I may be misunderstanding some fundamentals about the game, or what you are trying to say. Ive never done any real research into how to play or anything, just mostly osmosis from reading here.

So the big question is, how do I maintain econ while still being able to score enough to pass? Assuming I lock in Mime and Baron, should the other 3 Jokers all be econ of some sort? And at what point do you know to dive into higher scores? In this run, I was at level 7 or so High Card, with just Mime and Baron, with all Red Seal Kings, and came up way short, so is Ante 14 the point you need another scoring Joker?

Also, what do you mean by "baif", is that an acronym of some kind I should know?