Ask what won a great run and most players name the rare: Corruption, Echo Form, the flashy payoff. Ask what got that run to the point where the rare mattered, and the honest answer is commons — the cheap, boring cards picked up in the first ten floors that kept the deck alive and killing while the fancy pieces were still missing. Commons appear in almost every card reward, they form the majority of most winning decks, and at Ascension 7, where rare cards show up half as often, they become the backbone of the entire run. This guide walks through the strongest commons for each of the five characters and explains what each one is actually for.
Why commons decide more runs than rares
A run offers you a dozen or more commons before it offers a single rare worth building around. That math alone makes common quality the highest-leverage drafting skill in the game: your Act 1 is made of commons, your deck density is made of commons, and your boss fights are survived by commons while you wait for the payoff card.
Commons also share a trait the flashier cards lack: they never need support. Pommel Strike does not care what else is in your deck. Backflip is good in a poison deck and in a discard deck. This "fits anywhere" quality is exactly what you need in the first act, before your build direction exists.
None of this means commons beat rares in a vacuum — an Echo Form is worth three commons. It means the average run is decided more often by whether your commons were solid than by whether your rare showed up. Our card tier list ranks the rares; this page is the floor underneath them.
Ironclad commons
Shrug It Off (1 energy, 8 block, draw 1) is the best common defensive card in the game and it is not close. Block plus card advantage in one card is a rate that rare block sometimes fails to match — take every copy you are offered.
Pommel Strike (1 energy, 9 damage, draw 1) is the attack version of the same deal. Nine damage is solid for one energy; the attached draw turns it into a card that never feels bad to see. Twin Strike (1 energy, 5 damage twice) is the pick when strength is in the deck, because every point of strength doubles its value.
Anger (0 energy, 6 damage, adds a copy to your discard pile) is free damage that grows over the run — a card that starts average and quietly becomes excellent. Thunderclap (1 energy, 4 damage and 1 Vulnerable to ALL enemies) is the common AOE answer, and Vulnerable amplifies everything else you play that turn. Armaments (1 energy, 5 block, upgrade a card in hand) and Iron Wave (1 energy, 5 block, 5 damage) round out the defensive picks.
Silent commons
Backflip (1 energy, 5 block, draw 2) is Silent's Shrug It Off and her single best common — cheap, defensive, and it digs toward her payoff cards. Acrobatics (1 energy, draw 3, discard 1) is the pure draw engine; Dagger Throw (1 energy, 9 damage, draw 1, discard 1) is attack and draw in one slot.
Blade Dance (1 energy, adds 3 Shivs) and Cloak and Dagger (1 energy, 6 block, adds a Shiv) are the commons that start a Shiv deck — full details in our Shiv build guide. Deadly Poison (1 energy, 5 poison) is the common that starts poison plans; five stacks for one energy is the most reliable damage rate in her pool.
Piercing Wail (1 energy, ALL enemies lose 6 strength this turn) deserves special mention because it solves problems blocks cannot: an entire hallway of enemies deals half damage for one card. Against big telegraphed hits it is often better than any block card you could have drawn instead.
Defect commons
Ball Lightning (1 energy, 7 damage, channel 1 Lightning) is Defect's best common attack — damage now, an orb for later, no downside. Coolheaded (1 energy, channel 1 Frost, draw 1) is its defensive twin and the reason Frost decks stay consistent: cycle, block, repeat.
Compile Driver (1 energy, 7 damage, draw 1 per unique orb) is the common that rewards orb diversity — with three orb types out it is a 7-damage draw-3, which is uncommon-tier value at common rarity. Sweeping Beam (1 energy, 6 damage to ALL enemies, draw 1) is the AOE answer, and one of the best hallway-fight cards any character gets at common.
Leap (1 energy, 9 block) is plain but dense — the largest single block on a common card in the game. Charge Battery (1 energy, 7 block, gain 1 energy next turn) smooths out the expensive turns that Defect powers create.
Regent and Necrobinder commons
Regent's commons run his whole resource economy. Glow (1 energy, gain 1 Star, draw 2) and Solar Strike (1 energy, 8 damage, gain 1 Star) feed the Star system while doing their main job. Cloak of Stars (0 energy, 7 block) is the best rate on a zero-cost block card in the game — free defense that leaves energy for everything else. The famous Big Bang is a Rare, not a common — if you want the full loop, that is what our Regent forge guide covers.
Necrobinder's commons are the defensive skeleton every one of her builds leans on. Defy (1 energy, 6 block, apply 1 Weak) blocks and weakens in one card. Grave Warden (1 energy, 8 block, adds a Soul to your draw pile) is block plus engine fuel. Negative Pulse (1 energy, 5 block, apply 7 Doom to ALL enemies) is a common that deals damage on defense — absurd efficiency for its rarity. Bodyguard (1 energy, Summon 5) is the starter summon.
How to actually use this list
Do not draft a common because it is on this list — draft it because it fixes what your deck is currently bad at. The card reward priority guide turns that into a two-minute checklist: damage too slow, take the attack; dying too fast, take the block; never finding the right card, take the draw.
Two commons that fill different holes usually beat one rare that fills neither. And skipping is still legal at common rarity — a mediocre common is worse than no card, because it dilutes every future draw for the rest of the run.
Want the full ranking, including rares and the S-tier game changers? The card tier list has the complete table with per-card notes, and the card database has effects, upgrade notes and synergies for every card mentioned here. The best cards guide covers how to read ratings when a five-star pick is still the wrong call.