What’s your favorite Watcher card? Comment below!

40:45 Battle Hymn - B (Good damage generator, but needs other cards to make it really good. Also, no immediate output.) 9:39 Blurry Of Blows - C (Particularly useful with Scry, so you can discard it and get it back later with a Stance Change.) 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.) 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.)

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.

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.

Thanks. I did not know that wreath of flame stays across turns. That makes it so much more usable.

Baalor drinking game: watch one of these tier list videos and take a drink every time he says "Dead Branch"

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.

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)

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

Necronomicon relic makes wheel kick, wallop, and windmill strike absolutely bonkers. The damage and block is unreal even without wrath, but especially with it.

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 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

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.

This is a gold mine of information!!! thanks for this

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!

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

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.

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.

Just lucky over flurry is wild wowee

Great content 🔥

In one of my recent runs I beat the Heart by using Omniscience and Omega and then stalling with many block sources

i would put your thumbnail in S tier for the pressure points clickbait

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.

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)

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.

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'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.

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.

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.

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

Fasting and deva form is nice

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

I love pressure point, as long as you can get a few copies of it

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

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

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.

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.

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.

That thumbnail is the trolliest of trolls. Pressure points in S tier lol

I don't really understand why mark is so bad, isn't it a better scaling rampage?

Can we somewhere access this tier list via a link?

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’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?

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."

Flurry of blows in C Tier ?!!

Got lesson learn into immediate peace pipe apotheosis i concur

I really don’t understand how Protect is in the game when deceive reality is too

"You're better off without this card."

Conjure blade isn’t very good but I have so much fun in runs where I take it

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 😂

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"

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

1 Pressure Point is dead weight, 2 is occasionally useful, 3 is viable, 4+ is god tier

Omniscience + Pressure Points is pretty nice

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.

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.

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

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.

35:06 me irl

So you wanna say PP is the worst card of the watcher? Or simply "I dunno"? Bc its certainly not the worst watcher card

Big oof on mantra being B

21:41 oh the challanges of being a politically correct caster 😅