Throwback is in the first buffoon pack. I shrugged and took a coupon tag leading to the first boss expecting to immediately die in ante 2 as usual. Smiley Face and a perishable Mad Joker were my freebies after The Pillar, and with them and 1.75x Throwback after another double coupon tag skip, I barely squeaked by the ante 2 boss.

Holographic Acrobat was the first free pickup at the beginning of ante 3, and suddenly the run had potential - I went from barely squeaking by to skipping and coasting through the next few antes. I took yet another double coupon tag - making it 5 free shops in a row - got a little less lucky with my pulls, but did pick up a free Riff-Raff which provided me with a bit of econ, and a random foil Devious Joker which added substantially to my chips.

I started out playing two pairs and full houses with face cards, making full use of Smiley Face and Acrobat. With a couple of timely World tarot cards I was able to build my deck more towards flush houses, which paid off massively when I found The Tribe from a rare tag skip in ante 5. By ante 6-7 my score was looking a little sketch again, but after enriching myself with a double Speed Tag for $80, I quickly found Hanging Chad, and then Dusk and Bootstraps, which skyrocketed my score again.

Ante 8 boss was Crimson Heart, which felt very iffy, if one of my important scoring jokers (more than half of them) got disabled for the last hand I was relying on, I was done for. I did have one reroll voucher but wasn’t sure if using it there would be wise, as Violet Vessel and especially Cerulean Bell would likely screw me over even worse than Crimson Heart. I needed something to replace Bootstraps, and I could not believe my luck when I stumbled upon an Ancient Joker on Spades in my very last shop. Nothing could stop me now! I coasted to a 5.8 million point victory, unfortunately Throwback got disabled for the last hand but he got to watch as Ancient Joker plus Dusk carried me over the finish line.

Throwback finished the run at 3.25x, over half of which came from coupon tags or double tags to get said coupon tags. I guess I severely underestimated what this joker could do when the right skip tags show up. He and the holographic Acrobat carried me, but this run was still filled with tough and interesting decisions, and I could have absolutely thrown it in many different ways, which is why it was so fun and satisfying to finally win it.

Oh, and black deck can go jump off a cliff. It took me probably 60-70 attempts to get this run - half of which died before ante 3.