Every Regent card ranked by archetype — Stars, Forge, Card-Copying, and Infinite. Includes why mixing Stars and Forge loses every time.
Regent runs two completely separate currencies — Energy (default) and Stars (persistent, never auto-refilled). Because Stars carry between turns and are spent manually, Regent decks behave more like resource-management RPGs than traditional STS deck-builders. Knowing exactly which cards generate Stars versus which cards spend them is the whole game.
Community consensus after v0.100.0 is that Stars is S tier and Forge is B tier. Both archetypes are playable, but Stars scales with deck size (bigger decks = more Star generators), while Forge stalls once you hit the point where Sovereign Blade one-shots what's left on the board. Do not mix them — splitting cards between both pools guarantees that neither reaches critical mass.
Verification note
community
Regent Card Analysis: Stars vs Forge With Exact Numbers build priorities
This page covers every known Regent Card Analysis: Stars vs Forge With Exact Numbers archetype in the current Early Access build, ranked by consistency and scaling ceiling.
Each build section names the core cards, key combos, and the relics that push the archetype from functional to dominant.
Start with the S-tier build if you want the safest path through Ascension.
Open the related cards and relic pages if a build depends on a specific card or relic interaction.
Treat these rankings as an early-access snapshot — balance patches will shift them.
Regent starts with a unique statline. Falling Star is a 1E attack that deals 7→11 damage plus Weak and Vulnerable — effectively a Bash replacement with higher value. Venerate is the only starter Star generator and it feels weak because the archetype hasn't come online, but you cannot remove it early or your Act 1 routing breaks.
Strike and Defend are still auto-remove targets because Regent's common attacks and block cards both outvalue them on raw numbers.
Stars decks win by generating 7+ Stars over 2–3 turns, then spending them with Seven Stars (AoE finisher), Alignment (Stars→Energy), or Big Bang (mass resource refund). The correct Stars curve is: Star generator Act 1 → Alignment by end of Act 1 → Big Bang or Seven Stars in Act 2.
Because Stars are persistent, every combat starts at 0 Stars. This means your early-fight tempo is low — Regent's block cards must cover the 2–3 turn generator phase before Star spenders come online.
Forge works differently from Stars. Every time you Forge, you pull Sovereign Blade (군주의 칼날 / 至尊之刃) to hand — a 2E colorless Attack with Retained and damage equal to 10 + your current Forge counter. Forging again adds to the Blade's damage even if it's already in hand, discard, or draw pile.
The archetype loses because most Forge cards have bloated numbers (2–3 Energy for a +8 Forge), Sovereign Blade takes 5+ Forge stacks to exceed a normal rare Attack, and by then Stars decks have already finished the fight with Seven Stars.
Card-copying (印牌) is the third viable Regent archetype. It wins by using Quasar (类星体) or Arsenal (무기고) to duplicate high-value cards into the deck, then riding Confluence (汇流) to retain the duplicates each turn. Quasar is the build's enabler and must be picked the moment it appears.
Infinite decks want Charge!!!! (돌격!!!!), Care (护驾), and Tyranny (暴政) as their three burn cards, then Glow (광채) or Shimmer (微光) as the cycle engine. Without all five pieces, infinite doesn't close — it's the lowest-floor Regent archetype.
The Regent pool has more explicit trap cards than any other class because of how visually appealing the Forge mechanic is. These cards look exciting but underperform at every Ascension level.
The one common thread across traps: cards that require 2–3 setup turns to break even. Regent's Star mechanic means every setup turn is a turn you could have spent generating Stars instead.
Regent's starter relic, Moon-shaped Pastry (月面射击 pastry), provides +1 Star at combat start. This means every combat opens with 1 Star on the counter — enough to play Star Wave on turn 1 without Venerate.
Galactic Dust (银河尘), Mini Regent (迷你储君), and Vitruvian Minion (비트루비우스적 하수인) are the three Regent-specific relics that appear in all-Ascension community tier lists. Each defines a different archetype's ceiling.
FAQ
Stars cards scale with deck size. Every Star generator adds compounding value because Alignment can convert at any point. Forge cards scale only with the Sovereign Blade, which lives as a single 2E colorless card. Once the Blade exceeds 40 damage, additional Forge stacks are wasted because the fight ends. Stars has no such ceiling — a deck with 15 Stars on the counter always has more options.
No. The community has tested this repeatedly. A 50/50 deck generates too few Stars to reach the Seven Stars / Alignment threshold and too few Forge stacks to make Sovereign Blade lethal. You need at least 70% deck concentration in your chosen currency for either archetype to function.
Only in specific event-constructed decks. Sovereign Blade is useful as a Retain damage floor when you have enough Forge support to push it past 25 damage. Without that support it's a 2E dead card in hand every turn. The Decisions, Decisions event can construct a viable Forge-support deck, but organic card rewards rarely get there.
Alignment consumes 3 Stars and grants +2 Energy this turn (base). Upgraded converts 2 Stars into +2 Energy, which is why it's auto-pick for infinite decks. A deck with Secret Box (+2 Stars) and Alignment+ (2 Stars → 2 Energy) effectively runs at +2 Energy per draw cycle with zero net Star cost.
Quasar lets you imprint a random colorless card into your deck each time you play it. Pair Quasar with Self-Coronation (to imprint cards from hand) and a draw engine (Glow + Shimmer), and you get a deck that generates infinite 0-cost colorless effects every turn. The archetype is fragile because it relies on seeing Quasar in Act 1 — without it, printing doesn't work.
Yes as long as your deck isn't already infinite. Charge!!!! is a premium burn card that clears 1-cost filler and returns Energy. It's the single most efficient Regent uncommon skill for compressing decks. The only reason to skip it is if you're already running Tyranny + Care and don't need a third burn card.
Sources
Gamersky — Regent Card Strength Analysis
CommunityChinese community tier-list article for Regent with burst, infinite, and card-printing archetype breakdowns.
Gamersky — Regent Full Card Analysis
CommunityChinese community per-card rating for Regent covering Stars vs Forge split and archetype viability.
NamuWiki — Slay the Spire 2 / Regent
CommunityKorean wiki Regent card database with exact Forge scaling rules, Sovereign Blade mechanics, and archetype recommendations.