This video will teach you How To Play The Watcher

[@StickmanEvil]

I feel like (so long as both sides want to, of course) this might be a perfect co-op to do with JoCat. If he wants some tips on how to play the Watcher, you tutoring him would both give us another wonderful collaboration with you two, and it would also be helpful for continuing education, as it were. You both play so well off each other, and it would almost certainly lead to different situations where you'd make different decisions, he may ask you questions that some of us would like answered real-time, etc.

[@lexsmithee652]

this is a great idea!! i learned a lot from the jocat collabs!

[@olivergobrrr2935]

Hmm, speaking of co-op, I wonder if there could be some sort of like, challenge where they could both play in an alternating fashion without communicating...how that would work though, idk.

[@flashtirade]

What I learned from this video is -that Claw is unironically amazing on Watcher- how to think about building a Divinity deck. It's one of the archetypes I haven't experimented with before, so it's very cool to see it in action.

[@EvolvedDinosaur]

Even something as simple as you just talking to the camera about certain general strategies would be great. I always find them more informative than trying to follow a run! You’ll never be able to replicate the same run twice, but general advice is eternally useful

[@Kukzzzz]

Honestly even as a player with ~300 hours and all characters on a20, i still love the educational content, its simultaneously always a learning experience, and just really satisfying to watch someone so high level think out loud about what makes you do x instead of y

[@ProfessorWaifu]

every time he attempted to say "prostrate", he said "prostate" instead, and I lost my shit laughing

[@IMadeUpKear]

I'm still not sure if he's memeing or just doesn't know how to pronounce it.

[@williambarrett1234]

"i really like the prostate upgrade"

[@tugto]

need to find my uh, prostate...

[@Bittebitte_gib_mir_gift]

Wait it is called prostRate???

[@WedgeSkyrocket]

It has to be a gag, he said it SO MANY TIMES

[@Drakonus_]

As a new player, I find that the Defect is much easier to play and understand. On my first few runs, I already got to ascension 2 on the defect. Meanwhile, I've had like over 20+ runs on the Watcher and have yet to reach even ascension 1. I just find her stupidly complex because of the amount of different mechanics she has. Whenever I try to pivot her to a certain playstyle (like focusing on scry, or stances, or marks), the RNG almost always screw my runs.

[@lyrebird5982]

ok well one piece of really good advice is to NEVER take marks. Much like the Ironclad's clash, it just doesn't fit into any build and if you can actually get it to work: your run will already be in a position to do other forms of damage to a much more absurd degree

[@fivefoottwelve2789]

Honestly as someone who is still learning the game I think the best thing you can do is not explain in depth every single mechanic (once you've seen one run like that you've seen them all), but instead just elaborate a little bit more on what's going through your head when you see a choice of cards/relics, what synergies you are looking out for, etc.

[@pholidia8175]

Never noticed how much banter gets cut out from these runs till I started following the streams themselves. Love to Andrew for how much he does.

[@RioZMC]

I wasn’t aware that I needed Claw as The Watcher. Thanks for the guide Frost!

[@frog_goblin]

i'd played around 16ish hours of slay the spire before finding your channel last year, and had never beaten a run. after watching your videos (especially the how to play the defect) video, i managed to beat one w/ each character and have been working my way up the ascensions. honestly, i love videos like this cause you still get to see a pretty cool run and feel like you can apply it to casual play

[@SoftAirGaming]

Personally, the watcher is my lowest ascension character (20/20/17/15), and it's sometimes a struggle to figure out how to pilot decks. I've watched your content for a long time, and I've learned a lot about the philosophy of this game and what to be thinking about.

[@hellothere2880]

Lmao loser, watcher is my highest 2/2/2/3

[@sannekko]

Dude me too, i start thinking "oh yes this card is a good combo with my deck" and i end with to much cards and 0 combo :v The watcher is hard for me :c

[@sallomon2357]

My personal way of avoiding this is making sure that whenever I go up an Ascension on a character, I catch up to that Ascension with the other three. Just recently I caught my Watcher up with the others so I'm at Asc15 on all of them, sadly the run died on the Heart due to some poor decision making on the 3rd boss and the pre-Heart Elite, but hey, another Asc lvl is an Asc lvl 😅

[@SephonDK]

I think Watcher is the epitome of hard to learn, easy to master at this point. I know this didn't really end up as a real guide, but damn, the scrying and the meditating is just what throws me off. I guess the principles for a divinity deck as outlined in this video are - - Keep deck as small as possible - Get 3 divinity cards - Get damage - Get scry/draw - 1 Meditate Chase cards are then retain cost reduction, block on scry, and Spirit Shield. It's funny because while I'm really bad at the Watcher, what I like about her is the retain synergies and card creation. Basically playing her like a slow Defect power deck, but retained cards. It's just not what makes her broken, apparently.

[@nameforcomments4092]

Can anyone confirm whether he’s calling “Prostrate” “Prostate” on purpose? I think he likely is, but he’s so committed to it I can’t tell for sure.

[@Jason-vr9ry]

Hey Andrew, I only recently realized that you used to edit for Magikarpusedfly years ago. I just wanted to say that you're editing was always hilarious and you made a huge part of my childhood.

[@olliezoop]

God yes, I fucking love these overexplained type videos, I really want to improve at STS and these do that while also being entertaining

[@empatheticfrog2052]

I would genuinely love if he did a series breaking down the charecter in an informative way as he does runs. Would be cool to see!

[@akromakroma]

I have literally 100%-ed the game and I only just this day learned that both the Defect and the Watcher have a dumpy that won't quit. Thanks for the informative video, Frost!

[@ZunkleFunkle]

Unironically the Darkling tidbit was a fun little nifty fun fact. Thank you, Frost, for always educating us. In turn, I hope our brave marine biologists continue to educate you.

[@ulkimion]

That was an amazing run, it was so fun. Buuuut, for the purposes of the video, i would like to see another run dedicated to a more common, wrath / calm build. I got to ascencion 20 mostly with mantra builds, but the wrath / calm builds easily blows up in my face, so I would like to see some tips there o:

[@lancesmith8298]

As a disclaimer, I’m not A20 yet, but what I do know well enough to talk about is the general feel of Stance Dance decks, and an appreciation of how hard it is to actually assemble. First and foremost: this is a deck that can go infinite under the right circumstances, with insurance plans for Heart and Time Eater with Mental Fort and Talk to the Hand. You can sometimes even go infinite with the starter deck, Rushdown, and some removes, as long as you pick up Violet Lotus from the boss relics. It is a deck worth forcing in Act 1. However, despite being StS’ easiest infinite to achieve (only have Eruption+ and a 1 mana Calm effect in the deck with Rushdown), unless you have been blessed by RNGesus into almost a 5 card deck, don’t push your luck. Watcher does have a nearly free Act 1, but everything else hurts when you are still trying to push with a smaller starting deck, one part of the infinite, and nothing else going for you. You *will* get rolled by Collector if all you have is decent burst damage. So with that said, the core part of a good Angry/Calm run is playing the leanest deck you can. Pandora’s Box is a game winner, or at least a bunch of removes at once. Empty Cage often feels better than energy relics. Tiny House is not horrible, because it gives money for removes. That is how hungry for card removal the playstyle can get at a high level. You grab one good damage card, whatever is part of the infinite, and skip anything in Act 1 that does not solve Elites or Bosses. When you wake up from your caveman haze after the Act 1 boss, ask yourself “can my deck infinite?” There’s more than one, and even a few off in Divinity territory (Sanctity and Prostrate loops). If your deck is below 8 cards that aren’t Powers or Exhaust, and you have found 2 parts of an infinite, keep pushing. If your deck is above 10 permanent cards, but has everything to go infinite in there, keep pushing. If these aren’t the case, start taking cards again, but mostly keep it to raw damage, card filtering, and at least 2 copies of Rushdown (they are great cards anyway, appear in shops regularly, some infinites can only work with 2 of them up, and just having two can solve the card draw part of going infinite by themselves). In any case, you want to build a deck that can go Wrath any turn it wants, and Calm (or Neutral) any turn it wants. Worst case scenario, you go back to building Divinity with a small deck.

[@TheFearChannel]

Gonna bring this up again since it demands to be spammed. Andrew needs to do a run. He's edited so many videos, but in all this time has he learned how to slay the spire?

[@bdwilliams03]

LOVE this version of Frost. I normally watch on my TV, logged in on my PC so I could leave a comment for this. Great content, love hearing you explain your thought process. The divinity run was cool, would love another more standard calm/wrath run. Please keep doing these, I LOVE the combo of educational content and pure silliness. I will watch them all!

[@plasmarine5781]

I recently just started playing (a little behind the times - I know) but I did play a little on my housemates copy of the game on switch like a year or so ago. Only just bought the game myself and I've unlocked all cards/relics for Ironclad/Silent/Defect who I was already slightly familiar with.. But now it's time to tackle the Watcher before dipping my toes into the tantalising waters of Ascension. I've done 2 runs but haven't quite gotten the gist of them. Appreciate the enjoyable and educative content! Thanks my man. ♥👍

[@hirachidiamonds6444]

Watching you play made me significantly better at STS. Thanks dude

[@knivesoutcatchdamouse2137]

So I'm probably wrong since im a wittle baby n00b, but The Watcher seems like she has a powerfu underlying mechanic, but as a result of caution on the devs' part, in an attempt to keep her power in check, they made half of more of her cards underwhelming. Like, they clearly made a lot of the cards to fit various archetypes; cards that are a bit mediocre on their own, but ideally would synergize really well with each other in the right build. However, the straightforward Unga Bunga Smash Face build seems to be the clear winner in terms of efficiency, leaving little motivation to pick any of the cards that dont explicitly and efficiently serve that immediate goal. Hopefully I am underestimating the versatility of this character's design, but currently I am feeling disappointed with the finished product in comparison to the other 3 classes. I think they probably made the underlying mechanic too powerful and should have put more of the character's power into their cards (though obviously **some** cards are busted with either a tiny bit of synergy and occasionally just bonkers regardless of what cards / relics you already have).

[@knivesoutcatchdamouse2137]

like, Frost passed up something like 20 different cards within the first few floors of act 2, with barely a second thought, which tells me there are too many "trap" cards for Watcher. This is par for the course for the other videos I've watched of high level streamers playing Watcher, unless they're just doing a meme run (which always has the possibility of winning, just lower odds in general).

[@krabbekage2124]

Thank you so much for this Frost. I've been feeling kinda weak in my Watcher games recently, but this video gave me some newfound inspiration (take Claw)

[@nickmiller8906]

So I haven't finished the video. Just started. But I gotta say, starting a run that just gives +1 energy and using that to teach seems like you should reset because that seems(to a new player) a stupid op move that just makes the entire run so much easier lol

[@thegreatsimonator6312]

As someone who has never touched Slay the Spire, I knew what it was but I've only ever watched your STS content, idk what the hecc anything does lol. the explanations makes it so much more enjoyable to watch :D

[@G4mer_D4d]

25:25 accumulative as well. If you meditate sands of time, it will retain twice (since it has retain and meditate also retains it) and the cost will go down by 2!!

[@starryskies9655]

Step one: download the mod that adds more mark cards Step two: play mark cards Step three: win

[@jumpiestudios5265]

"Don't worry as much about your early game." Well, when I play the Watcher, that's all of the game...

[@BioDeus]

Same.. why I'm here

[@rexdaemonum2742]

Yeah, I got lost about halfway through act two when you were using meditate to set up kill turns and cycled through the entire deck. Idk, the character is just too big brain for me when I just like to play Ironclad with big numbers.

[@TheUltimegaMan]

The watcher is the ultimate high risk, high reward that makes higher ascensions easier with her, because it is easier to get to that higher floor of difficulty with her. Her base kit allows her to do some pretty meaningful moves once you have a good idea of enemy intentions and what they’re going to do.

[@MissouriFishingWarrior]

I’ve beat 1 run with the Ironclad after 12 tries. The silent and the defect are difficult for me atm. The watcher I won within 3 tries. Had an insane build with the 0 cost deal 4(6 when upgraded) and lots of switch stance related cards, and a bunch of draw. Wiped act 2 boss in 3 turns. Absolutely hands down my favorite class.

[@TheOrnitie]

Day 171 of coming from Twitch just to drop a like and comment for my boy Andrew. These runs are gold tier.

[@lycandula]

Instructions unclear: all I've learned is that I should always take Prismatic Shard so that I can get Claw.

[@x3no913]

I dare you to do an over explained extravaganza: Where you you would play and over explain all the characters in one stream and keep the momentum…The ultimate Slay the Spire tutorial.

[@Senorgato029]

Watching you play has taught me that I had a absolute lack of knowledge and understanding of how to deck build, I feel like the best things here were examples of figuring out what you don’t need, most people would always keep vigilance and eruption because calm and wrath and a core part of the watcher however you had a deck that very very often proced divin and therefore you didn’t need them as much as that kinda feels weird to a lot of people, I think learning how to determine what you don’t need is the hardest skill in this game, also I am a visual learner so commentary on a run in progress helps me personally, and yes it got a little goofy at the end but there wasn’t much more to explain at that point

[@Thabois]

I’m so happy that you have shown us how the watcher has lethal all the time every time no matter what

[@thomasoliver2119]

I just got Eternal One after 1,142 hours in slay the spire. The last achievement was ascend 20, which I got with watcher. Your guide helped a lot, but the run where I took claw with prismatic shard didn't really work out for me. Maybe it was the snecko eye I got from the boss swap. My win was a pandoras box boss swap with a mostly finished rushdown infinite. It just needed the rushdown and a few removes. Anyways thanks for explaining the watcher. It actually helped a lot, and I probably would have won the prismatic snecko run if I hadn't taken claw as a meme. Also meditate is probably the card that has gone up the most in my mental evaluation. Never used to take it. Now I almost always pick it.

[@josephbridges6188]

I would love to see more big brain educational content, It's great hearing more of your thought process. Thank you for pogged up content.

[@wrathisme4693]

*The teaching content is really fun to watch and I think dors super well on the KZbin algorithm.* I found your channel through the collab with Jocat and the despite me not watching slay the spire content nor knowing who jocat is, I clicked through to wash it and found your channel regardless because I wanted to learn how to play slay the spire. I have since then gone from meddling around the Low ascensions playing casually to beating Ascension 20 on my very first try after unlocking it. I understood the game more and was able to learn about your perspectives watching the tier list videos and the one other overexplained video you did on the defect regardless of not playing the defect often. And then I found my own play style to become a skilled player who understands and loves the game much more than before, and I have you to thank for it. I quite enjoyed a lots of your content and I think that runs with the specific goal of teaching the game would be very beneficial to a lot of people and would probably absolutely slay on KZbin. Come for learning the game, stay for the lovely content creator and his fun banter with chat. After all, I certainly don't watch your peglin poglin videos to learn how to play the game, but I like them anyway, and I likely would have never seen them if the teaching Jocat video didn't show up on my recommended one day. If you read this far thank you I hope my input has been valuable, but allow me to impart one final piece of wisdom. One of the reasons the fat Peglin boss is so difficult is because the map is pretty sparse of pegs and overtime scales in reverse as pegs are transformed into bombs and do not refresh. This means your favorite relic, your snecko eye of peglin, molten mantle does even worse against them because it's disallows for scaling and all your damage needs to be upfront, and if you don't have that damage then you are screwed, and if you do have that damage you didn't need the downside associated with Molten mantle. It also means that's on high cruciball bee balm refreshing relic which I never see you take is critical to keep the reverse scaling in check, and I think it's why you took so long to get to cruciball 15 and beat it. Anyway thanks for the great contents! Hope to see more teaching videos in the future they are very interesting

[@VarjoFilosofi]

Had fun last time playing The Watcher. Found three potions, which duplicate the effect of the card you are playing next and went to face the last boss. Used those duplication potions to Wreath of Flame and then in Wrath mode used Tantrum+ with it.

[@minime8368]

All I came for was some tips on playing watcher and instead I found one of the funniest human beings. 10/10 would stumble upon again

[@wildebeest333]

I didn't think Frost was gonna make another one of these but I'm glad he did

[@se57mm]

Quite honestly the best video you uploaded in a long time. That saying I really enjoy you usuall content but this was a breath of fresh air.

[@colinlynch6491]

Yes, I learned I need to take beam cell in the watcher

[@Landofbrokenhearts16]

Hey Frost, nasty deck there. In terms of playing the Watcher though, could you do a run where you focus on going in and out of Wrath and Calm? I’d love to see how you go about a Watcher run without Mantra and without going for an infinite

[@3hourgames]

I think the watcher has higher chances of really crazy runs, and it may be watched less because it's really easy to fall into the "play a rage infinite" deck with every watcher run, and that may have just started as a goofy meme but it does still happen a lot and would make people less likely to watch a full run. Great vid!

[@Atariese]

Things i learned: Entering divinity gives 3 energy. (i thought it was double energy before) Ectoplasm cannot drop from act 2 boss. Chat won that one time. Acenders' bane stays around if its a Meditate target. STREAMERS NEVER USE POTIONS! Claw is the best Watcher card.

[@metalprogressive450]

I will be watching this video

[@georgiestuff]

This is probably common knowledge but to new players, Vault can nullify the time eater countdown if played as the 12th card.

[@gagabarbidou5975]

I really learnt quite a bit about how to play the watcher. It was probably my least favourite character until now, but i really want to start a run with her now

[@babies1238]

This has made my Watcher runs more consistent, thank you

[@adamyohan]

This was quite the deck. Not what you usually see him play with the Watcher so it wasn't the perfect guide but definitely very entertaining.

[@declanthehelper456]

The watcher has always been my favorite character to watch, despite never playing the game (I think most people have problems with watcher cause it ends up being ALOT more math the other characters). Please more watcher content

[@AvengingSyndrome]

The way I 'learnt' was looking at Merl's Watcher tier list and then forcing a rush down infinite. Suddenly gave me a more intuitive sense of how bullshit the watcher's decks are meant to be.

[@SilverionX]

Well I only just started playing The Watcher and I'm failing pretty hard. After this video I learned that picking cards that work well together is actually good. Honestly though watching someone who's great at the game playing makes it easier to see the synergies.

[@fdrehug7318]

How to play watcher: get gud relics

[@TheLethargicWeirdo985]

30:10 yeah the retain keyword beats ethereal for some reason, I only learned this from the downfall mod curse that gives all your cards ethereal

[@jmaxmage]

I enjoy explained content and memes. You always have both.

[@arirought531]

instead of watcher overexplained, it is just watcher explained, and im here for it

[@scaratylobsidian8830]

Only now that I am watching Frost playing Watcher Mantra do I see the eye on the back of the staff goes crazy when you enter divinity.

[@shyguypro9876]

You thought this was a mantra deck, but it was actually a claw deck.

[@macrosis1674]

31:50 I’m pretty sure that’s because of the interaction between Ethereal and Retain and not Meditate’s order being wrong. Retained cards ignore the Ethereal tag. Or at least, that’s what I sometimes observed. Somehow there’s this voice at the back of my head saying that I’ve seen exceptions, but right now it’s not bringing up any conclusive evidence.

[@greggreg3209]

Super late but frost if you see this. The watcher was my least played in STS and. being inspired on getting lots of mantra and nuking all my foes, I was able to be the heart for the first time with 0 mod cheese. thank you

[@mattb.5749]

I think this is the best slay the spire lesson, make your deck so strong you can add stupid fun cards into it late game.

[@Heggiboyy]

This content is what gives me pure joy

[@spencercurrey4357]

I'm drunk but I could still follow this. Love you Andrew and frost. As a game developer you have broken the code for the watcher

[@TwoandaHater]

i honestly cant tell if he thinks it is prostate or the joke has just become the default now?

[@LMF1716]

I would love to see more "thoughts explained" style runs of not just slay the spire but all the games you play that need strategy

[@nickbell6291]

Awesome video, was very interesting to learn about how you plan your deck and your route. Also that arson is a great way to do tax evasion

[@teratania7163]

FINALLY - CLAW IS LAW - PEGLIN POGLIN

[@ethansmart8801]

i love these videos. Frost prime is the only reason i beat the heart and can play this game to a slightly above average degree. Thx u for the poggy content ❤

[@ultichaos8317]

"I would like to get off [...] if at all possible [...]." Frost 2023

[@Villhelm478]

Thanks for your help! Finally cleared Watcher.

[@ONS0403]

Hi Frost, I've been watching your content for a very long time and I'm very glad that you made this psudeo over explained run! I basically learned this game and started to actually win runs from your card tier lists. I remember you had one on defect a long time ago, now you have this one on watcher. Maybe you can do two runs on ironclad and silent as well to complete the collection!

[@jasonward960]

I've learned a lot from watching you. It's improved my gameplay significantly. Keep up the great content!

[@souki3337]

That was very informative. I did beat A20 on Watcher but my usual pepega strategy is either get Rushdown or die Would love to see more of this type of content!

[@MetsCatDad]

This was such a satisfying run! The removes, the efficiency with unupgraded cards, the #lethimcum Will catch the stream when I can!

[@xazz]

Haven't watched the video yet but sometimes I find myself lost because I don't know what the card or artifact does. While I'm not saying do it for EVERY card but just as you play when a more specialized card comes up (Havoc as an example) just read the card aloud. You do it really well when you play new character mods and that helps explain what the cards do as you play. Or if something is a combo/has synergy just stop for half a second and go 'its a combo bc X'

[@EclipseShadowScale]

retain overrides etherial when applied in a certain manner. theres something fundamentally different about the retain of well layed plans, and of meditate, and cards modified to have both key words do not exaust at end of turn, though that may be an implementation error with mods

[@expepem189xl3]

Glad i watched this, this run teached me that best watcher card is a Claw(As usuall) and best way to play here is build a claw deck.

[@somerando6215]

This was an amazing video, Frost! I hope you do the other classes as well since I sometimes don't understand what your thought process is in why you choose or not choose a card.

[@gagethompson8943]

It finally happened!!! It took several weeks but I finally got my first clear of the spire! With the silent my favorite character so far

[@alanhong99]

This is truly helpful. Really well set up.

[@Vexal50]

I'd love one of these for Defect, as I find it really hard to tell when I'm supposed to be grabbing certain cards. I also think Watcher could use a second video for the runs where you don't find as many mantra cards, as I find those runs rather difficult to do consistently

[@walrusman1632]

I didn't know the darklings were in both the easy and hard pool. That was a fun little nifty fun fact.

[@impydude2000]

0:45, it's a Frost Prime Twich stream, what do you expect?

[@ammonbergevin5302]

This is the most un-watcher watcher run I have witnessed, you removed your only method of wrath, took synergy for scry and retain, passed up a vault.

[@gromstar]

Watcher is Wrath. Smart man. Keeping YT in form. good, thank

[@seryntheon8195]

15:25 S-tier editing there Andrew.

[@paigemartin3827]

Need this for the defect; I can’t get above 8 with them but I’ve beaten a20 as watcher. Love the analysis.

[@mmysteryph]

Haven't played a single watcher but this video was really informative. Thank you. At the end though, id agree that the 3 defect cards were okay at best. Although beam cell helped i think?

[@unknownentityenthusiast6765]

Good video honestly I’m bad at watcher Frost laughs like the Merchant

[@WatermelonFarmer36]

Grunge rock frost trying to be the cool history teacher and i fuck with it

[@aravs48]

He called the homie! Why are we not really really excited about this God gamer's intuition!?!

[@justadhdmuzyka3627]

Halfway through watching this video I had the best watcher run yet. Very unconventional but ended up with two fasting and pellets and sneko with a safe way to go into divinity. Using Ragnarok never felt so good.

[@derminatore3120]

the curse is not exhausted because it got retain by meditate.

[@Major_Nuance]

Pelets are my snecko when I play watcher. I always pick them in hopes of finding fasting

[@lifeiswonderful22]

I like the strategy where you just live until you play omega.