40:45 Battle Hymn - B (Good damage generator, but needs other cards to make it really good. Also, no immediate output.) 8:19 Bowling Bash - A (Good early on in group fights. Falls off a little in the late game.) 16:55 Carve Reality - B (Strike, but gives a Smite. Look at it as a 2 cost 18, or a setup for a Wrath turn.) 11:34 Consecrate - B (Good if you can Strength scale it, but less impactful on its own.) 13:24 Crescendo - B (Wrath on Retain is more useful.) 5:15 Crush Joints - A (One of the only sources of Vulnerable for Watcher. Works amazingly with Wrath.) 27:52 Collect - D (One of the worst Energy Generation cards. Good with Dead Branch relic, Chemical X relic, or if it comes upgraded.) 29:32 Conclude - B (Energy efficient damage source, but with a very inconvenient downside.) 6:44 Cut Through Fate - A (The draw after Scrying is particularly useful. Turns into S tier with Golden Eye relic.) 53:12 Deva Form - C (A very slow card. Pairs nicely with Fasting. Outclassed purely as an Energy Generator.) 4:16 Empty Body - B (Stance Change is just very useful.) 4:45 Empty Fist - B (Upgrade makes it A tier.) 27:20 Empty Mind - A (Just a very Solid card. Draw and Stance Change.) 0:29 Evaluate - C (Adds a card to the draw pile, making it draw neutral. Good Upgrade version with +10 block for 1 energy.) 14:47 Fasting - B (Enormous Strength and Dexterity, but costly due to a loss of Energy per turn. Dramatically improves most 0 energy cards.) 16:11 Fear No Evil - A (Rated high for 1 energy calm entry.) 7:41 Flying Sleeves - C (Needs an upgrade to feel impactful.) 9:39 Flurry Of Blows - C (Particularly useful with Scry, so you can discard it and get it back later with a Stance Change.) 6:21 Follow Up - B (Upgrade does 11 attack potentially for free. Solid attack card.) 23:26 Foreign Influence - B (Upgraded version makes the chosen Attack cost 0 energy, making it top A tier.) 25:05 Foresight - B (Becomes exceptional when you can duplicate it.) 3:26 Halt - B (Benefits twice from dexterity due to Wrath. Most effective when used with wrath then leaving wrath on the same turn.) 26:19 Indignation - B (Good Wrath source.) 27:02 Inner Peace - A (Good Calm and Draw source.) 11:48 Just Lucky - B (Only really useful with relics or Strength or Dexterity, etc. Only really in B tier due to Scry.) 32:42 Meditate - A (Upgraded, let's you pick 2 cards from the draw pile.) 14:10 Pressure Points - Pressure Points Tier (Fun, if it works. Good when you have multiple copies of it.) 1:31 Prostrate - B (1 Prostrate isn't much. Good late game for Energy Engine.) 0:58 Protect - C (Retain is good, but it's expensive for what it does.) 37:57 Reach Heaven - B (A really good damage card. Carve Reality is better.) 38:59 Rushdown - A (Could be S due to its very good versatility.) 42:14 Sands Of Time - B (Better than Windmill Strike, due to its flexibility.) 5:54 Sash Whip - B (Weak is good for Blocks, but less useful than Vulnerable.) 45:48 Simmering Fury - B (Doesn't do anything the turn you do it,) 2:17 Third Eye - A (One of the most powerful Scry cards. Upgrade gives 5 Scry and makes it S tier.) 12:46 Tranquility - C (Retain Stance Change cards aren't that useful. But, the upgraded version is free, making it good for an Energy Engine.) 1:01:43 Vault - S (Just gives a whole extra turn. The more start of turn effects you have, the better Vault becomes.) 21:19 Wave Of The Hand - A (Best source of Weak for the Watcher. Becomes ridiculous when you can block 2-3 times after playing it.) 17:32 Weave - B (More useful than Blurry of Blows due to it's Scry condition. Best with 2-3 Scry cards and Strength or Damage Relics.)| 22:55 Wheel Kick - A (Good attack card. Deal 20 damage Upgraded.) 20:18 Worship - C (Upgrades to Retain. Negative Energy efficiency if aiming for the Divinity, but turns useful with a way to Duplicate the card.) 18:40 Wreath Of Flame - B (Really good with Attacks that hit more than once, Wrath, and Vulnerable. Clunky due to draw requirements.)
@@AvangionQ If you take some scry you can get them into your discard pile so you don't have to draw them and can bounce them back to your hand on that turn
I just beat my first watcher run yesterday morning and my 3 copies of + Flurry of blows was the best thing. Fury of blows, wrath, fury of blows, calm, fury of blows, exit stance, fury of blows, repeat = profit
Baalord once told us that Weave is slightly above Flury of Blows, I used to laugh at that. But after picking up a Weave, goodness! This video can drastically improve your Watcher game.
Weave lets The Watcher play like The Silent and do 12 cards a round. Chaining scry attacks and pulling back 1-2 Weaves every attack gets crazy in a hurry.
Talk to the Hand is S-tier in my opinion and my favorite watcher card. It gets insane in multiples and wins so many runs for me. Also I dont see how Flurry of Blows is a C-tier... for me its A-tier without a doubt, probably also because its great with Talk to the Hand.
@@AWPNubDiesel current watcher win streak world record holder, somewhere around 30 i think on a20 he advocates for keeping a super thin deck and going infinite/stance dancing is often the win condition
Establishment+Meditate alone is such a bonkers energy generator that I'm totally fine with Establishment not interacting with Pyramid. That shit would be disgustingly broken, like a full tier above Corruption+Dead Branch.
don't underestimate just lucky, quite a few times i built a cycling scry deck that had copies of those as the main damage/block source that paired really well with fasting thanks to it's zero energy cost.
Necronomicon relic makes wheel kick, wallop, and windmill strike absolutely bonkers. The damage and block is unreal even without wrath, but especially with it.
I was finally able to get a Pressure Points run to work, but only by drafting a starting deck with 3 or 4 Pressure Points, and it still felt weaker than a build based on wrath or divinity stance. I ended up with 6 or 7 Pressure Points in my deck, and the main thing I'll note is that trying to deal with enemies with artifact felt bad. My conclusion based on that run was that skip is always a superior option to Pressure Points. My favorite Watcher cards are Tantrum, Talk to the Hand, Rushdown, Mental Fortress, and Vault.
I have generally found it to be fairly weak, but i don't think its always a skip, one of the strongest runs i have ever had was a PP run, involving lots of omniscience duplication.
I don't think you have to go so hard into Pressure Points as 6 or 7. I mean for one thing, you shouldn't have more than 14 or so non-exhaustible non-power cards in your watcher deck to begin with. Even two Pressure Points is enough to beat any enemy in the game, but it's good to have a few damage sources that synergize with your stance dance like Wallop or Windmill Strike. The only time that Pressure Points is bad is when you are punished for playing skills or facing artifact, but even then it scales so fast that it still ends up being one of your most efficient attacks in the end of the battle.
i had a run with 9 pressure point, i haven't even start with it, it was fine, but it's far to be as busted as other build the watcher can do, but compare to the average build in the game, it's good
My favourite is the combo of Meditate with Establishment - it Retains any cards of your choice, thus decreasing their cost. It also pairs very nicely with Pressure Points - it is, essentially, the only proper sinergy Pressure Points have.
Just yesterday I had an incredible run where I got to pick Alpha in Act 1, together with two Third Eyes (one of them upgraded), a Foresight and a Sanctity. Then I also got Vault. I could play Omega, reliably on Turn 2 or 3. And that was really, really strong. However, I couldn't get through one of the tougher elites (because I was tanking a little too much damage during the group fights), as the Omega was not enough damage, even with a Conjure Blade to follow it up. I think I ruined my deck, picking up one or two too many cards. But it was great to play Turn 1: Alpha + Vault, Turn "2": Play Beta + Third Eye, Turn "3": Play Omega and basically be set up.
I feel like current baalor would rank flurry a tier higher or so. It's a good card, especially when you have Talk to the hand in the card pool. I've had runs where I wasn't quite infinite but flurry carried the block plan with talk to the hand/s in play
Watcher is weird, in the sense that you don't even need 75% of these cards. I usually skip even very good ones like Third Eye or Cut Through Fate. Really, you only need 1-2 Rushdowns, TTTH, 1 Mental Fortress, 1 Inner Peace (or not even, if you find Lotus/Sundial), 1 Scrawl, 1 Empty Fist for early game carry, optionally 1 weak/1 invul card and some exhaustable stance dance cards, and then just remove as often as possible to get your deck down to 8 non exhaustable cards (or 10 if you find Medkit)
Pressure Points is an anti-synergy card. Its damage does not increase from stances, the Watchers main mechanic; Pressure Points only synergizes with itself. It is good if you get lots of copies of the card, Scry also helps a lot.
Pressure Points scales so fast that the fact that is anti-synergy doesn't even matter. Even two copies can be your main damage engine, and very few cards available to the The Watcher scale as quickly.
Pressure Points effectively synergizes with all stance-based strategies that don't involve Wrath or Divinity. (entering/exiting calm for energy, using inner peace to draw cards, using empty mind to draw cards, like water and/or mental fortress to gain block) Other Pressure Points synergies include: Judgement All scry sources (Third eye, Foresight, etc.) All card draw sources (Scrawl, Vault, Study, Sanctity, etc.) Signature Move Violet Lotus Melange
pressure point is better on a single stance run, that's the one run you'll remove eruption, synergize well with all calm card like inner peace or like water, you can take some exit stance to get energy generation, but not always a good idea if you relly on like water for defense
@@gizel4376 The key thing with Pressure Points is to keep your deck size small. It's pointless in a 30 card deck unless for some reason you are running like 4 or 5 copies, and even that is questionable. Honestly, the main problem pressure points has is The Heart, solely because the Heart clears statuses regularly and adds layers of artifact to protect itself. A few other bosses do that, but none as problematic as in the heart fight.
@@celebrim1 it doesn't though? in multi fights is already bad, with it you have to hit every enemy at least once and then focus on one of them with just this card for it to work, all that investment and effort when you are playing the watcher and you could have just won turn 2 or 3 with uncommon cards. Useless in high ascension for that much investment because most battles end quickly unless you are doing something wrong. Keeping a deck lean is pretty much what most decks try to do most sts players above A0 are not taking a million cards.
Hey man, thanks for this. The only one I haven't gotten to the heart yet and attempted to slay it, is with The Watcher. This helped me with some of the suspicions I had about some of these cards and how worthwhile they are. Cheers!
Thanks for the info! Just got my first win with The Watcher, though I did it mostly by just taking every Mantra card I could get and bombing the enemies with massive Divinity damage -- the "best defense is a good offense" tried-and-true A0 strategy. I'm sure higher ascension levels will require a more sophisticated strategy. I have definitely been sleeping on Scry but plan to give it more attention on future runs.
I'm genuinely surprised you ranked Wreath of Flame that high. It seems like such a niche card when Watcher's attack plan mostly revolves around volume and consistent quality.
@@TheWonkster what a wild use of hyperbole! How about wreath with Ragnarok? Maybe even Akabeko? I have had this synergy countless times and it is very, very strong. You might just have a difficult time with playing that style if you are taking different combinations.
Perhaps it's due to my lack of exspert understanding of Slay the spire, but I honestly like Tranquility and think it deserves a higher place due to its upgrade form being a basically free out of wrath free card and energy generator.
I think it is differing playstyles from this youtuber. I also like tranquility because there have been many times when I wanted to exit wrath but I couldn't, the retain of tranquility really helps there.
@@uranus256 I've noticed he goes all in on overwhelming the mobs with early damage with his Watcher runs. I tend to have more success playing a longer game with The Watcher. You notice how much trouble his decks have on round 1 or round 2 if the mobs open the battle with attacks.
Just got my first two completed heart runs after watching half of this. Good stuff. Finding I really like divinity builds, but hand't realized just how much better prostrate is than the other mantra sources, especially combined with fasting
I used to think omniscience was a meme card due to its 4 cost. That was until I had a run with 3 omnisciences in the deck. I was surprised how often i drew exactly one omniscience on turn 1 - in fact, i drew 1 omniscience on turn one in every act 3 fight + heart, except one time i drew 2. One-shot many act 3 fights by double-playing wish, indignation, and ragnarok on turn 1.
Pressure Points is easily my favorite Watcher card. My best runs have all been through Pressure point stacking. The Mark effect offers such a cool and tactical way to scale and uniquely apply damage. I so badly wish Watcher had more Mark effect cards
@@gjgaming2133 Something like a Power that cuts her attacks' damage in half, but makes them apply Mark instead. Call it Gentle Fist. That would be pretty cool.
@@gjgaming2133 Rushdown is a great S tier card in its own right that pretty much any deck will want - I would rate both Rushdown and Pressure Points as some of the best cards available to The Watcher. But it's also an Uncommon and as such there is no guarantee that you will get it on any given run and you will probably not get it early in a run or be able to really make use of it as anything but card selection if you do. I've gone runs without seeing a single copy. If you keep a Watcher deck appropriately small, then pressure points absolutely can win for you. It scales extremely fast. The third time you use one it's already hitting as hard as your best attacks when you are in Wrath. And it just keeps scaling. It doesn't need anything to combo with, it just needs sufficient density of Pressure Points, and 2 will do. Where people make their mistake is that are running like 25 card decks with a pressure point or two in them, or they try running like 6-7 pressure points. That's not going to work. I mean that's pretty questionable regardless of your cards. Should you be adding Pressure Points to your 19 card deck late in a run? No, of course not. But that's probably true of any non-power, non-exhausting, non-zero point cost card. By the time you get up to 19 or 20 cards, like just about anything is going to dilute what makes your deck work.
Pressure Points is honestly really, really good. The only problem it has is that it counts as a debuff, so Artifact and status removal gets rid of it. If they just got rid of that one flaw, it would be a game-winner. As it is, I still think you can build runs around it just fine. Unless maybe you're going the full way to the Heart. That turn 3-4 status wipe is just nightmarish, and Watcher has better ways of dealing with it.
Everyone seems to dunk on Alpha, but I find myself almost always taking it lately. If the deck is small enough and already predisposed to it, you can easily activate Beta turn 1 with innate Alpha. Vault is immense for the setup and Omniscience for double Omega goes hard
This is absolutely not to take away from how useful and accurate Baalorlord's list is from other content creators, notably Frost Prime. From memory, Frost put Collect, Protect, and Conclude much higher up, and I'm pretty sure he said Cut Through Fate was one of the best cards in the game and put it in the top of S tier. Both opinions are simultaneously correct. For me, it shows how variable this game is from player to player. It goes to show that while there are probably objectively wrong ways to play the game, there is no right way to play. I fucking love Slay the Spire
Frost also originally had Bash in like A or S tier for Ironclad, rofl! Even he has gone back and drastically changed his own card evaluations; pretty cool, I think we all can relate. I've had realizations on many cards/styles, such as with heavy exhaust or discard decks.
This is an interesting vid, particularly how high u rank Wreath of Flame & Vault, and how low u rank Deva Form, Battle Hymn, Like Water, Evaluate & Establishment & how u remove Defend before Strike on Watcher. I will have to watch how u play her. Watcher is by far my best character but I’m stuck trying to break 10 win streak A20. I play almost exclusively stance dance build & I guess I need to open up to more options, bc every 8 runs or so, u may not draw the cards that allow a stance dance build. I do feel like u rated Battle Hymn a bit low, bc it’s good insurance that your Watcher run will have sufficient damage. Also Evaluate is a huge block when upgraded to 10, & provides future card draw that pairs nicely with the rare that upgrades added cards. I def agree on Judgment, which makes quick work of Spheres, Birds, etc. Deva Form + Fasting is prob my fave combo, but Sanctify is my fave Watcher card. Unfortunately many of Watcher’s other rares are quite bad IMO, including most of the mantra-related cards, Alpha, etc. Unlike the other StS heroes where rares are the most powerful cards so bosses feel rewarding, Watcher’s uncommons make me prioritize hallway battle over question marks etc, esp early on.
You attempting a 10 win streak at a20. I definitely suggest watching him as he is likely better than you(as he is one of if not the best at sts) Sometimes I don't agree with the rankings but I'd say 99.9% of the time I'd concede and say he is right once I change my perspective on it.😊
He makes plenty of valid points against cards but there are multiple times where he judges cards based on his playstyle, as he says this is a tier list based on how he likes the cards. He clearly is biased towards scry over here ( kind of understandable as it is good ), however he heavily rates the cards around playing with scry@@slicknana7445
I just beat heart for the first time, I did a divinity deck and killed the heart in like 4 turns. Probably my favourite run so far, I finished the heart in divinity with a 27 x 25 expunger
It's literally all just about synergy, and that's what makes this game so amazing. However, some synergies aren't obvious when they should be. Gaining 1 artifact before using biased cognition is an incredible synergy, but the game doesn't really make it obvious that the debuff can be prevented. It takes some trial and error, or in my case an accidental wtf moment. Subtle game with a lot of depth. 500 hours in, completed a20 with ironclad, on a18 with silent and defect, only on 9 for the watcher. I get sidetracked doing the dailies. So much replayability!
I just beat the heart with 4 copies of pressure points on a 16 cards deck. The effect is similar to poison on the silent, so I found it weird that it was rated so low in the tierlist. Using scry to make sure you always draw one and also has amazing synergy with sanctity. The rest of the cards were defensive cards to turtle.
The problem of PP is the short term. There is pretty much no case where taking the first PP is correct. And on A20, the margins are so small that taking a speculative first PP will just get you killed most of the time.
Yes The Watcher is slightly complicated. This guide helps with good guidlines, such as: Furry of blows is worse than Weave, because it's harder to change stances than to scry. And lets not forget: Nirvana is worse than Mental Fortress, because 34:45 "it's a little bit harder to scry than to change stances"
@@miaryaigne6379 well you're right, but he starts describing weave as "I tend to like it higher than furry of blows - rather than when you stance change, it returns when you scry"
I think his points were valid. Hand clog from multiple stance changes which can often draw cards holds flurry back. And making sure it is discarded is also a challenge. Plus it can fall flat if it is one of the 5 cards you draw. Scrying counters a lot of these downsides. You can more easily ensure weave is in the discard via scrying, and you don’t run into the same hand clog issues when scrying.
Some minor disagreements ... 0:58 Protect is B-tier, as a solid always useful block card ... 1:31 Prostrate is A-tier, as my favorite Mantra enabler 4:46 Empty Fist is S-tier, an insane 28 damage out of Wrath, this card slaps ... 5:15 Crush Joints is S-tier, as Wrath + Vulnerable = 300% damage 6:44 Cut Through Fate is S-tier, as perhaps the single best "Strike+" card in the game ... 9:39 Flurry of Blows is A-tier, a great damage enabler 17:32 Weave is A-tier, another great damage enabler ... 18:40 Wreathe of Flames is C-tier, "clunky" was the correct descriptor for that card
27:51 Collect is C-tier, the poor man's Deva Form, as you want to spend less than 3 energy on this card 30:28 Windmill Strike is D-tier, the Watcher's single worst 2-cost attack card, as we don't wait to kill 54:55 Devotion is A-tier, as one of the best Divinity enablers, and I'd want multiples of this card 1:03:53 Lesson Learned is S-tier as my favorite Watcher card, and I'd take four, except late in act 3
@@szelitzkyerick7456 do you think divinity always kills you at the end of the turn? That's the card effect of blasphemy, not an inherent feature of divinity stance
The beta art for Deus Ex Machina is the funniest shit I've ever seen, seeing Time Eater being hit by a FUCKING bus while watcher has like giant googly eyes 😂
Pressure Points is "S Tier", and probably one of The Watcher's 3 most powerful cards along with Rushdown and Windmill Strike. It's better possibly than Vault, and certainly better in your hand from the beginning of the game. Winning the game is all about scaling and while there are a few enemies where Pressure Points has a drawback, the speed with which PP scales is so high that it overcomes even those situations. And notable those fights aren't usually against bosses or even usually elites. And it's drawbacks as a debuff on a skill card as somewhat balanced against the fact it hits through block and avoids thorns. Two Pressure Points is enough scaling to beat any enemy in the game.
I’m a little late to the party here and correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m pretty sure deva form pays for itself after TWO turns, not 3 or 4. Since it increases energy gain by 1 each turn but then INCREASES the value by one, turn 2 is 1 energy, turn 3 is 2 energy, and it’s paid off and you get basically infinite energy for the rest of the fight. What am I missing?
Turn 1 is the turn its played, no value, turn 2, 1 energy refunded, turn 3, 2 energy refunded, but no added value, turn 4 = 3 energy. So you get value only on turn 4.
Brilliance B-tier? No way that card is at least A imo. I just had a Pen Nib run come together where the Brilliance was hitting for triple digit in elite/boss combats.
I really don't understand why pressure points isn't A+ tier. Isn't it basically better than silent's poison by a large margin ? Just one cycle and it either becomes AoE or it deals accumulative single target damage, and that's with only one copy. Had it been a higher rarity I'd understand but it's not like it's hard to find at least a couple more copies.
I would never have tried Wheel Kick if not for your recommendation of it; I was very pleasantly surprised. Paying that much energy for an attack that's not even multi-hit (so no cheesing Strength buffs or Talk to the Hand) seems dumb, until you factor in the instant kill potential, 0 cost cards, and deck cycling speed
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What’s your favorite Watcher card? Comment below!
Lessons Learned or Wish. LL is my favorite meta upgrade and wish is just so cool.
Tantrum. Beta art is uwu
Wallop. I pick it every time and it feels so good because it enables aggressive decks
Gotta be my boy Empty fist. Act 1 bossss
Rushdown
40:45 Battle Hymn - B (Good damage generator, but needs other cards to make it really good. Also, no immediate output.)
8:19 Bowling Bash - A (Good early on in group fights. Falls off a little in the late game.)
16:55 Carve Reality - B (Strike, but gives a Smite. Look at it as a 2 cost 18, or a setup for a Wrath turn.)
11:34 Consecrate - B (Good if you can Strength scale it, but less impactful on its own.)
13:24 Crescendo - B (Wrath on Retain is more useful.)
5:15 Crush Joints - A (One of the only sources of Vulnerable for Watcher. Works amazingly with Wrath.)
27:52 Collect - D (One of the worst Energy Generation cards. Good with Dead Branch relic, Chemical X relic, or if it comes upgraded.)
29:32 Conclude - B (Energy efficient damage source, but with a very inconvenient downside.)
6:44 Cut Through Fate - A (The draw after Scrying is particularly useful. Turns into S tier with Golden Eye relic.)
53:12 Deva Form - C (A very slow card. Pairs nicely with Fasting. Outclassed purely as an Energy Generator.)
4:16 Empty Body - B (Stance Change is just very useful.)
4:45 Empty Fist - B (Upgrade makes it A tier.)
27:20 Empty Mind - A (Just a very Solid card. Draw and Stance Change.)
0:29 Evaluate - C (Adds a card to the draw pile, making it draw neutral. Good Upgrade version with +10 block for 1 energy.)
14:47 Fasting - B (Enormous Strength and Dexterity, but costly due to a loss of Energy per turn. Dramatically improves most 0 energy cards.)
16:11 Fear No Evil - A (Rated high for 1 energy calm entry.)
7:41 Flying Sleeves - C (Needs an upgrade to feel impactful.)
9:39 Flurry Of Blows - C (Particularly useful with Scry, so you can discard it and get it back later with a Stance Change.)
6:21 Follow Up - B (Upgrade does 11 attack potentially for free. Solid attack card.)
23:26 Foreign Influence - B (Upgraded version makes the chosen Attack cost 0 energy, making it top A tier.)
25:05 Foresight - B (Becomes exceptional when you can duplicate it.)
3:26 Halt - B (Benefits twice from dexterity due to Wrath. Most effective when used with wrath then leaving wrath on the same turn.)
26:19 Indignation - B (Good Wrath source.)
27:02 Inner Peace - A (Good Calm and Draw source.)
11:48 Just Lucky - B (Only really useful with relics or Strength or Dexterity, etc. Only really in B tier due to Scry.)
32:42 Meditate - A (Upgraded, let's you pick 2 cards from the draw pile.)
14:10 Pressure Points - Pressure Points Tier (Fun, if it works. Good when you have multiple copies of it.)
1:31 Prostrate - B (1 Prostrate isn't much. Good late game for Energy Engine.)
0:58 Protect - C (Retain is good, but it's expensive for what it does.)
37:57 Reach Heaven - B (A really good damage card. Carve Reality is better.)
38:59 Rushdown - A (Could be S due to its very good versatility.)
42:14 Sands Of Time - B (Better than Windmill Strike, due to its flexibility.)
5:54 Sash Whip - B (Weak is good for Blocks, but less useful than Vulnerable.)
45:48 Simmering Fury - B (Doesn't do anything the turn you do it,)
2:17 Third Eye - A (One of the most powerful Scry cards. Upgrade gives 5 Scry and makes it S tier.)
12:46 Tranquility - C (Retain Stance Change cards aren't that useful. But, the upgraded version is free, making it good for an Energy Engine.)
1:01:43 Vault - S (Just gives a whole extra turn. The more start of turn effects you have, the better Vault becomes.)
21:19 Wave Of The Hand - A (Best source of Weak for the Watcher. Becomes ridiculous when you can block 2-3 times after playing it.)
17:32 Weave - B (More useful than Blurry of Blows due to it's Scry condition. Best with 2-3 Scry cards and Strength or Damage Relics.)|
22:55 Wheel Kick - A (Good attack card. Deal 20 damage Upgraded.)
20:18 Worship - C (Upgrades to Retain. Negative Energy efficiency if aiming for the Divinity, but turns useful with a way to Duplicate the card.)
18:40 Wreath Of Flame - B (Really good with Attacks that hit more than once, Wrath, and Vulnerable. Clunky due to draw requirements.)
Thank you!!!
Even tho I watched whole thing - thank you!
Where’s wish?
Also excellent breakdown! Ty
this is not a full list of all the cards in the vid, i only played the game for a few days and decided to make this small list.
Flurry of blows is by far my favorite. Something about playing it five times a turn feels so good. And then if you pick up two, ugh even better.
I'd rate Flurry of Blows as A-tier, mostly because I only ever want two of them ... having more than two becomes clunky due to hand clog
@@hans935 yeah I get that and all. But it’s my favorite watcher card. That’s all. Didn’t ask for a thesis on it.
especially with kunai or shuriken🤌
@@AvangionQ If you take some scry you can get them into your discard pile so you don't have to draw them and can bounce them back to your hand on that turn
I just beat my first watcher run yesterday morning and my 3 copies of + Flurry of blows was the best thing. Fury of blows, wrath, fury of blows, calm, fury of blows, exit stance, fury of blows, repeat = profit
Getting Lesson Learned on a Fusion Hammer boss swap run is one of the most satisfying things
Baalord once told us that Weave is slightly above Flury of Blows, I used to laugh at that. But after picking up a Weave, goodness! This video can drastically improve your Watcher game.
Weave lets The Watcher play like The Silent and do 12 cards a round. Chaining scry attacks and pulling back 1-2 Weaves every attack gets crazy in a hurry.
Thanks. I did not know that wreath of flame stays across turns. That makes it so much more usable.
Talk to the Hand is S-tier in my opinion and my favorite watcher card. It gets insane in multiples and wins so many runs for me. Also I dont see how Flurry of Blows is a C-tier... for me its A-tier without a doubt, probably also because its great with Talk to the Hand.
Omni with flurry feels so good.
Talk to the Hand pretty much lets you go 100% into offense, and end the turn with 50 block.
yeah but enemies with artifact
Multi enemy and artifact are definitely challenges for talk to the hand.
Yeah, it’s the heart killer and just an overall very consistent card. Sure artifact sucks for it but still very easy S for me
Baalor drinking game: watch one of these tier list videos and take a drink every time he says "Dead Branch"
now that i’ve been cursed with merl’s tierlist it’s great to see how a normal player plays watcher… i want to go back infinite watcher is too good
Have you seen Frost Prime's tier list? ruclips.net/video/ETr3g4JihW8/видео.html
Watching merl play was like opening a third eye. It's the first time where a character ever felt "solved" in spire hostory.
@@jman3267 it opened my third eye that third eye is bad
Who is Merl?
@@AWPNubDiesel current watcher win streak world record holder, somewhere around 30 i think on a20
he advocates for keeping a super thin deck and going infinite/stance dancing is often the win condition
Establishment+Meditate alone is such a bonkers energy generator that I'm totally fine with Establishment not interacting with Pyramid. That shit would be disgustingly broken, like a full tier above Corruption+Dead Branch.
i would put your thumbnail in S tier for the pressure points clickbait
don't underestimate just lucky, quite a few times i built a cycling scry deck that had copies of those as the main damage/block source that paired really well with fasting thanks to it's zero energy cost.
Also it has a fun animation! Watcher is just flipping a coin towards an enemy, quite silly how powerful that is.
Necronomicon relic makes wheel kick, wallop, and windmill strike absolutely bonkers. The damage and block is unreal even without wrath, but especially with it.
I was finally able to get a Pressure Points run to work, but only by drafting a starting deck with 3 or 4 Pressure Points, and it still felt weaker than a build based on wrath or divinity stance. I ended up with 6 or 7 Pressure Points in my deck, and the main thing I'll note is that trying to deal with enemies with artifact felt bad. My conclusion based on that run was that skip is always a superior option to Pressure Points.
My favorite Watcher cards are Tantrum, Talk to the Hand, Rushdown, Mental Fortress, and Vault.
I have generally found it to be fairly weak, but i don't think its always a skip, one of the strongest runs i have ever had was a PP run, involving lots of omniscience duplication.
I had a really good deck with pressure point but it’s because I went fully into defensive and scry after getting pressure point
I don't think you have to go so hard into Pressure Points as 6 or 7. I mean for one thing, you shouldn't have more than 14 or so non-exhaustible non-power cards in your watcher deck to begin with. Even two Pressure Points is enough to beat any enemy in the game, but it's good to have a few damage sources that synergize with your stance dance like Wallop or Windmill Strike.
The only time that Pressure Points is bad is when you are punished for playing skills or facing artifact, but even then it scales so fast that it still ends up being one of your most efficient attacks in the end of the battle.
i had a run with 9 pressure point, i haven't even start with it, it was fine, but it's far to be as busted as other build the watcher can do, but compare to the average build in the game, it's good
My favourite is the combo of Meditate with Establishment - it Retains any cards of your choice, thus decreasing their cost.
It also pairs very nicely with Pressure Points - it is, essentially, the only proper sinergy Pressure Points have.
Just yesterday I had an incredible run where I got to pick Alpha in Act 1, together with two Third Eyes (one of them upgraded), a Foresight and a Sanctity. Then I also got Vault. I could play Omega, reliably on Turn 2 or 3. And that was really, really strong.
However, I couldn't get through one of the tougher elites (because I was tanking a little too much damage during the group fights), as the Omega was not enough damage, even with a Conjure Blade to follow it up. I think I ruined my deck, picking up one or two too many cards.
But it was great to play Turn 1: Alpha + Vault, Turn "2": Play Beta + Third Eye, Turn "3": Play Omega and basically be set up.
I feel like current baalor would rank flurry a tier higher or so. It's a good card, especially when you have Talk to the hand in the card pool. I've had runs where I wasn't quite infinite but flurry carried the block plan with talk to the hand/s in play
Watcher is weird, in the sense that you don't even need 75% of these cards. I usually skip even very good ones like Third Eye or Cut Through Fate. Really, you only need 1-2 Rushdowns, TTTH, 1 Mental Fortress, 1 Inner Peace (or not even, if you find Lotus/Sundial), 1 Scrawl, 1 Empty Fist for early game carry, optionally 1 weak/1 invul card and some exhaustable stance dance cards, and then just remove as often as possible to get your deck down to 8 non exhaustable cards (or 10 if you find Medkit)
Pressure Points is an anti-synergy card.
Its damage does not increase from stances, the Watchers main mechanic; Pressure Points only synergizes with itself. It is good if you get lots of copies of the card, Scry also helps a lot.
Pressure Points scales so fast that the fact that is anti-synergy doesn't even matter. Even two copies can be your main damage engine, and very few cards available to the The Watcher scale as quickly.
Pressure Points effectively synergizes with all stance-based strategies that don't involve Wrath or Divinity. (entering/exiting calm for energy, using inner peace to draw cards, using empty mind to draw cards, like water and/or mental fortress to gain block)
Other Pressure Points synergies include:
Judgement
All scry sources (Third eye, Foresight, etc.)
All card draw sources (Scrawl, Vault, Study, Sanctity, etc.)
Signature Move
Violet Lotus
Melange
pressure point is better on a single stance run, that's the one run you'll remove eruption, synergize well with all calm card like inner peace or like water, you can take some exit stance to get energy generation, but not always a good idea if you relly on like water for defense
@@gizel4376 The key thing with Pressure Points is to keep your deck size small. It's pointless in a 30 card deck unless for some reason you are running like 4 or 5 copies, and even that is questionable.
Honestly, the main problem pressure points has is The Heart, solely because the Heart clears statuses regularly and adds layers of artifact to protect itself. A few other bosses do that, but none as problematic as in the heart fight.
@@celebrim1 it doesn't though? in multi fights is already bad, with it you have to hit every enemy at least once and then focus on one of them with just this card for it to work, all that investment and effort when you are playing the watcher and you could have just won turn 2 or 3 with uncommon cards. Useless in high ascension for that much investment because most battles end quickly unless you are doing something wrong. Keeping a deck lean is pretty much what most decks try to do most sts players above A0 are not taking a million cards.
Just lucky over flurry is wild wowee
it's just objectively wrong haha
Hey man, thanks for this. The only one I haven't gotten to the heart yet and attempted to slay it, is with The Watcher. This helped me with some of the suspicions I had about some of these cards and how worthwhile they are. Cheers!
Pick a couple talk to the hands
Thanks for the info! Just got my first win with The Watcher, though I did it mostly by just taking every Mantra card I could get and bombing the enemies with massive Divinity damage -- the "best defense is a good offense" tried-and-true A0 strategy. I'm sure higher ascension levels will require a more sophisticated strategy. I have definitely been sleeping on Scry but plan to give it more attention on future runs.
In one of my recent runs I beat the Heart by using Omniscience and Omega and then stalling with many block sources
I'm genuinely surprised you ranked Wreath of Flame that high. It seems like such a niche card when Watcher's attack plan mostly revolves around volume and consistent quality.
Yeah, wreath is a really clunky, inconvenient card that is only good in theoretical situations that you will see like twice in a thousand hours.
it's really good with tantrum, but that's pretty much it
@@gizel4376Flying Sleeves: “am I a joke to you bro?”
@@gizel4376it’s awesome with ragnarok! Especially if you have the akabeko relic too
@@TheWonkster what a wild use of hyperbole! How about wreath with Ragnarok? Maybe even Akabeko? I have had this synergy countless times and it is very, very strong. You might just have a difficult time with playing that style if you are taking different combinations.
Perhaps it's due to my lack of exspert understanding of Slay the spire, but I honestly like Tranquility and think it deserves a higher place due to its upgrade form being a basically free out of wrath free card and energy generator.
Yeah I’ve always found that having a guaranteed 0 cost way to get out of wrath to be really useful
I think it is differing playstyles from this youtuber. I also like tranquility because there have been many times when I wanted to exit wrath but I couldn't, the retain of tranquility really helps there.
@@uranus256 I've noticed he goes all in on overwhelming the mobs with early damage with his Watcher runs. I tend to have more success playing a longer game with The Watcher. You notice how much trouble his decks have on round 1 or round 2 if the mobs open the battle with attacks.
This is a gold mine of information!!! thanks for this
Just got my first two completed heart runs after watching half of this. Good stuff. Finding I really like divinity builds, but hand't realized just how much better prostrate is than the other mantra sources, especially combined with fasting
I used to think omniscience was a meme card due to its 4 cost. That was until I had a run with 3 omnisciences in the deck. I was surprised how often i drew exactly one omniscience on turn 1 - in fact, i drew 1 omniscience on turn one in every act 3 fight + heart, except one time i drew 2. One-shot many act 3 fights by double-playing wish, indignation, and ragnarok on turn 1.
Pressure Points is easily my favorite Watcher card. My best runs have all been through Pressure point stacking. The Mark effect offers such a cool and tactical way to scale and uniquely apply damage. I so badly wish Watcher had more Mark effect cards
Yes! She needs some power that's like +2 pressure point passively to enemies per turn
@@gjgaming2133 Something like a Power that cuts her attacks' damage in half, but makes them apply Mark instead. Call it Gentle Fist. That would be pretty cool.
@@gjgaming2133 The card is already OP. It's an S tier common that you can easily lean into on almost any run.
@@celebrim1 no you can't. And its garbage compared to other arcs like rushdown
@@gjgaming2133 Rushdown is a great S tier card in its own right that pretty much any deck will want - I would rate both Rushdown and Pressure Points as some of the best cards available to The Watcher. But it's also an Uncommon and as such there is no guarantee that you will get it on any given run and you will probably not get it early in a run or be able to really make use of it as anything but card selection if you do. I've gone runs without seeing a single copy.
If you keep a Watcher deck appropriately small, then pressure points absolutely can win for you. It scales extremely fast. The third time you use one it's already hitting as hard as your best attacks when you are in Wrath. And it just keeps scaling. It doesn't need anything to combo with, it just needs sufficient density of Pressure Points, and 2 will do.
Where people make their mistake is that are running like 25 card decks with a pressure point or two in them, or they try running like 6-7 pressure points. That's not going to work. I mean that's pretty questionable regardless of your cards.
Should you be adding Pressure Points to your 19 card deck late in a run? No, of course not. But that's probably true of any non-power, non-exhausting, non-zero point cost card. By the time you get up to 19 or 20 cards, like just about anything is going to dilute what makes your deck work.
That thumbnail is the trolliest of trolls. Pressure points in S tier lol
Pressure Points literally is S tier.
Pressure Points is honestly really, really good. The only problem it has is that it counts as a debuff, so Artifact and status removal gets rid of it. If they just got rid of that one flaw, it would be a game-winner. As it is, I still think you can build runs around it just fine. Unless maybe you're going the full way to the Heart. That turn 3-4 status wipe is just nightmarish, and Watcher has better ways of dealing with it.
That's a card I've always avoided. Never seen the point. It's fascinating that it's actually useful
even if marks are reset, it still scale really fast, the issue i have with it is that it's just good while other watcher build are completly broken
Everyone seems to dunk on Alpha, but I find myself almost always taking it lately. If the deck is small enough and already predisposed to it, you can easily activate Beta turn 1 with innate Alpha. Vault is immense for the setup and Omniscience for double Omega goes hard
I don't really understand why mark is so bad, isn't it a better scaling rampage?
In most cases, yes it is.
It's pretty easy to be in Wrath every time you use Weave. It's basically impossible to be in Wrath every time you use Flurry of Blows.
thx for the video now im finally making it to the heart with Watcher (haven't won tho but it's a matter of time)
This is absolutely not to take away from how useful and accurate Baalorlord's list is from other content creators, notably Frost Prime. From memory, Frost put Collect, Protect, and Conclude much higher up, and I'm pretty sure he said Cut Through Fate was one of the best cards in the game and put it in the top of S tier.
Both opinions are simultaneously correct. For me, it shows how variable this game is from player to player. It goes to show that while there are probably objectively wrong ways to play the game, there is no right way to play. I fucking love Slay the Spire
Frost also originally had Bash in like A or S tier for Ironclad, rofl! Even he has gone back and drastically changed his own card evaluations; pretty cool, I think we all can relate. I've had realizations on many cards/styles, such as with heavy exhaust or discard decks.
I love pressure point, as long as you can get a few copies of it
This is an interesting vid, particularly how high u rank Wreath of Flame & Vault, and how low u rank Deva Form, Battle Hymn, Like Water, Evaluate & Establishment & how u remove Defend before Strike on Watcher.
I will have to watch how u play her. Watcher is by far my best character but I’m stuck trying to break 10 win streak A20. I play almost exclusively stance dance build & I guess I need to open up to more options, bc every 8 runs or so, u may not draw the cards that allow a stance dance build.
I do feel like u rated Battle Hymn a bit low, bc it’s good insurance that your Watcher run will have sufficient damage. Also Evaluate is a huge block when upgraded to 10, & provides future card draw that pairs nicely with the rare that upgrades added cards. I def agree on Judgment, which makes quick work of Spheres, Birds, etc. Deva Form + Fasting is prob my fave combo, but Sanctify is my fave Watcher card. Unfortunately many of Watcher’s other rares are quite bad IMO, including most of the mantra-related cards, Alpha, etc. Unlike the other StS heroes where rares are the most powerful cards so bosses feel rewarding, Watcher’s uncommons make me prioritize hallway battle over question marks etc, esp early on.
You attempting a 10 win streak at a20. I definitely suggest watching him as he is likely better than you(as he is one of if not the best at sts)
Sometimes I don't agree with the rankings but I'd say 99.9% of the time I'd concede and say he is right once I change my perspective on it.😊
He makes plenty of valid points against cards but there are multiple times where he judges cards based on his playstyle, as he says this is a tier list based on how he likes the cards. He clearly is biased towards scry over here ( kind of understandable as it is good ), however he heavily rates the cards around playing with scry@@slicknana7445
I just beat heart for the first time, I did a divinity deck and killed the heart in like 4 turns. Probably my favourite run so far, I finished the heart in divinity with a 27 x 25 expunger
Took 5 flurries last run. But it wasn't A20, and I had tungsten... so I could see them being a bit fluffy
I think Ragnarok goes to 6*6
It's literally all just about synergy, and that's what makes this game so amazing. However, some synergies aren't obvious when they should be. Gaining 1 artifact before using biased cognition is an incredible synergy, but the game doesn't really make it obvious that the debuff can be prevented. It takes some trial and error, or in my case an accidental wtf moment.
Subtle game with a lot of depth. 500 hours in, completed a20 with ironclad, on a18 with silent and defect, only on 9 for the watcher.
I get sidetracked doing the dailies. So much replayability!
I just beat the heart with 4 copies of pressure points on a 16 cards deck. The effect is similar to poison on the silent, so I found it weird that it was rated so low in the tierlist. Using scry to make sure you always draw one and also has amazing synergy with sanctity. The rest of the cards were defensive cards to turtle.
The problem of PP is the short term. There is pretty much no case where taking the first PP is correct. And on A20, the margins are so small that taking a speculative first PP will just get you killed most of the time.
Great content 🔥
I need a dead branch analysis. I hate getting dead branch, just clogs my decks right up with stuff I either can't use or is not worth the card slot
Fasting and deva form is nice
Yes The Watcher is slightly complicated. This guide helps with good guidlines, such as:
Furry of blows is worse than Weave, because it's harder to change stances than to scry.
And lets not forget:
Nirvana is worse than Mental Fortress, because 34:45 "it's a little bit harder to scry than to change stances"
That was nowhere among the multiple reasons why he concluded that Flurry of Blows is worse than Weave.
@@miaryaigne6379 well you're right, but he starts describing weave as "I tend to like it higher than furry of blows - rather than when you stance change, it returns when you scry"
I think his points were valid. Hand clog from multiple stance changes which can often draw cards holds flurry back. And making sure it is discarded is also a challenge. Plus it can fall flat if it is one of the 5 cards you draw. Scrying counters a lot of these downsides. You can more easily ensure weave is in the discard via scrying, and you don’t run into the same hand clog issues when scrying.
Some minor disagreements ... 0:58 Protect is B-tier, as a solid always useful block card ... 1:31 Prostrate is A-tier, as my favorite Mantra enabler
4:46 Empty Fist is S-tier, an insane 28 damage out of Wrath, this card slaps ... 5:15 Crush Joints is S-tier, as Wrath + Vulnerable = 300% damage
6:44 Cut Through Fate is S-tier, as perhaps the single best "Strike+" card in the game ... 9:39 Flurry of Blows is A-tier, a great damage enabler
17:32 Weave is A-tier, another great damage enabler ... 18:40 Wreathe of Flames is C-tier, "clunky" was the correct descriptor for that card
27:51 Collect is C-tier, the poor man's Deva Form, as you want to spend less than 3 energy on this card
30:28 Windmill Strike is D-tier, the Watcher's single worst 2-cost attack card, as we don't wait to kill
54:55 Devotion is A-tier, as one of the best Divinity enablers, and I'd want multiples of this card
1:03:53 Lesson Learned is S-tier as my favorite Watcher card, and I'd take four, except late in act 3
@@AvangionQ divinity is shit tho'
@@szelitzkyerick7456 divinity is sick
@@szelitzkyerick7456 do you think divinity always kills you at the end of the turn? That's the card effect of blasphemy, not an inherent feature of divinity stance
@@TheWonkster nope. It's not a rushdown infinite, thus it's shit. Sadly. The entire character is shit thb
no rushdown should be S tier as long as you have the starting wrath card upgraded and a 1 elixr calm you have an infinite
The beta art for Deus Ex Machina is the funniest shit I've ever seen, seeing Time Eater being hit by a FUCKING bus while watcher has like giant googly eyes 😂
"You're better off without this card."
1 Pressure Point is dead weight, 2 is occasionally useful, 3 is viable, 4+ is god tier
Suprised you didn't S-teir Blasphemy. I guess I can understand for heart runs, but non-heart runs, Blasphamy+ feels like it reads "Win the game."
Pressure Points is "S Tier", and probably one of The Watcher's 3 most powerful cards along with Rushdown and Windmill Strike. It's better possibly than Vault, and certainly better in your hand from the beginning of the game.
Winning the game is all about scaling and while there are a few enemies where Pressure Points has a drawback, the speed with which PP scales is so high that it overcomes even those situations. And notable those fights aren't usually against bosses or even usually elites. And it's drawbacks as a debuff on a skill card as somewhat balanced against the fact it hits through block and avoids thorns. Two Pressure Points is enough scaling to beat any enemy in the game.
Your radio voice reminds me of Carl Sagan. Need to work billions and billions into your routine.
As an older gamer this is very funny :)
I’m a little late to the party here and correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m pretty sure deva form pays for itself after TWO turns, not 3 or 4. Since it increases energy gain by 1 each turn but then INCREASES the value by one, turn 2 is 1 energy, turn 3 is 2 energy, and it’s paid off and you get basically infinite energy for the rest of the fight. What am I missing?
Turn 1 is the turn its played, no value, turn 2, 1 energy refunded, turn 3, 2 energy refunded, but no added value, turn 4 = 3 energy. So you get value only on turn 4.
You have to play the card and it has an energy cost?
I really don’t understand how Protect is in the game when deceive reality is too
Flurry of blows in C Tier ?!!
Conjure blade isn’t very good but I have so much fun in runs where I take it
Brilliance B-tier? No way that card is at least A imo. I just had a Pen Nib run come together where the Brilliance was hitting for triple digit in elite/boss combats.
The question isn't "can it be do massive damage" but "was it run defining ?"
Often times any other attack can do mostly the same thing
I gotta love how much Cut through Fate gives for just 1 mana, I get to keep my *attack pace* perfectly well up while zerkin around organizing my deck
I really don't understand why pressure points isn't A+ tier. Isn't it basically better than silent's poison by a large margin ? Just one cycle and it either becomes AoE or it deals accumulative single target damage, and that's with only one copy. Had it been a higher rarity I'd understand but it's not like it's hard to find at least a couple more copies.
Can we somewhere access this tier list via a link?
I would never have tried Wheel Kick if not for your recommendation of it; I was very pleasantly surprised. Paying that much energy for an attack that's not even multi-hit (so no cheesing Strength buffs or Talk to the Hand) seems dumb, until you factor in the instant kill potential, 0 cost cards, and deck cycling speed
Got lesson learn into immediate peace pipe apotheosis i concur
Omniscience + Pressure Points is pretty nice
So you wanna say PP is the worst card of the watcher? Or simply "I dunno"?
Bc its certainly not the worst watcher card
Strong argument, thank you.
It's a meme card like Claw on the Defect, so it gets its own ranking.
It's an S tier card that can win runs on its own.
35:06 me irl
Baarlord: talks about Tranquility
Diversity and Inclusion: leaves the chat
21:41 oh the challanges of being a politically correct caster 😅
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA IT SO FUNY
Big oof on mantra being B
Halt in B? Come on now