• Type: Curse
• Cost: Unplayable
• Keywords: Ethereal, Unremovable
• Effect: Unplayable. Ethereal. Unremovable.

Danger: D Rank

A curse automatically added to your starting deck at Ascension 5 and above. Its Unremovable keyword prevents deletion, but Ethereal sends it straight to the discard pile at end of turn. In practice, this means it only clogs your hand on the turn you draw it and is gone the next turn. Since it has no other effect, the real damage is just "one fewer card this turn" - a minor nuisance. Every player at Ascension 5+ lives with this curse, but its actual impact is minimal.

• Automatically added to your starting deck at Ascension 5 and above. Shared by all characters
• This is the only source for Ascender's Bane; it doesn't appear in events or random curse pools
• Unremovable, so there's no way to delete it from your deck

• Deck removal is impossible due to Unremovable. It's a shared baseline at Ascension 5+
• Ethereal auto-discards it, so no special counterplay is required
• Blue Candle: lets you play it for 1 HP, but since Ethereal already clears it, spending HP is pointless
• Deck thinning: removing other cards increases draw frequency of the Bane, but Ethereal keeps the impact small

• Fire Breathing (Ironclad): extra damage each time you draw Ascender's Bane. Since you'll draw it almost every fight, this yields reliable extra damage
• Du-Vu Doll: +1 Strength per curse in deck. Because the Bane is always there, Strength +1 is guaranteed, making it the most rewarding curse to hold
• Darkstone Periapt: note that because the Bane is in your starting deck, the Periapt won't trigger on it depending on when you pick up the relic