Necrobinder card rankings

Better than his previous rating: effectively an improved Bodyguard that starts the summon/Spur/Unleash engine and is good enough for Overgrowth.

Efficient scaling because Summon represents stored block and future Unleash damage, then Exhaust keeps later cycles clean.

A solid payoff when the deck naturally has many Ethereal cards; that package is common enough to make the card a lower-end consistent performer.

A huge AoE and scaling payoff whose setup is easy because Necrobinder already wants many excellent Ethereal cards.

A weak Overgrowth fallback whose Doom upside is not enough; take only when desperately short on damage.

A specific early damage fallback, improved by Lethality, but raw attacks interfere with Necrobinder's overblock plan.

A game-defining starter and high-priority upgrade. Together with Unleash it provides a long-term Osty scaling plan while remaining excellent early.

Not covered in this reward-card tier list.

An overstated 9/9 or upgraded 12/12 area attack/block card and one of the best ways to survive Overgrowth, comparable there to Deathbringer.

An overstated early-game damage-and-block card whose upgrade carries difficult fights even if played only once.

Powerful only when the deck can exploit the burst energy, particularly with Eradicate, Dirge, or another X-cost payoff; awkward with Soul spam.

Premium burst energy when the deck can spend it on expensive cards; exceptional with Danse Macabre and X-cost cards.

Four energy is usually too punishing. Snecko Eye can enable it, but speculative copies more often make the deck worse.

Four energy is effectively a curse outside rare Snecko cases, so its huge damage almost never matters.

An easier early speculation than Sleight of Flesh and a strong payoff for Poke/Fetch/Flatten/Sic ’Em/Rattle packages; its damage matters more on this patch.

A legitimate early damage engine once even a small package of Fetch, Poke, or other Osty attacks exists.

Universally flexible scaling: generated cards can be played when useful or allowed to Ethereal away, so it fits even relatively small decks.

A one-card engine for options, Ethereal synergies, block, and damage whose bad generations never clog the deck.

Still the premium loop enabler, though Prism and Aeonglass punish its Soul/skill spam; draft it more carefully and ensure the deck can convert the draw into fast damage.

The best Soul generator and one of Necrobinder's best draw tools because the delayed Souls cost no energy on the setup turn.

Mainly useful against Beckons and Soulfish, with niche exhaust-loop applications; too slow for generic looping plans.

Its Summon makes it better than pure exhaust, but it is an overrated and inconsistent answer to Aeonglass.

A respectable but slow damage power that generally needs Sleight of Flesh, Time’s Up, or another multiplier to matter against Aeonglass.

Passive damage lets Necrobinder block while making progress and can anchor Doom synergies without clogging later cycles.

Can produce excessive block with enough expensive cards, but block powers have less room and it does not directly solve the patch's main damage problems.

A premium block engine, especially with Borrowed Time and the character's many expensive cards.

Still bottom-adjacent despite a major buff; may deserve situational status as a damage payoff in Soul/draw-heavy decks with no other solution.

Improved after its buff but still requires too much draw support to rise above a middling situational attack.

Extremely strong when Doom is applied consistently and poor otherwise; exactly the kind of card that is often useful but can be bad.

Efficient scaling block when Doom can trigger it consistently; its six-block floor is poor without that support.

His top placement: a very high-priority early pick that solves many Overgrowth and multi-enemy fights, performs into Phantom, and still strips Aeonglass artifacts late.

Huge AoE progress, Weak, and artifact stripping make it excellent from early multi-enemy fights through Aeonglass.

Strong damage plus amplified Weak/Vulnerable and valuable artifact strip, even after its duration nerf.

More niche after its nerf: take it after Weak support exists rather than speculating on it early.

Enough immediate damage to be an acceptable Overgrowth common, unlike the weaker bottom-band attacks.

Good early damage whose Ethereal keyword prevents later clogging, though retained attacks age more gracefully.

Still an overstated premium common and often a three- or four-copy card; smooths decks, answers multi-hit turns, and supplies Ethereal synergy.

A common that can effectively block enormous amounts through Weak while stripping artifact and enabling Ethereal payoffs.

His best block uncommon and a high-priority upgrade; one or two copies support compact loops and pay their energy back.

Premium block plus next-turn energy with an exceptionally important upgrade that enables the character's expensive setup.

Grouped with Friendship as premier recurring energy scaling; its awkward Ethereal play window is usually worth accepting.

Near-universal energy and draw scaling; expensive to deploy but among the character's most fight-defining Powers.

The defensive Soul payoff: useful in Soul-heavy decks and can indirectly become damage through a large Unleash, but blank without Souls.

An upgrade-hungry Soul payoff made less attractive by Aeonglass and current Soul-heavy deck weaknesses.

Powerful Soul and summon generation, but scary into Prism and Aeonglass and weak at solving Overgrowth; requires enough payoff and energy.

A dense X-cost block-and-delayed-draw card that scales Osty, converts excess energy, and sets up the following turn.

One of several damage commons acceptable specifically to survive Overgrowth; its random upgrades give it more upside than the bottom-band attacks.

A desperation Act 1 scaling tool; useful when upgrades can rescue a weak deck, but almost never wanted later.

A key assembler for the Sic ’Em/Flatten/Poke/Calcify Osty-attack package, but much less important outside that specific combo.

The best discard retrieval option and excellent when upgraded to Retain, but its energy cost demands careful economy.

Generally poor, but exhausting a hand full of Withers can rescue certain Soul-loop decks against Aeonglass; the Intangible clause is usually secondary.

A desperate but real Aeonglass answer that exhausts Withers; its Intangible condition is secondary and the upgrade matters.

A strong area solve with an excellent upgrade that bypasses Doom's delay, handles troublesome multi-enemy fights, and strips an Aeonglass artifact.

A strong early snowball and multi-enemy solve that falls off against bosses compared with Deathbringer.

Premium block against multi-hits, useful artifact strip for Aeonglass, and an Ethereal enabler; he sees no reason to place it below the top band.

Best-in-class front-loaded block that remains relevant late, strips artifact, and supports Ethereal synergies.

Grouped with Reaper Form and Squeeze as a premium rare that supplies the fast, concentrated damage now required by Prism and Aeonglass.

Retain plus X-cost burst makes it an excellent early and boss damage solve, especially with Lethality or energy bursts.

Too weak without an upgrade and only acceptable upgraded when damage is desperately needed.

One turn of Vulnerable is not worth the weak damage and energy cost in a character that rarely chains attacks.

Essentially free cycling and probably the best non-starter Osty attack; multiple copies scale Calcify and Squeeze, though unscaled card spam can be punished.

Usually free damage and draw with useful clone and Calcify interactions; it enters most decks despite an Aeonglass weakness.

Acceptable Overgrowth damage and an Osty-package payoff; stronger with Sic ’Em, Poke, Calcify, and Dredge than as a generic attack.

Its zero-cost condition is unreliable and can conflict with blocking; mostly a transform or desperate early damage pickup.

Potentially run-winning when obtained around Act 2 because repeated permanent removes let Necrobinder curate a nearly perfect deck; Replay can multiply the effect.

Not covered in this reward-card tier list.

One of Necrobinder's best scaling powers because recurring energy is exceptional and the Strength loss is usually irrelevant.

Near-universal energy scaling whose Strength loss is barely a downside for Necrobinder.

One of the most consistent early block cards, strong in either Act 1 and still relevant later through Soul generation and Osty protection.

A dependable common that effectively blocks now and adds future draw through its Soul.

Too slow and too low-impact for one energy; not worth adding in his current view.

Conditional one-card retrieval is too slow and inconsistent; Dredge performs the same role far more effectively.

A slow and isolated damage engine; multiple copies, Clone, or a fast loop can make it work, but one unsupported copy is inadequate.

A real boss-damage solution; the first copy is modest, but a second copy or replay effect scales extremely hard.

The critical offensive payoff for Soul-heavy decks facing Aeonglass; such decks may want many copies, but it is blank without Soul generation.

A worthwhile damage payoff once Capture Spirit, Dirge, or comparable Soul generation already exists; do not speculate on it.

A much-improved Overgrowth area option that also supplies artifact strip, Vulnerable, and Squeeze support; useful but not universally safe.

Improved by two turns of AoE Vulnerable and current Osty-attack synergies; a reasonable early damage bridge, not a premium card.

Useful core energy for compact repeating-hand loops, but those loops are harder to execute against Prism and Aeonglass.

Useful delayed energy and Summon value, though Borrowed Time is usually the stronger energy option.

A premium Overgrowth pick and major answer to Infested Prism and Aeonglass, especially with Eradicate or other large attacks.

One of the character's main boss-scaling tools, multiplying retained attacks, Osty attacks, and Reaper Form damage.

A useful Overgrowth block card whose cost improves as Osty or enemies die, reversing some of the usual downward spiral when Osty cannot be maintained.

Situational but powerful with Osty deaths, Bone Shards, or cost support; it can rescue a run that is below curve.

He sees no meaningful single-player use case for it on this patch.

Rarely spreads a debuff that has not already solved the multi-enemy fight; only its zero-cost damage keeps it out of D.

Mostly an early area-damage card for Phantom, Deca Millipede, and Frog Parasite; useful with a large Osty but seen too rarely to solve Act 1 consistently.

An underpowered rare that needs a large Osty and is mainly considered as emergency multi-enemy damage.

Solves several multi-enemy and Doom-sensitive fights and strips Aeonglass artifact, but is poor into Infested Prism and not universally wanted.

A solid common AoE answer with Doom synergies, though its block is less impressive than it first appears.

Enormous immediate energy and draw with a manageable downside that can enable Death's Door and Shroud; faster damage plans make it even better on this patch.

Extremely powerful acceleration; the self-Doom is usually irrelevant or beneficial unless the fight runs long.

Primarily a Phantom-specific damage card; too slow for most other fights, Prism, and Aeonglass unless part of a narrow Doom combo.

A conditional boss-damage solve that needs existing Doom or replay support; much stronger than B tier when enabled.

Improved because Soul-heavy decks now need an Aeonglass damage answer; Oblivion plus Sleight of Flesh can provide it.

Mostly a Sleight of Flesh enabler; otherwise niche, but zero-cost artifact stripping and repeated debuffs can be excellent.

Usually reliable draw consistency in decks that naturally collect strong Ethereal cards; especially attractive when already upgraded.

The preferred passive draw engine: it rewards naturally good Ethereal cards and even turns enemy Dazed into draw.

Among his least-valued Ethereal cards: requires abundant early energy and its skill/card-spam pattern is poorly positioned into Prism and Aeonglass.

Active draw is awkward on an energy-starved character; Capture Spirit and passive engines are generally preferable.

A premium Overgrowth damage common because zero-cost damage lets Necrobinder attack without sacrificing the block needed to preserve Osty; also opens Osty synergies.

A low-impact early attack that becomes acceptable with Calcify, Sic 'Em, or other Osty-attack support.

Specific but good in decks that build and preserve a large Osty, providing zero-cost finishing damage when ordinary Unleash scaling has been weakened by damage to Osty.

Not covered in this reward-card tier list.

A solid two-cost defensive pick that is sometimes necessary in Overgrowth; learning when to take and upgrade it is matchup-dependent.

A middle-of-the-road block and Summon card that improves with two-cost synergies but needs help to enable overblocking.

A real Ethereal damage payoff and possible Aeonglass one-shot, but slow and severely weakened by Friendship's Strength loss.

A conditional but credible late-game damage solve because Ethereal volume is common and Call of the Void scales it rapidly.

Very powerful debuff application and artifact strip. Often worth multiple upgraded copies, though it is not itself a complete game-winning package.

Weak and Vulnerable together are an extremely efficient block, artifact-strip, and damage package.

Can deal spectacular damage in a complete Osty/Calcify/Sic ’Em package, but is much less generically useful than Fetch, Poke, or Snap.

Needs a critical mass of Osty attacks that the deck rarely wants to draft, making it mostly a transform-driven payoff.

A dense summon that can stabilize a fight by itself and remains good into Prism, but premium damage rares have become more urgent reward competitors.

Summon 20 is durable block and future damage at once, making it a major big-Osty enabler and excellent duplication target.

A solid retained Overgrowth damage pick that he does not inherently want, but will take when necessary to survive.

A strong immediate damage pickup that retains out of later cycles, but only take it while damage is still unsolved.

A premium late-game damage solution on the current patch, converting attacks into enough additional Doom to pressure Aeonglass.

A run-solving endgame damage multiplier for attack decks, worth its high setup cost in the fights that matter.

Too weak without an upgrade; an upgraded copy is merely an emergency damage option and is outclassed by Severance.

Grave Warden's damage counterpart is much weaker because the attack does not justify adding a Soul or spending the draw.

A specific Osty combo piece that needs enough two-cost cards; once enabled it can contribute meaningful repeated damage.

Needs an existing two-cost or Calcify package and is awkward with Borrowed Time; rarely worth speculative drafting.

A surprisingly overstated retained emergency block card, especially upgraded; adds defensive consistency and can block enormous amounts from a developed Osty.

Rarely has the large, damaged Osty needed for a worthwhile conversion, so it is picked infrequently.

Mostly a Phantom card, particularly beside No Escape; can occasionally serve as acceptable common Doom damage elsewhere.

A niche Doom cantrip with a strong upgrade, but usually too little impact unless it enables No Escape or similar payoffs.

Acceptable Overgrowth damage with more upside than the bottom attacks because granting Ethereal can be useful.

A poor Ethereal enabler and desperate pseudo-exhaust card whose modest damage does not justify the setup.

Fell sharply after becoming one-cost. Good when upgraded and supported by Pagestorm or Soul payoffs, but slow into Aeonglass and poor into Prism.

Slow, upgrade-dependent exhaust whose former role has fallen off; occasionally helps in long status-heavy fights.

An unusually dense synergy card: Ethereal, Power, and repeated Osty attacks support Spirit of Ash, Banshee's Cry, Calcify, Sic ’Em, Rattle, and Squeeze.

A dense one-card damage solution that lets later turns focus entirely on block, especially useful when found early.

A situational but acceptable Overgrowth damage uncommon; substantially better than Reave because it deals more and creates three Souls.

Expensive and middling unless the deck specifically needs Souls or has abundant energy.

Raised by Prism and Aeonglass: Strength reduction stabilizes Prism while cheap debuff/artifact stripping supports Sleight of Flesh and the Glass fight.

Free permanent Strength reduction solves dangerous multi-attacks and lets the deck spend energy on output.

The slowest and weakest block power in his view, but repeatable Doom from Countdown or Neurosurge can make it adequate.

Solid passive scaling block in Doom decks and long fights, but not exceptional without repeated Doom application.

A combo piece for repeated Osty attacks; the buff helps, but it wants Pokes, Flattens, Rattle, Calcify, and often Dredge around it.

The buff helped, but it still needs an existing Fetch and Calcify-style Osty-attack package to justify a pick.

Immense payoff in debuff-heavy decks and more important under current damage pressure, but risky to speculate on before the debuffs exist because it costs two.

One of Necrobinder's best scaling cards, turning the class's numerous multi-debuff block cards directly into damage.

Improved with the overall Osty package; Retain setup, Calcify, Squeeze, Sic ’Em, and Rattle give it more meaningful combos.

Can slowly retain bad cards out of a boss cycle, but that exhaust-like plan is awkward and inefficient.

He sees no meaningful use case for it and prefers stronger Soul payoffs.

Too slow and dependent on Soul volume in a patch that punishes Soul-heavy decks; its payoff usually arrives after the fight is won.

An Overgrowth survival card through and through; Retain plus area damage addresses the early fights most likely to kill Necrobinder.

Reliable retained AoE for early problem fights that harmlessly stays out of future draw cycles after it falls off.

One of the easier block powers to add when the deck already contains Ethereal cards, though block powers have less deck space under the patch's damage pressure.

A powerful Ethereal block engine that is easy to support with premium cards such as Defy and Call of the Void.

Excellent retained maintenance for a large Osty and the Unleash plan; weak if the deck cannot keep Osty alive in the first place.

An overstated retained Summon when Osty can receive the full heal; its value drops sharply without enough Osty HP.

A premium rare and fast damage answer; Osty attacks plus Lethality can turn it into an Aeonglass kill condition.

A clumsy rare attack that is acceptable only as an early damage solve or with substantial Osty-attack support.

Improved by its buff but still needs to appear very early to scale, an uncommon timing for a rare card.

Powerful when found early and abusable with Call of the Void, but too timing-dependent to rank higher.

A generally bad attack that can still become a concentrated kill condition with enough Doom, an upgrade, and Lethality when premium damage rares never appear.

A situational but important Aeonglass and boss solve, particularly explosive with Reaper Form, Lethality, or replay.

A hard-to-evaluate but potentially strong Replay effect; the extra cost can even help Ivory Tile, but the required pieces make it situational.

Replay can solve long-fight output by duplicating a key block or damage card, though it is not an automatic early pick.

Excellent recursive block that is welcome at almost any point; it sits below the top only because rare-card rewards can contain more urgent damage solutions.

Excellent zero-cost setup protection that buys time for Powers, though it can bloat decks built to loop one key card.

The damage half of the game-defining starter package; a built and maintained Osty can solve most fights, though Aeonglass demands extra damage multipliers.

Not covered in this reward-card tier list.

A serviceable Overgrowth damage uncommon that often becomes effectively zero-cost when the deck already contains Ethereal cards.

Occasionally discounts an expensive Ethereal card, but usually amounts to low-impact damage with too many conditions.

Useful enough only after its Retain upgrade; without an upgrade he considers it terrible.

Pick only when the deck demonstrably needs burst energy; without a demanding target it is unnecessary draw dilution.