Miniscule is the gold tier of the small-deck Badge: win with five or fewer cards. A combat which ends with five cards left after Exhaust is a different result. Count the permanent deck, including starters, Curses and Powers, before the final fight.
The challenge rewards removal opportunities and a compact package that covers damage, defense and difficult encounters. It does not require a literal infinite. A five-card deck can still lose to an expensive hand, Status pollution or a boss which prevents the setup from working.
Budget additions and removals together
Use this ledger throughout the run:
Final permanent cards = starting cards + permanent additions − permanent removals.
At their ordinary starting counts, Ironclad, Defect, Regent and Necrobinder begin with ten cards; Silent begins with twelve. Any Ascension-added starting Curse also occupies a slot. Check the actual deck rather than assuming every character begins with the same allowance.
For a ten-card start, accepting three new cards produces thirteen. You then need eight removals to finish at five. One unnecessary extra reward raises that requirement to nine. For Silent’s twelve-card start, the same three additions require ten removals.
This is why an early useful transform can be valuable: it improves a starter slot without adding another card. Transforming does not itself reduce the count. A transform that produces an unsuitable card may still require a later removal.
Count the net change of each removal source
| Source | Permanent size change | Important cost |
|---|---|---|
| Merchant removal | −1 | Gold and the available removal opportunity |
| Empty Cage | −2 | Must obtain the relic |
| Precarious Shears | −2 | Also loses 16 HP |
| Luminous Choir: remove two and receive Spore Mind | −1 | The added Curse occupies a slot |
| Pandora’s Box | 0 | Transforms starters rather than removing them |
| Playing a Power or Exhaust card | 0 | Changes combat circulation, not the permanent deck |
Empty Cage and Precarious Shears can substantially shorten the schedule. Luminous Choir is a common counting trap: removing two and gaining one is only one net removal. Read the complete outcome before spending the opportunity.
Do not spend all available Gold removing the last usable attack before the next elite. The deck needs to survive until its later removals. The card-removal guide covers that immediate opportunity cost; this challenge adds a stricter final-size target.
Keep damage and defense inside the limit
A documented Necrobinder five-card win used repeated Hang scaling with Doom-enabled Death’s Door defense. The author describes keeping the important pieces accessible through removal and using Perfect Fit on Hang against pile pollution. That is a concrete example of a compact package, rather than a reason to remove every starter before finding a replacement.
Current upgraded Negative Pulse gives six Block and applies Doom. An upgraded Death’s Door then gives seven Block three times when Doom was applied that turn. Together they provide 27 Block for two Energy, with no Dexterity, Frail or other modifiers. A one-Energy Hang can fit beside those two plays on a three-Energy turn. Artifact preventing the necessary Doom application changes that plan.
Defect offers another route: All for One, permanently discounted Hologram+ and TURBO form a three-card retrieval cycle under its stated prerequisites. The potion is not a permanent card, but obtaining it, assembling the hand and keeping the loop legal are separate problems. A deck which is small enough for the Badge can still lack the required upgrade or discount.
Choose a package that the run actually supplies. Replacing a functioning five-card plan with an imagined perfect three-card loop can surrender a winnable challenge.
Draw locks and missing cards
With five permanent cards, an ordinary five-card draw can expose the entire deck only when nothing else changes that draw. Dazed, Wounds, retained cards, altered opening draw and cards still resolving can all change access. Combat-generated cards can threaten the fight even when they do not enlarge the permanent finishing deck.
Entomancer is particularly important: new Dazed enters the draw pile immediately. Three additional Status cards are a large disruption to a five-card package. A fixed routine that draws the whole deck in a clean demonstration may no longer find its defensive card.
Grand Finale also needs exact draw counts, not merely a small permanent total. Direct retrieval and a reshuffle reach different card locations. Keep those conditions visible when deciding which of the last six cards is expendable.
Final removal priorities
At six cards, identify which card’s job is already covered. Do not automatically remove the remaining Block card because the attack engine looks impressive, or remove the only debuff application while relying on conditional defense. A rare, upgraded card still costs a finishing slot.
After reaching five, decline unnecessary permanent additions. A late Curse, event reward or extra copy can restore the sixth card after the last removal opportunity has passed. Keep enough resources to win the final fight; ending with four cards and no usable defense is not progress toward a completed Badge.
The finish is simple to verify: the run is won, the permanent deck has at most five cards, and the final count includes every starter and Curse. Record the character, difficulty and modifiers when sharing the result so another player knows which challenge was completed.
