Balatro Basics: All Consumables Tier List

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Ranking all consumables (Tarot, Planet, and Spectral Cards). In ranking the Planet Cards, we also discuss ranking the Poker Hands themselves.
(Version 1.0.1c)

[@odte7083]

Would you please make a video where you play a normal, common game and explain every step, why you pick this and not that, what are you looking for etc? New players like me would really appreciate it, cause I only see videos with extraordinary/rare/very lucky runs, while newbies need something more normal to learn

[@drspectred]

Try ep1 of the either the Balatro Basics or the Balatro Daily playlists. Both videos attempt to do exactly this.

[@odte7083]

@@drspectred I meant including the 1.0.1 update :) I'm just afraid some choices would differ now. Also, Balatro Daily ep1 starts with no jokers unlocked, while I was recommended (by someone else) to immediately unlock all collection in the settings (which I did), so I wish a beginner tutorial would be with all the jokers there is

[@noisepollution4473]

​​@@odte7083 I don't think the recommendation to unlock your whole collection was a good one. 90% of the reason the unlocks are there is so you can learn to play the game slowly over time. Because some more complicated jokers are locked behind unlocks, and because chasing some unlocks teaches you game mechanics.

[@isaiaheads6327]

The jokers you have unlocked doesn’t really matter unless you’re doing highscore or a seeded run. The fundamentals are the same (ie money management, what type of jokers you should have, etc)

[@ziggle5000]

You literally are just describing like 80% of the videos on this channel lmao. Why even make a request like this without looking at the channels output first?

[@TheMilkMan1746]

Thanks teach' , i was skipping any pack that didn't have wheel of fortune before, but now after seeing this tier list, i use the fool for MORE wheel of fortune (also, every time i've used ouija, i've won with 4/5 of a kind, my deck usually goes down to 40 so take that as you will)

[@crackersphdinwumbology2831]

The fact that you commented 5 minutes after upload and couldn't possibly have seen the lecture before you commented makes this even funnier

[@Stempia]

It was streamed on Twitch, it could have seen it before​@@crackersphdinwumbology2831

[@scooldrood]

@@crackersphdinwumbology2831 they just view this at 15x.

[@pilotplayer9861]

​@crackersphdinwumbology2831 ya it's really funny

[@gageferrill110]

​@@crackersphdinwumbology2831could have seen the stream and was sending a message here here for interaction

[@lukawalli]

"I got a soft spot for Uranus, everytime I see it it makes me smile" - 13:34

[@joshuakimpton8224]

13:34 was so funny and honestly I think it was intentional, it's his style of humor to drop jokes like that 🤣

[@stupxd]

34:10

[@lancesmith8298]

This isn’t just a good joke, this is probably a scrapped boy band lyric

[@TheUntamedNetwork]

Why I think blackhole is better than straights: The only downside is that it doesn't become your fool consumable. However, of the consumable cards you would actually ever play, about a third of the time the most recent consumable is actually better than a straight, meaning blackhole preserves your Temperance or death. and its only ~1/9 times the blackhole would actually replace the planet card you wanted. Blackhole also offers immence value over straights in first couple ante's where it lets you keep your options open for an extra couple shops, and even past that for the first 4 or so ante's you are usually playing a couple different hands, or at least you're leveling a backup hand where blackhole again is much better. If your playing 4 of a kind translating ints flush five, or full house into flush house and so on black hole is basically 2 planet cards. Thank you for coming to my TED talk

[@lautaromartinez2848]

A couple of things i would say about that is: TLDR: I think most of what u said comes from a slight misunderstanding, black hole is better than all other planets except saturn, which comes from both the inmense value of saturn cards, and the innability of straight builds to translate well to anything that isnt straight flushes, whose scaling (while still incredibly high) is just a little better than straights. If u are going for 4oak or high cards or anything like that, blackhole is always better, bcs u were never considering the saturn card in the first place. As demonstrated by the fact that saturn is the only planet that is even in the same tier as blackhole, and by the lengthy explanation of their basically same value. Blackhole is inmense in value, but due to the diffrence from the norm of a straight build, its slightly worse than a saturn card. So at risk of just repeating the Proffesors language here is a list of reasons saturn is slightly better (only 1 place higher in rank) than black hole: 0.When u do these comparisons u have to understand that they are made in the context of a straight build, as that is the only time saturn cards actually make sense taking/are relevant to even compare. 1. If u are buying celestial packs early enough to where getting other hands levels is actually useful (which is the benefit of taking blackhole over saturn and i doubt its happenning later than ante 3) u are either sacrificing econ (ante 1) when its not worth it unless u dont get any useful jokers (in shop) at all, which makes the situation ultra niche since u get a guaranteed buffon pack on beta and future patches. Or u already have scoring jokers, at which point a saturn that can be copied by a fool is a better value proposition than a blackhole and a random tarot card. 2. Supposing u buy only 2 packs, a celestial and a tarot pack, the combination of saturn fool is one of the strongest early game wise (its +6mult +60chips), compared to black hole and what?maybe empress? maybe hierophant? both of those have the requirement of drawing the cards later. Planets are an immediate, always applying, strengthening to the hand u are actually playing for most of a game. 3. If u are mid or late game, straights even with 4 or 5 saturn cards (lvl5 straight is 16mult*150chips base) have pulled so far away from even hands like 4oak that its not worth even comparing them. Even if u dont count the fact that in a straigh build u basically never make more than 2 copies of a specific rank, so u rarely have 7 or more of the same rank 4. With the value of a saturn, there are very little tarots that really compare in value, and usually its either temperance (whose value is dependant on your jokers and vouchers, which might make it be valueless) or death and hanged man which i agree have a propsition value higher than a saturn, but those are 2 and a half tarot cards out of 22, u might add justice or hermit maybe, but that would still mean a 1 in 4 of that fool actually having something valuable and the rest of the time its less value than saturn Sorry if the message is long, but the reasons as to why there is a slight diffrence has some complexity to it, i hope i could explain myself well. And of course this is only my personal opinion and ppl are welcome to disagree with it, albeit it feels weird to have the need to mention it lol.

[@lisasarwar8702]

I can see another downside to Blackhole, though very minor compared to what it brings overall: it doesn't upgrade Constellation unlike other planet cards.

[@aereonexapprentice7205]

​@@lisasarwar8702Me when i miss incrementing 0.1 X: 💀

[@lisasarwar8702]

​@@aereonexapprentice7205 You could always balance blackhole to "only" increase by 1 the level of hands you've already played the current run with such a feature. That might be a way to balance it given how overpowered it is right now while still incrementing Constellation. Anyway, I mentioned it was a "very minor" downside as it is very unlikely to impact one's game overall. But yeah, missing a 0.1X makes me feel the same, haha

[@TheUntamedNetwork]

@@lautaromartinez2848 My rebuttal: 1. Working under the assumption you are playing straights is unfair because that is not always the case, from the perspective of the black hole, the worst case scenario is that you are playing straights, where there is an ~1/9 chance it replaces a Saturn, during the 2/3 times your most recent played consumable is worse then a saturn, AND you see a fool before any other equal or better consumables. This is a frankly tiny downside, which is almost mirrored by the chance it replaces any other planet card, or comes when your most recent consumables was better then Saturn. 2. Whilst the scaling on straights Vs straight flushes is not massive, the starting scores for both hands are. Usually you don't start picking up any planet cards in the first ante or 2 because you aren't buying packs and there aren't many in the shop. When you do start buying them near the end of ante 2 or 3, getting a black hole gives you level 2 straight flushes, which you can't usually play, but has equivalent base scoring to about level 5/6 straights (don't have it in front of me) which you are very unlikely to have that early on. So it can massively save you in a desperate moment. Or more likely in combination with any suit changing tarot for an almost guaranteed free win in the first 4 antes I would also add it's rather common to swap from straights to straight flushes, unless you get a telescope voucher or straight planet tag early. And whenever you do make that swap it still means your back up hand (straights) ate better. 3. Again assuming you are straights is not fair on the black hole, it is unique in comparison to the other planet cards where they are completely useless if they aren't what your playing, imagine how incredibly OP Saturn would be if it said "or if your not playing straights then upgrade what you are playing", and in the rare scenario, you mentioned where Saturn X2 is a better value then a black hole and a random tarot. It's not a random tarot, it's a fool. If bought from the shop or generated you can just keep holding it until the next good tarot. 4: getting a black hole is at least as valuable as a Saturn AND a Neptune, unless you're already fully commited to regular straights. And don't worry, this is Balatro university, we only go in-depth here 😂

[@rotaloco30]

I think Hermit belongs in Graduating with Honors. It’s always a solid option if you have any amount of money, and you hardly ever skip it if it shows up in the shop. Sure, Temperance gives you more money late game, but Hermit is what enables you during the early/mid game to get there.

[@Gildedbolt]

I think it goes in solo group project because of gaining money being an inherently slow affect since it relies on other jokers or tarot card being available to spend that money on while cards like death and hanged man get you directly closer to a more consistent deck

[@lancesmith8298]

@@GildedboltBold of you to assume that deck thinning isn’t also a slow, Joker-dependent process that doesn’t reward you with score. If any cards consistently bail you out of the early game without Jokers, Empress and Hierophant are best emergency consumables to hold onto, AND they can improve the odds of beating the base game.

[@Gildedbolt]

But deck thinning always helps where as money only has a chance to help

[@breakup266]

Temperance ranked higher than red seal, fool, death, cryptid etc is wild ! - Temperance does not equal to 50 gold. Majority of the time it would be around 10-15 gold (except for gift/ egg or ultra late). So most of the time it’s worse than even a hermit in terms of gold value since hermit is more consistent. - Even in a rare best case scenario of 50 gold, which is usually ultra late game, at which point you most likely have a strong economy already, do you really need 50 gold more than powerful deck manipulation/ scoring cards? Some of these cards are hard to come by such as red seal spectral card, surely thats more valueble than gold, which can be obtained many ways.

[@the0therethan]

true, but even early game temperance’s instant money gain with little drawback is very powerful. The easiest argument I could make is using temperance to afford a red seal, fool, or any of the other consumables that are also strong. For your first point, if you’re buying it from the shop it’s $3, as long as you have 2 jokers that’s a positive net gain. $1 could be the difference between making $4 or $5 interest. Id agree that getting it from a pack isn’t always going to be the best, or pulling it (like from a purple seal or tarot making joker) but not having enough jokers to make up for the cost. But then you can usually hold it until you do have multiple jokers. For your second point, it’s really just a matter of having money being important all the time. Even super late game in endless, you need money to roll more shops, get more planets, tarots, vouchers etc. Even if you’re scoring 10x higher than you blinds now, you’ll want that money to spend to scale youre jokers for 10 more blinds from now on

[@Dialectic42]

It’s funny that Pluto went so low because it’s one of the most commonly played cards in your videos due to how it fits into high-scoring high card strategies.

[@christopherbareja996]

You may or may not have noticed that he is not that bright.

[@ericonion3561]

@@christopherbareja996 Unless you're doing endless strategies it's trash without very specific jokers so idk what you mean.

[@synpai4539]

I think this severely underestimates Mercury (and Pluto to a significantly lesser extent) - firstly, "Only" +15 chips is deceptive when you're consistently playing that hand 4 times rather than just once or twice. Only +1 Mult is a downside, but in practice this isn't hard to cover with a half decent Joker. More than anything else though - Mercury enables you to basically completely skip a chip joker while playing a pair build given how many mercuries you can get on test patch - in practice, this means that the only thing that a pair build needs is a +mult joker - which is not a hard prerequisite to get (and even this can be skipped in extreme cases). It also comes online surprisingly fast once you have that. Pair also is extremely effective at digging for and holding Blue Seals. I'd have it moved up at least two tiers. It's an insane consistency boost for pair that easily more than single handedly makes up for the harmful stickers introduced.

[@terencebad7009]

Yup, Pluto and Mercury are great. Pre-patch they were probably A tier

[@wigglerlesbian]

you need a good base to multiply and it's a lot better to rely on planets for base

[@cataddict_]

Just witnessed the birth of a new copypasta in these comments.

[@gl00merz]

Thanks teach' , i was skipping any pack that didn't have wheel of fortune before, but now after seeing this tier list, i use the fool for MORE wheel of fortune

[@kieran9499]

Thanks teach' , i was skipping any pack that didn't have wheel of fortune before, but now after seeing this tier list, i use the fool for MORE wheel of fortune

[@NicoTheCinderace]

@@kieran9499 Thanks teach' , i was skipping any pack that didn't have wheel of fortune before, but now after seeing this tier list, i use the fool for MORE wheel of fortune

[@vyshaakhp6542]

Thanks teach' , i was skipping any pack that didn't have wheel of fortune before, but now after seeing this tier list, i use the fool for MORE wheel of fortune

[@slowlylosingitaaaaaa]

see all the consumables are s tier because you can sell them to feed campfire

[@lancesmith8298]

Ackshully, Emperor and High Priestess are marginally better than all other consumables (except Fool, but the best case is getting the other two back) for Campfire. Holding them removes them from the shop pool and Tarot packs, and they’re worth an additional 1x each. The only better deals are Jokers that also produce more cards or other Jokers. I believe, without irony, that Riff Raff is the best Common that doesn’t give score in the game. It makes 2 dollars a round at worst, can create score out of nothing, feed Ceremonial Dagger, feed Campfire, feed both of those cards at the same time for two Joker slots, find Gros Michel and then Cavendish for free, keep you from seeing bad Jokers in the shop, and probably more edge cases I can’t think of.

[@thermophile1695]

My issue with Saturn is that its difficult to increase your consistency with them. For any lther hand, death, hanged man, and DNA make them trivial, but this is much less true for straights, meaning that they dont scale well into the late game.

[@JaySk8n]

when it comes to straights, the way you get them is not through deck manipulation, but more through extra discards and extra handsize. and if you do deck thin, thin out the extremes of the deck, and then you get a nice range where you basically always get consistent straights with. the fact is that unless you get it *really* early, stuff like dna just doesn't pop off fast enough to be that insane for just an ante8 deck. straights are super consistent as long as you know what you're doing, and knowing how best to deckthin, discard, etc are the keys to that

[@thermophile1695]

@@JaySk8n Literally all thinning makes straights less likely, unless you remove an entire suit. There are 14 possible straights, and getting rid of any number kills 5 of them. That's insane.

[@JaySk8n]

@@thermophile1695 thats not how it works at all. if you remove an entire suit, you're still just as like to get a straight. However, Take the two for example. It can only be used in the straights 1-5, and 2-6. that's it. whereas 7 can be used in 3-7, 4-8, 5-9, 6-10, 7-J. that means 7s can make nearly 3 times as many straights as 2s can. thus, by removing twos from your deck, you're more likely to get cards within the range of the straight you want. Say for example, you *only* had a deck of numbers from say, 4-8, even amounts of all. and you have 4,5,6,7 in hand, and you need to draw an 8. because your deck only has the 5 numbers, your odds for each card are roughly 1/5 (even moreso because your odds of getting other numbers are lower since you already have some in hand). Whereas, say you didnt thin out the deck at all. in that situation, you would have a 1/13 chance of getting an 8 since every card is still in the game. Tl,dr; thinning *absolutely* helps straights be consistent, and the goal is to remove cards so you have a lot more in a specific range in your deck (I like going with like, 4-9ish personally cause I use ride the bus a lot, but just preference). This makes getting a straight in that range far far more likely than just trying to get one with a default unthinned deck

[@FailuresWithJade]

@@thermophile1695 that's the wrong way to think about it. You want to burn 2s, aces, and kings with hanged man for straights. Those 3 cards can only form 2 straights. When you discard for straights, you want to throw aces and twos anyway so they're not helpful.

[@thermophile1695]

@@FailuresWithJade Aces can loop around to make straights with 2s

[@Stuugie.]

I like ouija. It isn't as good when you've established your jokers around a different strategy, but I find it massively boosts 3/4/5oak, and full houses. And also when you have something like fibonacci you have a 5/13 chance of getting a good dopamine rush. I take it very frequently and I'd generally say it contributes to me winning

[@blackjacktrial]

Ouija just falls off so fast. In ante 1+2, its great, but after that, its hard to have a run that survives without making ouija a massive risk.

[@Stuugie.]

@@blackjacktrial that's fair, but there's lots of good cards/jokers in this game that are that situational. I'd draw the line at ante 3 or so, depending on my jokers and strategy

[@alphabitserial]

Thanks so much for the tips for playing Straights throughout your videos. When I first started playing I didn't go for them because I placed way more value on Jokers than on Planets and I didn't understand how much stronger Saturn was than Jupiter, and I thought they were too hard to play because I wasn't using my discards correctly. Actually, your videos have been a lot more valuable and more entertaining than I expected in general! A couple friends of mine have always been way better at deck-builders than me. One even beat the tutorial seed on her first game of Balatro with no unlocks! I was so surprised to be the first of us to beat Gold Stake, and when we've done seeded run races I've been able to win most of them because I have a general idea of what I should be prioritizing and can make those decisions a lot quicker.

[@ArbitraryC]

Kind of hard disagree on strength. I'd argue it's one of the strongest tarot cards in the game because it functionally deletes two cards you don't want and adds two cards you do want. Beyond that the existence of strength lets you do stuff like take a card from a standard pack with attributes you might want (seals, polychrome, w/e) in a larger window because particularly if you have a setup with the econ for many rolls/buying tarot packs, or tarot generation, it's not that unrealistic to bank on being able to move a jack to a king or w/e within an ante or two. Additionally, just having it in hand early antes means you can fairly easily rip a strong hand like fullhouse/4oak with whatever joker synergies you have to get past a hurdle before you've tuned your deck. It has both short term and long term effectiveness that sets it apart from many options.

[@alenshirvanyan473]

I agree strength can be very useful and I find myself building with decks that benefit from strength but it is highly situational You have to have a deck that benefits directly from such a structure AND you have to pull the card(s) that you want to strength if you’re using it straight from the pack, whereas other tarot like empress can still provide use regardless of what they’re put on

[@genio2509]

I also agree that it's better than that, but still not that great. Another thing is, let's say you're doing 5/4/3k or Full Houses, then you have 1 or 2 ranks that are good, let's say 10 and 7. So you'd use it on 9s and 6s, but once those run out you'll need 2 cards to transform a 5 or a 8, so it loses effectiveness. If you're doing flushes then it is most likely just +2 chips, unless specific jokers like fib or hack, and for straights it's significantly better, and really good to have in your consumables if you don't draw it, which is likely.

[@ArbitraryC]

​@@genio2509 Yeah my 4oak/full house example was referencing the power of having it in your hand. In early antes buying a strength in the shop and just sitting on it for the boss blind can let you play those sorts of hands (or straights as you mention) fairly easily and bail you out of a bad draw. In an ideal situation it's just a combo of deck thinning + duplication but even when it's weak you can use it in a pinch to limp over a tough blind early. I think the versatility is a big part of what makes it such a nice pickup. For most runs at least 3 of the suit changers for example are tarot cards you don't want to see in the shop or a pack but strength is almost always somewhat viable.

[@sohpeeah3131]

the problem is its situational. every time you use a strength the next strength you get gets worse (you have less cards that can you want to raise in power, and it becomes harder to draw 2 cards that you care about, or you eventually would have to double strength to get a card you want which is extremely slow. vs something like a temperance you can pretty much always windmill slam and feel great about

[@Xn7000]

re: black hole vs planet cards. Black hole covers you when you miss your hand when you're forced to play a hand that isn't your chosen hand, which can come up a lot in the early/mid game or when you're up against the arm and you don't want to nerf your deck. That has to be a part of the discussion as well, espeically if you're looking at the synergies that the planet cards have that black hole doesn't. Essentially a planet card has more upside but black hole has less downside. While there's an argument that you probably want to always be trying to "win more" with this game, black hole is a safer play and it's stronger in the early game and a planet card has more upside and the value grows as the uniformity of your played hands increases.

[@Yur_Boyo]

Thanks teach' , i was skipping any pack that didn't have wheel of fortune before, but now after seeing this tier list, i use the fool for MORE wheel of fortune

[@corrymuth2997]

Thanks teach’ , I was skipping any pack that didn’t have wheel of fortune before, but now after seeing this tier list, I use the fool for MORE wheel of fortune

[@Haxihoovis]

Hello, alt account 2!

[@Henry12151]

​@@Haxihoovis it's called a copypasta

[@sohpeeah3131]

the issue with people asking do you buy hermit or x is that you always buy hermit if you can get both bc of the nature of the card. but that doesn’t mean it contributes more to a winning run it just means it gives you money to also buy the other thing

[@biggali]

How many negative and foiled jokers do you have to get your temperance to give more than $17?

[@farkler4785]

Egg and gift card exist

[@tobias7143]

Early ouija, from my experience, for ante 8, is quit good after it's trash. It fall of in the higher difficulty when you get less discard

[@badaboum2]

Couple of things I disagree on : - I don't think three of a kind is a very viable hand altogether. In most situations where you can play 3oak, it's likely you could also play either a full house or a 4oak, both of which score and scale better. This is why Venus is among the planet cards I'll pick least often, it's just a fallback hand most of the time rather than a build-around. - Similarly I think Neptune is too high here, there's just not that many games where straight flush is a viable option at all. Of course in those rare cases Neptune is great, but it happens so rarely that I almost never buy Neptune. Most of the time I buy it when I do flush builds and I want to avoid being stuck having to play a low-scoring straight flush. - Hermit isn't straight "get 20 bucks", there's lots of situations where you just aren't at that interest cap and it's not as good, like very early game, or if you're playing green deck or Vagabond for instance. That being said I generally agree on its place on the tier list.

[@peterbiskup]

I thought judgement would be good even in later antes cause it gives you a stickerless joker.

[@wesnohathas1993]

I consider the value of Judgement directly proportional to what stake you're playing on mainly because of stickers. Anything before Black, it's doodoo. On Gold though, it's a lifesaver.

[@ashelotl]

I really do think he overrates Saturn HARD, I think straights are just… not versatile enough to be the best hand in the game. It doesn’t really work well in end game, it uses a bunch of a specific jokers to make it have that sort of run winning power that other hands have, it just generally feels like… a kind of messy strategy compared to the rest tbh (excluding straight flushes, which I’d argue are literally the worst hand in the game)

[@Math.Bandit]

Straights don't use specific Jokers because they barely need Jokers at all lol. That's what makes them so strong; that you get your scoring without Jokers at all for most of the run. Also you might want to watch some of the other vids, my man won 15 consecutive Gold Stake runs rotating through all the decks, and he primarily played Straights or Straight Flushes.

[@Yur_Boyo]

its in the context of having a straight build (in the same way the rest of the planet cards are because when else would you use them)

[@JaySk8n]

you may have a different experience. He rates straights so high specifically because this is talking about usefulness on the open beta, wherein saturn and neptune got fairly considerable buffs to their chip and mult scalings. what this did is allow the cards to be good enough that they frankly tend to scale frankly comparable to more joker heavy builds. and this also allows you to have more joker slots available for things like deck manipulation and *especially* econ. after that, it becomes very easy to start building around straights, especially when you get even just one or two extra discards or a few extra hand size. He puts it so highly because it *is* consistent. you don't need a specific joker to make the build work, you literally only need the planet card. He's won 15 gold stake runs in a row by just always going for straights. I hope this adequately summarizes exactly why its being valued so highly, its because its the main engine in a build thats very easy to get to ante 8 with (which is the purpose of this tier list), whereas most other planet cards etc are just support for your main build.

[@jawworm]

Not sure if you're meme-ing with the placement of Temperance vs. Hermit, but Hermit provides much more total value in most runs. By the time Temperance is better than Hermit, the Hermit you took earlier has greatly compounded in value due to the time-value of money.

[@lyfehaxandtrix3481]

I think this can be seen as an odd scenario as Pluto ended up lower, even though it’s great for late game - but temperance > hermit despite temperance being a late game (similar to Pluto).

[@mathees479]

I think it's more of temperance and hermit are usually around the same value ($15 temperance is not uncommon), but the times when temperance hits $50 it gives a massive boost that puts it over the edge. He also grabs egg and gift certificate a lot. I think hermit is better, but that reasoning makes sense to me

[@JaySk8n]

this tier list is in terms of how consistently they can get you to ante 8. which at first you might think favours hermit because temperance is weaker early game. but you would actually be mistaken. It has to do with how highly he places saturn. Straight are a stupidly consistent strategy, specifically because they get such high base from saturn cards that they don't really need specific jokers to get it running. so, you have more joker slots free to focus on economy, and economy jokers are notably more valuable, and especially if you're taking egg/gift card with this idea in mind. Basically its just that in specific builds temperance goes crazy, and chief among them is *the* most consistent build.

[@jawworm]

@@JaySk8n Don't agree at all. Scaling your straights early with Saturns is the most important element of a straights strategy, and Hermit is the sort of card that massively helps you afford those early Saturns, Blue Seals, and economy jokers. By the time you're hitting on Temperance for way more than Hermit, you've already won. I mean, just look at what Balatro University uses his late money on in runs where the Temperance goes crazy. He's buying jokers that don't have a golden seal because the game is already won and that extra money is not super relevant. Balatro, like most of these sort of games, is usually won by getting ahead early and using that compounding value to grow faster than the enemies' scaling.

[@JaySk8n]

@@jawworm yk what, that's fair enough honestly.

[@jago4604]

i feel like the amount of time hermit pays out with 20$ in ante 8 runs is like 75% while with temperance it’s like 20% chance to have 20+$ in jt (esp. with the discount voucher and new rental jokers), and for it to have 50$ is like maybe .5%, so unless you’re constantly spending down and never getting interest i think hermit is much better than temperance for the consistency. also hermit is definitely better than devil, it’s instantly up to 20$ that enables interest vs 3$ if you’re able to keep a gold card in hand, how many times is that going to happen in 8 antes? is it enough to make up for 20$+interest? i also think black hole is obviously better than saturn, let’s assume you’re playing a straight build, it being able to be copied by fool maybe makes it at best 10% better, so do you play primarily straights in 90% of runs? if not i think you have to give it to black hole for consistency. also it upgrades hands you don’t have unlocked and let’s say you don’t draw a second straight in a round, maybe the extra level in another hand saves you.

[@PEOJII]

I think all of the planet cards are in the context of a run that wants those planet cards, otherwise all of the planet cards would just be in the lowest tier

[@jago4604]

@@PEOJII well that doesn’t really make any sense? saturn is so high because it’s a hand that’s somewhat easy to make and scales very fast, encouraging you to play straights, if they were solely ranked in a scenario where you’re already running them flush house and flush five would be in s-tier, there would be no matter of opinion it’d just be based on the scoring numbers.

[@tempy2440]

34:10 [vine boom sfx]

[@FinickyCynic-pw9wu]

I was trying to think of a way to make skip tags more valuable without just buffing them to an insane degree. I think I found it. I made a challenge mod where for every point over the required chip amount you have after winning a round, you gain "gluttony". And if you gain too much you lose, though that max scales with ante. It's also just crazy hard, and in order to win you have to really think about every hand you deal. I find it a lot of fun.

[@chbou1313]

You should do a packs tier list unless I cannot find it. A playlist on the channel with the tier lists would be dope. Thanks for the daily content

[@Math.Bandit]

Packs tier list is pretty meh since after Ante 1-2 or so you should generally be buying both packs every shop

[@takeachance5881]

Glad to see Uranus getting some love. 2-pair is probably the most flexible hand type in the game, thanks to it being a 4-card hand so it allows for decent amount of cards to be scored, but also very easy to get so the in-hand effects are not terrible with it. It has been my go-to main hand type of choice if nothing else is strongly incentivized. It also helps that squarepants are really really good jokers that works perfectly with 2-pairs.

[@wesnohathas1993]

All the versatility of a Full House in a convenient, easy to play package that even leaves you with a bit of extra room for held-in-hand effects or a pseudo discard. Also one of the few hand types that can get along with Flower Pot while not relying on jokers and wild cards to enable it.

[@Saltier]

Balatro players: "I would never do an old man." 20 whole dollars:

[@Male_Parent]

Man that thumbnail got me, I'm like why would THE Balatro University put immolate in expelled, it thins the deck and gives you much needed money to setup for the rest of your deck. Good to see it in graduating with honors in the actual list. Edit: my ass confused immolation with immolate. Kinda hard to read in the thumbnail from my phone.

[@tf_lecter]

a smaller interaction to note when it comes to black hole being equal or worse to saturn is how the observatory card doesn't care for the black hole, it requires you use ACTUAL unique planet cards to increase its money value. observatory isn't a spectacular card by any means but a good interaction to be aware of

[@92thorstein]

I definitely don't agree with Ouija low rank. When sigil make great groundwork for flush run - early Ouijia (like 5 or lower early) set you to win with 5 of a kind which scale a way lot better

[@JasonMendoza-hd3ce]

I learned that I should have been playing straights instead of flushes. For the initial scores flush is 40x4 and straight is less at 30x4, but I didn't consider or notice that the its planet gives a bigger upgrade each time so it overtakes it pretty quickly.

[@HackionSTx]

The second game I get a leg joker in Balatro was Perkeo once again. I might be lucky idk. He also helped me get my current pb and I also found Triboulet. I made my deck only Gold Seal Steel Kings of Spades but couldn't get past ante 14.

[@edgeman1135]

I always think that I should make more stone cards to enable stone jokers, but it just doesn't work out. Even if I'm doing high card, I feel like it's hard to justify stone over the better tarots.

[@Scylla9]

I’m breaking the mold

[@SenrabMJam]

Thanks teach' , i was skipping any pack that didn't have wheel of fortune before, but now after seeing this tier list, i use the fool for MORE wheel of fortune

[@NicoTheCinderace]

@@SenrabMJam Thanks teach' , i was skipping any pack that didn't have wheel of fortune before, but now after seeing this tier list, i use the fool for MORE wheel of fortune

[@mgerloff1228]

one thing about eris is if i'm ever seeing it in my shop, that means I have played it and therefore it's an auto buy to enable that cap of being able to play it again in a stronger form. i know you're only talking about ante 8 but still, if a card is auto buy, it should be top tier.

[@Male_Parent]

Ouija should be middle tier IMO. It got me my highest score run random seed. Made me able to setup for consistent flush 5s, the rest of the run was thinning the deck and getting seals from standard packs, and finding better jokers (got perkeo later to start duping hanged man).

[@kenallsop7502]

Really enjoyed watching this. Pretty much in agreement - I think I might rate Emperor a little above the average Tarot card. With two cards each a 50/50 to be above the average, that's a 75% chance you get at least one card better than the midpoint. High Priestess I'd go a bit lower by comparison because often you're looking to hit one specific planet rather than just any of the good ones.

[@brianmcmanus9110]

Straight builds are fine, and clearly you can win consistently with them, but I find them more difficult to get to work than I would like. The chance of bricking is so high, especially with only two discards, that unless your build is strong enough to oneshot you risk losing on any round where you don't hit a straight right away. Also, in his videos where he wins with straights, an overwhelming number of them either have telescope or above average luck pulling saturn cards. My experience playing straights is usually to not pull any saturns in the first few antes, brick when trying to draw a straight on like round 5, and I lose. I also think he is basing too many of his ranking decisions around straights, especially his insistence that adding cards to your deck is pretty much always bad. Deck fixing is always useful, but having more copies of good cards is good in most builds. I'd rather have 8 aces in a 56 card deck than 4 aces in a 48 card deck.

[@tobias7143]

Cryptid smoke red, red you need 1, cryptid give you everything you want. But here, I think my love for glass card build speak a little bit.

[@The-toast]

fun patch concept for OuiJa, if it changes all the cards you're holding into a single rank, it should then kill all cards of that rank already in your deck. This can be good or bad but it all should generally improve your deck about as much as sigil does.

[@rafaelkudiess]

I Think that rank is about "when you want that card how good that is". And isn't about: "what is strong in most case scenario in gold stakes". Probably im thinking that because building arround high card, pair and two pair in -1 size hand gold stakes its more safe to me.

[@randomcat2000]

gold stake isn't -1 hand size anymore in the experimental patch

[@gamingtime9716]

I think Eris and Planet X are neck-and-neck. They both require some level of commitment (Eris moreso than Planet X) and aren't much better than Mars. When I have a non-endless run where I'm going for one value of card, I do tend to value Mars the highest.

[@DrMonty-ng5fo]

i think high card planet is secretly one of the best planet cards. the first one doubles the mult AND chips of a base high card. Do you really take the three-of-a-kind planet card more than you take the high card planet card?

[@rll99]

The problem with pluto is that it does nothing for the high card build. High card lives and dies solely based on the jokers you get; the base chips and mult of high card is almost completely irrelevant. It doesn't matter if your first pluto doubles the mult and chips, because double of nothing is still nothing. So yes, I would take any planet card over pluto.

[@RaceBandit]

You need a crapload of levelups for the weaker hands, which sounds harder to do than building the jokers for them.

[@juice17776]

Is there a consideration that if Saturn is better than blackhole, maybe it needs to be nerfed? Are straights too good or too consistent?

[@jakx2ob]

Why did he put Eris on A after explaining that Flush Five doesn't really help with beating ante 8?

[@onelazynoob15]

As much as I love gambling, Wheel should have been expelled man... Ain't no way the "nope" card is better than half of the other consumables, especially since there's only really one effect you're looking for. Anything but getting polychrome from the wheel is a waste of time. I honestly think it should be buffed by also offering the possibility of adding negative edition to a joker. I mean it's still going to do literally nothing 3/4 of the time so it's still trash in my book, but it would make it marginally less trash if you could get a negative joker out of it.

[@RaceBandit]

Maybe even give it separate chances of Foil/Holo/Poly. In its current state, though? 90% of all gamblers quit right before they'd get swindled out of their last penny, and Wheel is not an honest man.

[@JaySk8n]

the thing that makes wheel good is its relatively low cost for potential upside. it's only 3 gold here or there, and you're only going to spend that when you know you can't get anything better. and when/if it does it, its an immediate an everpresent buff, even if minor, with absolutely no downsides like using up joker slots, bloating deck, etc. even just having 50 extra chips on every single hand is worth a decent bit to me imo

[@GayerGurl4Lyfe]

Can't wait for you to eventually come out with the individual card tier list. I know kings will be S tier, but Big Wee Gang stay inhaling copium.

[@ShuckleShellAnemia]

This is definitely a “You don’t prereqs” moment

[@RaceBandit]

The editions always fit into your build, natch, but since when are you hitting the 1 in 4 chance? Pick a _good_ card over Wheel of Fortune. Your deck will thank you for this. Also I must've missed why we're selling jokers for Ectoplasm instead of Ankh or Hex.

[@randomcat2000]

i hit the 1/4 pretty frequently, about a quarter of the time i reckon.

[@brians5805]

how do you get the update bloodstone joker?

[@RaceBandit]

You have to subscribe to the experimental build. It's in the Steam options for the game.

[@foglerek]

Very useful, please do a joker tier list!

[@lumbersnackenterprises]

Yo, I asked on your twitch if you had a math degree. What kind of logic would you look for in a quantum binary

[@nathanbrite7125]

I like to go single card builds so I like strength.

[@eirgel38]

'solo group project' is hilarious

[@notabandicoot5227]

I wish they put ecto for first 2 are a -1. Then the 3rd and 4th being -2

[@spu00trb]

Saturn can’t be top tier when black hole exists.

[@oil_moon]

Which cards do you typically destroy with Hanged Man in the early game? Late game it becomes more obvious, but I find in the early game I just generally destroy random low ranking cards (excluding 2s for Wee Joker), not sure if there are other considerations I should be making.

[@Goldfighter5]

Probably sixes or sevens, because those have like no jokers that benefit from them

[@franslair2199]

​@@Goldfighter5genuinely confusing that there are no seven-specific jokers, considering the association of 7 with luck

[@wesnohathas1993]

Personally I'd say 4s and 3s. While they do have joker interactions, they don't get anything that other ranks can't do better. While 7s don't have any joker interactions, they are sought after more for Straight builds to make hands more consistent. Meanwhile the dedicated joker for 6s *is a method of removing them* while gaining value in the process, so those typically get to stick around until all my joker slots are locked down.

[@franslair2199]

@@wesnohathas1993 4s ans 3s are pretty good for hack tho

[@Nathan55411]

I'm not exactly sure I understand why devil is better than talisman. Like sure talisman may oversaturate your spectral packs, but I find gold seals to be far easier to play with than gold cards.

[@ryanodd4149]

Bruh how often is your temperance giving more than like $12? Only in the very late game, or using egg/gift... Stinky top pick.

[@kropmad]

Ouija should just -1 discard instead of -1 hand size

[@Ryzasu]

I usually take wraith does that make me a gambling addict?

[@xmemox0497]

pluto got expelled out of the solar system :(

[@jamman3921]

i cant believe it, plutonium slander on balatro university

[@Ementily]

Another reason why black hole isnt as good as saturn, it doesnt proc constellation, so if youre using constellation and you see black hole instead of the planet you wanted, depending one how late in the game you are, its probably better to take a different planet card

[@WhirlyBeepBoops]

I wonder if people may not realize that it's technically a spectral card and not a celestial card due to where it's found

[@Varrxion]

List starts 4:50

[@R2H2me]

I think ouija shouldve be like remove a random card and turn other cards in hand into that rank

[@RaceBandit]

Slight deck thin. You'd probably still need the hand size penalty to balance it.

[@ModeDriver]

WHEEL SUPREMACY!!!!! GAMBLERS UNITE!!!!!

[@desertedham37]

Wheel SSS+

[@RatRaccon]

Ain’t no way Devil is better than gold seal

[@samuelbailey2000]

I think soul is better than immolate. Even in the case you get a joker that isn’t good you can sell it for 10 dollars

[@randomcat2000]

if you have room for it

[@celestialTangle]

I feel like Planet X doesn't provide nearly enough value compared to Mars to even be worth unlocking most of the time.

[@saikgamingproductions]

why is hanged man so good? it only destroys 2 cards

[@MulletMonk]

this man hates flushes

[@randomcat2000]

deserved

[@spaceman7019]

I like planet x being 5 of a kind because 5 of a kind doesn't exist in poker

[@EricVulgaris]

For the möné

[@legendsoflaughter3313]

Why do people call ancient joker "Ol' Bap"?

[@QBeeIII]

olbap, or pablo backwards is a joke character that streamer Michael A.L. Fox / MALF created in party drawing games hes streamed in the past. the drawing he made is the face on the ancient joker heres a compilation video of him drawing olbaps kzbin.info/www/bejne/ZnuukKKDiJWgp80 edit: i should mention that after a few minutes the streamers dont focus too much on the drawing and instead on the current conversation

[@dr.game_glitch3594]

*saw first rank* *commented this* *clicked out*

[@benesham3415]

You need to cut these VODs down to something more digestible for KZbin

[@Math.Bandit]

What if Ouija said "-1 Joker Slot" instead? So kind of the opposite of Ectoplasm, where you get better hands with worse Jokers instead of better Jokers with worse hands?

[@Goldfighter5]

Idk that would probably be even worse

[@Math.Bandit]

@@Goldfighter5 I'm not so sure. Trading a Joker Slot for the ability to make better hands is what Painted Deck does, and that's possibly the strongest deck.

[@breydanhammer8417]

I highly disagree with your planet card rankings. First of all i personally wouldnt put any of them into graduating with honors because of how hard they fall off. I also would put straights and flush straights near the bottom because they're so consistent. Then i would put flushes and full houses near the top (although maybe my bias) because of how consistently you can build towards them for an ante 8 win. Even though there isn't a huge difference between three of a kind and full houses, i would say its still better to build those since it gives you better synergies and opportunities for your jokers (all the jokers that proc off of certain jokers and the pair and three of a kind jokers not to mention spare trousers)

[@olliezoop]

I kinda wish strength made it so you picked 2 cards, increased the one on the left and decreased the one on the right I just think it's weird that there's an effect that raises a rank but not one that lowers a rank

[@cynical_boy]

I think the rng is the most boring part from balatro, specially on those jokers and consumable cards. But hey, I enjoy the game in a different way I guess.

[@firelinksunlight9692]

Are you trying to piss me off

[@livelyy.]

Suit changers are way too high. At best, you only want one of them and the other three are garbage

[@WhirlyBeepBoops]

To be fair, you want that one just as much as a run of a different suit focus would want another. They kinda had to all be grouped together.

[@livelyy.]

@@WhirlyBeepBoops yeah, group them together two tiers down. That's the average of garbage, garbage, great, and garbage

[@Luce55555]

tier list disregarded straights suckkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk

[@ardynizunia9709]

These tier names are so weird. You go from totally amazing sounding scholars that graduate with honors and solo group projects to IMMEDIATE DISAPPOINTMENTS. Like, where is just the "graduated" tier? :'D I was just thinking you must be a stereotypical asian parent if anything below amazing scholarly achievements is a disappointment lmao.

[@ausmiku]

Most are rubbish, and you never find the ones you need. They are game fillers and extenders. It's a cheap dev trick to make the game appear bigger.

[@Goldfighter5]

no?i

[@franslair2199]

Skill issue, i find the ones I need

[@TheLethargicWeirdo985]

Don't tell this man about the roguelike genre I think he'll get a heart attack in sheer rage

[@christopherbareja996]

This is some of THE dumbest takes I've ever heard in my life.

[@ausmiku]

They should all be at the bottom. They're mostly rubbish, designed to extend gameplay with useless filler. Haven't you figured out yet that we have all been conned thinking it's a clever game ? It's not. It requires luck, not skill.

[@milesbrown2261]

holy shit the planet rankings baffle me you put STRAIGHT in top tier? Straight is so much harder to make a deck around vs flushes or five-of-a-kinds. The Tarot cards and other cards that affect your deck are much more optimized for making flushes and of-a-kinds vs straights. I could see straight flushes being where they are just based on base score and how easy it is to make flushes happen with even just a single suit tarot. Saturn being TOP TIER though? wild honestly. Idk maybe im just a noob i have far less hours in this game and you're the one who's getting crazy runs so like maybe im not in a place to argue but still I think Saturn being top tier doesn't make sense to me.

[@gl00merz]

Thanks teach' , i was skipping any pack that didn't have wheel of fortune before, but now after seeing this tier list, i use the fool for MORE wheel of fortune (also, every time i've used ouija, i've won with 4/5 of a kind, my deck usually goes down to 40 so take that as you will)

[@Haxihoovis]

Hello, alt account 1!

[@NicoTheCinderace]

@@Haxihoovis Thanks teach' , i was skipping any pack that didn't have wheel of fortune before, but now after seeing this tier list, i use the fool for MORE wheel of fortune

[@ssiriss1120]

Thanks teach’ , I was skipping any pack that didn’t have wheel of fortune before, but now after seeing this tier list, I use the fool for MORE wheel of fortune

[@NicoTheCinderace]

Thanks teach' , i was skipping any pack that didn't have wheel of fortune before, but now after seeing this tier list, i use the fool for MORE wheel of fortune

[@JustSomeoneOnTheInternet0]

Thanks teach’, I was skipping any pack that didn’t have wheel of fortune before, but now after seeing this tier list, I use the fool for MORE wheel of fortune

[@lamergamer8211]

Thanks teach’ , i was skipping any pack that didn’t have wheels of fortune, but now after seeing this tier list, i use fool for MORE wheel of fortune

[@NicoTheCinderace]

Thanks teach' , i was skipping any pack that didn't have wheel of fortune before, but now after seeing this tier list, i use the fool for MORE wheel of fortune

[@vezzel6116]

Thanks teach' , i was skipping any pack that didn't have wheel of fortune before, but now after seeing this tier list, i use the fool for MORE wheel of fortune