Shadowsiege

6

**Shadowsiege** is a Banner Unit of the Umbra .

## Lore

*I was told that the first Constructs were made of discarded stone and a coordinated Antumbra effort. It is considered a prestigious position among Morsels. These were able to speed up the excavation of the Crucible tenfold.*

## Strategy

**Shadowsiege** immediately stands out from any other unit in the game - it has enough  to kill any non-boss, non-DLC enemy, and is capable of winning runs as the focal point of the run.

Unfortunately, it also stands out as perhaps the most difficult unit to play, costing 6 and 6 to play, which is 3 higher and 1 more than what you are able to play with no Artifacts on turn 1. Remember that it is a Priority Unit, so you are likely to draw it early.

Unfortunately, because units are drafted in Rings 1-4, you usually need to draft **Shadowsiege** before you will be able to play it, and while the space requirement can be fulfilled by taking a Light of Seraph, the Ember requirement requires specific enablers that you may or may not find. As such, taking **Shadowsiege** is almost always a risk, though it is more likely to pay off if you have a way to gain  such as Perils of Production or reduce the cost of units such as Forever Flame. It also requires a fairly strong deck, as it will be a dead draw until you can play it. In addition, if you are using cards such as Perils of Production or Space Prism to help play **Shadowsiege**, you will need to have a plan to handle the first few turns of fights before you can play **Shadowsiege** as you may not draw them in time.

Once you have figured out how to play **Shadowsiege**, upgrading it with Frenzystone and using spells such as Furnace Tap, Immortal Trade, and Umbra Stone on it will often be able to win the run. Using Floor Overstacking to give it allies will tremendously help as well.

Alternatively, you can force Shadowsiege out using Sketches of Salvation to summon it onto the middle floor. You will most likely need to remove a few units early to ensure Sketches targets it, however.

### Pacts & Unit Essence (The Last Divinity (DLC) only)

**Shadowsiege** becomes much easier to draft in The Last Divinity (DLC) because if, after drafting **Shadowsiege**, you fail to find a good way to play it consistently, you can simply fuse it into another unit for a huge boost to their stats; Units with innate Multistrike such as Animus of Will and Dante the Deceptive appreciate Shadowsiege's essence the most, as the large  boost is further multiplied by Multistrike. While the +2 hurts, it's a lot easier to plan around than **Shadowsiege** is.

Alternately, if you are playing with Hellhorned as the other clan, Pyre Chomper (or Consumer of Crowns, to a slightly lesser degree) is a great fusion with **Shadowsiege**, making it much easier to play.

If you manage to reach a point where you can play **Shadowsiege** itself, fusing a unit that grants Multistrike without a difficult-to-manage downside is quite strong, such as Dante the Deceptive or Animus of Will. Animus of Speed is a good partner as well because Quick works so well with **Shadowsiege**.

### Additional Information

Shadowsiege can be upgraded with Largestone, but will remain at 6 Capacity, as 6 Capacity is the limit of Capacity size for units in hand (units played can be larger than 6 capacity).

## History

*See: Version History*

The Capacity increase from 5 to 6 in Wild Mutations was a controversial decision, leaving Shadowsiege in the precarious position of not being playable with standard capacity as well as standard Ember gain.

 1.1.2