Equipment
- Damage core
- Demon Altar
- Support cards
- Imp, Cemetery; optional Recycler
- Enchantments / tome actions
- Current defensive effects on important troops
- Board state
- Developed plan; adjust to actual draws
Skills
- Card access
- The basic pieces and Oblation belong to Blood. Recycler comes from Progress. Keep cross-king availability separate from the starting deck.
- Effect condition
- Oblation is a tome/pit action, not a board plot. A3 Cemetery touches A2 Imp; its destruction interaction requires the intended troop to be adjacent when destroyed.
Best for
A death-scaling Altar core with deliberate pit use rather than removed Vampirism advice.
Avoid if
Discarding the missing core for a pit buff, or losing the entire screen at once and exposing valuable Demons.
How it works
Expendable troops buy time and allied deaths develop the Demon Altar system. Oblation is thrown into the pit to grant troop population; Recycler can turn selected discards into adjacent damage and HP gains.
Equipment priority
| Priority | Equipment | Instruction |
|---|---|---|
| 1 · Stabilize | Demon Altar | Field Imp or another usable expendable troop and place Demon Altar when the army can support it. The Altar needs opportunities for allied deaths to matter, so placing it early can be useful; an opening with no active screen still needs an immediate troop repair. |
| 2 · Connect | Imp, Cemetery; optional Recycler | Connect Cemetery at A3 to the A2 Imp if you intend a troop-plot destruction interaction. Use Oblation as a pit action after assessing which cards can be spared. A missing Altar or Cemetery is often more valuable in play than as another discard, especially before the death engine is established. |
| 3 · Develop | Current defensive effects on important troops | Keep enough expendable army to occupy enemies while the Demons contribute. Pagoda Ghosts, Cemetery Skeletons and the Altar system are different pieces, not interchangeable labels for old Imps. Add a conditional Recycler only when it can reach a useful recipient before the discards that should feed it. |
Build order
- Field Imp or another usable expendable troop and place Demon Altar when the army can support it. The Altar needs opportunities for allied deaths to matter, so placing it early can be useful; an opening with no active screen still needs an immediate troop repair.
- Connect Cemetery at A3 to the A2 Imp if you intend a troop-plot destruction interaction. Use Oblation as a pit action after assessing which cards can be spared. A missing Altar or Cemetery is often more valuable in play than as another discard, especially before the death engine is established.
- Keep enough expendable army to occupy enemies while the Demons contribute. Pagoda Ghosts, Cemetery Skeletons and the Altar system are different pieces, not interchangeable labels for old Imps. Add a conditional Recycler only when it can reach a useful recipient before the discards that should feed it.
How to play
If all expendable troops die together and expose the valuable summons, stop pursuing extra future death value and stabilize the battle. Do not destroy the only useful troop merely because an adjacent Cemetery can replace its plot; decide whether the replacement preserves the protection you need.
What can break the build
Throwing the only Altar card into the pit to improve a later Oblation sacrifices the engine the plan is supposed to develop. Population growth on weak unsupported troops does not recreate that missing carry. Place the necessary core first and discard an option the board can genuinely afford to lose.
Evidence limit
Mechanics checked against the official card reference and developer Patch #29, #30 and #31 notes on 2026-10-13. Layouts and priorities are editorial recommendations for 0.9.8; no fresh-run clears, win rates, damage benchmarks or universal difficulty guarantees are claimed.