Deck of destruction: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 03:57, 22 September 2026

Version 0.34: This article is up to date for the latest stable release of Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup.

Type	Miscellaneous item
Name	deck of destruction
Icon

A deck of magical cards, most of which hurl death and destruction at one's foes (or, if unlucky, at oneself).

The deck of destruction focuses on damaging and debilitating enemies. It is one of Nemelex Xobeh's decks. Under Nemelex, you can hold up to 26 cards of this deck at once.

It contains the following cards:^[1]

Degeneration (10.7%)
the Orb (17.86%)
Pain (17.86%)
the Storm (17.86%)
Wild Magic (17.86%)
Vitriol (17.86%)

Strategy

The deck of destruction's cards can be simplified into three main categories:

2 (oft-)targetable, elemental attacks - may be piercing, losing 1 range per monster hit.
3 LOS attacks - which blow enemies away, mutate them, or deal raw damage.
1 Orb of Destruction - See the page for more details.

Therefore, the deck tends to be most useful when there's a line of monsters, or when there's a ton of monsters at once.

History

Prior to 0.23, decks were physical items.
Prior to the deck simplification in 0.19, the deck of destruction was an archetype deck, with physical decks of destruction only pulling from the archetype. It was one of 4 decks to be kept in this version.

The possible cards across versions in this deck are shown in the table below.

pre-0.14	0.14	0.15	0.16 - 0.18	0.19 onwards
Flame Frost the Hammer the Orb Pain the Spark Venom Vitriol	Flame Frost the Hammer the Orb Pain the Spark Venom Vitriol	the Cloud Degeneration Fortitude the Hammer the Orb Pain the Storm Venom Vitriol	Degeneration the Hammer the Orb Pain the Storm Venom Vitriol	Degeneration the Orb Pain the Storm Wild Magic Vitriol

References

↑ decks.cc:80 (0.30.1)

Decks	Nemelex's Cards
Deck of destruction	Degeneration • The Orb • Pain • The Storm • Vitriol • Wild Magic
Deck of escape	The Cloud • The Elixir • Exile • The Tomb • Velocity
Deck of summoning	The Dance • The Elements • The Illusion • The Swarm • The Pentagram • The Rangers
Deck of punishment	Swine • Torment • Wraith • Wrath

[1] s.cc:80 (0.30.1)

[1]

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 *1 [[Orb of Destruction]] - See the page for more details.
-Therefore, the deck tends to be most useful when there's a line of monsters, or when there's a ton of monsters at once. Of its cards, only [[Degeneration card|Degeneration]] is likely to be harmful; it polymorphs (which heals monsters), but tends to make easier monsters while inflicting the [[malmutate]] status. Thus, destruction gets few benefits from Triple Draw, though Nemelex's other two abilities work anywhere from decent to well (depending on what you actually get).
+Therefore, the deck tends to be most useful when there's a line of monsters, or when there's a ton of monsters at once.
 ==See also==