Seeing NL get consistently bodied is really good for my self-esteem. Being stuck at asc10 myself and seeing him struggle just as much at 7 reinforces that i am indeed no dummy, game is just hard.
It makes sense to hit a bump at 10, the daze effect really changes your options and alters the way you plan things out. It actually gets a little bit easier after you finish it, but I won't spoil anything. Keep at it! (:
I dont know why people think remnant is bad and stygyian is good Umbra is the weakest BY FAR cause it really doesnt go with any other faction Stygyian close second Best clan is remnant and best supporter is awoken Thats how i see it, getting a broken remnant run is so damn easy compared to trying to do anything with umbra lmao Different playstyles i guess Edit: this is my opinion and should not be taken as fact.
@@masteryinx563 your opinion is something i 100% agree on and i would bet that remnants are top 1 on winrate and hellhorned/awoken is best support, no idea which one would be num. 1 supp. Umbra is worst supp and main definetly
Out of curiosity, how do you do well with Stygian Guard? I've had some pogged runs with crazy spell weakness stackination (duplicated some multi strike spell weakness sweepers and just destroyed anything that had the audacity to step on the third floor) but usually struggle.
It’s halfway mesmerizing haha. He’s not bad, so the runs are good enough to watch. But he also keeps the tension high with his galaxy brain inexplicable misplays
I have no idea how you pulled out the victory at the end there, I was resigned to see another loss but the madman has done it. I am pogging out of my gourd right now, insane comeback and well deserving of a like
Watching NL play strategy games is the living embodiment of watching a person solve a math equation, but they make mistakes that somehow always cancel each-other out so he still winds up with the correct solution. And boy is it always exhilarating!
Stacking all of your incants on one floor makes a crazy synergy. Think about the siren with multistrike behind shark boi, in lieu of the sweeping shell. Also don't sleep on frostbite during the boss phase, as frostbite hits each round. As long as your tank can survive a few rounds, the damage gets out of control.
Yeah I've found this to be the way to go with this faction. I often go for the champion that makes damage spells cheaper, get as many incant units as I can fit on one floor, and then just spam spells mindlessly.
The reason you've struggled with the Stygian Guard is that you're aggressively misplaying their core mechanics. In contrast to something like the Remnant where you grasped Reform immediately, you're struggling every battle with the Stygian because you're playing against their strengths not just on every run, but every battle and sometimes every turn. The most important Stygian mechanic is Incant. Stacking Incant units on the same floor is the entire point of the mechanic. You had a literally perfect floor in that The Winged Horde battle and didn't take it because... you wanted the Siren of the Sea to sit alone on the top floor? It ultimately did nothing in the entire battle, and while you did win despite that, you won't even come close to doing so on higher Covenants. Stygian almost never wants three floors, because your spells are stronger than your units on average and can cover an "extra" floor. Very few factions want three floors - Remnant is pretty much the only one that does, which is probably why you do best with them - but Stygian wants it the least. No matter which version of Tethys you use, you NEED to put Tethys at the back of every formation. You consistently put the Glacial Seal behind Tethys; what was it going to do if Tethys died to a boss? It would die with no effect. By contrast it being in front could sometimes buy Tethys one more hit of Frostbite. In general, Channelsong tends to be a very bad card.
Hey, your advice helped me win a run, I stacked some incant units and spammed the living shit out of spells and it worked out great. Thanks for helping me understand Stygians, I figured they would be the hardest for me to learn.
I love your Monster Train content because you're not perfect (like all of us), but you're by far the most entertaining to learn from your mistakes. Here's what I learned today: When you choose the frostbite Stygian build, your champion's life is SOOOO valuable. 40 frostbite per attack is a really fast snowball (pun intended) to tons of damage every turn of a relentless boss fight if you can keep that champion alive. Just thinking about the frostbite from your champion's attacks, the damage stacks up so fast that it's hard to imagine without doing the math. T1: 60dmg on attack, 40dmg on frostbite at end of turn, reduce frostbite by 1. T2: 60dmg on attack, 79dmg on frostbite at end of turn, reduce frostbite by 1. T3: 60dmg on attack, 118dmg on frostbite at end of turn, reduce frostbite by 1. T4: 60dmg on attack, 157 on frostbite at end of turn, reduce frostbite by 1. 4 attacks from your champion leads to a total of 634 damage, then another 150+ for each turn of the next 7 turns EVEN WITH YOUR CHAMPION DEAD. If your champion lives another turn, the numbers get higher even faster.
“But you don’t do that much damage on this floor. Why am I trying to keep you alive?” I don’t know NL, why don’t you tell me when you had a scaling incant damage dealer in the front that would’ve synergized with the great scaling incant tank that’s currently protecting two train stewards. 😂 My man had 3 0 cost spells on holdover and none of his three incant units were on the same floor that fight. The man can be a genius but the missed opportunities hurt me deep in my soul... Edit: AND HE WINS THIS MAN IS INCREDIBLE. He’s beaten his kryptonite and has my respect
@@TalixZen I mean no need to say itäs embarassing, it's just a youtube streamer. But this IS the reason I now bought the game for myself. To build an actual well synergized incant deck.
I love this series! Thanks for the constant entertainment, NL. Keep up the good work. Miscellaneous tips below if you want to read 'em. Please take a second before every fight to think about how to beat the minor bosses. They show you in advance if the last guy will have stealth 8 or sweep, and you can counter it accordingly. Also, every time you see a card, unit, relic, or upgrade and say, "Ewww that's SO bad!" I think "That's so good!" Not that it's essential on every run, but it definitely has a compelling use case. Like the relic that gives all enemy units Frostbite 2 would've instantly killed every support unit in the very next fight. Also, this was a few episodes ago, but Harvest giving Rector Flicker +5 HP is how I've won several Remnant runs. Never completely dismiss an item in this game-it's there for a reason. Sometimes you just haven't seen it yet. One more thing: you said you need to draw "Ice and Pyre" at exactly the right time. That's when permafrost is good. You didn't have the chance to get it, but I just wanted to mention since you've said permafrost is bad in the past. EDIT: LET'S GOOOO he froze Ice and Pyre the absolute legend EDIT 2: THE GREATEST COMEBACK STORY IN THE HISTORY OF MONSTER TRAIN WOW!!! Pogs all around
Me: the way he's playing, I don't think NL is gonna make it this round NL: I can't believe I've made it this far Also NL: this accomplishment is a testiment to decent gameplay and good decisions.
He came so close to figuring out that you want to put your incants all on one floor if you can help it. He came so very close! I saw the cogs turning behind his eyes! Kinda bummer that he didn't get the Sting synergy artifacts after going all in on Stings though.
NL I basically never comment on videos, but I gotta tell you I’m loving this series. It has enough progression with the covenant levels and individual character victories to keep each episode exciting. Please keep this one going! :)
Just realized that NL is legit pumping out content at a faster rate and at a higher quality than maybe any other content creator in the history of RUclips. Bless be the Gods that gave us this Egg.
There were some seriously close calls in this one. One of the best episodes so far! That sap at the end didn't just move the needle, it buried it in another dimension.
In the off chance that NL reads this--and really just for anyone who might be interested, the Stygian frostbite champion is one of the strongest boss killing champions in the game, if not the strongest. Fully upgraded, he does 100 damage per turn, which is a lot already but 40 is frostbite. This means that on turn two, he's contributing 139, then 178, and up and up. If you can protect him (sweep and spikes counter him), then he'll take down pretty much anything with relentless. NL's mistake was that he didn't really upgrade units to protect him or think of protecting him as a top priority, but he still won so kudos for that.
NL's First Law of Deckbuilding Roguelites: For every bad play he makes, he makes a play equal to or greater than the bad play, resulting in massive pogging of the gourd.
The stygians struggle a bit early in my experience, but if you build it right, they are monsters by the end of a run. You should never lose a stygian run if you got far enough to reach the boss. Frost is one of the most efficient boss killers in the game, especially if you have the one that doubles frost (hello, catalyst silent). Spell weakness allows you to inflict consistant and massive frontloaded damage on all units nearly every turns and can take care of most beefy units almost all by itself. Spell spam stygian is incredible with incants and usually can easily overcome any form of the last boss, Siren units are just really good. The sharks make great defensive units, whereas the sirens are incredible damage dealers. Stygians have most of the best damage spells in the game. Your champion is weak to things like sweep, but by the end of the run you can turn him into a monster. I especially like mixing the frostbite uprade with the sweep+spell weakness upgrade. Stygians really shine with spell upgrades, holdover and double stack are just perfect for their spells. If you're not going for a spell spam build, you should try to have a few really good spells. Stygians usually have no issue dealing with backlines. They pair best with Umbra or Awoken in my opinion. Awoken is a spell based, support clan with a lot of draw and heals which are both things Stygians really benefit from. They can also descend units to create strong incant floors, and give quick to your sweep units so that they can do their job before dying despite having low hp. With hellhorned i'd recommend trying to create strong incant units or go for an armor shark build. Remnants have a few nice spells, but overall they don't have a lot of synergies. They are best just doing their own things together. All of this is just my experience though.
The awoken hallow and siren of the sea are the dream combo. That's the most consistent way to win imo.giving him tons of regen and her multistrike is really all you need.
So, just to give some advise from my own MT experiences after watching this one on what makes playing at the Guard less of a pain. 1) Try to play incant units on the same floor if at all possible. Especially Shark Boy with anything that piles on damage. Makes them way better. 2) Don’t be scared to say no to a draft pick. Even ones where you do a challenge for unit draft. Way more than STS a thin deck is very valuable. Especially in a spell focused deck. You shouldn’t be spending much time trying to find units to set out. You want them placed in as survivable situations as possible so that you’re drawing the best spells you can set up every turn. Like, that +1 draw unit was pretty much useless. 3) Please... Yeet the train stewards. Yeet then into oblivion. Yeet them like they’re a Yoshi in a Mario Maker level.
Also want to follow this up with that I’m absolutely loving the content. I want to see you crush this game like you were with Spire. Keep up the great work, NL!
hey nl just a tip for stygian. it may seem like they are kinda spell based, but in my experience, you can pretty much ignore spell upgrades and just go ham on buffing units to make them big. doing that has gotten me some extremely powerful runs by getting minions huge enough to be tanks with multistrike and sweep that apply frostbite on hit. also for the champion you can get apply 10 frostbite on hit, then pivot to the buff that gives him sweep, to apply 10 frsotbite to the entire floor. its not the most consistant, but when it works it is one of the most op builds.
-Has three powered up stings in his hand every turn -Doesn't take the card that enhances all spells in hand Egg, I love the series, but sometimes it's painful to watch
The madman if flexing on us by spreading his incant units across 3 floors, using good units to protect train stewards, removing consume from Channelsong that has been a 1 mana do nothing in the past few fights, skipping that spell damage buff with 3 Holdover Stings, and then with all said and done, winning.
Glad to see NL hopefully finally appreciating Sting a little more. Stygian/Awoken is such a strong pairing and it's carried me through some of the higher covenant ranks. Also, in the future it's usually nice to just stack all of your incant units on a single floor. Being able to essentially add 3-5 extra effects to every single spell you cast on a floor is absolutely pogged.
DUUDE, I couldnt believe that ending either! going from 200ish dmg to fricking letaling him, I didnt think sap could be that insane but when you think about it 40 EXTRA frostbite per sap (aka turn with the boss doing almost no dmg) + all the auto attack dmg did the job, it just needed a couple turns of sap to skyrocket that build. Insane video NL, when you chose to go hard for the build instead of recovering pyre hp when you where at 30hp i knew it was the right choice.
Enemies enter with frostbite 2. Skips it in a Frostbite build. Enemies with higher HP than your champion, you place them behind him. Then you say that the strategy is to stack as much frostbite as possible onto the boss. I hope NL sees what is wrong with these decisions : ) Observation: Flash freeze may be more useful if it is not used to kill creatures with the 3 direct dmg but thinking with the frostbite effect it applies instead. Another observation, imagine what would have happened if instead of choosing sting to upgrade it NL had upgraded a Flash freeze to cost 0 and then duplicated it to fill his deck with them. And what would have happened if he also upgraded it with a second useful perk like double-stack? Then maybe, the incantations that applied frostbite may have been triggered by spells that also applied frostbite causing the frostbite to stack even more? Also, please I hope that NL goes magic bug champion with candle boys as support so maybe he has a chance to win a stygian run since burnout resurrections work wonders with the "frail" stygian units fueled by spells.
Hey NL. Just a heads up. You can turn off the scrolling so that you can cut the accidental spell scrolling out. It has ended a couple of my runs personally. Just go to the settings and it has it's own section. This will help to cut out some BS losses.
NL MY DUDE! you had a 100% guaranteed win(not that it mattered). Harness the Titan, ENHANCES all spells in your hand. That means they get +5 stacking for the fight. That means every time you draw it, all 3 stings(not to mention all other damage) get +5. Woulda gotten 100+ damage stings easily. And you didn't even consider it.
you should stack your incant units on the same floor and always use your spells on that floor get the capacity to summon a mollusc that would improve the spells cast on that floor by making them cheaper or do 7 more damage. consume spell power on basic spells is overpowered and cheep. it does not purge but it allows for strong cheap spells that get removed through the battle
22:11 NL: Are you gonna live with 21? Absolutly not! Me: Is the unit immediatly behind you live if you got 21? 22:20 NL: So you exist right now so that our champion (immeddiatly behind you) put as much frostbite on you. Also NL: Zero is not really what i was looking for there.
Okay. First ever comment here. I want you to do well, you're entertainment at its finest. but, it was hard watch this episode 😂. had a quick scroll, seen some bad advice. (Sorry not sorry) Play by play feedback. 1) champion selection: spell cost decrease is incredible. Frostbite is meh. - other units and spells enable the frostbite win condition - Stygian is a heavy spellcast deck (frost bite and raw damage, with solid Incant enablers). - way more adaptable as It'll work with way more cards. 2)hold over on sting was a misplay / opportunity cost. - eg. very strong on the oyster (draw 1 discard 1) as it works with offering cards & Incant. - 8 frostbite p/turn when given to flash freeze.... Yes please. Especially on main boss floors such as deadulus etc. 3) playing preserve every turn isn't necessary, save it for a situational card. Deffo a card you always pick, unless there's another top tier card to choose from. It doesn't slow your deck, as it stays in your hand. At worst it brings no benefit. You could even freeze dead weight to stop it from circulating. 4) take card draw on the pyre upgrade to enable more spell casting. - with 0 cost units and spells on champion floor (if you took spell cast decrease) you can play your hand every turn. So capitilise with card draw. More card draw the better. -Having the stings without any bonus is still okay with Incant units, but it will slow your deck down. with your composition, stings were bad. You'd expect to go through your deck quickly, rendering hold over on sting useless. 5) only take cards relevant to your win condition. - channel song slowed your deck down, sting slowed you too -basically, keep it thin and only focus on frost bite, damage, and decent hp units. Stygian's are op. Stygian/awoken is very good. Focus on their win conditions (high spell damage + spell weakness. Frostbite + Tanks) Hope you find this helpful Sir, and I look forward to joining you on your journey to covenant 25.
I agree with most of this but there are a couple of things that are debatable. a single level of spell cost reduction is definitely very strong but personally I don't like taking it in my first level unless my opening deck already has powerful, high cost spells. This is because for that level to be good, you need to have already built your deck around it. The frostbite level however deals a lot of damage from the outset and is a good boss killer just as long as you protect it. (My fav level one pick is actually the sweep upgrade but that's another topic.) I agree that holdover on sting is overkill if you don't have a lot of artifact and magic power support but I've still found them good picks in a stygian deck because they're easy incant triggers and they cantrip on a one turn timer. The only other thing I'd say is you talk like there's just one way to win and you have to be hyper focused on one synergy. I've found it useful to tentatively go in a couple of directions with a few speculative and value picks early so that you have more opportunities to pop off from a build defining artifact, event, upgrade ect. THEN you can start focusing harder and harder. Source: Covenant 19 busta and climbing so I must be doing something right at least
Thanks for posting NL. I've been scrubscribed for a few years and never comment on YT, but all your uploads during the day, especially during the past few months working from home always make my day better. Keep on pogging on.
NL there is an option in the menu that allows you to stop from accidentally scrolling when a card is selected (before played). Has saved me from some truly game losing plays.
Nl, what I always enjoy watching of you, is you rarely give up and tend to do nutso pull offs time and again and different strats then I normally would have done. Learn alot of things from your videos and the chat comments below them. Congrats on a deserved hard fought win.
Honestly? Since Daedalus at most, I thought this was doomed and the video was so long because you started a new run. Congrats on hanging up in there until the very end, nice run despite the unoptimal plays and weird deck!
As someone who is stuck at A3, NL, talks about at 5:40 how sting would be good with holdover. But wouldn't it basically be a wash? You'd draw an extra card, but you'd be drawing sting, so you're still technically drawing the same cards. The only upside is an extra 5 damage per turn to the front unit. Am I incorrect?
Hey NL, if you Preserve/Freeze the Deadweight card, you'll always have it set aside and never have to "draw" it again, so you draw more real cards every turn :)
Thats not always true. I had a Stygian/Hellhornrd run that won, my only units were the cheap damage spell champ, 2 of the magic damage plus seven guys. Then just a bunch of draw/offering synergy and damage spells, draw buff artifacts and 3x spell upgrade slots.
The one Stygian run in which he came close to losing 3 times, is the one in which he actually wins, the absolute madman! He saw death flash before his eyes, and defeat whisper on his ears, he threw his hands in the air, and considered rage quitting for the first time on Monster Train, and against all odds he won. I still can't believe it.
The wise thing to do is not to try. The wise thing to do is not to try. The wise thing to do is not to try. The wise thing to do is not to try. The wise thing to do is not to try. The wise thing to do is not to try. The wise thing to do is not to try, and like the video.
I think Stygian builds are hardest to manage because you have to really be on it with your spell management, enemy debuffs, and keeping your debuffing units alive if you want to do any real damage to the boss. The raw damage and health of units in other tribes really just makes them easier to set and forget.
i find stygian with their scaling focuses on incant trigger is begging for focusing on one floor more than other clans. other clans with their scaling mechanic like gorge or burnout/reform allow decent scaling even if you are playing wide, but with incant the limited draw and energy just couldn't scale fast enough if you're trying to play wide. from my experience at least
My first win with Stygian Guard was a Sting + Spell Power + Spell weakness synergy deck. I didn't even get any of the Sting specific artifacts, just Vinemother and went hard on spell power buffs like the cuttlefish dude. Think I also got the generic spell power + 3 artifact, and had the spell that gives your whole hand spell power +5 (which is super pogged with Sting giving you tons of draw). Also stacked up Spell Weakness. Helical Crystals was pogged out of control for that run. I think the best decision I ever made on that run was making the cuttlefish Endless so I could use him on on every floor for the boss fight. Anyway, let's see how this goes
Northern “move the needle” lion
I wish this game had "agnostically" good cards.
Uuju it may ioomol
"A moment of valor shines brightest against a backdrop of despair."
"A trifling victory but a victory nonetheless"
Is this Darkest Dungeon?
These nightmarish creatures can be felled, they can be beaten!
God, Darkest Dungeon has some fantastic quotes. I gotta go back and watch the
S O L E M N V O W series all over again
Many fall in the face of chaos, but not this one, not today
Hello? Am I speaking to Gourd Offices Incorporated? Yes I'd like to order another one. Yes, it got pogged out once more I'm afraid.
Don't know what this means, all I know is yes
Gourds are in short supply but pogs are unlimited
@@Northernlion Thanks for giving the temporary Zoomer-level statisfaction of showing my girlfriend that the streamer replied to my comment
@@SjorsTea the actual dream
@@SjorsTea Once NL liked my comment, so I screenshotted it and showed it to my brother. It was a nice day :)
Seeing NL get consistently bodied is really good for my self-esteem. Being stuck at asc10 myself and seeing him struggle just as much at 7 reinforces that i am indeed no dummy, game is just hard.
im stuck at rank 2 :sob:
It makes sense to hit a bump at 10, the daze effect really changes your options and alters the way you plan things out.
It actually gets a little bit easier after you finish it, but I won't spoil anything. Keep at it! (:
egor you are the GOAT. Просто лучший повар С.Н.Г! Твоя яичница всегда топовая
I couldn't stop winning right up to rank 11 where I lost three times!
@@ewanmaccoll6298 Saaaaamme
Its kinda depressing honestly
Halfway through video, I have a dream he plays multiple incant units on the same floor
Giving Sting holdover so the extra draw it gives is used on itself every turn is some galaxy brain stuff
it turns sting into 15 free damage every turn with no downside
@@godlyvex5543 yeah it's a good strat - incant sting is a decent combo for styg awoken ; NL didn't even use the strong incanters.
Godlyvex5 the downside is you have a sting in your deck that could have been something better with holdover
No hate towards the egg tho. I’m here because I love watching him make these crazy plays :)
@@godlyvex5543 doesn't it cost one drawer every turn?
"I don't care about 3 hp"
-egg
Proceeds to survive the next fight by exactly 3 hp.
okay but the extra hp on the awoken hollow will have saved him more than 3 hp
"None of you have sweep"
The boss: Am I a joke to you?
NL struggling with my best clan, while he dominates with my weakest is pretty interesting. i love this game.
He’s just a unit boi
Same. I have no idea how he does so well with Remnant.
I dont know why people think remnant is bad and stygyian is good
Umbra is the weakest BY FAR cause it really doesnt go with any other faction
Stygyian close second
Best clan is remnant and best supporter is awoken
Thats how i see it, getting a broken remnant run is so damn easy compared to trying to do anything with umbra lmao
Different playstyles i guess
Edit: this is my opinion and should not be taken as fact.
@@masteryinx563 your opinion is something i 100% agree on and i would bet that remnants are top 1 on winrate and hellhorned/awoken is best support, no idea which one would be num. 1 supp.
Umbra is worst supp and main definetly
Out of curiosity, how do you do well with Stygian Guard? I've had some pogged runs with crazy spell weakness stackination (duplicated some multi strike spell weakness sweepers and just destroyed anything that had the audacity to step on the third floor) but usually struggle.
NL: has 3 units with incant triggers
also NL: places them all on different floors
Mere mortal such as us could never hope to see the stellar patterns that are woven inside NL's galaxy-spanning brain.
It’s halfway mesmerizing haha. He’s not bad, so the runs are good enough to watch. But he also keeps the tension high with his galaxy brain inexplicable misplays
Tbh it's not a bad strat when you're up against enemies with Incant & you want to buff your units without also buffing the enemy.
I have no idea how you pulled out the victory at the end there, I was resigned to see another loss but the madman has done it. I am pogging out of my gourd right now, insane comeback and well deserving of a like
Frostbite+sap=win
Watching NL play strategy games is the living embodiment of watching a person solve a math equation, but they make mistakes that somehow always cancel each-other out so he still winds up with the correct solution. And boy is it always exhilarating!
Stacking all of your incants on one floor makes a crazy synergy. Think about the siren with multistrike behind shark boi, in lieu of the sweeping shell. Also don't sleep on frostbite during the boss phase, as frostbite hits each round. As long as your tank can survive a few rounds, the damage gets out of control.
Yeah I've found this to be the way to go with this faction. I often go for the champion that makes damage spells cheaper, get as many incant units as I can fit on one floor, and then just spam spells mindlessly.
Agreed. I was screaming at my laptop when he put that Siren on the 3rd floor >.
The reason you've struggled with the Stygian Guard is that you're aggressively misplaying their core mechanics. In contrast to something like the Remnant where you grasped Reform immediately, you're struggling every battle with the Stygian because you're playing against their strengths not just on every run, but every battle and sometimes every turn.
The most important Stygian mechanic is Incant. Stacking Incant units on the same floor is the entire point of the mechanic. You had a literally perfect floor in that The Winged Horde battle and didn't take it because... you wanted the Siren of the Sea to sit alone on the top floor? It ultimately did nothing in the entire battle, and while you did win despite that, you won't even come close to doing so on higher Covenants.
Stygian almost never wants three floors, because your spells are stronger than your units on average and can cover an "extra" floor. Very few factions want three floors - Remnant is pretty much the only one that does, which is probably why you do best with them - but Stygian wants it the least.
No matter which version of Tethys you use, you NEED to put Tethys at the back of every formation. You consistently put the Glacial Seal behind Tethys; what was it going to do if Tethys died to a boss? It would die with no effect. By contrast it being in front could sometimes buy Tethys one more hit of Frostbite.
In general, Channelsong tends to be a very bad card.
Hey, your advice helped me win a run, I stacked some incant units and spammed the living shit out of spells and it worked out great. Thanks for helping me understand Stygians, I figured they would be the hardest for me to learn.
I love your Monster Train content because you're not perfect (like all of us), but you're by far the most entertaining to learn from your mistakes. Here's what I learned today:
When you choose the frostbite Stygian build, your champion's life is SOOOO valuable. 40 frostbite per attack is a really fast snowball (pun intended) to tons of damage every turn of a relentless boss fight if you can keep that champion alive.
Just thinking about the frostbite from your champion's attacks, the damage stacks up so fast that it's hard to imagine without doing the math.
T1: 60dmg on attack, 40dmg on frostbite at end of turn, reduce frostbite by 1.
T2: 60dmg on attack, 79dmg on frostbite at end of turn, reduce frostbite by 1.
T3: 60dmg on attack, 118dmg on frostbite at end of turn, reduce frostbite by 1.
T4: 60dmg on attack, 157 on frostbite at end of turn, reduce frostbite by 1.
4 attacks from your champion leads to a total of 634 damage, then another 150+ for each turn of the next 7 turns EVEN WITH YOUR CHAMPION DEAD. If your champion lives another turn, the numbers get higher even faster.
That holdover sting was a 80 IQ play.
But when you stumbled into an incant floor deck, it became a 200 IQ play.
“But you don’t do that much damage on this floor. Why am I trying to keep you alive?” I don’t know NL, why don’t you tell me when you had a scaling incant damage dealer in the front that would’ve synergized with the great scaling incant tank that’s currently protecting two train stewards. 😂 My man had 3 0 cost spells on holdover and none of his three incant units were on the same floor that fight. The man can be a genius but the missed opportunities hurt me deep in my soul...
Edit: AND HE WINS THIS MAN IS INCREDIBLE. He’s beaten his kryptonite and has my respect
The refusal to build an "incant floor" when playing as the Stygian Guard is just embarrassing.
@@TalixZen I mean no need to say itäs embarassing, it's just a youtube streamer.
But this IS the reason I now bought the game for myself. To build an actual well synergized incant deck.
NL really needs to appreciate how strong frostbite is on bosses, and how doublestack makes frostbite grow insanely fast
Keep up the pogged content NL
I love this series! Thanks for the constant entertainment, NL. Keep up the good work. Miscellaneous tips below if you want to read 'em.
Please take a second before every fight to think about how to beat the minor bosses. They show you in advance if the last guy will have stealth 8 or sweep, and you can counter it accordingly.
Also, every time you see a card, unit, relic, or upgrade and say, "Ewww that's SO bad!" I think "That's so good!" Not that it's essential on every run, but it definitely has a compelling use case. Like the relic that gives all enemy units Frostbite 2 would've instantly killed every support unit in the very next fight. Also, this was a few episodes ago, but Harvest giving Rector Flicker +5 HP is how I've won several Remnant runs. Never completely dismiss an item in this game-it's there for a reason. Sometimes you just haven't seen it yet.
One more thing: you said you need to draw "Ice and Pyre" at exactly the right time. That's when permafrost is good. You didn't have the chance to get it, but I just wanted to mention since you've said permafrost is bad in the past.
EDIT: LET'S GOOOO he froze Ice and Pyre the absolute legend
EDIT 2: THE GREATEST COMEBACK STORY IN THE HISTORY OF MONSTER TRAIN WOW!!! Pogs all around
Harness the Titan with 3 Stings in hand would've been OP man!! Tks for the content, love the series
NL won the run after assuming he was dead, like, 3 separate times. The man's ego is shattered. This is a big yup for him.
It was so insanely difficult to not mouse over the video to see how much time was left and spoil whether you win or lose; amazing run
Is this finally going to be the run NL learns about the POGifficity of Frostbite?
EDIT: Not exactly but this man is a GOD!
Is the run were he learns about the POGifficity of Sap.
Me: the way he's playing, I don't think NL is gonna make it this round
NL: I can't believe I've made it this far
Also NL: this accomplishment is a testiment to decent gameplay and good decisions.
As someone who's currently up to covenant 19, these runs have me malding out of control but enelle is such a likeable guy that I watch anyway.
Freezing the curse is actually incredible since you stop drawing it!
Man, genuinely NL is one of the best dudes out there, especially right now when pogs are more needed than they've ever been
He came so close to figuring out that you want to put your incants all on one floor if you can help it. He came so very close! I saw the cogs turning behind his eyes! Kinda bummer that he didn't get the Sting synergy artifacts after going all in on Stings though.
NL I basically never comment on videos, but I gotta tell you I’m loving this series. It has enough progression with the covenant levels and individual character victories to keep each episode exciting. Please keep this one going! :)
Just realized that NL is legit pumping out content at a faster rate and at a higher quality than maybe any other content creator in the history of RUclips. Bless be the Gods that gave us this Egg.
You will calm down right now.
There were some seriously close calls in this one. One of the best episodes so far! That sap at the end didn't just move the needle, it buried it in another dimension.
In the off chance that NL reads this--and really just for anyone who might be interested, the Stygian frostbite champion is one of the strongest boss killing champions in the game, if not the strongest. Fully upgraded, he does 100 damage per turn, which is a lot already but 40 is frostbite. This means that on turn two, he's contributing 139, then 178, and up and up. If you can protect him (sweep and spikes counter him), then he'll take down pretty much anything with relentless. NL's mistake was that he didn't really upgrade units to protect him or think of protecting him as a top priority, but he still won so kudos for that.
He had a 25 hp tank in the final battle 😂, if he didn’t get lucky and draw his doublestack sap he was toast.
I am POGGED out of my GOURD on this Monster Train series
NL's First Law of Deckbuilding Roguelites: For every bad play he makes, he makes a play equal to or greater than the bad play, resulting in massive pogging of the gourd.
The stygians struggle a bit early in my experience, but if you build it right, they are monsters by the end of a run. You should never lose a stygian run if you got far enough to reach the boss.
Frost is one of the most efficient boss killers in the game, especially if you have the one that doubles frost (hello, catalyst silent). Spell weakness allows you to inflict consistant and massive frontloaded damage on all units nearly every turns and can take care of most beefy units almost all by itself. Spell spam stygian is incredible with incants and usually can easily overcome any form of the last boss, Siren units are just really good. The sharks make great defensive units, whereas the sirens are incredible damage dealers. Stygians have most of the best damage spells in the game.
Your champion is weak to things like sweep, but by the end of the run you can turn him into a monster. I especially like mixing the frostbite uprade with the sweep+spell weakness upgrade.
Stygians really shine with spell upgrades, holdover and double stack are just perfect for their spells. If you're not going for a spell spam build, you should try to have a few really good spells. Stygians usually have no issue dealing with backlines.
They pair best with Umbra or Awoken in my opinion. Awoken is a spell based, support clan with a lot of draw and heals which are both things Stygians really benefit from. They can also descend units to create strong incant floors, and give quick to your sweep units so that they can do their job before dying despite having low hp. With hellhorned i'd recommend trying to create strong incant units or go for an armor shark build. Remnants have a few nice spells, but overall they don't have a lot of synergies. They are best just doing their own things together.
All of this is just my experience though.
I like putting Hold over on a doublestack Flash freeze. Targeting 16 stacks of frostbite per turn can really add up in boss fights.
The awoken hallow and siren of the sea are the dream combo. That's the most consistent way to win imo.giving him tons of regen and her multistrike is really all you need.
So, just to give some advise from my own MT experiences after watching this one on what makes playing at the Guard less of a pain. 1) Try to play incant units on the same floor if at all possible. Especially Shark Boy with anything that piles on damage. Makes them way better. 2) Don’t be scared to say no to a draft pick. Even ones where you do a challenge for unit draft. Way more than STS a thin deck is very valuable. Especially in a spell focused deck. You shouldn’t be spending much time trying to find units to set out. You want them placed in as survivable situations as possible so that you’re drawing the best spells you can set up every turn. Like, that +1 draw unit was pretty much useless. 3) Please... Yeet the train stewards. Yeet then into oblivion. Yeet them like they’re a Yoshi in a Mario Maker level.
Also want to follow this up with that I’m absolutely loving the content. I want to see you crush this game like you were with Spire. Keep up the great work, NL!
This man has mastered the art of title intrigue I can't help but be pogged in my blood
hey nl just a tip for stygian. it may seem like they are kinda spell based, but in my experience, you can pretty much ignore spell upgrades and just go ham on buffing units to make them big. doing that has gotten me some extremely powerful runs by getting minions huge enough to be tanks with multistrike and sweep that apply frostbite on hit. also for the champion you can get apply 10 frostbite on hit, then pivot to the buff that gives him sweep, to apply 10 frsotbite to the entire floor. its not the most consistant, but when it works it is one of the most op builds.
I honestly won a run by getting the sweep champion and feeding her ten million morsels.
-Has three powered up stings in his hand every turn
-Doesn't take the card that enhances all spells in hand
Egg, I love the series, but sometimes it's painful to watch
The madman if flexing on us by spreading his incant units across 3 floors, using good units to protect train stewards, removing consume from Channelsong that has been a 1 mana do nothing in the past few fights, skipping that spell damage buff with 3 Holdover Stings, and then with all said and done, winning.
Oh noooo haha you won but you made a mistake...big fan btw. Come on man, just pog up with the rest of us.
Are the comments bullying NL? Because he seems to have been as-salt-ed.
Even with your back against the wall, the pogging doesn't stop. He was like a shonen protagonist with those plays
Glad to see NL hopefully finally appreciating Sting a little more. Stygian/Awoken is such a strong pairing and it's carried me through some of the higher covenant ranks.
Also, in the future it's usually nice to just stack all of your incant units on a single floor. Being able to essentially add 3-5 extra effects to every single spell you cast on a floor is absolutely pogged.
DUUDE, I couldnt believe that ending either! going from 200ish dmg to fricking letaling him, I didnt think sap could be that insane but when you think about it 40 EXTRA frostbite per sap (aka turn with the boss doing almost no dmg) + all the auto attack dmg did the job, it just needed a couple turns of sap to skyrocket that build.
Insane video NL, when you chose to go hard for the build instead of recovering pyre hp when you where at 30hp i knew it was the right choice.
Enemies enter with frostbite 2. Skips it in a Frostbite build.
Enemies with higher HP than your champion, you place them behind him. Then you say that the strategy is to stack as much frostbite as possible onto the boss.
I hope NL sees what is wrong with these decisions : )
Observation: Flash freeze may be more useful if it is not used to kill creatures with the 3 direct dmg but thinking with the frostbite effect it applies instead.
Another observation, imagine what would have happened if instead of choosing sting to upgrade it NL had upgraded a Flash freeze to cost 0 and then duplicated it to fill his deck with them. And what would have happened if he also upgraded it with a second useful perk like double-stack? Then maybe, the incantations that applied frostbite may have been triggered by spells that also applied frostbite causing the frostbite to stack even more?
Also, please I hope that NL goes magic bug champion with candle boys as support so maybe he has a chance to win a stygian run since burnout resurrections work wonders with the "frail" stygian units fueled by spells.
Hey NL.
Just a heads up.
You can turn off the scrolling so that you can cut the accidental spell scrolling out.
It has ended a couple of my runs personally.
Just go to the settings and it has it's own section. This will help to cut out some BS losses.
NL playing has legit taught me so much
I hope not.
You mean he's taught you what not to do,right?
Spend 1 energy to heal 3 health or 1 energy to give a unit +3/3 for the rest of the level.
Northernlion: Heal 3 health every time
My soul hurts when I look at your pyre health, I am in amazement, pure amazement
NL: I need to put as much Frostbite on the boss as possible.
NL, 5 seconds later: Putting 8 Frostbite on you doesn't really interest me that much.
41:50 Gotta wait to play it at the right time? iF OnLy tHeRe wAs a mEcHaNiC ThAt dId tHaT. Especially one that's already in your deck.
the magical poggerino is beyond what my soul can take
NL MY DUDE! you had a 100% guaranteed win(not that it mattered).
Harness the Titan, ENHANCES all spells in your hand. That means they get +5 stacking for the fight. That means every time you draw it, all 3 stings(not to mention all other damage) get +5. Woulda gotten 100+ damage stings easily. And you didn't even consider it.
This run had me on the edge of my seat the WHOLE time. Keep up the sick plays egg.
SPOILERS:
11:30 Seen here: the 2020 reemergence (if a bit brief) of LionDemon, you scared the living shit out of me eggdad
That look at the original artifact was priceless.
Watching you play Monster Train has been more enjoyable than any so far. Your commentary is great and you're hilarious. Great job, win or lose. :)
Styg awoken is basically broken. Sap and frostbite are op. It’s carried me to asc 15 already.
I prefer styg hell, but they are both good. Just got my 3rd victory on asc 25
you should stack your incant units on the same floor and always use your spells on that floor get the capacity to summon a mollusc that would improve the spells cast on that floor by making them cheaper or do 7 more damage. consume spell power on basic spells is overpowered and cheep. it does not purge but it allows for strong cheap spells that get removed through the battle
22:11 NL: Are you gonna live with 21? Absolutly not!
Me: Is the unit immediatly behind you live if you got 21?
22:20 NL: So you exist right now so that our champion (immeddiatly behind you) put as much frostbite on you.
Also NL: Zero is not really what i was looking for there.
Once again NL snatches victory from the jaws of defeat from the jaws of victory.
Incredible play, Ryan! From almost rage quit to Victory!
Massive comeback, you love to see it. And with the Stygian Guard no less.
This run is really just goes to show how quickly things can turns around
The music in this game is so unexpectedly good
Okay. First ever comment here. I want you to do well, you're entertainment at its finest. but, it was hard watch this episode 😂.
had a quick scroll, seen some bad advice. (Sorry not sorry)
Play by play feedback.
1) champion selection: spell cost decrease is incredible. Frostbite is meh.
- other units and spells enable the frostbite win condition
- Stygian is a heavy spellcast deck (frost bite and raw damage, with solid Incant enablers).
- way more adaptable as It'll work with way more cards.
2)hold over on sting was a misplay / opportunity cost.
- eg. very strong on the oyster (draw 1 discard 1) as it works with offering cards & Incant.
- 8 frostbite p/turn when given to flash freeze.... Yes please. Especially on main boss floors such as deadulus etc.
3) playing preserve every turn isn't necessary, save it for a situational card. Deffo a card you always pick, unless there's another top tier card to choose from. It doesn't slow your deck, as it stays in your hand. At worst it brings no benefit. You could even freeze dead weight to stop it from circulating.
4) take card draw on the pyre upgrade to enable more spell casting.
- with 0 cost units and spells on champion floor (if you took spell cast decrease) you can play your hand every turn. So capitilise with card draw. More card draw the better.
-Having the stings without any bonus is still okay with Incant units, but it will slow your deck down. with your composition, stings were bad. You'd expect to go through your deck quickly, rendering hold over on sting useless.
5) only take cards relevant to your win condition.
- channel song slowed your deck down, sting slowed you too
-basically, keep it thin and only focus on frost bite, damage, and decent hp units.
Stygian's are op. Stygian/awoken is very good. Focus on their win conditions (high spell damage + spell weakness. Frostbite + Tanks)
Hope you find this helpful Sir, and I look forward to joining you on your journey to covenant 25.
I agree with most of this but there are a couple of things that are debatable. a single level of spell cost reduction is definitely very strong but personally I don't like taking it in my first level unless my opening deck already has powerful, high cost spells. This is because for that level to be good, you need to have already built your deck around it. The frostbite level however deals a lot of damage from the outset and is a good boss killer just as long as you protect it. (My fav level one pick is actually the sweep upgrade but that's another topic.)
I agree that holdover on sting is overkill if you don't have a lot of artifact and magic power support but I've still found them good picks in a stygian deck because they're easy incant triggers and they cantrip on a one turn timer.
The only other thing I'd say is you talk like there's just one way to win and you have to be hyper focused on one synergy. I've found it useful to tentatively go in a couple of directions with a few speculative and value picks early so that you have more opportunities to pop off from a build defining artifact, event, upgrade ect. THEN you can start focusing harder and harder.
Source: Covenant 19 busta and climbing so I must be doing something right at least
Thanks for posting NL. I've been scrubscribed for a few years and never comment on YT, but all your uploads during the day, especially during the past few months working from home always make my day better. Keep on pogging on.
this win was totally deserved on one hand but totally not deserved on the other! I've been on the edge of my seat the entire time godammit
That “that’s one of the worst ways to go” line really got me
NL there is an option in the menu that allows you to stop from accidentally scrolling when a card is selected (before played). Has saved me from some truly game losing plays.
The most POG thing about this is that the next run wont be a Stygian Guard
run dude!
You did wonderfully, NL. Brought that run back from the brink of despair with some clever play. Thanks as always for this content!
Sap really came in the clutch there superb spell selection.
Nl, what I always enjoy watching of you, is you rarely give up and tend to do nutso pull offs time and again and different strats then I normally would have done. Learn alot of things from your videos and the chat comments below them. Congrats on a deserved hard fought win.
stygian with Hoarfrost Effigy is so good against bosses who are always there, in around 6-7 rounds you can get 999 stacks no problem
Honestly? Since Daedalus at most, I thought this was doomed and the video was so long because you started a new run. Congrats on hanging up in there until the very end, nice run despite the unoptimal plays and weird deck!
As someone who is stuck at A3, NL, talks about at 5:40 how sting would be good with holdover. But wouldn't it basically be a wash? You'd draw an extra card, but you'd be drawing sting, so you're still technically drawing the same cards. The only upside is an extra 5 damage per turn to the front unit. Am I incorrect?
5 dmg + incant abilities for free... + potential mollusk mage... + potential sting artifact... yeah its good.
I'm so happy for you dude, this was a victory all deserved and in true Ryan fashion.
I have to say well done. I've been sleeping on sap in my own runs for a while, but not after this.
what a cool run, that was incredibly intense the whole way through
What a goddamn run, I was mentally prepared for you to go to the daily towards the start there!
Hey NL, if you Preserve/Freeze the Deadweight card, you'll always have it set aside and never have to "draw" it again, so you draw more real cards every turn :)
with stygian guard you need to build strong units because it is easier to get strong spells to find strong spells.
Thats not always true.
I had a Stygian/Hellhornrd run that won, my only units were the cheap damage spell champ, 2 of the magic damage plus seven guys.
Then just a bunch of draw/offering synergy and damage spells, draw buff artifacts and 3x spell upgrade slots.
Why does this madman refuse to put the incant units ON THE SAME FLOOR, arrrrgh. Father, please, I'm malding here. Great episode tho
Amazing run NL! Love to see the Stygian win finally!
This is my favorite episode of the series so far. it made me laugh so hard. Love this LP!
The one Stygian run in which he came close to losing 3 times, is the one in which he actually wins, the absolute madman!
He saw death flash before his eyes, and defeat whisper on his ears, he threw his hands in the air, and considered rage quitting for the first time on Monster Train, and against all odds he won.
I still can't believe it.
You played amazing this run! I love this series.
I normally make jokes here but I love when NL posts a Monster Train episode. Thanks for all the great content egg!
The wise thing to do is not to try. The wise thing to do is not to try. The wise thing to do is not to try. The wise thing to do is not to try. The wise thing to do is not to try. The wise thing to do is not to try. The wise thing to do is not to try, and like the video.
Frostbite + Tanky units, the reason I love Awoken + Stygian the most
I think Stygian builds are hardest to manage because you have to really be on it with your spell management, enemy debuffs, and keeping your debuffing units alive if you want to do any real damage to the boss. The raw damage and health of units in other tribes really just makes them easier to set and forget.
i find stygian with their scaling focuses on incant trigger is begging for focusing on one floor more than other clans. other clans with their scaling mechanic like gorge or burnout/reform allow decent scaling even if you are playing wide, but with incant the limited draw and energy just couldn't scale fast enough if you're trying to play wide. from my experience at least
My first win with Stygian Guard was a Sting + Spell Power + Spell weakness synergy deck. I didn't even get any of the Sting specific artifacts, just Vinemother and went hard on spell power buffs like the cuttlefish dude. Think I also got the generic spell power + 3 artifact, and had the spell that gives your whole hand spell power +5 (which is super pogged with Sting giving you tons of draw). Also stacked up Spell Weakness. Helical Crystals was pogged out of control for that run.
I think the best decision I ever made on that run was making the cuttlefish Endless so I could use him on on every floor for the boss fight.
Anyway, let's see how this goes
NL learning the magic of sap and frostbite easiest like of my life!
When he started thanking everyone for the support at the beginning I thought he was gonna end the series. I got so freaking scared dude
32:43 i mean, with her death you lose the ability to deal a lot of frostblight damage to the boss in the final wave, so id say thats pretty bad
Monster. Train. Glad I found your channel!
I had some criticism on your play..but you won. I don't think I could have salvaged this run. Very nicely played.
This is like the third game i bought because of your content, after isaac and Slay the Spire.
Keep up the awesome videos!
stygian guard can own really hard but I feel how well you do comes down to what free cards you get at the beginning