An Ironclad infinite does not have to begin as a five-card deck. A more practical route is to draft a normal 20–40 card list that can beat hallway fights, then deliberately exhaust it down during a long combat until only a repeatable engine remains. The run is won by surviving the compression process—not by skipping every useful card in pursuit of a screenshot-worthy deck size.
How this differs from the two-card Strike infinite
A rigid combo asks you to find exact pieces and remove everything else. Exhaust-down play starts with a functioning deck. Burning Pact, Second Wind, True Grit, Fiend Fire, and sometimes Corruption remove temporary attacks, defensive cards, and situational answers after those cards have done their jobs. Dark Embrace replaces exhausted cards, while Feel No Pain helps you survive the setup turns.
The final handful may form a true infinite, a near-infinite, or simply a compact loop that scales faster than the boss. The important win condition is repeatability after compression, not whether a counter reaches infinity.
The four layers of a reliable deck
1. Front-loaded damage
Act 1 and Act 2 hallway fights will not wait for a ten-turn engine. Draft attacks that remove immediate threats. These cards are not a mistake: Fiend Fire, Second Wind, or targeted exhaust can clear them later in long fights.
2. Defense during setup
You need ordinary Block, Weak, or Strength reduction for turns one through three. Feel No Pain is powerful support, but relying on it as your only defense makes early draw order lethal.
3. Draw plus controlled exhaust
Burning Pact is valuable because it selects what leaves and helps find the next component. Random or mass exhaust is safest after you understand which cards must remain. Dark Embrace increases velocity, but extra draw without enough energy or hand space can still stall.
4. A repeatable end state
Before exhausting aggressively, identify the cards that will generate damage, Block, draw, and energy once the deck is small. A loop that draws forever but cannot block or kill is not a win condition.
Act-by-act route
Act 1: build a deck that wins now
Take enough damage for elites and acquire at least one dependable block tool. Burning Pact is usually more useful than paying repeatedly for shop removals because it remains draw and targeted compression in every long fight. Do not take several speculative engine powers while your basic combats remain unsolved.
Act 2: add the compression package
This is where Dark Embrace and Feel No Pain begin to multiply the value of cards you already wanted. Second Wind can turn unused defensive or status cards into survival; Fiend Fire can end a hallway fight or remove unwanted attacks from a boss cycle. Decide which cards are temporary and which must form the final engine.
Act 3: rehearse the end state
In manageable fights, practice the order of operations. Which card is exhausted first? Can a necessary draw card accidentally disappear? What happens when the boss adds statuses or disrupts your hand? Stop adding cards that do not improve the opening cycle, compression safety, or final loop.
Corruption is a tool, not an automatic answer
Corruption can be the fastest exhaust engine, but it may consume the Skills you need for sustained Block. It is strongest when another defensive solution survives after Skills disappear, or when the fight ends before that cost matters. In a long boss fight, you may even need to exhaust Corruption itself rather than play it immediately.
Removal and upgrade priorities
Removing a weak basic attack can help, but an extra targeted exhaust card often contributes more than another expensive shop removal. Upgrade cards that improve first-cycle survival, energy, or selective compression. The goal is not the smallest deck on the map; it is the safest route to a small deck inside combat.
Common failure modes
- Skipping frontload: the theoretical loop dies in Act 2.
- Exhausting the wrong card: the deck becomes small but no longer complete.
- Draw without energy: Dark Embrace fills the hand and the turn stops.
- No defensive end state: the loop deals damage but loses the race.
- Playing Corruption automatically: essential Skills disappear before the fight is under control.
Pre-boss checklist
Name your final damage source, Block source, draw source, and energy source. Then list the cards that can safely disappear. If you cannot do both, you have an exhaust deck, but not yet an exhaust-down loop. Play it as a strong value deck until the missing role appears.
Source and editorial note
This guide is an original synthesis of a detailed post by an A10 Ironclad player with an estimated 50% win rate. The central insight is that a consistent infinite can begin as a conventional large deck and shrink through controlled exhaust during combat: The Infinite Misconception. It intentionally does not repeat our existing two-card Strike infinite article.
Compiled from public community analysis. Early Access balance and encounter rules may change; verify against the current patch.
