Slay the Spire

[yessiree]

I've actually managed to get the most consistent results on ironclad with a barricade based build

I think the reason it's getting pretty good consistency is 1) not overly relying on any particular relic like some of the other builds 2) you never have to worry about dying because you're investing in blocks that will always have value in preventing damage, vs investing in things like strength (makes you squishy) or building a specific type of combo (requires card draw). Though it's ideal to have 4+ energy for this build, in order to play barricade+ and some form of block on the same turn. Usually you can get the relic that gives you energy from 1st floor boss so it's not really dependent on RNG.

The core cards include barricade+ (of course), entrench(+), body slam+, and other block cards such as:

- impervious, super cost efficient card. If you can play barricade+ and impervious+ on the first turn (40 block), the battle is pretty much over because you can snowball from there with entrench etc. A good card to pick up early game too, before taking barricade, and one of the conditions for making this build.
- break through, another cost efficient card that doesn't exhaust like impervious, but comes with minor drawbacks. Can be combo'd with second wind for additional block and to get rid of the wounds.
- ironwave, very good early game, and the card that will kind of start off this build. loses its value late game

cards that synergize with this build are:
- feel no pain (gives 4(6) armor whenever a card is exhausted), would say this is pretty a key power to have because a lot of cards that are good in general are cards that exhaust, and you will be playing a lot of break through too
- fiend fire, exhausts your entire hand for damage. emphasize less on dealing damage but more on exhausting your hand. You'd only play this when you have already played key powers like barricade and feel no pain. It thins your deck, getting of wounds and other non-essential cards, so you cycle to your entrench/block giving cards faster. Just make sure to play it when you don't have entrench in your hand though.
- evolve for draws from wounds

[yessiree]

upgraded cloak and dagger is pretty good too, so are choke and finisher if you have the spare mana

another viable silent deck is
- wraith form + thousand cuts + a bunch of acrobatics/prepared/tactician/reflex/calculated gamble for infinite cycle

[yessiree]

surprised your ascension 11 run worked out with a 30+ cards deck that had no draws

I would imagine one bad draw when fighting enemies that put crap in your deck would be game over

[yessiree]

surprised your ascension 11 run worked out with a 30+ cards deck that had no draws

I would imagine one bad draw when fighting enemies that put crap in your deck would be game over

As I've said earlier, the Silent's draw cards are marginal. Acrobatics and Expertise are both "spend mana for pure draw". Backflip is the only one I like, I didn't see any (or Tools). Good use of Well-Laid plans mitigates draw luck much better than any card draw, and large decks are much more resistant to junking. Seriously, Well-Laid Plans. It's excellent, and worth upgrading too. The more I play the more I'm convinced it's closer to Noxious Fumes than people give it credit for (and way better than Tools of the Trade).

Plus, look at the deck. If you count on exhaust cards exhausting, the only non-defensive cards I have are Burst+, Slice+, and 3xStrike+. Every other card reduces incoming damage in some way (and Burst+ can too). There just isn't much draw luck to be had when all your cards do the same thing.

yeah im now realizing that the deck does not depend on any specific combos, so not reliant on card draws

I think this will struggle in battles that punish slow decks, eg. act 3 elites (giant head or the orb walkers duo), and probably a combination of exploders/spikers/repulsors quadruplets. did you fight the nemesis in act 3?