King of Spells

Enchantments and tomes. Wizards scale with the enchantments they carry, Warlocks with the tomes you use, and the Library copies enchantments for free.

Unlock: Use 9 spells
Base card: Citadel
Other 8 cards: 3 troops, 1 building, 1 tower, 1 tome, 2 enchantments
1.0 decrees: Purification, Polemology

High-difficulty build

Carry: the Citadel. Stack Ruthless, a 5% instant-kill chance per rank, to x4 with Authoritarian and a multiplier perk for 20%. Matsuri, Aevean and Vao all build this.
Attack speed: take Tempest (double Citadel attack speed) and place Greed Beacons or Rainbow Temples beside the Citadel.
Front line: one tank with Steel Coat stacks. A Library next to it can copy an enchantment each year, and Re-enchant doubles all enchantments. Re-roll the attacker into the King of Nothing early to loot Steel Coats. Matsuri was still overrun late with over 100 Steel Coats, so take Rebirth or HP decrees at the late councils.
Alternatives (Aevean): Warlocks fed by Offering with Scrollmaster x4 and Sorcerous x3, or Wizards with Arcane x4, Combustion and Steel Coat.

Three sources agree on the Citadel carry.

From Builds for every king, where the player guides behind each plan are listed. Run plan for all kings: How to beat King difficulty.

Deck: 9 cards

The first card is the base. You start a run with the base and 3 random cards from this deck.

Citadel
Base
Strikes your opponents with chaining lightning bolts.
Wizard
Troop
Ranged spellcaster. Damage increases for each enchantment it bears.
Warlock
Troop
Melee tank that deals area damage. Gains HP whenever a tome is used.
Shaman
Troop
Buffs allies' damage based on its own damage.
Library
Building
Every year, has a 50% chance of duplicating an enchantment of one adjacent troop.
Spire
Tower
Heals your units that are closest to death during battle.
Offering
Tome
Destroys target plot and gives you 3 random tome cards.
Static
Enchantment
Unit's attacks trigger a lightning chain that deals 9 base damage. One more chain per stack.
Combustion
Enchantment
Enemies killed by the bearer explode, dealing 20% of its damage per stack to nearby foes.

How the cards fit together

Library has a 50% chance each year to duplicate an enchantment on an adjacent troop, so it works best next to a troop already carrying Static or Combustion.
Wizard damage rises for each enchantment it bears; the Arcane perk adds +1% per enchantment per rank (Patch #30).
Offering destroys a plot for 3 random tomes; Purification (1.0) hands you an Offering for each card of another king in your kingdom.
Spire heals the units closest to death. Patch #29 halved its damage and doubled its attack speed. The Spire Slays achievement needs 9 Spires.

Royal decrees

Decree	Effect	Limit
Abracadabra	A share of all enemies turn into frogs (10% on the official wiki table).	Up to 3 times
Glass Staffs	All Wizards gain damage and their HP is set to 1.	Once per run
Athenaeum	Replaces your hand with 9 random enchantment cards.	Repeatable without limit
Re-enchant	Doubles all enchantments of all your active troops.	Up to 3 times
Polemology 1.0	Warlock's passive effect is applied 1 more time whenever a tome is used.	Up to 3 times
Purification 1.0	Adds an Offering card to your hand for each card of another king in your kingdom.	Repeatable without limit
Spiremania	Doubles the amount of healing rays of your Spires.	Repeatable without limit
Tempest	Doubles the attack speed of your Citadel's lightning bolts.	Repeatable without limit
Witchdoctors	Shamans now also increase target's HP, based on their HP.	Up to 3 times

Perks

Perk	Effect per rank	Ranks
Arcane	Wizards gain +1% damage for every Enchantment they bear.	3
Eldritch	Shamans deal +20% damage.	3
Electric	Static causes +3 damage.	3
Mystic	Start with +1 completely random enchantment in hand.	3
Ruthless	Citadel attack has a 5% chance to insta-kill.	3
Scholar	Raises the Library success rate.	1
Scrollmaster	Start with completely random tome cards in hand.	3
Seer	Spires start with extra rays.	3
Sorcerous	Warlocks gain +1% HP for every Tome used.	3

Perk slots and ranks open with king levels. How perks and king levels work.

Guides for this king

Beginner guide: reading card types and hand size
How to beat King difficulty: perk board, year-5 decree, enemy re-rolls and the year-33 battle
Unlocking kings: every unlock counter and how it accumulates
Royal Council decrees: how the decree offer is built and which pools it draws from

Card, decree and perk lists: game data for version 1.0, imported 2026-11-13.