Smaller decks draw better
Each turn you draw a set number of cards from your deck. The more cards in the deck, the lower the odds of seeing the ones you need. A tight deck repeats its good turns. A bloated deck whiffs.
This is the quiet engine behind most winning runs. Players add cards all game and never cut. The decks that win are the ones that learned to subtract.
What the Steward does
The Steward sits in your train and offers services between battles. One of those services is removing a card from your deck for gold. The cost is real, but the benefit compounds every remaining battle.
Think of removal as buying future draws. The gold you spend now returns as more consistent hands later. A deck that always finds its opener is worth more than a deck with one extra trick.
When removal is worth the gold
Spend on removal early, when your deck still has filler. A weak unit you drafted in act one is dead weight by act three. Cutting it then is nearly free value.
Hold gold if a shop offers a card your plan needs more. Removal competes with buying. When the choice is between a useful card and a useless cut, take the card. When it is between two useless cards, cut.
What to cut first
Cut cards that do nothing for your plan. A one-off damage spell in a scaling deck is a dead draw. A fragile unit with no role is a dead draw. Remove the cards that make later turns worse.
Keep cards that draw, that scale, or that defend a floor on their own. Those earn their slot every time. The upgrade strategy page covers how to make the keepers stronger.
A clean deck is a plan
Removal is not tidying. It is committing. Every card you cut says what this deck is. The Steward is the cheapest place to make that commitment, so use it before the filler compounds.
Next: Artifact priorities.