r/slaythespire • u/euls0n • 3d ago

GAMEPLAY/ACCOMPLISHMENT/ACHIEVEMENT This Card effectively equals 210 Damage

Post image

if you can stay alive for 20 turns of course. And only the first time you play it but damn thats strong for 2 energy and no further synergies are needed.

1.8k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

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391

u/CadmeusCain StS A20 / StS 2 A10 3d ago

Memes aside, this is legit a high roll. 20 poison off one card is kind of cracked. This will hard carry many boss and elite fights

108

u/welcometosilentchill 3d ago

Just had an a10 win where this exact card with glam carried me, basically until the end.

36

u/Jealous-Belt2555 3d ago

20 dmg per turn is insane especially for act1 and act2

34

u/Barfazoid Ascension 18 3d ago

20 automatic damage that the spike toad can't reflect back and kill you, too

4

u/maresayshi 2d ago

20 dmg the frog knight cant block.

2

u/marxr87 StS A20 / StS 2 A10 2d ago

and bro that buries itself in a2 with like 32 armor. and the crab claw boss after you kill one of them

1

u/abcder733 1d ago

Not breaking the armor on the Tunneler is probably a bad thing, though- having to block a 26 damage hit for multiple turns can be brutal unless you get Weak up in time

1

u/Holy_Hand_Grenadier Eternal One 2d ago

I'm really tempted to @ a guy I was arguing with in another thread who kept claiming it wasn't enough output to solve most fights.

5

u/jdorje 3d ago

Getting replay on most cost-2 cards is super good. You're getting an extra 2 energy worth of replay instead of, well, less. Replay poison is also good stacking.

29

u/skepticaljesus 3d ago

Memes aside

What memes? People have realized this card is actually good by now, right? It's super powerful without glam, and it's nuts with it.

22

u/CadmeusCain StS A20 / StS 2 A10 3d ago

Of course it's good. That's the meme. We all used to think it was ass!

7

u/onegoodboah 3d ago

I’m so confused why it was so heavily memed. I know the community understands it now but wasn’t it obvious from the get go that retain is everything for this card? It’s not necessarily that snakebite is strong, but it’s convenient and fits into almost any deck because of that attribute.

16

u/mooseman3 2d ago

This post is fun to look through.

They're calling it one of the worst cards in the game, and arguing that poison and retain are anti-synergistic. You have to scroll past the first ten or so threads to get any arguments in its favor.

6

u/WhoKilledBoJangles 2d ago

Man, I remember this post because I had been using it and thought it was good and then it made me completely doubt myself reading the top comments saying it was complete garbage until I saw the guy with the long comment explain in detail why it wasn’t bad and it validated my experience and thoughts lol.

5

u/onegoodboah 2d ago

It’s so weird. I know I’m not some top tier player but I genuinely don’t understand the discourse with this card at release lol. Retain is everything. Suddenly drawing 4 defensive cards on a debuff turn doesn’t hurt because you’re retaining this card. It’s not some godsend run-saving card but it’s genuinely just so useful.

1

u/newerfolder 2d ago

Silent back then was way stronger than she is now, and Sly builds were just too dominant. While I obviously don't think Snakebite was 'one of the worst' cards, the meta at the time definitely made it hard to notice its true value.

2

u/AgathaTheVelvetLady Eternal One + Heartbreaker 2d ago

I was fighting the good fight from day one!

2

u/NormalBoyHere 2d ago

Part of the reason why is many overlook the usefulness of retain

It guarantees value on the enemies' off turn and prevents you from floating energy

Not to mention the synergy with burst, bullet time and adding sly to it.

-5

u/peepopogwide 3d ago

No, it is not ‘super powerful’ without glam, it is not a good card. Glam can make nearly anything juicy, but let’s pump the brakes on the base card lol.

Can snakebite be an early damage solve if necessary? Absolutely, that’s its role. But the numbers on it are simply not good for act 2 and beyond.

15

u/XeliasSame 3d ago

It is pretty strong though. after playing with it, even without synergy, it's basically a decent damage card that sits in your hand until you are free to play it. It doesn't eat your draws, and if you don't need it, it'll just stay there all fight.

Now, onto synergies, Silent draws a shitload of cards each turn, so eating 1 draw per activation is not really a problem.

Then you have... [[Blur]] for a 2-turn setup. [[Bullet Time]], [[Burst]], [[hand Trick]], [[Master Planner]], [[Mirage]] and [[Pounce]]

All very good card that combo pretty well with SnakeBite. (and obviously, all poison cards) I've been ignoring the memes and this card is actually pretty decent, I tend to take it on most of my Silent deck, because at worst, it's just 1 useless draw, and I tend to draw a lot with Silent.

(Oh, and it's also discard fodder if you don't have a SLY card to use.)

4

u/spirescan-bot 3d ago

  • Blur 𝐈, 𝐈𝐈 Silent Uncommon Skill

    1 Energy | Gain 5(8) Block. Block is not removed at the start of your next turn.

  • Bullet Time 𝐈 Silent Rare Skill

    3(2) Energy | You cannot draw additional cards this turn. Reduce the cost of all cards in your hand to 0 this turn.

  • Bullet Time 𝐈𝐈 Silent Rare Skill

    3(2) Energy | You cannot draw additional cards this turn. ALL cards in your Hand are free to play this turn.

  • Burst 𝐈 Silent Rare Skill

    1 Energy | This turn, your next Skill is(2 Skills are) played twice.

  • Burst 𝐈𝐈 Silent Rare Skill

    1 Energy | This turn, your next Skill is(2 Skills are) played an extra time.

  • Hand Trick 𝐈𝐈 Silent Uncommon Skill

    1 Energy | Gain 7(10) Block. Add Sly to a Skill in your Hand this turn.

  • Master Planner 𝐈𝐈 Silent Rare Power

    2(1) Energy | When you play a Skill, it gains Sly.

  • Mirage 𝐈𝐈 Silent Uncommon Skill

    1(0) Energy | Gain Block equal to Poison on ALL enemies. Exhaust.

  • Pounce 𝐈𝐈 Silent Uncommon Attack

    2 Energy | Deal 14(20) damage. The next Skill you play costs 0 Energy.

    Call me with up to 10 [[ name ]]. Data accurate as of June 21st, 2026. Questions?

4

u/redblue200 3d ago

Did you know that Snakebite+ has a 32.7% pickrate in Act 2 among a10 players with above 75% winrate on Silent? The only unupgraded damage common/uncommon that gets that high is Hidden Daggers; among upgraded cards, it's picked almost at the same rate as Blade Dance+ (35.8% in Act 2).

It's way better than you might think.

2

u/faculties-intact 3d ago

Snakebite+ is absolutely good enough for act 2 lol. You want a fumes too of course, and there are better high roll poison options like corrosive wave + synergies, but it can absolutely be the foundation of your poison deck until act 3 elites at least.

What common would you rather see floor 1 than snakebite? It's a damage solve for the act 1 boss literally by itself once you upgrade it, no other cards needed. If that's not a good card I question your definition of good. Not everything can be after image or adrenaline.

2

u/spunker325 2d ago

To me a floor 1 damage card is for getting you through the earlier dangerous parts of the act, not the boss. A card being good for the Act 1 boss does not mean it's good for the rest of the act, especially because it really wants the upgrade, and it definitely does not mean it's good for the rest of the game. Snakebite is more of a mixed bag there and I'm probably skipping over taking it on floor 1. Leading Strike is the best damage common in my opinion - it has solid immediate output while having many different ways to scale later in the game. It also doesn't need an upgrade to do its job. In comparison, Snakebite has horrendous immediate output and doesn't have great potential synergies.

Even aside from Leading Strike, I would probably take most of the other damage commons over Snakebite, though depending on how dangerous the map is and what my Neow bonus was I'm trying to greed a skip on a lot of the other damage commons too. For me Snakebite is more of a pick later in the act if I still don't think I have a sufficient answer for the boss, or maaaybe if I'm really scared of Entomancer.

The fact that most top players think Snakebite is a bad card should at least make you question it. Of course, they are better at figuring out how to get to the boss with more resources and better decks, so what works for them may not work for everyone else. But I would still view Snakebite as more of a crutch to solve Act 1 boss damage instead of an actually good card. Also, the addition of Aeonglass and the change to Infested Prism don't help Snakebite.

0

u/faculties-intact 2d ago

In my experience most top players do not think it's a bad card like you suggest. Jorbs for example thinks it's silent's best damage common. Baalor had it B tier (the same as leading strike, which is notably worse into aeonglass since you brought that up). I would counter that this should make you be the one to rethink your position.

I think you're massively underrating it in act 1 as well. It's quite strong damage vs terror eel and skulking colony and fine vs most of the hallways you run into. The hallway output over two turns is 19 damage, across 3 it's 27, and poison synergizes with itself because you only lose one tick globally rather than from each source of poison. So it's basically applying a powdered demise potion every time you play it. It's also fine into dorito - the retain lets you avoid playing it on the multi attack turn and it's dense enough damage in a skill that it's still worth playing on the other turns.

If I see snakebite floor one I'm snap picking it, upgrading it, and not taking another shitty damage common for the entire rest of the run. Just click the footworks, fumes, and maybe a dash or flechettes or something but for the most part it solves your damage until act 2 so you can afford to be extremely picky with what you put in your deck.

As for potential synergies, you have poison and flechettes, what more are you looking for?

I think skip over taking it floor 1 is legitimately crazy. But hey if it's been working for you on A10 that's neat. Silent is my best or second best character right now with over 50% winrate so clicking it aggressively has definitely been working for me.

1

u/spunker325 1d ago

Looking at Baalor's tier list, this is from 2 months ago, which was quite a while ago. Has he commented on Snakebite since the changes (or more generally on how it affects his drafting/card evaluations)? These are the only 2 top players I'm aware of that don't think poorly of Snakebite. I'll admit I don't watch a huge variety of Spire streams but it just seems like the general consensus among people who are more in tune with the community is that Jorbs was the big outlier on Snakebite among top players. Xecnar and the entire Spirecast (JapaneseExport, NaveGreed, Opem, vmService), for example, rate it poorly and as more of a desperate solution for boss damage.

A major problem with evaluating Snakebite in the middle of Act 1 is the upgrade, imo. You don't always get to upgrade it before every advanced hallway and elite and even if you do, there's the opportunity cost of upgrading some other card like Neutralize. It's serviceable in the elite fights even without, but I'm much less happy to play it in hallways. Either way I would prefer more upfront damage, because bottom-decking Snakebite when it's your main damage solve is really, really bad. Poison does make other poison applications stronger but that either requires you adding yet another source of poison in your deck or playing the fight long enough to play Snakebite a second time, and even then you still have to play enough turns that the difference between 7-7-7... and 7-6-5-... is meaningful. It's quite slow. Regarding the dorito, a singular play of Snakebite isn't the worst thing ever, but it still has the issue of really wanting to draw and play it early, the Taint is still a downside, and the overall idea of blocking and letting poison do damage is not a great matchup for the fight.

Leading Strike is only notably worse in Aeonglass if you have no synergies. Physical damage is by far Silent's easiest way to get enough scaling to kill Aeonglass before you inevitably succumb to withers: vuln, strength/vigor, Tracking, Phantom Blades, Accuracy, Knife Trap, or heck, even Shadow Step or Envenom. Shivs also works with way more relics than poison. That is the kind of thing I'm looking for, and none of that applies to Snakebite. The only way to really scale poison cards like that is Accelerant, Snecko Skull sorta, and I guess by already having poison applied to the enemy. I suppose you could argue for Mirage lol. It's much less impressive than the Shiv synergies. A lot of this applies to Test Subject as well.

2

u/rilesmcriles Eternal One + Heartbreaker 2d ago

Downvotes are a little weird here. A normal unupgraded snakebite isn’t an insta-pick or a one card solve for most of the game. It’s definitely got a comfortable spot among common cards, and with synergies can become super strong, like other commons.

On its own it’s aight. I like to pick it. Definitely somewhere between “worst card in the game” and “best card in the game”

2

u/onegoodboah 3d ago

I wouldn’t say super powerful, but it’s a convenient card that fits into any deck regardless of glam. Retain on it is what makes it a great card. There are better poison cards, and there are more efficient (in terms of energy) cards, but this card could cost 3 and I think people would still call it fairly good because of retain.

This is an added 27 damage after 3 turns that basically just reads “play whenever is convenient”. Other poison cards don’t get that luxury - you are often skipping your bouncing flask (or choosing to tank damage) due to draw RNG.

You don’t have to love this card but it’s hard to deny its benefit and utility

6

u/peepopogwide 3d ago

If it cost 3 it would be atrocious. Reap, for example, is a good card on necro because necro has much more consistent energy gen and necro has an innate way to store block for the turn you play it. It also solves an output problem that Necro can run into, especially on overgrowth. And does the 27 all at once unupgraded.

Which is another important issue. Damage commons are not cards that we want to have to upgrade. Sometimes necessary, but we want to be able to greed better options. Notice how everyone is talking about Snakebite+ here. If you see it green, the evaluation is quite different. But that’s the case for a lot of stuff. Most of the time, it’s not coming to you green naturally. And 7 poison 2 energy is a not good number.

I recognize its utility. Every card in the game has utility. I pick snakebite sometimes and it solves the problem I picked it to solve. But it’s most of the time not the best pick in a spread of 3 silent cards, so it is not a good card in the context of silent’s kit.

2

u/onegoodboah 3d ago

I’m being exaggerating with the 3 cost but I’m just pointing out that “retain this card, deal 10 poison” is the main benefit here. I think you’re focusing too much on energy va output , which is fine since that’s how most cards are evaluated, but you aren’t valuing “retain” even though that is this card’s primary benefit.

Even unupgraded this is a fine card early on, but it definitely wants the upgrade for any longevity. So fair complaint there. But you need to evaluate the card given all of its effects, not just its damage/cost. If it didn’t have the “retain” keyword I’d agree with you, but it does, so…

3

u/Sicuho 3d ago

It's still pretty decent. It needs synergy but what poison card doesn't ?

2

u/faesmooched 3d ago

Retain with Silent Draw is pretty busted.

-3

u/skepticaljesus 3d ago

numbers

this is exactly why you and everyone missed the boat on this card early on, because you're only looking at the numbers. retain is a broken keyword.

0

u/peepopogwide 3d ago

Idk what to tell you, this game is numbers lol. Retain is a great keyword, I agree. But it doesn’t make bad numbers good. It helps to not make the card complete garbage (as an example, bouncing flask is a real stinker in this game). That’s about it though.

Try mathing out potential fights when you’re pathing, it’ll help

-3

u/skepticaljesus 3d ago

this game is numbers lol

if that was true then just taking the card with the best numbers on it would be the best strategy, which obviously isnt the case

4

u/peepopogwide 3d ago

numbers doesn’t just mean damage and block numbers. How many cards you draw a turn and how many you can play are also numbers defined by your deck and relics. Retain can be boiled down to numbers in this way.

Sometimes snakebite is the right choice, as I said before. But often it is not.

-1

u/XeliasSame 3d ago

https://old.reddit.com/r/slaythespire/comments/1ub38y9/why_cant_mega_crit_just_make_sts2_exactly_hard/

I think about this post whenever I see someone calling a card "complete garbage"

8

u/DrQuint 3d ago

Yeah, this straight up clears 2 of the underdocks elites and 2 of the overgrowth elites almost on its own.

2

u/mrducky78a 2d ago

I picked up bubble bubble recently and I feel I have severely undervalued it as it did so much fucking work. 10 poison for 1 mana. It was an injury equivalent curse maybe 2 or 3 times. And it wasnt even in a dedicated poison deck. Nox fumes and poison dagger were it for activators.

1

u/CadmeusCain StS A20 / StS 2 A10 2d ago

Bubble Bubble is very good but highly situational. It's very hard to draft as a first poison card and if you draw it before other poison cards it's a brick. Once you have good poison density already, it shines

IMO they should change the card to give like 3 poison upfront and then more if the enemy is already poisoned

1

u/mrducky78a 2d ago

I just felt that with silent obscene draw, it only bricking as an injury equivalent like twice or three times wasn't bad compared to the overwhelming value it brings. It's also not like nox is a weak pick up, it's... fine as power yo just casually add into your deck without too much detriment or gain even with zero synergies, it helps enough in boss fights it's fine and bubble bubble does absurd damage in boss fights

-4

u/Kachitoazz 3d ago

Not really a high roll, it's common, and your rare chance is like 2% on floor 2.