Slay the Spire is built on variety and flexibility. Each character is designed to reward adaptive play, forcing you to answer unique challenges with unique solutions. But then there’s the Watcher. Added last in the game’s development cycle, she stands apart—not just as the most powerful class, but as the one that most easily breaks the rules the game is built around.
This isn’t a theory. It’s math, it’s meta, and it’s a gameplay experience that can turn anyone into a degenerate strategist hooked on her bizarre brilliance.
Watcher: The Problem Child of Slay the Spire
The Watcher has become infamous for one reason: she wins too consistently. While most high-level players max out their win streaks in the mid-teens, the Watcher regularly sees streaks in the 30s. For perspective, one top-tier player, Merle, went 38 wins in a row on Ascension 20—the highest difficulty in the game.
So why does she dominate? It’s a mix of overpowered tools, wildly synergistic card interactions, and a signature infinite combo that’s both shockingly consistent and disgustingly effective.
The Infinite: How It Works (and Why It’s Everywhere)
The infamous “Rushdown Infinite” is more than just a degenerate combo—it’s a foundational playstyle. Here’s how it comes together:
- Enter Wrath – You start with Eruption, a 1-cost wrath enabler.
- Enter Calm – Pick up Inner Peace or Fear No Evil, both easy-to-find uncommons.
- Draw Cards – Entering Calm with Inner Peace, or Wrath with Rushdown in play, draws you cards. Scroll, Vault, and Empty Mind also feed your hand.
- Find Rushdown – It’s an uncommon power, shows up often, and once it’s in play, every stance entry is a draw engine.
- Trim the Deck – Remove everything that isn’t part of the combo. Add cards like Mental Fortress or Talk to the Hand for sustain.
- Loop Forever – Once your whole deck is in hand and your combo online, you simply cycle between Calm and Wrath infinitely, dealing damage, blocking, and drawing until the enemy dies.
Unlike other infinite setups in Slay the Spire, this one is shockingly easy to assemble. And even if you never get all the pieces, the act of building toward the infinite just makes a really good deck anyway.
Why It Works: Base Power Level and Simplicity
Wrath doubles all attack damage. That alone makes Watcher’s early fights a cakewalk. You don’t need to rely on rare relics or lucky card pulls—your starter deck and one good attack can carry Act 1.
The ironic part? Even if you don’t get the infinite combo, your deck is usually still good enough to beat the game. The tools you need for the combo (draw, stance changes, block generation) are also just the best tools for building a powerful, low-card-count deck.
For many high-end players, the infinite is a natural consequence of playing optimally—not something you force, but something that “just happens.” And if you’re a casual player? It’s probably your best bet for a first A20 Heart win.
The Tier List that Broke the Game
In December 2021, Merle posted a tier list for Watcher that included:
- Top Tier: Cards like Scroll, Vault, Rushdown, Inner Peace, Meditate, Mental Fortress, and Empty Mind.
- Never Take These: Nearly half the Watcher’s card pool.
And it wasn’t satire. For the majority of Watcher runs, you could completely ignore these “bad” cards and win consistently. Compare this to other characters like Ironclad or Silent, where niche or even weak cards often have valid use cases.
Watcher advice often breaks the cardinal rule of Slay the Spire: “Don’t force an archetype.” But here, forcing the archetype is the optimal play.
It’s a Design Problem—and It’s Still Fun
Even the developers admit that Watcher went too far. Many of her mechanics are cool on paper but are rendered irrelevant in practice. Cards like Alpha, Master Reality, or Conclude are rarely worth picking. You don’t need archetypes or big brain combos—you just need Inner Peace, Rushdown, and card removals.
Still, for all that design imbalance, she’s a blast to play. Why?
The Puzzle of Set Up
The fun isn’t in executing the combo—it’s in getting there. Because the combo relies on deck trimming, your runs become all about maximizing card removals and gold usage. You take Empty Cage over better boss relics. You seek question mark events for removals. You path into every shop and greedily eye the remove button.
It becomes a game of minimalist deck building, where you need to manage draw pile, discard mechanics, and exhaust synergy with intense scrutiny. Suddenly you’re hyper-aware of card types, hand size, and power interactions. That awareness sticks with you—even when you play other characters.
Strategic Depth Hiding in Degeneracy
Playing for the infinite teaches lessons other characters might not:
- Real cards vs. exhaust/powers: You need 10 or fewer real cards to go infinite smoothly.
- Handling status cards: Against fights like Nemesis or Donu & Deca, statuses dilute your deck and delay the combo. You’ll need block plans for early turns.
- Adapting under pressure: Sometimes the infinite setup isn’t guaranteed. You’ll have to find creative sequencing or lean on safety nets like Fairy in a Bottle or Mental Fortress.
These challenges force precision. You’re solving miniature puzzles in every boss fight—navigating setup windows, minimizing risk, and sequencing with surgical care.
Degenerate and Proud: Why I Love Playing Watcher Like This
Some people get joy from balance. I get joy from breaking things. Learning to play Merle-style Watcher was the most fun I’ve had in a long time. I took her from Ascension 3 to A20 in a week on multiple accounts. Why? Because building toward the infinite isn’t just strong—it’s addictive.
- I rerouted paths to hit four removals before the Act 1 boss.
- I celebrated finding Tiny House because it gave me five gold and a removal opportunity.
- I went infinite on floor six.
It’s absurd. It’s glorious. And it’s completely unique to Watcher.
You’re Not Even Playing Slay the Spire Anymore
That’s the twist. Once you dive into this playstyle, you’re not really playing Slay the Spire—you’re playing a smaller, dumber, leaner game that just happens to run on Spire’s engine. And that’s what makes it magical.
You can master this degenerate card dance, and then return to Silent or Ironclad with new eyes, noticing how draw order, removals, and sequencing matter in ways you hadn’t seen before.
It’s cider. It’s whiskey. It’s not for everyone, but if it is for you—it’ll be one of the richest roguelike card experiences you’ve ever had.
Final Word: Do the Infinite at Least Once
Even if you’re a purist, even if you love dynamic play and resist OP strats, just try the infinite once. Learn it. Feel how it breaks the game in half. Use it to unlock your first Heart win, or just to understand what happens when design gets away from itself.
Slay the Spire is one of the best designed games of its kind—but it’s also robust enough to withstand being broken. And that’s a mark of true brilliance.
So go ahead. Be a sicko. Pick Watcher. Remove everything. Draw your whole deck. Go infinite. And love every ridiculous second of it.
Kaka!
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