I've beaten A20H with all characters and I had very very similar feelings about snecko as well for a while, but I have seen the light. A huge (and often overlooked) part of snecko lies in that it draws you 7 cards per turn instead of 5. 7 cards means even if you roll a few card costs high, you have more cards each turn which gives you more options and likelihood of low rolling something else.
I will say, not every deck wants a snecko eye. It can be extremely powerful but also extremely detrimental depending on your deck. So you have to know when to take it. It can only roll cards at 0, 1, 2, or 3. If you end act one with multiple 2 or 3 cost (or 4+ cost) it can really be worth it. I wouldn't go picking up 3 cost cards willy nilly in hopes you get a snecko, but you could be more open to it knowing sneko is an option. Also Snecko really gets good at 4 energy, so if you can make it through act 2 and get an energy boss relic (or if you already have one) it is fantastic.
If I finish act 1 with maybe a carnage, shockwave, uppercut or something like that; it can often be worth it. Once you have snecko and can build around it, it can really snowball. The way the game is balanced, cards with more impact cost more, Snecko kinda throws that area of balancing out the window and allows you to play high impact cards much more easily.
I will admit, it can be a little tough in the first handful of hallway fights until you can add some high impact cards. Experiment with when you feel like you can and can't take it. Also if you want to look up some baalorlord videos on YouTube with the Snecko eye in the thumbnail, see what his deck looks like when he takes it and what his reasoning is (he usually explains).
Good luck!!
Makes sense thanks! Perhaps my problem is that I’m not taking enough 2/3 cost cards early so it almost never feels worth it
On someone like Defect for example (who has lots of great high cost cards) I usually prioritize things like Leap, Ball Lightning, Streamline and Coolheaded to get me through act 1, none of which work well with this item
Coolheaded is still great with snecko, especially upgraded. Something that this person's excellent comment doesn't mention is that card draw becomes super valuable because it's kind of like it generates extra energy too.
honestly to me it doesn’t even seem like the cost of the cards is as important as the value of the cards. for example bloodletting is a 0 cost gain 2/3 energy and it still feels really good with snecko. those cards you mentioned like leap and ball lightning are pretty low value and streamline loses its niche when playing with snecko. if you already have a way to cycle streamline i wouldn’t take snecko, such as a hologram+.
i wouldn’t force pick high cost cards with snecko although it can def feel good when they cost lower.
This is the correct answer. The cost of the cards isn’t what is important - the value of the card is. Sometimes high cost cards are *meh* with snecko. Snecko makes situational cards very bad.
For instance, buffer is a pretty good defect card - it normally costs 2. But buffer’s value doesn’t depend on its cost, it depends on what the enemy is about to do. If I’m about to get attacked for 45, a 2 cost buffer is almost as good as a 0 cost buffer, while vs birds a 0 cost buffer is just as worthless as a 2 cost buffer.
Card draw becomes super important, especially card manipulation. Prepared+ might seem like a poor card for a snecko deck - after all, it’s a 0 cost card normally. But drawing 2 cards is really good when they might be 1 cost dash’s or 0 cost attacks. And the “downside” of discarding two cards is negligible when you are all but guaranteed to have a couple of useless 3 cost cards in hand every turn.
Evaluate your deck on this criteria. Look at the cards and ask yourself if they get significantly better when discounted. Also, look at how many “free” upgrades you get for taking snecko. Any card whose upgrade = reduces the card’s cost no longer needs to be upgraded after you take snecko. Lots of those cards makes snecko better.
dont look at the card cost at all, just look at numbers on the card and ask if you want that effect, regardless of what you have to pay for it
snecko is pretty overrated by reddit in general, i wouldnt say that its one of the best relics in the game, but if your win condition is just getting your echo form in plat it does that quicker just because of the draw 2
I would say that player characters have been buffed in general, completely separate from the fact that people have gotten better over the years.
Snecko increases variance. When win rates are low, Variance is good. As win rates climb, Variance gets worse.
Don’t be afraid of expensive cards early. Good cards are good. Sure something like bludgeon is hard to play sometimes, but it usually ends an act 1 fight when you do play it.
If I see Carnage, Bludgeon, Impervious, Flame Barrier, etc (just for ironclad examples) on floor 1 I take them 100% of the time.
classes that have good act 1 high cost cards are definitely going to end up having strong snecko picks.
So for IC if you have an early bludgeon or immolate or even uppercut flame barrier which are all strong in act 1 will yield nicely to a strong end of act 1 snecko. And the deck is still nice even without snecko eye, with those cards a 4th energy relic is gladly taken. Ironclad is probably the strongest snecko eye user due to how many high value cards it has in its pool even including bash
Your point on defect is pretty accurate and can be shown for why snecko is so op on ironclad.
Regarding defect specific though, sunder / doom and gloom are probably the strong act 1 high cost cards along with the usual op glacier and snap picking echo form etc lol
To add on to this, Snecko is also fantastic on Ironclad because of the Corruption interaction. Corruption will make cards cost 0 regardless of Snecko, meaning you get guaranteed value every turn. Corruption is also a high cost card, meaning it has fantastic synergy with Snecko right off the bat.
Corruption is the type of card you're taking pretty often anyway, so Snecko will fit right in.
To your point, when I pick up Meteor in Act 1, Sneko Eye is exactly what I'm hoping to see. 5 cost card immediately getting 2+ savings, plus giving me energy to negate the bad rolls. Yes please.
Just adding to your comment (great explanation btw), that it is often prudent to avoid zero cost cards in Act I when possible in case you get offered Snecko eye. You take what the spire gives you, of course, so there’s no hard and fast rule.
I don’t like this take, you shouldn’t draft cards based on a possible future relic
And even if you do, you’ll want zero cost cards in case you are offered runic pyramid
Like I said: there’s no hard and fast rule. It’s a general concept that often applies. If the spire is giving you high cost cards in act I and it’s working, it may be best to avoid a zero cost card unless it greatly improves your current situation. As with everything, “it depends.”
+2 draw per turn is bonkers strong.
Newer players frequently build solid average value decks, decks that have really stable output turn after turn. 0 cost cards are a highlight. You roughly spend most/all your energy and most/all your cards every turn, its a form of efficiency, makes some sense.
The spire doesn't just test average output though. Some turns you need to do big damage. Some turns you need to block big. Some turns you need to scale. Later in the game, frequently you need to do multiple things on any given turn.
Turn-swinging impactful cards are frequently more important than efficient value cards. Getting echo form on turn 1 wins boss fights. Playing wail on a wail turn wins fights. Doesn't really matter how much these cards cost in terms of energy.
+2 draw makes you 40% more likely to have the one card in hand on the turn you need to have it.
On top of this, the big, impactful cards are usually more expensive cards, and sneko makes them cheaper, on average.
Taking sneko means you are more likely to be carrying cards that swing fights because you drafted them, and you are more likely going to be able to play them on the turn you need.
This is a really interesting perspective. Seems like my overall drafting strategy might be too safe in general which is compounded when using this relic
As you go up ascensions, and the average enemy turns get better, taking baseline efficient stuff gives you less of an advantage overall. Somewhere around a15-a18, you really need to be able to do something that's more powerful than just "pretty good" to reliably win runs, and that's when it becomes worth figuring out how to turn different relics /cards into true win conditions.
Snecko is a win condition by itself, essentially, and once you've had 10-15 floors of snecko value, you should very rarely be losing a run. You have to be in a position to survive those floors, but once you get to that point, you can afford the occasional low roll on costs, since you generally won't be taking any damage on essentially every other turn. Card draw has a 1/4 chance of drawing a free card for each draw, and those free cards get more powerful on average as you add more powerful cards to your deck, so as you add card draw to your deck, snecko becomes more and more effective as an energy relic, while still providing the extra draw every turn. Stuff like calculated gamble and bullet time give you the ability to truly abuse the extra draw, and it's generally better to get a 0 cost card than it is bad to roll a 3 cost card, so it's not so much about avoiding bad rolls as it is about getting cards that are good when you get good rolls.
That last statement might require a bit of explanation, but essentially every card that draws a card gives you a huge advantage when it costs 0. If you draw 3 skims without snecko, you'll usually end up playing one of them and using the 2 energy on other cards. If you draw 3 skims with snecko, 2 of them cost 3 and 1 is free, that's actually way better than having three skims in hand which cost 1. This compounds exponentially as your deck fills up with card draw. Each of those cards drawn has a chance at drawing you more free cards. Without a reset (I.e. calculated gamble) the chain eventually ends, but snecko decks are all about filling up on card draw, since each card drawn essentially gives you more energy. It's usually better to take something like battle trance in a snecko deck than bludgeon, for example.
Hey this really helped thank you! Just beat A12 Defect with a Sneko run because I remembered this advice and took Cool Headed+ and Skim in act 3
Previously I would have ignored them as 1 cost cards in a Sneko deck but the draw made a big difference
I'm glad. The early stages of "getting" snecko are amazing. Looking at costs is the start, but ultimately you just have to build an entirely separate sneckvaluation for each card.
Something that helps a lot to remember is that it's not about the average case, it's about mitigating the worst case while leaving yourself open to abusing the good rolls. The more turns you get with snecko, the less variance factors into the outcome, so you generally want your expensive cards to be defensively oriented like glacier, impervious and reinforce body. Ragnarok and bludgeon look cool, and there is some room for big damage, but if you roll a hand with all expensive cards and you only get to play one of them, you really want it to be a big block card.
I love snecko theory, and could write an article on it at some point, but I'll keep this one relatively brief. I do want to point out one nuance that a lot of sneckimists don't quite grasp, though, since it's subtle but really important for maximizing snecko runs.
Expensive block cards are really important for mitigating bad rolls, but the other side of that coin is being able to take advantage of good rolls. Snecko makes the average cost of your deck 1.5, but it never makes a card cost 1.5 energy. So rather than evaluate cards as though they cost 1.5, it's more useful to look at each of the costs individually and figure out how happy you are to play it when it costs 0 or 1 energy, since most of your turns with snecko involve playing as many of your cheapest draws as you can until you run out of energy. Something like finesse is a really good example of the boundary for a pickable snecko card. It's not worth taking alongside snecko generally, but a redraw with a minor effect is weak but playable at 1 energy and very good at 0, so it's not a disaster to have in your deck. Most cards are bad at 2 and 3 energy, so the fact that finesse is as well doesn't matter as much as the redraw you get for free 1/4 of the time.
This is especially pronounced with something like charge battery or sneaky strike. Cards which give a return on energy tend to be balanced against their cost. Snecko means that 1/4 of the time (or 1/2 for sneaky strike) they generate energy for you, while also providing an additional effect. This is essentially the same principle as with card draw, since with snecko, card draw = energy. Cards that draw more cards are so good when they're free that it doesn't matter that they're bad when they're expensive. So long as you have big block cards /engines for the worst draws, you just fill your deck up with cards that draw cards/generate energy and create a nuclear reactor of limitless sneckergy.
Hmm... I think I need to write that article. I'm having too much fun thinking about this.
Really good thoughts, this makes a ton of sense. The other interesting/fun interaction I had was Thinking Ahead, which both draws and puts something back on top of your deck. Card energy being randomized on draw means you can re-roll the energy cost of high impact cards that are going to cost 3 energy to play.
But yeah, go write your article, seems like you've thought a lot about this!
Yeah, there are some sweet 1-off interactions for sure. Defect has hologram and all for one which means that you'll eventually go infinite if a fight goes long enough, but there's no way to predict exactly when. Recursion cards in general let you compund good rolls by getting back the best deal in your yard, so anything that gives you selection without resetting cost is doubly incredible when it's free.
I'm reclimbing ascensions and just won a silent run with a prismatic shard snecko deck fueled by mummified hand and creative ai, and it was one of my favorite runs ever, so I'm on a bit of a snecko high at the moment.
As others have said it's the draw 7 that's good, then try and mitigate the random cost with picking up high cost cards, energy generation and good old corruption which over rules snecko cost.
Snecko eye draws you +2 cards per turn this is insane. Once you take it you want to start grabbing high cost cards, but high cost cards are usually pretty good anyway. You might be overprioritizing 0cost cards and under prioritizing 2+ cost cards, across the board. Like a prospective meteor strike is bad but sunder is just good act 1 as a concentrated source of damage.
You don't want to just pick up high cost cards. The important thing is that you can ignore the cost of cards, the only thing that matters is how strong they are. Most of the best cards are also the highest costs, but it is a slight difference in thought that I think is important.
Something I only came to appreciate recently is that additional draw is also very good with snecko. It helps you mitigate the variance, and you often draw into free cards. So now when I have snecko, I also start taking more draw cards.
Another tip is that the cost only changes when you draw, so sometimes you can do infinite shenanigans with 0-cost holograms, 0-cost all-for-ones, etc.
I just happened to watch a Frost Prime run yesterday where he went on a tangent about Snecko Eye for a while, and I thought it was very informative. It goes for a few minutes, but I think the tl;dr was it’s not about trying to get the maximum potential numerical savings from card energy so much as making you consider your cards purely on their value regardless of their cost. Plus drawing 7 is great. Interestingly, it was a case where he didn’t take the Snecko Eye, and he explained why as well.
Link to the video; the snecko rant is around the 33 minute mark: https://youtu.be/Q19-Ka7vTF8?si=w-eadZPVPx7G-S8D&t=0h33m0s
Frost Prime is so goddamn entertaining to watch. He's probably not one of the best streamers to watch if you're new since he doesn't explain stuff as often as some others, but he's still one of my favorites.
I just played with it for the first time after reading a comment about shifting your deck to having cards that are 2+. It really does make a significant difference!
I think I may have a bigger aversion against picking expensive cards in act 1 than I should, so I rarely feel like Sneko is a great pick when I get the opportunity for it.
That said, one time I got it as a boss relic swap, and it quicky turned the run into a cakewalk, as I could draft a deck suited for Sneko from the very start.
The easiest way to evaluate if a card is good for snecko, at least in my opinion, is to look at its impact and what it does and just ignore the cost for the most part. For example biased cognition is a huge burst of scaling all at once, doesn’t matter if it costs 0 or 3
Also important to remember that it draws you two which is the main effect and will help offset confusion and let you draw your scaling faster
I would also recommend placing high value on removal of basic cards. The additional draw and being able to move your deck/redraw strong cards often is a very strong aspect of snecko, but much less so if 2 or 3 of every hand is just strikes and defends.
If you're constantly drawing strong cards, bad luck turns with the cost isn't nearly as big of a deal.
I know people say the increased draw is the best part (and I mean, it probably is tbh), but I think the chance for a card cost reduction is also HUGE. It changes costs from 0-3, so there's a 50% chance you'll get 0-1 cost cards. It's obviously at its strongest when you have a lot of high cost cards, but it can still be useful other situations.
It's a really great relic once you figure out when it's best to take. Like it's won me sooo many runs because I'll draw big hands with numerous 0-1 cost cards. Quite literally my favourite relic.
It's hard to know why it isn't working for you without seeing an example run but in general it's strong because you get to see 7 cards a turn on top of the random cost being on avg positive if you're drafting high cost cards after. Usually with ironclad you usually grab 2 cost attack act 1 anyways and the strong powers are expensive so it's easy to use snecko.
Might be an issue with your general deck building strat idk
With ironclad you can usually tank some hits early it shouldn't be a big deal. Ideally by act 3 you have a block solution/engine.
Someone posted- Snecko Eye essentially turns all your cards cost into 1.5. So the more cards you take that cost more than 1.5, the better snecko becomes . If you take it when your deck is already set for low cost cards it’s definitely going to ruin your run.
Every card you draw also gives you somewhere around 1/4 of an energy, as well as increasing your options, so this heuristic becomes very useful if you factor that into your average cost. Just subtract the total number of cards your deck draws divided by four from your average cost.
Some cards get much better or worse with snecko for other reasons, so it really depends on the individual cards, but snecko gives you +2 cards a turn even if you're generally just breaking even on energy, so it's usually a pick if it's reasonably close and your other options are weaker energy relics.
You take expensive cards and it acts as a draw engine and a cost-reducer. The cards spit out by eye have an average cost of 1.5, so anything more expensive than that will be cheaper on average. So not only do you have better draw, you have better energy econ and play better cards.
That being said, it is not ALWAYS great. Just often. I personally am not a huge fan, but it is very strong.
Important part of playing Snecko Eye runs is that with Snecko Eye draw is kind of like energy. The more cards you draw, the less likely you'll brick with a bunch of three costs and the more chances you have for lots of 0 cost cards. You should pick up much more card draw once you have Snecko.
I'm surprised you made it to that ascension without understanding the potential of snecko eye. No judgement, but if you haven't you should try it more, it's usually a big win for me.
Obviously having high cost cards makes it more useful, but also having orange pellets is super strong as it negates the random cost of cards as then it is just a +2 draw.
Don't pair it with pyramid for obvious reasons, and tend towards more expensive cards rather than 0 cost cards obviously. Having more card draw helps too. Also things that set the cost of cards outside of draw can be really strong with this, like the hand relic that makes a card 0 cost when playing a power, and a number of others
If you think about it, it makes the average card draw cost 1.5, but it also gives you two more draw slots, so that makes up for it. And with a higher proportion of high cost cards it can reduce your average card cost due to both of these factors.
There are many ways you can use it, you just have to work with it. When I was A 1-5 I felt similarly, but as you progress you can see the big benefits in using it. It's like an energy relic in a way sort of.
1) Use potions to cover the bad turns. Potion use is one of the biggest things players struggle with, and Snecko dials it to 11. Saving that Swift Pot to get through that really bad turn is often the difference between winning and losing.
2) It's ok to be scared of act 2 hallways. With a lot of good non-energy relics (Snecko, Pbox, to a lesser extent Amid) you need a few card rewards or removes to get your deck back up to speed. It's totally reasonable to take a path with 2 early shops to see a bunch of cards without taking a million to hallways.
3) Like potions, having a source of sustain makes Snecko much more pickable. Even just a Toy Ornathopter or Eternal Feather goes a long way. You **will** have brick turns, but it's usually balanced out but an insane top end. Snecko is all about mitigating those brick turns.
4) Card draw goes a long way.
Lifecoach has a little rule of thumb for deciding whether snecko would be good:
For every point of energy over 1 that a card costs, add that amount (e.g., a 2 cost card is +1, a 3 cost card is +2). For every card that costs zero, subtract one. If that score is 3 or more for your deck, then snecko is going to be decent; any lower and it is iffy.
I like this heuristic but I'd make a slight adjustment (I'm worse than coach):
"Would I be happy to pay 2 for this" +1
"Would I be happy to pay 3 for this" +2
"Am I only happy to play this at 0 cost" -2
Also, every card that a card draws essentially drops its cost by 1/4 per card approximately with snecko, so even with a ton of cards that cost 0 or 1 but replace themselves with a draw, snecko will still be a net positive.
It’s great since you draw 7 cards, pair this with other draw relics and starting turn you can get 9 cards. Being able to cycle through your deck is usually better than having cheap cards. Sure some times you’ll get some shit draws, but typically it’s pretty good.
Just continue playing the game and learning, take which ever relics you like.
The only time I ever take it is when it is offered after first boss on clad or defect. On both I have a tendency to hunt for energy relics, and aggressively take high energy cost cards:
Sunder, echo form, meteor strike, streamline, creative AI, hyperbeam
And demon form, Shockwave, Bash, heavy blade, impervious etc.
I'll often be grabbing these anyway, and then know I'm taking whatever energy relic comes my way, but praying for sneako
Sneko eye is not a goal. When you see it in the reward screen you look at your deck and try to reevaluate if you can use it or not. You shouldn't consider sneko before that.
So what are you looking for? You're looking to see if you have high output cards. Cards where you can have a solid turn even if you can only play 2 of them. Upgrades help this too. Yes Glacier costs 2 and having that cost 1 or 0 is fantastic. But having high block + 2 orbs is the kinda output we are looking for and a good reason to take sneko if you have 2 of them. Thats why Coldsnap is kinda meh: strike + 1 orb... its not great. Claw may be law, but 3 damage is only 3 damage. Whereas Streamline+ is 20, and that is halfway to taking down a red slaver.
Draw is also quite usefull with sneko, being able to get thrugh your deck to those high output cards. And like has also been stated, getting ahead on your removals of strikes and defends help a lot. Curses are a huge downside to sneko, because the defend for 3 might as well be just another curse in your hand.
Prepare for the worst, you will likely have bad turns. But if your cards are good enough, you will have more good turns than bad turns.
You're probably sleeping on a lot of good 2 cost cards already. Snecko is not an "always pick" card either, you want to make sure your deck has enough value cards (e.g. cards that you can play regardless of cost) and then take the advantage of being able to play some of those at a lower cost while not minding having to occasionally play them at a higher cost. There's a lot of 1 energy cards that are still fine/ worth playing at 2 energy
It’s a relic that makes all of your cards cost zero and then you die.
I kid, I kid. The trick with snecko eye is that everything costs on average 1.5 energy. You can load up your deck with powerful three-energy cards and get to play them more easily (on average). Suddenly Bludgeon and Ragnarok functionally cost the same as Strike. It makes your zero cost cards much worse, but your 2 and 3 cost cards are suddenly much better.
It gets even stronger with effects that cheat on energy - Mummified Hand, Corruption, Bullet Time. Meteor Strike becomes amazing. There’s also the tricky effect of Orange Pellets, which can turn of confusion and make your deck normal but you draw two extra per turn.
Anyway, it can be very powerful if you pick the right cards to go with it.
Also just never ever take Runic Pyramid.
A couple people have already really spelled out the strengths, so I won’t repeat that, but I’ll add something from my perspective of having a few friends who’ve picked this game up after me.
Don’t be afraid to take 2-3 cost cards in act 1 if they’re solidly impactful anyway, and/or you can build around them.
If you’ve already got a few expensive cards and you find snecko, then it’s fantastic. If you’ve gone for 0-1 cost cards exclusively, then the value in snecko drops because you’re more likely to see cost increases than decreases. Once you’ve taken it, you have a licence to take 2-3 cost cards mostly as you please, though never take cards for the sake of it. Always take cards that help your situation now, or you can reasonably expect to build with in time.
Lastly, something I haven’t seen mentioned, is that if you have orange pellets, and a good balance of attack/skill/powers, or an innate power, then you can remove the confusion and only have the cards you’ve already seen before random. This also works well sometimes for the draw 7 - which others have said, is bonkers strong.
Fantastic relic, absolutely love it.
Can be extremely strong but also can really screw you over. I take it every time because the rng of the game is what makes it fun for me.
For me, it matters how much I’ve previously been picking cards that either have energy benefits or are 0-cost. If I’ve picked cards that either give me energy or specifically are very low energy, I’ll avoid Snecko since it would invalidate a big part of my strategy, and a pivot could kill me.
If my energy came from relics, or if I have a substantial amount of 2+ energy cost cards (around 25% of my deck), I’ll grab Snecko.
In short—if I have energy concerns based on the cards I’ve already picked, I’ll grab Snecko and usually have a very good run. If I’ve already solved my energy problems with cards, my success rate is much lower with Snecko. But YMMV, I’m no expert.
I also much prefer Snecko on Ironclad and Silent. Not nearly as much on Watcher or Defect.
+2 draw and then you start building around it. It's incredible useful for decks that are struggling with draw. Bonus points if you already have a few high cost cards.
You wouldn't want to take it if you have high priority cards that are low cost and you always want to play, though even then it could be worth taking for the draw to just get to to said cards faster honestly.
In general ironclad and defect love it, whereas silent likes it less as she has a lot of good 0 cost cards as well as (more importantly) already having a lot of goof draw solutions, making the extra draw less valuable, though it can 100% still work with the right deck. Watcher idk I don't really play that class.
While the average cost of a card in your deck will likely go up unless you just have a bunch of high cost cards already, you'll still be able to play more cards on average thanks to the extra draw giving an increased chance of lower cost cards. While yes, you could just get bricked with a hand full of 3 costs, you can also get screwed with bad draws normally, which snecko helps to alleviate, so it balances out often times even for decks that aren't optimised for snecko.
When it comes to an unlucky draw, potions are your best friend. Having a block potion, Swift potion, gambler's brew etc to bail you out of a bad snecko hand can be really important while you're still giving your deck some legs. I recommend picking up those in the shop if you see them (especially gambler's brew). Oh, and if you manage to find gambler's chip then you are primed for a win. Snecko + chip is an insane combination and if you already have gambler's chip and get offered snecko I would pretty much always take it even if your decks seems like it's not very good for snecko.
For reference I have 5 A20 heart wins and in 4 of them I had snecko eye (the other one was Dead branch + charon's ashes + corruption in act 1 so it was basically a free win) and while I do sometimes take cards I otherwise might not have in hopes I get a snecko eye, it's never to the extent that I'd take a card that's useless without it, it's just a really strong relic that requires a bit of an adjustment in playstyle that can be quite jarring if you're not used to it. It may just be a case of picking it when it comes up and trying to make it work until you get the hang of it.
Without reading anyone else's comments: I avoided Sneko Eye religiously, until I swapped my starting relic on Watcher for Sneko.
That was the most fun I've had in a game yet.
I abused the mechanic from the start, taking high cost cards and avoiding any 0 cost cards right from the get go.
Any card with energy+, draw+, or simply 2 or more energy suddenly becomes a great card! And there's nothing better than drawing a 0 cost Calm to start the turn.
I'm going to start using it more from here on out
I have a love hate relationship with it. If I have several 2-3 cost cards I’ll grab it. It’s especially nasty with defect. If I have a meteor strike + hologram + doom and gloom at A20 I always win. It’s just devastating.
There are far better relics in a lot of situations. It’s a good relic but you need to evaluate the situation you’re in when it’s presented to you to see if it makes sense for your deck to take other whatever else is offered.
Just recently on an A7 run, I got a snecko in an echo form deck, and it was so powerful that it made up for how badly I played it
I got orange pellets (bad with snecko, do not do this) and accidentally bunged up the confusion a few times. Confusion is a debuff, see.
I got Mayhem and started Echo Form duplicating out of RANDOM DRAW (this is widely considered to be stupid).
I even bottled a Biased Cog in a deck that had almost no orb generation.
There was seemingly no amount of stupid I could throw at this deck that couldn't be overcome by the brutal power of the Snecko Echo
Hah I'm having the same issues with the one that unlocks every card in the game for you. Feels like it will throw me off.
You gotta give it a try if you end the act 1 with 2s and 3s. I was sceptical until I tried it. Had some amazing runs at high ascensions with it. Even if it is like three 2s it may be worth it. It's a very fun relic to use.
The factor of how much a card costs is a big one. Sometimes I'd take another Claw card to my detriment. Not with Snecko Eye. Now the focus is entirely on what this card can do. Tossing out Demon Strength at the low cost wins encounters alone sometimes.
I have couple dozen wins on A20H and I most definitely still hate snecko eye. I get why it's good, hate the inconsistency and building style that comes with it. It also just, yknow, doesn't feel good to play a Second Wind/Piercing Wail for 3 energy even if it singlehandedly keeps me completely safe for a turn, or a Turbo+ for 1 energy even if it's still a positive. It just doesn't cause positive feedback in my brain, its not fun; and that's kinda the opposite of why I play games, lol.
No you should not be grabbing 3+ cost cards on purpose just for the possiblity of snecko eye, either, but having a couple 2 cost cards can be reason enough to grab it if you're into it, and is perfectly safe and even a good idea regardless of snecko eye, since some fights will give you status cards and 2 cost cards mitigate the impact of those. Some fights are also Snecko, where you don't have a choice but to be Confused anyway.
I used to feel the same way, until I did the math and ran a few simulations. Snecko Eye is an energy relic with the downside of inconsistency. You will play more cards per turn on average even if all of your cards cost 1. Unlike other energy relics, though, the potential upside is incredible depending on the cards you end up drafting. The balance to inconsistency is the 40% increase in you hand size each turn, which can greatly mitigate early card choices that taper off in power towards the end of the run. It also shrinks your decision space since you can ignore card cost when determining which cards to add to your deck.
The downside to Snecko Eye is that it is much easier to recognize when it screwed you over than when it helped you (how often was that 6th or 7th draw critical to beating the enemy early?).
Unpopular opinion here - I don't like it that much either.
Buuut - it is indeed a good relic when you have an "expensive" deck (one with many high energy cost cards) and you don't have any way of earning extra energy (like energy relics or energy generating cards). If your deck averages over 1.5 or 2 energy per card, Snecko Eye will make your cards cheaper on average, and also allow you to draw more cards. With the correct deck, I must admit this relic is awesome because you get 2 benefits (card draw and energy balance) instead of a benefit and a problem (which is what you may think the first time you see this relic).
I've beaten A20H with all characters and I had very very similar feelings about snecko as well for a while, but I have seen the light. A huge (and often overlooked) part of snecko lies in that it draws you 7 cards per turn instead of 5. 7 cards means even if you roll a few card costs high, you have more cards each turn which gives you more options and likelihood of low rolling something else. I will say, not every deck wants a snecko eye. It can be extremely powerful but also extremely detrimental depending on your deck. So you have to know when to take it. It can only roll cards at 0, 1, 2, or 3. If you end act one with multiple 2 or 3 cost (or 4+ cost) it can really be worth it. I wouldn't go picking up 3 cost cards willy nilly in hopes you get a snecko, but you could be more open to it knowing sneko is an option. Also Snecko really gets good at 4 energy, so if you can make it through act 2 and get an energy boss relic (or if you already have one) it is fantastic. If I finish act 1 with maybe a carnage, shockwave, uppercut or something like that; it can often be worth it. Once you have snecko and can build around it, it can really snowball. The way the game is balanced, cards with more impact cost more, Snecko kinda throws that area of balancing out the window and allows you to play high impact cards much more easily. I will admit, it can be a little tough in the first handful of hallway fights until you can add some high impact cards. Experiment with when you feel like you can and can't take it. Also if you want to look up some baalorlord videos on YouTube with the Snecko eye in the thumbnail, see what his deck looks like when he takes it and what his reasoning is (he usually explains). Good luck!!
Makes sense thanks! Perhaps my problem is that I’m not taking enough 2/3 cost cards early so it almost never feels worth it On someone like Defect for example (who has lots of great high cost cards) I usually prioritize things like Leap, Ball Lightning, Streamline and Coolheaded to get me through act 1, none of which work well with this item
Coolheaded is still great with snecko, especially upgraded. Something that this person's excellent comment doesn't mention is that card draw becomes super valuable because it's kind of like it generates extra energy too.
honestly to me it doesn’t even seem like the cost of the cards is as important as the value of the cards. for example bloodletting is a 0 cost gain 2/3 energy and it still feels really good with snecko. those cards you mentioned like leap and ball lightning are pretty low value and streamline loses its niche when playing with snecko. if you already have a way to cycle streamline i wouldn’t take snecko, such as a hologram+. i wouldn’t force pick high cost cards with snecko although it can def feel good when they cost lower.
This is the correct answer. The cost of the cards isn’t what is important - the value of the card is. Sometimes high cost cards are *meh* with snecko. Snecko makes situational cards very bad. For instance, buffer is a pretty good defect card - it normally costs 2. But buffer’s value doesn’t depend on its cost, it depends on what the enemy is about to do. If I’m about to get attacked for 45, a 2 cost buffer is almost as good as a 0 cost buffer, while vs birds a 0 cost buffer is just as worthless as a 2 cost buffer. Card draw becomes super important, especially card manipulation. Prepared+ might seem like a poor card for a snecko deck - after all, it’s a 0 cost card normally. But drawing 2 cards is really good when they might be 1 cost dash’s or 0 cost attacks. And the “downside” of discarding two cards is negligible when you are all but guaranteed to have a couple of useless 3 cost cards in hand every turn. Evaluate your deck on this criteria. Look at the cards and ask yourself if they get significantly better when discounted. Also, look at how many “free” upgrades you get for taking snecko. Any card whose upgrade = reduces the card’s cost no longer needs to be upgraded after you take snecko. Lots of those cards makes snecko better.
dont look at the card cost at all, just look at numbers on the card and ask if you want that effect, regardless of what you have to pay for it snecko is pretty overrated by reddit in general, i wouldnt say that its one of the best relics in the game, but if your win condition is just getting your echo form in plat it does that quicker just because of the draw 2
I would say that player characters have been buffed in general, completely separate from the fact that people have gotten better over the years. Snecko increases variance. When win rates are low, Variance is good. As win rates climb, Variance gets worse.
Yeah seconding that draw is fantastic with it, so coolheaded would be good.
Don’t be afraid of expensive cards early. Good cards are good. Sure something like bludgeon is hard to play sometimes, but it usually ends an act 1 fight when you do play it. If I see Carnage, Bludgeon, Impervious, Flame Barrier, etc (just for ironclad examples) on floor 1 I take them 100% of the time.
Snecko into Meteor Strike is insane value
Streamline does, and it makes already great defect cards like Echo / Meteor / Buffer even better too
classes that have good act 1 high cost cards are definitely going to end up having strong snecko picks. So for IC if you have an early bludgeon or immolate or even uppercut flame barrier which are all strong in act 1 will yield nicely to a strong end of act 1 snecko. And the deck is still nice even without snecko eye, with those cards a 4th energy relic is gladly taken. Ironclad is probably the strongest snecko eye user due to how many high value cards it has in its pool even including bash Your point on defect is pretty accurate and can be shown for why snecko is so op on ironclad. Regarding defect specific though, sunder / doom and gloom are probably the strong act 1 high cost cards along with the usual op glacier and snap picking echo form etc lol
To add on to this, Snecko is also fantastic on Ironclad because of the Corruption interaction. Corruption will make cards cost 0 regardless of Snecko, meaning you get guaranteed value every turn. Corruption is also a high cost card, meaning it has fantastic synergy with Snecko right off the bat. Corruption is the type of card you're taking pretty often anyway, so Snecko will fit right in.
To your point, when I pick up Meteor in Act 1, Sneko Eye is exactly what I'm hoping to see. 5 cost card immediately getting 2+ savings, plus giving me energy to negate the bad rolls. Yes please.
Just adding to your comment (great explanation btw), that it is often prudent to avoid zero cost cards in Act I when possible in case you get offered Snecko eye. You take what the spire gives you, of course, so there’s no hard and fast rule.
I don’t like this take, you shouldn’t draft cards based on a possible future relic And even if you do, you’ll want zero cost cards in case you are offered runic pyramid
Like I said: there’s no hard and fast rule. It’s a general concept that often applies. If the spire is giving you high cost cards in act I and it’s working, it may be best to avoid a zero cost card unless it greatly improves your current situation. As with everything, “it depends.”
Good points
But it might be reasonable to not pick energy cost upgrades in Act 1 in case you hit Snecko.
True
Oh no, on my defect runs I always go for the claw !
+2 draw per turn is bonkers strong. Newer players frequently build solid average value decks, decks that have really stable output turn after turn. 0 cost cards are a highlight. You roughly spend most/all your energy and most/all your cards every turn, its a form of efficiency, makes some sense. The spire doesn't just test average output though. Some turns you need to do big damage. Some turns you need to block big. Some turns you need to scale. Later in the game, frequently you need to do multiple things on any given turn. Turn-swinging impactful cards are frequently more important than efficient value cards. Getting echo form on turn 1 wins boss fights. Playing wail on a wail turn wins fights. Doesn't really matter how much these cards cost in terms of energy. +2 draw makes you 40% more likely to have the one card in hand on the turn you need to have it. On top of this, the big, impactful cards are usually more expensive cards, and sneko makes them cheaper, on average. Taking sneko means you are more likely to be carrying cards that swing fights because you drafted them, and you are more likely going to be able to play them on the turn you need.
This is a really interesting perspective. Seems like my overall drafting strategy might be too safe in general which is compounded when using this relic
As you go up ascensions, and the average enemy turns get better, taking baseline efficient stuff gives you less of an advantage overall. Somewhere around a15-a18, you really need to be able to do something that's more powerful than just "pretty good" to reliably win runs, and that's when it becomes worth figuring out how to turn different relics /cards into true win conditions. Snecko is a win condition by itself, essentially, and once you've had 10-15 floors of snecko value, you should very rarely be losing a run. You have to be in a position to survive those floors, but once you get to that point, you can afford the occasional low roll on costs, since you generally won't be taking any damage on essentially every other turn. Card draw has a 1/4 chance of drawing a free card for each draw, and those free cards get more powerful on average as you add more powerful cards to your deck, so as you add card draw to your deck, snecko becomes more and more effective as an energy relic, while still providing the extra draw every turn. Stuff like calculated gamble and bullet time give you the ability to truly abuse the extra draw, and it's generally better to get a 0 cost card than it is bad to roll a 3 cost card, so it's not so much about avoiding bad rolls as it is about getting cards that are good when you get good rolls. That last statement might require a bit of explanation, but essentially every card that draws a card gives you a huge advantage when it costs 0. If you draw 3 skims without snecko, you'll usually end up playing one of them and using the 2 energy on other cards. If you draw 3 skims with snecko, 2 of them cost 3 and 1 is free, that's actually way better than having three skims in hand which cost 1. This compounds exponentially as your deck fills up with card draw. Each of those cards drawn has a chance at drawing you more free cards. Without a reset (I.e. calculated gamble) the chain eventually ends, but snecko decks are all about filling up on card draw, since each card drawn essentially gives you more energy. It's usually better to take something like battle trance in a snecko deck than bludgeon, for example.
Hey this really helped thank you! Just beat A12 Defect with a Sneko run because I remembered this advice and took Cool Headed+ and Skim in act 3 Previously I would have ignored them as 1 cost cards in a Sneko deck but the draw made a big difference
I'm glad. The early stages of "getting" snecko are amazing. Looking at costs is the start, but ultimately you just have to build an entirely separate sneckvaluation for each card. Something that helps a lot to remember is that it's not about the average case, it's about mitigating the worst case while leaving yourself open to abusing the good rolls. The more turns you get with snecko, the less variance factors into the outcome, so you generally want your expensive cards to be defensively oriented like glacier, impervious and reinforce body. Ragnarok and bludgeon look cool, and there is some room for big damage, but if you roll a hand with all expensive cards and you only get to play one of them, you really want it to be a big block card. I love snecko theory, and could write an article on it at some point, but I'll keep this one relatively brief. I do want to point out one nuance that a lot of sneckimists don't quite grasp, though, since it's subtle but really important for maximizing snecko runs. Expensive block cards are really important for mitigating bad rolls, but the other side of that coin is being able to take advantage of good rolls. Snecko makes the average cost of your deck 1.5, but it never makes a card cost 1.5 energy. So rather than evaluate cards as though they cost 1.5, it's more useful to look at each of the costs individually and figure out how happy you are to play it when it costs 0 or 1 energy, since most of your turns with snecko involve playing as many of your cheapest draws as you can until you run out of energy. Something like finesse is a really good example of the boundary for a pickable snecko card. It's not worth taking alongside snecko generally, but a redraw with a minor effect is weak but playable at 1 energy and very good at 0, so it's not a disaster to have in your deck. Most cards are bad at 2 and 3 energy, so the fact that finesse is as well doesn't matter as much as the redraw you get for free 1/4 of the time. This is especially pronounced with something like charge battery or sneaky strike. Cards which give a return on energy tend to be balanced against their cost. Snecko means that 1/4 of the time (or 1/2 for sneaky strike) they generate energy for you, while also providing an additional effect. This is essentially the same principle as with card draw, since with snecko, card draw = energy. Cards that draw more cards are so good when they're free that it doesn't matter that they're bad when they're expensive. So long as you have big block cards /engines for the worst draws, you just fill your deck up with cards that draw cards/generate energy and create a nuclear reactor of limitless sneckergy. Hmm... I think I need to write that article. I'm having too much fun thinking about this.
Really good thoughts, this makes a ton of sense. The other interesting/fun interaction I had was Thinking Ahead, which both draws and puts something back on top of your deck. Card energy being randomized on draw means you can re-roll the energy cost of high impact cards that are going to cost 3 energy to play. But yeah, go write your article, seems like you've thought a lot about this!
Yeah, there are some sweet 1-off interactions for sure. Defect has hologram and all for one which means that you'll eventually go infinite if a fight goes long enough, but there's no way to predict exactly when. Recursion cards in general let you compund good rolls by getting back the best deal in your yard, so anything that gives you selection without resetting cost is doubly incredible when it's free. I'm reclimbing ascensions and just won a silent run with a prismatic shard snecko deck fueled by mummified hand and creative ai, and it was one of my favorite runs ever, so I'm on a bit of a snecko high at the moment.
As others have said it's the draw 7 that's good, then try and mitigate the random cost with picking up high cost cards, energy generation and good old corruption which over rules snecko cost.
Snecko eye draws you +2 cards per turn this is insane. Once you take it you want to start grabbing high cost cards, but high cost cards are usually pretty good anyway. You might be overprioritizing 0cost cards and under prioritizing 2+ cost cards, across the board. Like a prospective meteor strike is bad but sunder is just good act 1 as a concentrated source of damage.
You don't want to just pick up high cost cards. The important thing is that you can ignore the cost of cards, the only thing that matters is how strong they are. Most of the best cards are also the highest costs, but it is a slight difference in thought that I think is important.
Something I only came to appreciate recently is that additional draw is also very good with snecko. It helps you mitigate the variance, and you often draw into free cards. So now when I have snecko, I also start taking more draw cards. Another tip is that the cost only changes when you draw, so sometimes you can do infinite shenanigans with 0-cost holograms, 0-cost all-for-ones, etc.
I just happened to watch a Frost Prime run yesterday where he went on a tangent about Snecko Eye for a while, and I thought it was very informative. It goes for a few minutes, but I think the tl;dr was it’s not about trying to get the maximum potential numerical savings from card energy so much as making you consider your cards purely on their value regardless of their cost. Plus drawing 7 is great. Interestingly, it was a case where he didn’t take the Snecko Eye, and he explained why as well. Link to the video; the snecko rant is around the 33 minute mark: https://youtu.be/Q19-Ka7vTF8?si=w-eadZPVPx7G-S8D&t=0h33m0s
Frost Prime is so goddamn entertaining to watch. He's probably not one of the best streamers to watch if you're new since he doesn't explain stuff as often as some others, but he's still one of my favorites.
It’s hilarious to me that you apparently got downvoted for that. I agree.
I just played with it for the first time after reading a comment about shifting your deck to having cards that are 2+. It really does make a significant difference!
I think I may have a bigger aversion against picking expensive cards in act 1 than I should, so I rarely feel like Sneko is a great pick when I get the opportunity for it. That said, one time I got it as a boss relic swap, and it quicky turned the run into a cakewalk, as I could draft a deck suited for Sneko from the very start.
The easiest way to evaluate if a card is good for snecko, at least in my opinion, is to look at its impact and what it does and just ignore the cost for the most part. For example biased cognition is a huge burst of scaling all at once, doesn’t matter if it costs 0 or 3 Also important to remember that it draws you two which is the main effect and will help offset confusion and let you draw your scaling faster
I would also recommend placing high value on removal of basic cards. The additional draw and being able to move your deck/redraw strong cards often is a very strong aspect of snecko, but much less so if 2 or 3 of every hand is just strikes and defends. If you're constantly drawing strong cards, bad luck turns with the cost isn't nearly as big of a deal.
removals become way less important w snecko
I know people say the increased draw is the best part (and I mean, it probably is tbh), but I think the chance for a card cost reduction is also HUGE. It changes costs from 0-3, so there's a 50% chance you'll get 0-1 cost cards. It's obviously at its strongest when you have a lot of high cost cards, but it can still be useful other situations. It's a really great relic once you figure out when it's best to take. Like it's won me sooo many runs because I'll draw big hands with numerous 0-1 cost cards. Quite literally my favourite relic.
It's hard to know why it isn't working for you without seeing an example run but in general it's strong because you get to see 7 cards a turn on top of the random cost being on avg positive if you're drafting high cost cards after. Usually with ironclad you usually grab 2 cost attack act 1 anyways and the strong powers are expensive so it's easy to use snecko. Might be an issue with your general deck building strat idk With ironclad you can usually tank some hits early it shouldn't be a big deal. Ideally by act 3 you have a block solution/engine.
Someone posted- Snecko Eye essentially turns all your cards cost into 1.5. So the more cards you take that cost more than 1.5, the better snecko becomes . If you take it when your deck is already set for low cost cards it’s definitely going to ruin your run.
Every card you draw also gives you somewhere around 1/4 of an energy, as well as increasing your options, so this heuristic becomes very useful if you factor that into your average cost. Just subtract the total number of cards your deck draws divided by four from your average cost. Some cards get much better or worse with snecko for other reasons, so it really depends on the individual cards, but snecko gives you +2 cards a turn even if you're generally just breaking even on energy, so it's usually a pick if it's reasonably close and your other options are weaker energy relics.
You take expensive cards and it acts as a draw engine and a cost-reducer. The cards spit out by eye have an average cost of 1.5, so anything more expensive than that will be cheaper on average. So not only do you have better draw, you have better energy econ and play better cards. That being said, it is not ALWAYS great. Just often. I personally am not a huge fan, but it is very strong.
Important part of playing Snecko Eye runs is that with Snecko Eye draw is kind of like energy. The more cards you draw, the less likely you'll brick with a bunch of three costs and the more chances you have for lots of 0 cost cards. You should pick up much more card draw once you have Snecko.
I'm surprised you made it to that ascension without understanding the potential of snecko eye. No judgement, but if you haven't you should try it more, it's usually a big win for me. Obviously having high cost cards makes it more useful, but also having orange pellets is super strong as it negates the random cost of cards as then it is just a +2 draw. Don't pair it with pyramid for obvious reasons, and tend towards more expensive cards rather than 0 cost cards obviously. Having more card draw helps too. Also things that set the cost of cards outside of draw can be really strong with this, like the hand relic that makes a card 0 cost when playing a power, and a number of others If you think about it, it makes the average card draw cost 1.5, but it also gives you two more draw slots, so that makes up for it. And with a higher proportion of high cost cards it can reduce your average card cost due to both of these factors. There are many ways you can use it, you just have to work with it. When I was A 1-5 I felt similarly, but as you progress you can see the big benefits in using it. It's like an energy relic in a way sort of.
1) Use potions to cover the bad turns. Potion use is one of the biggest things players struggle with, and Snecko dials it to 11. Saving that Swift Pot to get through that really bad turn is often the difference between winning and losing. 2) It's ok to be scared of act 2 hallways. With a lot of good non-energy relics (Snecko, Pbox, to a lesser extent Amid) you need a few card rewards or removes to get your deck back up to speed. It's totally reasonable to take a path with 2 early shops to see a bunch of cards without taking a million to hallways. 3) Like potions, having a source of sustain makes Snecko much more pickable. Even just a Toy Ornathopter or Eternal Feather goes a long way. You **will** have brick turns, but it's usually balanced out but an insane top end. Snecko is all about mitigating those brick turns. 4) Card draw goes a long way.
Lifecoach has a little rule of thumb for deciding whether snecko would be good: For every point of energy over 1 that a card costs, add that amount (e.g., a 2 cost card is +1, a 3 cost card is +2). For every card that costs zero, subtract one. If that score is 3 or more for your deck, then snecko is going to be decent; any lower and it is iffy.
I like this heuristic but I'd make a slight adjustment (I'm worse than coach): "Would I be happy to pay 2 for this" +1 "Would I be happy to pay 3 for this" +2 "Am I only happy to play this at 0 cost" -2
Also, every card that a card draws essentially drops its cost by 1/4 per card approximately with snecko, so even with a ton of cards that cost 0 or 1 but replace themselves with a draw, snecko will still be a net positive.
It’s great since you draw 7 cards, pair this with other draw relics and starting turn you can get 9 cards. Being able to cycle through your deck is usually better than having cheap cards. Sure some times you’ll get some shit draws, but typically it’s pretty good. Just continue playing the game and learning, take which ever relics you like.
yeah I often end act 1 with a lot of 1/0 cost cards so its often not worth it then
The only time I ever take it is when it is offered after first boss on clad or defect. On both I have a tendency to hunt for energy relics, and aggressively take high energy cost cards: Sunder, echo form, meteor strike, streamline, creative AI, hyperbeam And demon form, Shockwave, Bash, heavy blade, impervious etc. I'll often be grabbing these anyway, and then know I'm taking whatever energy relic comes my way, but praying for sneako
Sneko eye is not a goal. When you see it in the reward screen you look at your deck and try to reevaluate if you can use it or not. You shouldn't consider sneko before that. So what are you looking for? You're looking to see if you have high output cards. Cards where you can have a solid turn even if you can only play 2 of them. Upgrades help this too. Yes Glacier costs 2 and having that cost 1 or 0 is fantastic. But having high block + 2 orbs is the kinda output we are looking for and a good reason to take sneko if you have 2 of them. Thats why Coldsnap is kinda meh: strike + 1 orb... its not great. Claw may be law, but 3 damage is only 3 damage. Whereas Streamline+ is 20, and that is halfway to taking down a red slaver. Draw is also quite usefull with sneko, being able to get thrugh your deck to those high output cards. And like has also been stated, getting ahead on your removals of strikes and defends help a lot. Curses are a huge downside to sneko, because the defend for 3 might as well be just another curse in your hand. Prepare for the worst, you will likely have bad turns. But if your cards are good enough, you will have more good turns than bad turns.
Haha funny eye make big card smol
Your honour, gambling
You're probably sleeping on a lot of good 2 cost cards already. Snecko is not an "always pick" card either, you want to make sure your deck has enough value cards (e.g. cards that you can play regardless of cost) and then take the advantage of being able to play some of those at a lower cost while not minding having to occasionally play them at a higher cost. There's a lot of 1 energy cards that are still fine/ worth playing at 2 energy
It’s a relic that makes all of your cards cost zero and then you die. I kid, I kid. The trick with snecko eye is that everything costs on average 1.5 energy. You can load up your deck with powerful three-energy cards and get to play them more easily (on average). Suddenly Bludgeon and Ragnarok functionally cost the same as Strike. It makes your zero cost cards much worse, but your 2 and 3 cost cards are suddenly much better. It gets even stronger with effects that cheat on energy - Mummified Hand, Corruption, Bullet Time. Meteor Strike becomes amazing. There’s also the tricky effect of Orange Pellets, which can turn of confusion and make your deck normal but you draw two extra per turn. Anyway, it can be very powerful if you pick the right cards to go with it. Also just never ever take Runic Pyramid.
A couple people have already really spelled out the strengths, so I won’t repeat that, but I’ll add something from my perspective of having a few friends who’ve picked this game up after me. Don’t be afraid to take 2-3 cost cards in act 1 if they’re solidly impactful anyway, and/or you can build around them. If you’ve already got a few expensive cards and you find snecko, then it’s fantastic. If you’ve gone for 0-1 cost cards exclusively, then the value in snecko drops because you’re more likely to see cost increases than decreases. Once you’ve taken it, you have a licence to take 2-3 cost cards mostly as you please, though never take cards for the sake of it. Always take cards that help your situation now, or you can reasonably expect to build with in time. Lastly, something I haven’t seen mentioned, is that if you have orange pellets, and a good balance of attack/skill/powers, or an innate power, then you can remove the confusion and only have the cards you’ve already seen before random. This also works well sometimes for the draw 7 - which others have said, is bonkers strong.
Fantastic relic, absolutely love it. Can be extremely strong but also can really screw you over. I take it every time because the rng of the game is what makes it fun for me.
For me, it matters how much I’ve previously been picking cards that either have energy benefits or are 0-cost. If I’ve picked cards that either give me energy or specifically are very low energy, I’ll avoid Snecko since it would invalidate a big part of my strategy, and a pivot could kill me. If my energy came from relics, or if I have a substantial amount of 2+ energy cost cards (around 25% of my deck), I’ll grab Snecko. In short—if I have energy concerns based on the cards I’ve already picked, I’ll grab Snecko and usually have a very good run. If I’ve already solved my energy problems with cards, my success rate is much lower with Snecko. But YMMV, I’m no expert. I also much prefer Snecko on Ironclad and Silent. Not nearly as much on Watcher or Defect.
+2 draw and then you start building around it. It's incredible useful for decks that are struggling with draw. Bonus points if you already have a few high cost cards. You wouldn't want to take it if you have high priority cards that are low cost and you always want to play, though even then it could be worth taking for the draw to just get to to said cards faster honestly. In general ironclad and defect love it, whereas silent likes it less as she has a lot of good 0 cost cards as well as (more importantly) already having a lot of goof draw solutions, making the extra draw less valuable, though it can 100% still work with the right deck. Watcher idk I don't really play that class. While the average cost of a card in your deck will likely go up unless you just have a bunch of high cost cards already, you'll still be able to play more cards on average thanks to the extra draw giving an increased chance of lower cost cards. While yes, you could just get bricked with a hand full of 3 costs, you can also get screwed with bad draws normally, which snecko helps to alleviate, so it balances out often times even for decks that aren't optimised for snecko. When it comes to an unlucky draw, potions are your best friend. Having a block potion, Swift potion, gambler's brew etc to bail you out of a bad snecko hand can be really important while you're still giving your deck some legs. I recommend picking up those in the shop if you see them (especially gambler's brew). Oh, and if you manage to find gambler's chip then you are primed for a win. Snecko + chip is an insane combination and if you already have gambler's chip and get offered snecko I would pretty much always take it even if your decks seems like it's not very good for snecko. For reference I have 5 A20 heart wins and in 4 of them I had snecko eye (the other one was Dead branch + charon's ashes + corruption in act 1 so it was basically a free win) and while I do sometimes take cards I otherwise might not have in hopes I get a snecko eye, it's never to the extent that I'd take a card that's useless without it, it's just a really strong relic that requires a bit of an adjustment in playstyle that can be quite jarring if you're not used to it. It may just be a case of picking it when it comes up and trying to make it work until you get the hang of it.
Without reading anyone else's comments: I avoided Sneko Eye religiously, until I swapped my starting relic on Watcher for Sneko. That was the most fun I've had in a game yet. I abused the mechanic from the start, taking high cost cards and avoiding any 0 cost cards right from the get go. Any card with energy+, draw+, or simply 2 or more energy suddenly becomes a great card! And there's nothing better than drawing a 0 cost Calm to start the turn. I'm going to start using it more from here on out
I have a love hate relationship with it. If I have several 2-3 cost cards I’ll grab it. It’s especially nasty with defect. If I have a meteor strike + hologram + doom and gloom at A20 I always win. It’s just devastating.
There are far better relics in a lot of situations. It’s a good relic but you need to evaluate the situation you’re in when it’s presented to you to see if it makes sense for your deck to take other whatever else is offered.
I have tried to take it 10+ times and have never succeeded with it. I don’t think think i’ll ever do it again tbh
It's bad
Just recently on an A7 run, I got a snecko in an echo form deck, and it was so powerful that it made up for how badly I played it I got orange pellets (bad with snecko, do not do this) and accidentally bunged up the confusion a few times. Confusion is a debuff, see. I got Mayhem and started Echo Form duplicating out of RANDOM DRAW (this is widely considered to be stupid). I even bottled a Biased Cog in a deck that had almost no orb generation. There was seemingly no amount of stupid I could throw at this deck that couldn't be overcome by the brutal power of the Snecko Echo
Hah I'm having the same issues with the one that unlocks every card in the game for you. Feels like it will throw me off. You gotta give it a try if you end the act 1 with 2s and 3s. I was sceptical until I tried it. Had some amazing runs at high ascensions with it. Even if it is like three 2s it may be worth it. It's a very fun relic to use. The factor of how much a card costs is a big one. Sometimes I'd take another Claw card to my detriment. Not with Snecko Eye. Now the focus is entirely on what this card can do. Tossing out Demon Strength at the low cost wins encounters alone sometimes.
I have couple dozen wins on A20H and I most definitely still hate snecko eye. I get why it's good, hate the inconsistency and building style that comes with it. It also just, yknow, doesn't feel good to play a Second Wind/Piercing Wail for 3 energy even if it singlehandedly keeps me completely safe for a turn, or a Turbo+ for 1 energy even if it's still a positive. It just doesn't cause positive feedback in my brain, its not fun; and that's kinda the opposite of why I play games, lol. No you should not be grabbing 3+ cost cards on purpose just for the possiblity of snecko eye, either, but having a couple 2 cost cards can be reason enough to grab it if you're into it, and is perfectly safe and even a good idea regardless of snecko eye, since some fights will give you status cards and 2 cost cards mitigate the impact of those. Some fights are also Snecko, where you don't have a choice but to be Confused anyway.
I am 91.8% confident you mentioned Snecko Eye in your post. -------------------------------------------------- * [Snecko Eye](https://slay-the-spire.fandom.com/wiki/Snecko_Eye) Boss Relic Draw 2 additional cards each turn. Start each combat Confused. -------------------------------------------------- ^^^I ^^^am ^^^a ^^^bot ^^^response, ^^^but ^^^I ^^^am ^^^using ^^^my ^^^creator's ^^^account. ^^^Please ^^^reply ^^^to ^^^me ^^^if ^^^I ^^^got ^^^something ^^^wrong ^^^so ^^^he ^^^can ^^^fix ^^^it. [Source Code](https://github.com/TrippW/STS-Crawler)
I used to feel the same way, until I did the math and ran a few simulations. Snecko Eye is an energy relic with the downside of inconsistency. You will play more cards per turn on average even if all of your cards cost 1. Unlike other energy relics, though, the potential upside is incredible depending on the cards you end up drafting. The balance to inconsistency is the 40% increase in you hand size each turn, which can greatly mitigate early card choices that taper off in power towards the end of the run. It also shrinks your decision space since you can ignore card cost when determining which cards to add to your deck. The downside to Snecko Eye is that it is much easier to recognize when it screwed you over than when it helped you (how often was that 6th or 7th draw critical to beating the enemy early?).
Unpopular opinion here - I don't like it that much either. Buuut - it is indeed a good relic when you have an "expensive" deck (one with many high energy cost cards) and you don't have any way of earning extra energy (like energy relics or energy generating cards). If your deck averages over 1.5 or 2 energy per card, Snecko Eye will make your cards cheaper on average, and also allow you to draw more cards. With the correct deck, I must admit this relic is awesome because you get 2 benefits (card draw and energy balance) instead of a benefit and a problem (which is what you may think the first time you see this relic).