Every roster needs the wall, and 9 Kings has a literal one. The King of Stone is the defensive specialist: a deck with almost no troop line, a base that is itself a small fort, and enough tower synergy to turn the yearly assault into a payment plan the enemy cannot afford.
The deck: nine cards
| Card | Type | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Stronghold | Base | A fortress that summons towers to shoot nearby enemies |
| Trebuchet | Tower | Multi-projectile tower: one extra shot per building in your kingdom |
| Flametower | Tower | A tower that moves to the battlefield and burns enemies |
| Cauldron | Building | Changes adjacent attacks to poison, adding poison stacks per level |
| Quarry | Building | Boosts all towers and your base each year |
| Wallmaker | Building | Raises defensive walls; gains health every year since Patch 0.9.5 |
| Ballista | Troop | Fires huge piercing bolts; since Patch 0.9.5 its bolts are blocked by walls |
| Trapper | Troop | Lays damaging traps; untriggered traps persist between battles |
| Earthworks | Tome | Unlocks a plot next to the target and returns up to three copies of the target card |
That last card is the deck's signature and a favorite forum question. Earthworks is a tome, not a building: it opens a new plot for development and hands you copies of the card you targeted, which makes it the closest thing the game has to a card duplicator. Patch 0.9.5 also added the Brickmaster decree, which doubles the health of every building that has health, a very Stone-shaped gift.
How a Stone run plays
- Fortify early. Stronghold, one tower, and Quarry ticking in the back. Your early years are about surviving, not winning big.
- Build the machine. Trebuchet scales with your building count, so every wall and support you place is also weapon development. Wallmaker's yearly health gain turns time itself into armor.
- Grind. Late-year attacks crash against a kingdom that does not die, and poison from the Cauldron does the winning for you. The risk is economic: decks that cannot kill fast can stall, so the deck rewards reading the difficulty curve and knowing when to invest in offense.
The unlock task matches the playstyle: the community wiki records it as building 99 buildings across your runs, which happens naturally if Stone is simply the king you keep picking. For how the deck compares against the rest of the roster, see the nine kings overview and the tier list.
FAQ
How do you unlock the King of Stone?
Build 99 buildings, per the community wiki's task list. The task shows on his locked card in the selection screen.
What does Earthworks do in 9 Kings?
Earthworks is a tome card. It unlocks a plot adjacent to your target and returns up to three copies of that target card, effectively duplicating it.
Is King of Stone good for beginners?
He is a fair second pick. His defensive style forgives placement mistakes that aggressive decks punish, but his slow pace teaches different skills than the starter king does.