That's the same issue I'm running into. Most of the enemies where I would want Artifact, they are able to apply the same ability multiple times. And regardless of your feelings on the viability of Runic Dome, it has extreme anti-synergy with Ancient Potion. Maybe this is the point though? Maybe they intend to introduce more fights with stronger (but less frequent) disables and require Ancient Potion to "dodge" them?

I guess my biggest holdup is, I wonder what drove the decision to remove Elixir outright, when these two don't remotely cover the same situations. I feel like there's room in the potion ecosystem for both types of recovery/prevention so why remove Elixir entirely? I guess we can only speculate until the devs elaborate.

Personally, I don't feel like Ancient Potion offers enough to be a worthy replacement to Elixir, but maybe I relied on Elixir too strongly. (Specifically, since Lucrezio's post, in Clash attempts)

The best use I've found for Ancient Potion for now is to hold one for the end of The City. If you get The Collector, it can prevent the Weak being applied during his "You are mine!" ability, which helps clear time. But what other good use cases are there?

You may find the patch notes here: https://steamcommunity.com/games/646570/announcements/detail/1672394201001038094

I, for one, would like to discuss specifically the removal of Elixir Potion in favor of adding Ancient Potion, and how this affects Ironclad's viability against the Repulsors (?) who add Dazed to your deck in The Beyond, among others. (Wound, Sear)

However, please use this thread for all relevant discussion related to this set of changes. :)

Thank you for writing this up. One thing I've noticed in my own attempts is that full Strength builds also have the weakness of low draw to make full use of the Flexes. If you try to solve for this using Pommel Strikes it takes another mana-per-turn relic to make up for the deficit in being able to play attacks. There's also Limit Break, which is nice when upgraded but garbage otherwise.

In your opinion, what does a good clash deck look like? Apart from picking Clash whenever offered and trimming skills from the deck whenever possible, what other cards are high priority for this archetype? What's your typical upgrade priority? Whirlwind>Bash>Clash>Strike>???

I've been trying to figure out other archetypes, but I keep circling back to strength and choking myself on Enflames and Demon Form. :P