The Watcher is the most effective factor to hit Slay The Spire since sliced fungi beast. She’s the brand new character at the moment lurking on the beta branch: a monk for whom deck steadiness is unprecedentedly important. She’s all about flowing out and in of various stances, shelling out unseemly harm, however then taking unseemly harm for those who can’t play a card that stops her being so offended. In the late game, a single flip will see you pivot between stances extra typically than two coked-up adolescents on a see-saw.
That appears to be like slightly bit like this, for those who’re curious.
I’ve constructed this specific deck much better than I can play it. I get so swept up in stance-switching shenanigans that I don’t watch my harm numbers, and wind up flat out losing most of the playing cards I’ve painstakingly earned. Not that it issues.
I begin the flip calmly, as you may inform from the blue squiggles sweeping over the Watcher. I feel it’s speculated to be a river, which quickly runs crimson with blood as I play a card I’ve retained from the final flip that ideas me into Wrath mode. Leaving the Calm stance usually provides you two further power, however my fancy lotus flower Relic means I get three. I exploit a few of that on Lesson Learned, which does a whopping 30 harm whereas I’m wrathful, but additionally completely upgrades a random card each time I exploit it to kill one thing. (Don’t inform anybody, however snagging that card early on is the principle purpose I made it this far.)
Out comes Sands Of Time, a 56 harm seller I can solely afford as a result of it’s gotten cheaper whereas I left it sitting in my hand for just a few turns. With just one slime left, I play Empty Mind – dodging its power price due to a card I performed a number of turns in the past. That takes me out of Wrath, bringing again my two copies of Flurry Of Blows. I’d already performed these twice, as a result of they woosh again to my hand each time I swap stances. It’s not fairly sufficient, and I’m utterly out of power – however I’ve clung on to the Miracle card I began the encounter with, due to the Watcher’s beginning Relic. I pop it to play a primary strike card that ends the battle. That’s three enemies slayed in a single flip, two of them from full well being. Not half dangerous.
I’ll say that the Watcher is by far probably the most draining character to play. Many of her playing cards are about organising future bursts of violence, both letting you retailer playing cards between turns or prune out undesirable ones out of your draw pile. You didn’t see me play Omnisience, a card that permits you to choose precisely what you’re going to attract subsequent flip. You didn’t see me enter Divine mode, both, which due to an influence card was constructing as much as the purpose the place I may deal triple harm for a flip.
Like with the opposite characters, a part of the enchantment is certain up in a thematic resonance of playstyle and character. This monk alternates between aggression and defensive passivity, but it surely’s all the time measured. Calculated, with survival tilting on a knife-edge.
The Watcher makes me draw on information I’ve earned over greater than 100 hours of climbing up the Spire, and deepened my appreciation of a game that’s already devoured dozens of my evenings. I didn’t suppose that was doable.
