We develop a new approach of extension calculus in the category of strict polynomial functors, based on Troesch complexes. We obtain new short elementary proofs of numerous classical $\mathrm{Ext}$-computations as well as new results. In particular, we get a cohomological version of the “fundamental theorems” from classical invariant theory for $G{L}_n$ for $n$ big enough (and we give a conjecture for smaller values of $n$). We also study the “twisting spectral sequence” $E^{s,t}(F,G,r)$ converging to the extension groups ${\mathrm{Ext}}_{{𝒫}_{𝕜}}^{*}(F^{\left(r\right)},G^{\left(r\right)})$ between the...