The ordering of marks and damage in card text is very important, damage will immediately expend a mark unless the enemy has sufficient block. An enemy's block presents opportunity to stack marks for later.

Thematically works as a card which rewards rejecting a main class mechanic, reminiscent of base game cards. Splitting damage into multiple instances is more important here than the base game because of expending marks.

Blue essence works as a sort of block storage, any card with essence value less than 10 gives you the option of preparing for a later turn.

Cards with low essence amounts can synergise well with anything that triggers off essence gain and so gain utility as your build progresses.

Strike is a staple, also note that there are several card names here which include 'Strike', so as to interact with the relic which increases damage of cards with 'Strike' in the name.

Stunning is extremely strong, so it's coupled with the minimum damage required to expend the mark. in theory you can nerf stun marks by never giving them with damage, it's needlessly conservative and boring to never let the player execute a stun in one card, meanwhile stun marks are the last to be expended in the DBVS order.

This card is in the starting deck to encourage players to be fine with trading HP and regaining it through effects like Vamp Marks. Also to provide the sustain to escape the early game.

Marks and Essence are frequently used instead of 'draw a card' or 'gain block' since they give new axes for synergy.

Providing enough Common damage options for the early game is important, especially for higher ascensions.

High and consistent damage output but at the cost of stacking a lot of marks on enemies, or potentially can be used advantageously to setup a stun mark.

Similar to the Defect card which draws off unique orbs, a simple but strong reward for committing to marks (also the draw occurs before the damage and hence before any marks are removed).

Yellow essence is very strong, card draw and energy are the main barriers to infinites, although 5 essence is useless on its own and seems low, this card's interaction with itself is very important, you can go infinite with two of this card and some of the powers (and a small deck).

This is the first Mark Shard creator, mark shards follow the same vein of shivs from Silent in the base game, offering a lot of flexibility and card play triggers, with a suitable amount of randomness here as well.

Fatal effects from the base game were a great inclusion.

Purple Essence before the damage is important for applying vulnerable to boost damage.

Provides damage through all of the 3 main vectors, fun card with high damage output.

This is a difficult card to balance, when it's expensive, the card draw will be worthless (since you have no energy) and the damage mediocre for its cost. Note that it's not each unique mark, it's each mark, so discounting should not be too hard.

Not as strong as it looks, likely to only be too strong if you have it turn 1 in some of the Act 2 fights. Great for expending marks, maybe could do with a counter that removes it from your deck after X number of plays.

This is the first instance of requiring a specific number of essence stacks, the values of each essence gain become important but the maths is always simple as they cap at 10. Follows the philosophy that it shouldn't be too tedious to play 'correctly' - you get value from just playing good cards, but you can squeeze out more if you spend the time.

Difficult to pull off but with a big payoff, in some decks you're unlikely to be able to do this twice in a fight, so it having Exhaust is mostly a buff, the hardest part of this is the stun mark. The requirements might be too specific, but one-off niche rares are fine.

Outlet for having a lot of marks stacked on an enemy, there need to be enough cards which rebalance decks between high damage instances and few marks and vice versa.

Effects that scale with damage dealt are always interesting because of strength, weak, vulnerable etc., this is a pinnacle all-rounder card, offering damage, block, card draw and energy, especially strong when upgraded.

Since this costs 0, it's fairly low impact but useful in some cases, the idea is that exhaust cards are single use and often best saved for the right moment, this lets you keep them for that moment and not wait for them to come back around. (Mistake: This card is supposed to itself have Innate)

Paired with Conjuration, sacrifice damage through essence for block, flips the meanings of cards with red essence, not too much to overcomplicate, but adds variety.

Reminiscent of Feel No Pain (gain block on exhaust), in exchange for being a strong option for damage mitigation, gaining block is a dead end, there are no block synergies in this class.

Paired with Abjuration, given the strength of yellow essence, every effect that grants purple essence was tuned for this.

Innate (start with it in your opening hand) makes this very strong and the upgrade is a huge boost. Whilst this effect is very powerful, it does not work well with effects that require exactly 8 or 9 essence for example. It also makes cards with low essence gains feel more useful.

This is one of the strongest cards, it enables infintes with yellow essence and is a massive boost to essence effects. It was, however, designed in the context of the power caps of the base game classes. You have a lot more resources at your disposal but still have to use them properly.

Regular mark application is important for a lot of decks, thematically it's great too.

This card is fairly weak when not upgraded. There should be a heathy variance of the impact of different card upgrades such that if you can guarantee an upgrade very soon, you have a great option open to you.

There should always be powers to prop up and support decks which focus on engaging with a specific mechanic really well.

On the surface this looks too strong, but it requires a mixed deck, which makes it difficult to also make the most out of the strength gain. Remember that essence doesn't benefit from strength at all, and this needs consistent essence gain to trigger.

Each class in the base game has a rare 3 cost power 'X Form' which closely follows the themes of the class. There is an interesting interaction with deliberately saving minions in boss fights to sustain this on later turns.

The way that doubling or tripling essence values carries over to the next turn is interesting, and incentivises maintaining high stacks for each essence.

Both this card and the previous are the premium expensive top-end for their respective mechanics. Variety in energy costs is important such that boss relics which give additional energy are sufficiently useful.

Some number of cards which overlap marks and essence are important to keep your options open, there are a lot of opportunities to cannibalise all but a specific part of marks/essence for upside.

Starter card to replace defend along with Bolster.

Paired with Ravenous Retreat, I like these pair designs, it makes it easier to find patterns in the card pool and remember the cards.

Two instances of essence gain are important here for power synergies.

This might be too strong, but it's the kind of card I would always pick and enjoy, its inconsistency is the only downside, at any rate it's very strong for common.

Paired with Fortified Retreat, another chance to trade marks for essence.

Similar to Possibility, it's important to be careful about adding unnecessary or excessive randomness to the game, the important thing here is you get something useful no matter what, so the range of variance isn't too wide.

This is an innate card that would work well with an upgraded Instinctual Recall (Retain for Innate cards).

The only thing that Essence as an archetype lacks is lifegain, this card offers setups for every avenue.

The idea was to support 5 roughly discrete paths for builds: only marks, only essence, main one and splash the other, or a full hybrid build. Parallel essence is supposed to support the top end for a mixed build.

Stun marks are arguably too strong to have in the pool by default, the idea here is to help you dig for a card which grants mark shards, whilst not being a detriment if you can't find it. 9/10 times, 0-cost draw 1 is neutral, and most decks would take a 0-cost draw 2.

Important to balance single target vs. AoE across the card pool.

Upgrades from 1-cost to 0-cost are always a positive experience for the player.

Similar to 'Recycle' from Defect. The player has to have ways to exhaust status cards from enemies. Meanwhile offers a means to thin the deck for infinites.

Designed with Mutate in mind (adds stun mark to the pool).

Consistent high mark output for enabling synergies.

X cost cards are great for rewarding high energy decks, it's also important to consider how this class interacts with all the relics and potions shared between classes.

Maybe my favourite card in the pool, everything about it is conducive to fun gameplay.

There are a few cards in the base game where upgrades aren't strict improvements, the card sort of morphs into a different role, this is a great version of this by adding card draw and exhaust.

Death Marks are supposed to be rare and the strongest of the marks, the damage it deals might need tuning, so might the number of marks required by this card.

This potentially applies 2 stun marks to each enemy, hence why it is a rare 3-cost that exhausts, universally stacking more Marks has a ton of synergy benefits as well.

Maybe the upgrade should Heal you for 3 on playing instead of reducing the cost. Or even heal you on upgrade, might be cool to have cards that grant maxHP or gold as a result of the upgrade process.

Block Mark Shard. These are deliberately ethereal and exhaust cards, they shouldn't cycle round to bloat your deck, they should be a free one-off cast.

Damage Mark Shard.

Vamp Mark Shard.

Stun Mark Shard.