Ironclad Builds — Dominate Engine & Exhaust/Body Slam (Slay the Spire 2)
Two complete Ironclad builds for Slay the Spire 2: the Vulnerability-to-Strength Dominate engine and the Exhaust/Block Body Slam deck, with core cards, avoids and patch notes.
The Ironclad wins Slay the Spire 2 through Vulnerability. The character's best card, Dominate, gains Strength for every Vulnerability on the enemy — which turns an old status debuff into the fuel for a scaling engine. This page covers both complete build paths: the Dominate engine (the consistent pick) and the Exhaust/Block engine with Body Slam (the tank-kill alternative).
Transparency note: the dedicated community build posts for Ironclad were blocked (403) at collection time, so this page is built from the full card-by-card Ironclad review (Baalorlord's tier breakdown, ~91k views) cross-checked against the community card table — see the Tier List for the complete rankings.
Archetype 1: The Dominate Engine (Vulnerability → Strength)
The plan: apply Vulnerability, then convert it. Dominate gives you one Strength for each Vulnerability on the enemy plus an immediate Vulnerability — one card that adds both flat damage and multiplies your total damage. Multiple copies scale with each other: more Vuln application means more Strength means bigger hits that apply more Vuln.
The engine core:
| Card | Role |
|---|---|
| Dominate (S) | The payoff — Strength per Vulnerability, applies one on play, scales with itself |
| Bloodletting (S) | Reusable Energy generation; the best enabler on the character |
| Pommel Strike (S) | Damage + draw in one card |
| Battle Trance (S) | Draw three at zero cost — feeds everything |
| Expect a Fight (A) | Energy for each Attack in hand; Ironclad fills his hand with attacks easily |
| Headbutt (A) | Puts your best card back on top of the draw pile — replay your strongest play |
| Tremble (B) | Splashable Vulnerability applier; activates exhaust payoffs too |
The Vuln appliers that feed Dominate: Bash (your starter, C-tier but functional), Tremble, Thunderclap (Vuln on all enemies — sets up multi-target turns), and Molten Fist in a pinch. Once two or more Vulnerability stacks are on the target, Bully — a zero-cost Attack that scales its damage with the target's Vulnerability count — starts hitting like a premium card.
Archetype 2: Exhaust / Block Engine with Body Slam
The alternative plan: build an exhaust loop that generates enormous Block, then kill with Body Slam — an Attack that hits for your current Block, and upgrades to zero cost.
The engine core:
| Card | Role |
|---|---|
| Feel No Pain (A) | Gain Block whenever a card is exhausted — the archetype's backbone |
| Evil Eye (B/S*) | Eight Block, doubled if you exhausted a card this turn — "ludicrously efficient" when triggered |
| Burning Pact (A) | Draw two plus exhaust a card — fuels and filters at once |
| True Grit (C) | Exhaust a card for Block; upgrade it to choose the target |
| Ashen Strike (B) | Damage that scales with your exhaust pile — "easy to see this doing 100 damage" |
| Forgotten Ritual (B) | One-time big Energy if you exhausted this turn |
| Body Slam (C→win condition) | Hits for your Block; upgraded it costs zero — a deck can win with this as its only Attack |
How it plays: exhaust cheaply and repeatedly (True Grit, Burning Pact, status-cleansing), bank Block through Feel No Pain and Evil Eye, then slam. The asterisk on Evil Eye: the video review ranks it S-tier, the community table B — it's exactly the kind of card whose stock rises the longer a run goes.
The Strikes Strategy (Why Ironclad Keeps His Deck)
Uniquely among the five characters, the Ironclad wants his starting Strikes: Strength and Vulnerability scale them, Strike Dummy multiplies them, and enchantments can make them free (the guide's example: a soup enchantment that makes every Strike cost zero, then draw your whole deck and play them all). Don't auto-remove Strikes the way you would on other characters.
What to Avoid
From the current card table's D tier and the review's C-tier warnings: Havoc (plays a random card from the top of your deck — can wipe your hand), Sword Boomerang (random-target damage that needs support it can't find), Demon Form (too slow for the current meta), Barricade and — before the v0.111.0 buff — Juggernaut (5(7)→6(8) damage; D-tier cards don't usually get real buffs like this, so watch it climb).
Patch Sensitivity
Ironclad's core (Bloodletting, Dominate, Colossus, Battle Trance) has been stable across recent patches, but this is a bi-weekly-balance game — check the Patch Notes and the Tier List updated date before you commit. For the other four characters, see the Builds overview.