Phantom Blades and retained Shivs
In the Shiv Silent build, Phantom Blades changes when Shivs need to be played. Their Retain allows you to keep them across turns, while the first Shiv each turn gains nine additional damage. After taking that first bonus, holding another Shiv can preserve a trigger for the following turn rather than spending every copy immediately.
There are reasons to play the rest now. Killing an enemy prevents its next action. Reaching an attack-count relic trigger may produce Strength or Dexterity. A Finisher turn benefits from more attacks, and a crowded hand may need space for the next draw. ## Damage and hand space
Accuracy adds damage to every Shiv. Phantom Blades concentrates its damage bonus in the first Shiv of each turn and provides Retain. A deck making a few Shivs over several turns can value that persistence, while a deck playing many each turn gains more repeated bonuses from Accuracy. Watch retained cards before playing Acrobatics or creating another batch. Unused Shivs occupy hand space, so saving them can prevent access to a needed defensive card. The upgrade increases the first-Shiv bonus from nine to twelve. It does not add another bonus trigger or change the Retain behavior. Consider upgrading a generator or defensive card first if the deck frequently fails to produce the first Shiv or cannot survive while keeping later copies.
