I did several attempts and i think i found a basic strategy that can ease anyone into trying this for himself.
Please note that i am not a native english speaker.
I will focus on ferocity 0 for now as i am a big fan of any % categorys and i think everything else can be adapted by the runner depending on the difficultys they want to run.
Abreviations used:
Magic Missile = MM
Invoke = IN
Setup
The advantage of this starting kit is that it already has 3 of the 5 cards we want to use in our final deck.
It will come to no surprise that our goal is to have a consistent deck of 5 cards that we can play every turn.
In order to do this run you will only need the mage class unlocked. No further cards are required.
The Deck
The Basic:
1x Invoke LVL2
3x Magic Missile LVL3
Thats it 4 cards. You can leave in a fifth card that you don´t need to purge so its one treasure less that you need. An addition of a forth magic missile is an option here altough it is difficult to consistently getting 5 Mana till you hit the hydra.
The Lucky:
2x Invoke LVL2
3x Magic Missile LVL3
That is most likely the most efficient thing you can run. Invoke is a rather rare spell so it is not guaranteed to even drop. Once you hit 4 mana you should always go Invoke>Invoke>MM>MM
If you manage to get to 5 Mana you can go Invoke>Invoke>MM>MM>MM
Ground rule is that more invokes is better but you want to be able to cast at least 2 magic missiles every round to take down the hydra fast enough.
You are able to increase your hand size via level up but in order to take advantage of this you would also need to get +1 mana two times. In the average run you will only get to 4 mana so getting to six AND beeing offered is rather unlikely. See Section Talents for more details.
Talents
Talents heavily influence the run tough.
Her they are listed according to their usefulness:
Mana:
+1 is a must have; +2 is optional
Discretion:
This lets us basically skip floor 2 and three. You want to pick it up as soon as it is available.
Resonance:
There is a little rng involved with the hydra. if you manage to get resonance tough you are basically unkillable as you will generate 3 block every turn.
Dash:
+1 movement is nice for the hydra fight if you do not get resonance.
Knowledge:
+1 card is nice to have but no must. In most cases it just means we need one treasure less to purge a card. Pretty good for the first level up as you are more likely to start with IN+MM+MM
Arcane Mastery:
Nice to have as it gains us bonus damage
Rising Tides:
Nice to have as it gives us bonus damage
Choices:
If nothing else fits pick this
Preperation:
You might want to pick this up as it will allow you to always have Invoke in your starting hand.
Only worth using as first or second talent.
Floor 1
A early fight will always run like this:
1. Remove every card from your starting hand that isn´t Invoke or Magic Missile.
2. Play Invoke>Magic Missle>Magic Missle OR Fireballx3 direectly on the boss
3. Repeat step 2 till victory
Loot:
For loot there is two things to look out for:
TREASURE and INVOKE. Pick any treasure card you can get and pick up a total of 1 Invoke if it is presented to you. You will also need one more MAGIC MISSILE in your deck. Check the Deck section for more details.
Layout:
As far as i noticed the first floor as certain consistencys. After your first encounter you should find the anvil. Use it to upgrade your Magic missiles. It doesn´t matter in what order you upgrade your magic missiles.
Follow only the main road and don´t enter any of the side tunnels. At the end you will find the Temple and the portal. Use the freebie on the temple to remove any card from your deck that aren´t Magic Missile or Invoke. Also use your starting treasure to remove a second magic missiles as well. If you have obtained any treasures so far use them as well to remove more cards.
After using the portal you have the choices for normal path or dark path.
DISCLAIMER: I have not yet toyed around with this. My current theory is the Dark path is more consistent because you get a sure elite enemy that gives you treasures and good xp that help you progress your deck. The normal route is thus more risky when it comes to rng. I think the length of both paths is the same.
Anyway once you enter the either of these paths you start avoiding fights with the flee option. You will only want to fight the elite and the boss on this floor. You can skip the shopkeeper as he has nothign of value to offer. If you manage to get a hold of a chest its worth taking a peek for Invoke or some treasures. Use the portal to get back to the main room.
DISCLAIMER: It needs further testing if you should now purge your deck completely with the treasures you got from the second wing or if you should head straigth for the boss and purge your deck afterwards.
Either way after defeating the boss head back and purge till dekc = hand size. The rest is used to upgrade your MM. You should be Level 3 when facing the boss and Level 4 after beating him.
Events:
Most events can and should be ignored. I would advice to not check any more encounters after you found the spider lair. Notabel events to not ignore are:
The wizard: He will offer you one of three spells, these can be Invoke or Magic missiles so it is worth checking out. Note that you can push cancel to not take any of these spells.
Spider Lair: This is a pretty good encounter since it gives a good amount of xp AND a high chance of treasure. I think it is even worth checking out the event patches in the siderooms for this.
Floor 2
Flee from every encounter and press onward to the boss.
Use the freebies of the temple and the anvil to make adjustments to your deck.
Your biggest enemy here is the rng.
Floor 3
Flee from every encounter and press onward to the boss.
Use the freebies of the temple and the anviel to make adjustments to your deck.
Your biggest enemy here is the rng.
Yep the only difference here is that level three is slightly longer so you will most likely have to have a random fight here. But this shouldn´t be a problem for our deck.
The Hydra
Quick Breakdown:
Start with using IN and nuke the nearest hyydra head.
In round two they have blocks so you will only be able to take down one head as well and weaken another.
After round three you should have enogh stacks of IN to be able to take down three heads every round.
The hydra should go down right before she uses her second round of blocks.
