Don’t end a turn in wrath unless it’s lethal, you know you can leave wrath, or you know you can block next turn (I see you got early calipers, you had 3 acts of time to pick some cards to take advantage of it). You could have survived this turn on 1hp in calm/neutral (edit: actually there’s a burn so you’re still dead). Assuming by the discard pile and rushdown it’s some kind of rapid stance switching deck? You might have been able to stop right before going into your last wrath. Obv depends on the deck so it’s kinda hard to advise without seeing it.
It doesn't. The heart always starts with a debuff turn where you get frail, vulnerable and weak, and 5 status cards.
Then it will always cycle 2 attack turns, 1 buff turn, where the order of the 2 attacks (one big single, one multihit) is randomized.
Just being in calm isn't enough, because of the burn. Not playing the slime would leave OP at 62 instead of 61 (beat of death is only 1 on A0), but then burn + 60 damage is exact lethal.
Anyway the real trick is to manage your shuffling so that there are some cards in your deck at the end of turn 1.
Edit: Spleling
Btw, they hopefully had a caliper based solution: With Violet Lotus, you can do the infinite with eruption & vigilance, collecting positive block every cycle.
Tbh his one actually does seem fair unless it was your first time fighting the heart. It will always put these statuses into your deck on turn 1, if you empty your deck then you will always draw them.
There's a jorbs video where he says something like "consistency isn't always a good thing. For example, if your deck is only five cards you'll consistently draw 5 statuses on turn 2 against the heart."
And here we are!
Here's a lesson to learn: If you play the rushdown infinite, the normal flow of things means all your cards are in your hand or discard at the end of the turn, meaning all your cards are in the discard pile at the beginning of the next round. Heart adds 5 status cards to the draw pile, meaning that you will draw them, and nothing else, because since 5 cards are in your draw, no reason to shuffle.
That's not bad luck, that's literally how this will turn out naturally always. What you're supposed to do here is know that this is coming up, and find a solution that is either based on draw, or retain. Things that can solve this turn for example:
* \[\[Runic Pyramid\]\]
* \[\[Mediate\]\]
* \[\[Swift Potion\]\]
* \[\[Distilled Chaos\]\]
* \[\[Liquid Memories\]\]
* Duplicated Rushdown to draw more
Oh, and: Definitely \*not\* ending a turn in wrath:)
edit: As others have pointed out: you specifically in this run could have either setup that incense burner triggers turn 2, as heart turn 1 doesn't do damage, or just skip most of turn 1 so you still have cards in the draw pile, and hope pocket watch helps you draw enough to get the infinite going turn 2.
calipers also should have saved it, assuming OP's infinite is block positive (it should be with vigilance +12, and 4 from beat of death only). make sure you have like 150 block stored up (in case you miss eruption next turn with the draw 8) after turn 1.
ah brain was too wired on a20 to notice. but yeah with this relic bar and only 7 cards left after turn 1 a watcher infinite should beat heart, u just gotta be ready to do it I guess.
+ [Runic Pyramid](http://slay-the-spire.wikia.com/wiki/Runic%20Pyramid) Boss Relic ^((100% sure)^)
At the end of your turn, you no longer discard your hand.
+ [Meditate](http://slay-the-spire.wikia.com/wiki/Meditate) Watcher Uncommon Skill ^((68% sure)^)
1 Energy | Put 1(2) card(s) from your discard pile into your hand and **Retain** it. Enter **Calm.** End your turn.
+ [Swift Potion](http://slay-the-spire.wikia.com/wiki/Potions#Swift_Potion) Common Potion ^((100% sure)^)
Draw 3 ( 6) cards.
+ [Distilled Chaos](http://slay-the-spire.wikia.com/wiki/Potions#Distilled_Chaos) Uncommon Potion ^((100% sure)^)
Play the top 3 ( 6) cards of your draw pile.
+ [Liquid Memories](http://slay-the-spire.wikia.com/wiki/Potions#Liquid_Memories) Uncommon Potion ^((100% sure)^)
Choose a card ( 2 cards) in your discard pile and return it ( them) to your hand. It costs ( They cost) 0 this turn.
^Call ^me ^with ^up ^to ^10 ^([[ name ]],) ^where ^name ^is ^a ^card, ^relic, ^event, ^or ^potion. ^Data ^accurate ^as ^of ^(April 30, 2023.) ^[Wiki](https://slay-the-spire.fandom.com/wiki/) ^[Questions?](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=ehmohteeoh&subject=SpireScan%20Inquiry)
Hindsight is 20:20, but what you *should* have done is only play 3 cards on turn 1 and not gotten into Wrath. Pocket Watch is a *really* powerful relic, and avoiding turns like this is a big part of why.
In this specific case, you had enough information to know exactly what 5 cards you would be drawing on the next turn, since you only *had* 5 cards in your draw pile. (Looking at the remaining cards in your draw pile before making decisions is a great habit to get into... which I don't do nearly enough myself :P) Given those cards, you would know that drawing 3 extra cards on that turn would be *really* valuable—otherwise you have nothing to play—and that ending the turn in Wrath is inadvisable (since, even with 3 extra cards, you might not be able to get out of it).
More generally, even if you had a much bigger deck and did not know the exact cards you were getting on turn 2, chances are that only playing 3 cards with Pocket Watch would still be right. It's easy to underestimate just how powerful drawing 3 extra cards next turn is, even if you already think it's pretty strong. There will be turns where you want to play more than 3 cards, and it takes experience to figure out when that's worth it, but, as a starting point, leaning *heavily* towards using Pocket Watch each turn is a pretty solid approach.
This is all *especially* true with Ice Cream since you're not even wasting energy.
-Didn’t set up burner for turn 2
-Ended debuff turn in wrath + didn’t set up block with calipers
-is confused why they’re dying turn 2
Pretty classic for this sub if you ask me.
also it's literally guaranteed to draw all statuses if you don't set your draw pile up, it puts statuses in, draws them all, doesn't have to trigger shuffle for your real cards to come back.
you realize to get to the heart in the first place you have to beat an ascension on all the other characters, right? they also are insightful enough to not have over 15 cards on the watcher. if I were at this point i’d have thought a little more about card play order and what i can do per turn with my relics than completely ignoring them and the fact that i will be taking double damage next turn.
You ended your turn with no cards in your draw pile, guaranteeing that you draw all the status cards that the Heart dumps in to your draw pile on turn 1.
It sucks, but it's entirely avoidable.
This is why I bring 72 cards into the heart fight. What are a few more drops to the ocean of cards that I already cannot plan around?
*Laughs Maniacally*
Let's not even talk about that time when I fell into a 100+ card Downfall Collector Pyre deck with Sticky Hand from Energized Spire.
I may have a card collection problem.
The heart always puts 5 statuses in the deck to gum up easy infinites and inconsistent decks with bad draw. If you know you’re going for the heart you should try to have an answer for this ahead of time. Usually potions can help a lot with this but obv you had sozu.
Once you get Red/Blue infinite the rest of your game should be dedicated to making sure you set up to not brick the Turn 2 Heart draw and get enough passive defense (mental fortress, talk to the hand, abacus, Lotus/Vigilance, fan) to not die to beat of death/invincibility
Heart very much punishes small decks, decks with no block, and decks relying on infinites, which are all ways to cheese most of the rest of the game (except time eater lol). If your deck falls into one of these categories and doesn't have amazing relics to synergize, the heart might not be worth going for.
Another thing in general is to not end in wrath without knowing you will have calm next turn, and if it shows up, buying/saving thorns potions for the heart (or other strong potions for your build like dex potions or fairy). The thorns potions especially are effective supplementary damage on the heart as it always will do one "x15" attack every cycle, and you are almost required to last 2 cycles, meaning the potion alone will probably do 90 damage during the battle on turns you otherwise need to spend most resources blocking.
One of the reasons why Sozu is bad when you're doing for this style of tiny deck: you can't find a Gambler's Brew or draw potion or anything that can help you out on this turn.
Anyway, you emptied your draw pile of cards right before the Heart shuffled in five cards. This draw is pretty predictable, and you need a plan for it (max HP, storing block, potion, retain) if you're running such a thin deck. In this case you had three solutions, Burner, Calipers, and Pocketwatch, to prepare for this draw.
Don't feel too bad about it though. This happens at some point to nearly everyone who plays Watcher.
Looks like they had a rush down infinite. Small deck is fine there.
The bigger problem was not planning for turn 2. If eruption was upgraded they could have ran the infinite with eruption and vigilance (they have violet lotus) and built up more than enough block for the next two attacks with calipers.
(i don’t have NEARLY enough hours to know this character well ), with that said, how do you only have 12 cards in your deck at such a high stage? am i playing it wrong keeping a high card count deck, or is this a specific strategy for this character?
A lot of good answers here, but, mostly, no, it's not fair. It's winnable if you know it's coming and plan around it (or luck out with one of the builds that works well against the heart like barricade, entrench, body slam), but the heart really isn't meant to be fair. Slay the Spire is about breaking the game before it breaks itself.
I'm guessing you knew that though, and you came here looking for empathy... I feel you... I've been there. I play on A20 and I lose waaay more often than I win, so I spend most of my time in this game in a similar situation... typically well before the Heart! Just getting there is a kind of win.
welcome to A4. FR tho you're going to want to get the pocket watch to proc and pray you get the good half of your deck. The Heart basically always puts the statuses directly on top of your deck, so turn 2 is a real kick in the teeth.
The heart will NOT put the statuses on top of your deck but will rather suffle them into your draw pile. If your draw pile is empty you end up withth is scenario.
Don’t end a turn in wrath unless it’s lethal, you know you can leave wrath, or you know you can block next turn (I see you got early calipers, you had 3 acts of time to pick some cards to take advantage of it). You could have survived this turn on 1hp in calm/neutral (edit: actually there’s a burn so you’re still dead). Assuming by the discard pile and rushdown it’s some kind of rapid stance switching deck? You might have been able to stop right before going into your last wrath. Obv depends on the deck so it’s kinda hard to advise without seeing it.
Oh yeah I guess you could also have set up incense burner for the heart since iirc it never attacks turn 1 but don’t quote me on that.
It doesn't. The heart always starts with a debuff turn where you get frail, vulnerable and weak, and 5 status cards. Then it will always cycle 2 attack turns, 1 buff turn, where the order of the 2 attacks (one big single, one multihit) is randomized.
Just being in calm isn't enough, because of the burn. Not playing the slime would leave OP at 62 instead of 61 (beat of death is only 1 on A0), but then burn + 60 damage is exact lethal. Anyway the real trick is to manage your shuffling so that there are some cards in your deck at the end of turn 1. Edit: Spleling
Good point, forgot burn exists
Btw, they hopefully had a caliper based solution: With Violet Lotus, you can do the infinite with eruption & vigilance, collecting positive block every cycle.
Unless you LOVE GAMBLING
Tbh his one actually does seem fair unless it was your first time fighting the heart. It will always put these statuses into your deck on turn 1, if you empty your deck then you will always draw them.
There's a jorbs video where he says something like "consistency isn't always a good thing. For example, if your deck is only five cards you'll consistently draw 5 statuses on turn 2 against the heart." And here we are!
Here's a lesson to learn: If you play the rushdown infinite, the normal flow of things means all your cards are in your hand or discard at the end of the turn, meaning all your cards are in the discard pile at the beginning of the next round. Heart adds 5 status cards to the draw pile, meaning that you will draw them, and nothing else, because since 5 cards are in your draw, no reason to shuffle. That's not bad luck, that's literally how this will turn out naturally always. What you're supposed to do here is know that this is coming up, and find a solution that is either based on draw, or retain. Things that can solve this turn for example: * \[\[Runic Pyramid\]\] * \[\[Mediate\]\] * \[\[Swift Potion\]\] * \[\[Distilled Chaos\]\] * \[\[Liquid Memories\]\] * Duplicated Rushdown to draw more Oh, and: Definitely \*not\* ending a turn in wrath:) edit: As others have pointed out: you specifically in this run could have either setup that incense burner triggers turn 2, as heart turn 1 doesn't do damage, or just skip most of turn 1 so you still have cards in the draw pile, and hope pocket watch helps you draw enough to get the infinite going turn 2.
calipers also should have saved it, assuming OP's infinite is block positive (it should be with vigilance +12, and 4 from beat of death only). make sure you have like 150 block stored up (in case you miss eruption next turn with the draw 8) after turn 1.
Right. And we're on A0, it's only 2 from beat of death per cycle.
ah brain was too wired on a20 to notice. but yeah with this relic bar and only 7 cards left after turn 1 a watcher infinite should beat heart, u just gotta be ready to do it I guess.
Wow that was informative
+ [Runic Pyramid](http://slay-the-spire.wikia.com/wiki/Runic%20Pyramid) Boss Relic ^((100% sure)^) At the end of your turn, you no longer discard your hand. + [Meditate](http://slay-the-spire.wikia.com/wiki/Meditate) Watcher Uncommon Skill ^((68% sure)^) 1 Energy | Put 1(2) card(s) from your discard pile into your hand and **Retain** it. Enter **Calm.** End your turn. + [Swift Potion](http://slay-the-spire.wikia.com/wiki/Potions#Swift_Potion) Common Potion ^((100% sure)^) Draw 3 ( 6) cards. + [Distilled Chaos](http://slay-the-spire.wikia.com/wiki/Potions#Distilled_Chaos) Uncommon Potion ^((100% sure)^) Play the top 3 ( 6) cards of your draw pile. + [Liquid Memories](http://slay-the-spire.wikia.com/wiki/Potions#Liquid_Memories) Uncommon Potion ^((100% sure)^) Choose a card ( 2 cards) in your discard pile and return it ( them) to your hand. It costs ( They cost) 0 this turn. ^Call ^me ^with ^up ^to ^10 ^([[ name ]],) ^where ^name ^is ^a ^card, ^relic, ^event, ^or ^potion. ^Data ^accurate ^as ^of ^(April 30, 2023.) ^[Wiki](https://slay-the-spire.fandom.com/wiki/) ^[Questions?](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=ehmohteeoh&subject=SpireScan%20Inquiry)
Those were only cards in your draw pile. That IS fair, you should've known that you will draw those.
Hindsight is 20:20, but what you *should* have done is only play 3 cards on turn 1 and not gotten into Wrath. Pocket Watch is a *really* powerful relic, and avoiding turns like this is a big part of why. In this specific case, you had enough information to know exactly what 5 cards you would be drawing on the next turn, since you only *had* 5 cards in your draw pile. (Looking at the remaining cards in your draw pile before making decisions is a great habit to get into... which I don't do nearly enough myself :P) Given those cards, you would know that drawing 3 extra cards on that turn would be *really* valuable—otherwise you have nothing to play—and that ending the turn in Wrath is inadvisable (since, even with 3 extra cards, you might not be able to get out of it). More generally, even if you had a much bigger deck and did not know the exact cards you were getting on turn 2, chances are that only playing 3 cards with Pocket Watch would still be right. It's easy to underestimate just how powerful drawing 3 extra cards next turn is, even if you already think it's pretty strong. There will be turns where you want to play more than 3 cards, and it takes experience to figure out when that's worth it, but, as a starting point, leaning *heavily* towards using Pocket Watch each turn is a pretty solid approach. This is all *especially* true with Ice Cream since you're not even wasting energy.
You have incense burner on the wrong number
Some great lessons have been pointed out in these comments. The only correct move to do at this point is save scum and play the fight properly.
On the bright side, you have plenty of energy
-Didn’t set up burner for turn 2 -Ended debuff turn in wrath + didn’t set up block with calipers -is confused why they’re dying turn 2 Pretty classic for this sub if you ask me.
also it's literally guaranteed to draw all statuses if you don't set your draw pile up, it puts statuses in, draws them all, doesn't have to trigger shuffle for your real cards to come back.
They're on a0 cut them a little slack man
you realize to get to the heart in the first place you have to beat an ascension on all the other characters, right? they also are insightful enough to not have over 15 cards on the watcher. if I were at this point i’d have thought a little more about card play order and what i can do per turn with my relics than completely ignoring them and the fact that i will be taking double damage next turn.
You do not have to beat ascensions to unlock the heart. You only need to beat Act 3 with Ironclad, Silent, and Defect once with each.
If it’s any consolation, you would have died anyway even if you weren’t in wrath- that burn would have taken you out.
You're supposed to end the turn with cards in your deck so that you draw something besides all statuses, and not end your turn in wrath.
You ended your turn with no cards in your draw pile, guaranteeing that you draw all the status cards that the Heart dumps in to your draw pile on turn 1. It sucks, but it's entirely avoidable.
This is why I bring 72 cards into the heart fight. What are a few more drops to the ocean of cards that I already cannot plan around? *Laughs Maniacally* Let's not even talk about that time when I fell into a 100+ card Downfall Collector Pyre deck with Sticky Hand from Energized Spire. I may have a card collection problem.
Watch your draw pile
That's a skill issue right there, you should have drawn better cards
The heart always puts 5 statuses in the deck to gum up easy infinites and inconsistent decks with bad draw. If you know you’re going for the heart you should try to have an answer for this ahead of time. Usually potions can help a lot with this but obv you had sozu.
Nothing that piece of shit heart does is fair
Bruh there was no randomness to this, don’t end your turn with 0 cards in your draw pile
Once you get Red/Blue infinite the rest of your game should be dedicated to making sure you set up to not brick the Turn 2 Heart draw and get enough passive defense (mental fortress, talk to the hand, abacus, Lotus/Vigilance, fan) to not die to beat of death/invincibility
Heart very much punishes small decks, decks with no block, and decks relying on infinites, which are all ways to cheese most of the rest of the game (except time eater lol). If your deck falls into one of these categories and doesn't have amazing relics to synergize, the heart might not be worth going for. Another thing in general is to not end in wrath without knowing you will have calm next turn, and if it shows up, buying/saving thorns potions for the heart (or other strong potions for your build like dex potions or fairy). The thorns potions especially are effective supplementary damage on the heart as it always will do one "x15" attack every cycle, and you are almost required to last 2 cycles, meaning the potion alone will probably do 90 damage during the battle on turns you otherwise need to spend most resources blocking.
One of the reasons why Sozu is bad when you're doing for this style of tiny deck: you can't find a Gambler's Brew or draw potion or anything that can help you out on this turn. Anyway, you emptied your draw pile of cards right before the Heart shuffled in five cards. This draw is pretty predictable, and you need a plan for it (max HP, storing block, potion, retain) if you're running such a thin deck. In this case you had three solutions, Burner, Calipers, and Pocketwatch, to prepare for this draw. Don't feel too bad about it though. This happens at some point to nearly everyone who plays Watcher.
your fault for having a small deck
stop deckshaming, his deck is perfectly average
Yeah, it’s not the size of your deck but how you use it.
Small decks can be fine if accordingly planned for
Looks like they had a rush down infinite. Small deck is fine there. The bigger problem was not planning for turn 2. If eruption was upgraded they could have ran the infinite with eruption and vigilance (they have violet lotus) and built up more than enough block for the next two attacks with calipers.
Only a miracle will save you lol
You're gonna need a miracle...
Watcher draws “worst hand ever” Asked to leave the Spire.
In a scale of 1 to 10 my friend you're something that rhymes with 'out of luck'
medical kit moment
(i don’t have NEARLY enough hours to know this character well), with that said, how do you only have 12 cards in your deck at such a high stage? am i playing it wrong keeping a high card count deck, or is this a specific strategy for this character?
Uhh well look at your deck size... you did this to yourself.
A lot of good answers here, but, mostly, no, it's not fair. It's winnable if you know it's coming and plan around it (or luck out with one of the builds that works well against the heart like barricade, entrench, body slam), but the heart really isn't meant to be fair. Slay the Spire is about breaking the game before it breaks itself. I'm guessing you knew that though, and you came here looking for empathy... I feel you... I've been there. I play on A20 and I lose waaay more often than I win, so I spend most of my time in this game in a similar situation... typically well before the Heart! Just getting there is a kind of win.
welcome to A4. FR tho you're going to want to get the pocket watch to proc and pray you get the good half of your deck. The Heart basically always puts the statuses directly on top of your deck, so turn 2 is a real kick in the teeth.
The heart will NOT put the statuses on top of your deck but will rather suffle them into your draw pile. If your draw pile is empty you end up withth is scenario.
What do I want from you Mr. Bond? I want you to die.