Finally finished A20 with Ironclad last night. Appreciate some critique of my decklist

So my generally strategy was based on Panacea's guide on Reddit but after the first few ascensions I modified it to suit my own play style.

Throughout the Ascensions I used different strategies that I'll post decklists for later, but for A20 the main factors were:

• keep it lean
• use Corruption + Dark Embrace for deck cycling
• use Demon Form to build strength whilst playing blocks
• shed all blocks early and cycle through heavy attacks with low cost (thanks to Sneko)

My decklist:

1. Corruption - 0-cost skills, that are exhausted. On it's own this card is hard to play as it takes a whole turn up, and still provides less value without a Dark Embracer.
2. Dark Embrace - perfect companion card for Corruption.
3. Demon Form+ - great after Act 1
4. Feel No Pain - works well with Corruption but provided little benefit in this game as I had plenty of block. I didn't play it until later in the game for when I wanted Orange Pellets to activate and remove debuffs.
5. Reaper - amazing with this deck. Had to be strategic in terms of when to play (after aquiring enough strength) but the HP recovery meant that I stopped Resting at rest sites, and fought the maximum Elites possible.
6. Shockwave - another amazing card. In others runs this is my first upgrade, but with the amount of other buffs/debuffs the standard version was sufficient
7. Armaments+ - works much better upgraded. With Corruption + Sneko it's a zero-cost for upgrading 7 cards, gaining block and drawing a card.
8. Armaments - one is generally enough, but I added this before I got the option to add the upgraded version so ended up with two.
9. Spot Weakness - preferred over Inflame as even though you only play it once with Corruption is has an overall better synergy in the deck
10. Shrug it Off - really good draw, block and exhaust synergy
11. Pommel Strike+ - good value attack + card draw + works with Perfected Strike**
12. Pommel Strike+ - second copy
13. Perfected Strike - decent heavy attack from Act 1, that keeps working well after shedding Strikes if you have Pommel Strike
14. Uppercut - works great in Act 1 with good damage and a couple of debuffs. Clothesline is arguable better in Act 1 with the 2 weak but Uppercut carries better into Act 2+ where you get more use out of the Vulnerable on the same turn
15. Cleave - great AoE for Act 1
16. Sentinel - additional energy, block and card draw that plays really well with Corruption and Sneko
17. Infernal Blade+ - again, works great with Corruption and usually provides a very good value attack unless if you end up with Clash
18. Ritual Dagger - incredible damage potential with low cost and high synergy with the Dark Embrace
19. Offering - really handy in the first deck cycle to find and play all the necessary Power cards
20. Brutality - this was a late addition. Again, one that can be played later in the game for maximising attacks, or early sometimes for playing Power cards
21. Defend - starter cards, prefer to remove Strikes over these as they place nice with the Corruption
22. Defend - second copy
23. Defend - third copy
24. Defend - fourth copy
25. Bash - part of the starter deck and has great value in Act 1
26. Ascender's Bane - bit of a nuisance but at least it Exhausts which combined with the powers gives card draw or block

My relics:

• Sneko Eye - risk/reward but ultimately the reward was worth it. In my fights I was able to play my required Powers within one deck-cycle
• Orange Pellets - I'm debating if I made my life harder with this as it also removes the Sneko Confusion effect so I had to be careful what I played each turn. After while I got used to the idea of not playing Attacks until after my first deck shuffle. This gives enough time to play most Powers and Blocks. After that the heavy attacks including a powerful Repear blow would recover any lost HP. In fact in all of Act 3 I didn't stop at a single rest site.
• Preserved Insect - this was an Elite pickup but helpful in the early stages when I wasn't quite strong enough
• Mixing Bowl - gain +2 Max HP instead of a card selection. I aquired this early Act 2 and used it for most rewards until I ended up with
• Self-Molding Clay - great early game for gaining block whilst you set yourself up
• Slavers Collar - the extra energy during Elites is handy for playing Power cards in time
• Peace Pipe - used once before the last bosses to remove the last strike otherwise pretty useless
• Captains Wheel - not essential but handy to have.

Other relics aquired on the way:

• Blood Vial - heal 2 HP at the start of combat. Not great but every little helps
• Potion Belt - hardly used. I had it full of potions that I played for the sake of it in the last battle. Once the deck is strong enough the reliance on potions goes down significantly
• Whetstone - probably explains why some of the cards above are upgraded when I normally wouldn't nominate those
• Unceasing Top - never came into play with the amount of draw and cards in my hand at any given time
• Juzu Bracelet - not particularly useful as I didn't mind what events I got. I've found it handy on weaker decks where actual events can provide better reward
• Eternal Feather - hardly stopped at a rest site to get much value from this.
• Bag of Marbles - my first turn was mostly focussed on building Powers and deck-cycling so wasn't able to play the vulnerability to my advantage
• Toxic Egg - came in a bit too late but otherwise it is a good once to have given the number of skills in the deck

With this deck from early Act 2 I was able to reject many card rewards, preferring +2 Max HP from Mixing Bowl

Reflection

• the deck was very powerful against even the most difficult of bosses
• Orange Pellets took some getting used to with Sneko. It would be interesting to swap with Dead Branch as it has great synergy with Sneko and exhaustion but it could have been a hindrance and not allowed situations like the infinite Pommel Strike (0 cost from Sneko, locked at that cost from Orange Pellets, always drawn as all other cards were exhausted).
• Normally when faced with the option to remove or transform I chose remove, this time I went with the transform which I believe is risky but better value as most anything is better than a Strike so you're getting a remove AND random card gain
• On Neow rewards - depending on the option, losing all gold can be a very good compromise because a) it's better to climb a few floors before stopping at a shop b) what you get for the 99 gold would cost you a lot more in a shop