. It is the one that fits the shell you are piloting right now.

No pick order yet.

Load all three offered cards and the page will rank them against the current shell.

Draft FAQ

Does this page assume a fresh run only?

No. It starts from the correct opening shell, but you can add cards, remove cards, swap relics, and use it as a mid-run draft check too.

Why can a lower-rarity card rank first?

Because draft value is contextual. A common that patches draw, block, or curve pressure can easily beat a flashy rare that does not solve the current shell.

Should I trust the top pick over my own plan every time?

Use it as a hard second opinion. If you are consciously forcing a specific line, the advisor is most useful when it tells you what you are giving up to do that.