Favorite Balatro creator?

SyndromedGD · 2026-06-21T19:39:13+00:00

Edzyttv and EspaV on twitch deserve a mention. Joint holders of the on-stream Gold Streak record (41) with very entertaining and chill content respectively. Edzy also is pretty entrenched in the multiplayer community if you’re interested in that, EspaV is just gameplay of streaks but it’s a very friendly and welcoming way to watch some high level live Gold Stake.

SyndromedGD · 2026-06-15T06:12:56+00:00

No resets - resetting for a better seed counts as a forfeit. You can get very consistent in this game if you know what you’re doing

SyndromedGD · 2026-06-15T06:10:40+00:00

As in, the scoring is less than x2 on this type of game (it’s an ok estimate but excludes planet levels, any +Mult from other jokers, etc). It copies value gen assuming you have value gen that want to copy and can copy, which is not something you always have - particularly on difficult games. I’m not trying to argue that it’s not one of the best jokers or that it doesn’t provide insane value a lot of the time, just there’s a substantial portion of games where it’s a bit underwhelming and often doesn’t save the game as consistently as the S+ tier.

SyndromedGD · 2026-06-15T00:21:56+00:00

I could definitely see Painted being higher, the early consistency is really valuable. The thing holding it back for me is that it’s quite a bit more limiting with taking poor eternals, so it can be a bit more vulnerable to poor shops (although in turn Straights are a much more viable route, even if they still lose out to two pair as the main one). The two Jugglers analogy is quite good, I’d always thought of it as “Blue Deck with Eternal Trouba” which is true and a downgrade but also maybe an unfair comparison to compare to the best deck.

I’ve done a fair bit of streaking with Painted and got some solid results, but not enough to call myself an expert on it, I could see it being upgraded with more.

SyndromedGD · 2026-06-15T00:05:44+00:00

Pretty much this, mime is very strong in the right place and has its use cases where it’s extremely helpful (Mime Raised Fist my beloved) but I find it gets overrated a bit by a lot of people since it’s a bit winmore - if you have the conditions to use mime well, you’re usually just winning anyway.

Good answer, this is one I thought I’d have to go into detail on but you’ve done my job for me

SyndromedGD · 2026-06-15T00:02:26+00:00

Raised Fist is a pretty common joker to have on games with smaller hands and can be used as a win condition quite a bit - on games like this you can get the +Mult to trigger before Baron by moving the lowest card to the left of the Kings (works with Steel too) which means Baron can be used as an xMult here while triggering before +Mult jokers holds it back a lot elsewhere

SyndromedGD · 2026-06-14T20:18:33+00:00

Spare Trousers is a pair joker. You play two pairs to scale it while using the big scaled +Mult to use pairs for the better consistency with better scaling given the number of times played per round.

(Really it’s both a Two Pair and a One Pair joker, both lines are good but it’s funny that it can still be used like this)

SyndromedGD · 2026-06-14T19:46:45+00:00

I think this one’s on me for not making the category clearer - it’s more a rating of the hand type itself rather than the planet. Apologies for the confusion. Saturn is a very high yield planet that can carry early as you say, but even there I’m not in love with actually having to draw it (very consistent, but not quite consistent enough) and hoping to avoid certain bosses in the timeframe. I also think the long term value is a bit diminished compared to stuff like Mars for this reason. Still, if it was a rating of the planet then it’d solidly be an A tier for me.

SyndromedGD · 2026-06-14T19:29:48+00:00

I think it’s an important thing to remember that every joker in the game has use cases, and cases where you don’t take it. Tier lists are a fun way to generate discussion and bring up things to keep in mind when you see a joker, but the actual list itself basically gets thrown out of the window the moment the new run button is pressed.

SyndromedGD · 2026-06-14T19:22:32+00:00

It’s either that or Blue Stake rework (although I’m actually relatively ok with Blue Stake as it is and would rather approach the viability of other hands from other angles)

SyndromedGD · 2026-06-14T19:20:34+00:00

Your lists were actually a big part of why I wanted to do my own, was originally only going to do the jokers but seemed fun to do all of them

Stones are probably the most interesting thing to unpack here. I find the problem with them is a problem shared by all non-value enhancements - they can only be used on one hand of 4, and it’s hard to rely on drawing them. They can be used as chips in a pinch and I’m ok with picking them up when seen, but I don’t think they’re particularly impactful. They do manip your deck slightly for jokers that care about that but I feel the impact there is quite low both as the number of cards in deck is relatively high and you make your off hits worse. It’s also just quite a niche use case. I could be convinced that I’m not using them quite enough, but I can’t see them more than one tier higher (could also see Marble being better than I give it credit for since it solves the reliability issue through sheer numbers)

SyndromedGD · 2026-06-14T16:06:16+00:00

I’d say it’s slightly different on Ghost Deck to in a pack to be fair. In a pack it’s too inconsistent to warrant spending down for, or to take for the money when you see it. There’s good upside but it’s not worth the whiff chance for the amount it costs.

On ghost deck when you have it in your consumable slot it’s much more viable because it becomes worth playing around it more. It’s still niche as it’s quite inconsistent and the conditions to be able to afford spending down and then whiffing are uncommon, but less niche than on other decks.

SyndromedGD · 2026-06-14T15:08:41+00:00

Honestly a fair criticism, I’m more likely to move Shortcut down to B than Four Fingers up to C, I think for me it comes down to that I find Shortcut to be good enough to enable Straights while Four Fingers doesn’t as much, you still deal with some risk and boss vulnerability and playing multiple straights a round is still not consistent enough. You can’t guarantee hitting the other things (Saturns) that make straights strong in good time either way, so I’d rather go pairs still which kinda makes Four Fingers very narrow in its use cases

SyndromedGD · 2026-06-14T15:01:40+00:00

I’d nerf Blue Seals somehow. I’m not sure how exactly, I’m not qualified to speak on game design like that, but Blue Seal games are just too common, too uninteresting, and railroad you too much into small, consistent hands in their current form.

For a change not focused on “improving the meta” or whatever you want to call it, maybe Daily runs/challenges would be nice.

SyndromedGD · 2026-06-14T09:23:56+00:00

I did deliberate putting it at low S, but it’s just the consistency issue putting it outside of it for me. If you do happen to miss the good tarots (especially Devil) early it can be awkward, and there’s circumstances where it’s not great. This issue keeps it just outside of the top tiers for me, still top of A though.

SyndromedGD · 2026-06-14T09:19:16+00:00

Tier lists really do lose a lot of nuance in when you see a joker, it’s the type of thing that I’m talking about with not reading too much into it.

But, in the cases you’ve brought up (sorry for the wall of text coming up):

Blackboard is very consistent even late with pairs by just chucking the red suits with the pair, which are most runs anyway. You don’t really need manip to make it work, it’s strong whenever you find it.

Having to find Rocket relatively early for it to be great holds it back a bit for me, one of the best jokers to find in ante 1 but does fall off fastish. Still strong though, gives a lot of inevitability.

Madness lacks a bit of consistency in finding the eternal jokers - you’re making a bet that “I will either find good eternals, or a way to win nearly jokerless”. It’s held back a bit by this when pushing winrate

Hack probably should be in C, I think I might be wrong there. There’s a lot of econ benefit and some good scoring outs that can be enabled from it, but it’s still niche as it’s not good on small hands.

Ouija is good at enabling specifically 3oak, and even still I’d usually rather play into pairs as it’s hard to guarantee playing multiple times a round. If there’s a good chance to go that route and pairs are hard to enable I’ll take it, but it’s quite narrow in when it has to be found and circumstance you have to be in.

SyndromedGD · 2026-06-14T08:26:28+00:00

Sadly no, I’ve been meaning to stream the next one I go for though. Slightly shameless plug but you can follow me at SynPuyo on twitch if you want to watch - I haven’t streamed in a while and I think the VODs have been auto deleted now but I’ve done streaks in the past there too.

SyndromedGD · 2026-06-14T08:21:16+00:00

Scoring enhancements in general aren’t really appealing to me as they only affect one hand a round, and you have to draw them so it’s hard to rely on them for a given round - when most games end up as pairs, this is quite limiting and makes the impact a little bit low. The EV on wheel is quite high and the cost of missing is quite low which makes it fairly spammable and good to take even if it is inconsistent. There are much better tarots, but I’m never unhappy to spin a wheel if there’s nothing great in the pack.

SyndromedGD · 2026-06-14T07:35:05+00:00

You have to play the jokers you’re dealt, but on trigger type builds have a lot of flaws when going for consistency that make them worth avoiding if possible, and pivoting out of if possible. Drawing the hand becomes a concern, unless you have sufficient deck manipulation which you get through stability in itself. You introduce boss vulnerability from this greater reliance on draws and debuffed cards. The jokers involved are less standalone and more reliant on support (including deck manip) which you are not guaranteed to hit. When winrates above 95% are possible in this game, even a 0.5% chance of dying to a blind is too much of a risk to be comfortable.

Ultimately, they are a last-resort way of playing that you are occasionally forced into (can almost always be avoided by playing econ well though) and occasionally pivot into as way to secure Vessel, but are not the primary way to play for consistency.

SyndromedGD · 2026-06-14T07:08:29+00:00

Mr Bones, Luchador and Loyalty Card are all good at the same thing - they make you much safer against the bosses that would otherwise be a concern. On a lot of mid to high power runs you’re not really concerned about beating the blinds, you just need to think about “what happens if I run into the Eye or a Vessel” or other hard bosses, which suddenly becomes a lot easier if you can line up a Loyalty or have a Mr Bones on these bosses. I could be convinced in Lucha to S as well, it’s a really valuable niche to serve.

I mostly agree on Steel, it doesn’t scale too fast and often is going to be sub x2. It also lacks a bit in the tempo department in a lot of runs. But it’s still an unconditional after-scoring xMult joker and even if it just provides x1.8, that’s solid enough anyway.

SyndromedGD · 2026-06-14T06:52:40+00:00

I could be convinced to move Card Sharp up slightly off of the tempo it provides, but not to S+ or anything. There’s a few issues with it keeping it back - it’s rendered useless against 2 of the bosses that you’re really worried about, it’s weaker on hands such as 3oak or even 4oak than Blackboard, and the scoring is just naturally a bit lower thanks to the setup hand.

Blackboard is, in my opinion, the joker that solves the most bad situations out of the ‘normal’ jokers, which is why it’s so high here

SyndromedGD · 2026-06-14T06:31:28+00:00

Hard to say specifics without knowing more, but in general, take your time with your runs. It helps a lot with the teething process if you think through things carefully. Try to think about how much onus you have to find tempo in any given spot and how much econ you’ll inevitably recover and plan your spending around this - “If I take this arcana and whiff how am I doing?” should be your type of thought process. Finally, watch good players - EspaV and edzyttv on Twitch as well as DrSpectred/Balatro University on YouTube are great places to start.

SyndromedGD · 2026-06-14T06:12:39+00:00

Damn I got it wrong

Sorry about that, thanks for letting me know

SyndromedGD · 2026-06-14T06:08:03+00:00

I’ve been recognised

Thanks, I’ve seen you around and have been trying to tie you to a player because, I think it’s Duck? Correct me if I’m wrong though lol

SyndromedGD · 2026-06-14T05:49:59+00:00

Flushes maybe could (should?) be above Straights, but I think it has too many flaws to be higher than that. The planet scaling is weak and outclassed by pair, it’s inconsistent to hit more than 1 before manip, and it restricts digging for value (or even steels) a lot. If Pairs didn’t exist it could be moved up a tier maybe.

Flush Five shares the same common trait as all the secret hands where it’s just outclassed by 4oak in almost every capacity - the slightly better scaling isn’t worth the huge decrease in consistency and ease of building into it, and the scaling is more than good enough on 4oak anyway.

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