u/yuval16432

The Amalgamator can combine two strikes or defends, removing them, before adding the colorless ultimate version. For reference, Empty Cage is a boss relic that removes two cards. This is a direct upgrade because it also adds a powerful card to your deck as well as removes two starters. I get that many decks don’t necessarily want an Ultimate Strike, but Ultimate Defend is a super useful card in most decks, and removing two defends isn’t much worse than removing two strikes. Not to mention that Empty Cage is a boss relic, while Amalgamator is an event.

Compare that to Toasty Mittens, which randomly exhausts your best cards for minimal gain, or Toybox which most of the time does nothing by act 3, and I think Amalgamator (which isn’t even a boss relic!) is significantly more powerful.