Balatro Playing Card Tier List: What is The Best Card to Build Around?

[@orb3190]

When I made this on TierMaker as sort of a meme I didn't expect anyone else to actually use it lol

[@askthepizzaguy]

No this was totally valuable to a newb like me, I've scanned the wiki for this stuff but that info is presented so well here by someone who has used these things to win, so the recommendations here I feel are quite valuable to consider. Thanks for making this even as a joke, because someone else made it very much not a joke.

[@mononaut]

Well quite simply, not all the cards in the deck have equal value, so naturally a tier list is warranted 🤷‍♂️

[@HackionSTx]

​@@askthepizzaguyorb3190 is the best Joker.

[@jc_art_]

​@@HackionSTxyou won humor, heres your trophy and complementary cherry on top! 🏆🍒

[@HackionSTx]

@@jc_art_ thank you, JC Denton... I mean Art.

[@AllineVayn]

Aces are good, the best part of aces is that you can strength it to the best number, 2

[@askthepizzaguy]

This comment is possibly on par with my diamonds are the best suit take purely because they're shiny and gold and you can make them shinier and gold-er. As such, it has my seal of approval.

[@gingermlg]

​@askthepizzaguy they're also a girl's best friend, naturally.

[@AmongUsAcademy]

Can you do a Tier List of “Balatro Tier lists”?

[@ZainoTVLive]

Yes

[@cyriiix]

Crazy to see you here

[@Graysett]

It's a bit crazy to me that there isn't a "lucky 7's" joker of some kind. Or one for playing exactly three 7's.

[@yellownomadglitch3309]

There is also the unlock that need 4 7 of clubs but doesn't even use 7s for the joker you unlock. 7 might be the only ones without a specific joker? Beside odd tod

[@thegoat9219]

Where are the stone card fans at

[@MisterAssasine]

🗿

[@MOORE4U2]

🗿

[@GlowN2U]

🗿

[@sonnytapman]

ROCK AND STONE

[@deadstones1]

you gotta be stoned to be one

[@ZainoTVLive]

TIER LIST TIME!? What tier list do you want to see next? Where did I go wrong today?

[@siweq1986]

boss blinds

[@askthepizzaguy]

copied from Jackoooo: " Card enhancement plus seal plus card edition tier list?" That I haven't seen others do, so it would be a unique take. The combo of ways you can level up a card, some are objectively bad, but which are the worst, which are the best? Which enhancements, seals, editions work best as a combo? Which enhancements probably shouldn't even be combo'ed at all? For example, am I really going to enhance a card that's not meant to be played with a scoring enhancement? Or glass cards which are meant to be played and destroyed, pretty much Im not holding it in my hand or discarding it... so I shouldn't do that. But what would you consider the worst and the best combos. That'd be extremely useful because you've played those combos and I have not.

[@edfreak9001]

edition/enhancement/seal tier list, i say all at once since there's only three seals and four(?) editions to really care about so it's just enhancements + the things that are not enhancements

[@Camakaze13]

Best joker synergies/pairs/trios. If not a tier list (because I'm sure there's a million different pairs) then a top 20 would be helpful

[@JudeofAwesometon]

Tier list of how likely you would hire a joker for a kids' birthday party.

[@Dookstone]

I suppose the next logical lists would be Boss blind difficulty, or tags.

[@johnwarner4178]

Tags please if you see this

[@The_Vanni]

BU already did tags, bosses would be sick tho

[@Dookstone]

@The_Vanni ahh nice. Would still like at least a quick opinion comparison video just to hear Zaino's take and if he has any differing opinions or ideas than BU.

[@noisepollution4473]

You tiered them pretty much exactly how I would've, wow. When factoring in high scoring runs, I think hearts are a tier above the other two non diamonds, but you are effectively pleading with the game to give you enough hits to beat your last score. The consistency of the club and spade jokers definitely evens it out as those are much more viable in normal or higher stakes runs. I do think 6s are terrible, but that's exactly why I like Sixth Sense. I never go out of my way to get a sixth sense, but if one falls into my lap, I am absolutely taking advantage of it. Bare minimum it's deleting 1-2 of the worst cards in my deck and giving me 1-2 sellable spectral cards if the soectrals it gave me were bad. Best case I'm riding 6 free forever after using it and got some actually beneficial spectrals along the way. Then it gets sold. There is definitely a downside of it being in your joker slots for 2 or three rounds, but I really only take it when I have a free slot anyways and I sell it the second a better joker comes along even if I got no value on it. All that to say that 6s are so bad that a bad joker actually feels like a good joker sometimes because it actually gets rid of sixes.

[@ZainoTVLive]

Lmfao that's a good point, you can use it for an Ante to kill your sixes and then sell it. In that case it's clear to me you still wouldn't want to have duped sixes, as we agree.

[@Goldfighter5]

I think spades and clubs are about on same tier with hearts only because blackboard exists

[@Dookstone]

Ohh I think post patch you could do a reevaluation "what I got wrong" in all the tier lists, then do like a post patch update where retier things that you feel you misevaluated. That would lead into the post patch tier list updates pretty well I think.

[@ZainoTVLive]

Exactly what I'm planning!

[@ZainoTVLive]

Pinning to give credit, Thanks for making!

[@HacksawJack]

I’m feeling some diamond suit hate

[@Dookstone]

Diamonds are the cursed suit destined to not show up when you need them.

[@ryanodd4149]

The jewel is actually great, you can get $10 a round with it which is waaaay better than some of the econ jokers he likes

[@xPanda25]

I agree with the vast majority of this list, except Spades should be a tier above Clubs in most cases imo; primarily due to one joker, Arrowhead. Arrowhead is the single best base +chip (non-scaling) on played card joker in the game, which for clubs to get, requires the Smeared Joker. So much easier and better than even Odd Todd, as Arrowhead simply requires spares, vs odd cards. And while there are more odd cards, you can't really play "A 3 5 7 9" without it being a flush or affected by Shortcut, or more likely, around Full Houses - which mean trying to pull multiple of a single card, vs just any of the 25% of your deck

[@ZainoTVLive]

Very good points, I just didn't think the difference was worth an entire tier, but it might of. I think if I added a couple more rows I would have spades above clubs like you mentioned, Panda.

[@TiagoSilva-xs7rg]

I think suit are: Diamond

[@Mysterious7352]

I feel like aces are better than kings for just completing a run, especially on higher stakes. Obviously kings get the highest score, but there’s really only two builds that get you there (Baron or triboulet/idol) and they both take decent investment to get online. Ace’s flexibility is where its at especially to just survive the first few blinds on high stakes

[@ZainoTVLive]

Yeah 100% I think they are the two kings, no pun intended, in the game for separate things

[@badaboum2]

That and they don't get utterly destroyed by The Plant once your deck is curated.

[@nephel6158]

While 6s are obviously terrible to build around, Sixth Sense is still a way to get spectral cards in your consumable area. Personally, I view Sixth Sense as a way to remove the worst cards in my deck, whilst giving me potential to break the game with Red or Purple seals or Cryptid (and then once I remove 2 or 3 6s, I sell off Sixth Sense). All in all, yeah as build around cards, 6s are def bottom tier, but as cards in a deck? Imo 7s and 9s are worse. Idk if that makes sense. Sixth Sense is a decent joker as well in that regard, if you get it early, because it removes the worst cards in your deck with massive potential upside. Basically, 6s are trash but I do enjoy a speculative spectral card or 2 in my consumables area.

[@ZainoTVLive]

Very good point, I glossed over that, but it's huge. Maybe needed a tier lower for 7s.

[@badaboum2]

And then you get Perkeo... imagine!

[@nephel6158]

@@ZainoTVLive It's probably fine, in like 99% of cases, 6s are the worst. It's a rare enough scenario to where, even though being able to put spectral cards into your consumable area is a very unique (and potentially game-breaking) property of 6s, it's probably ok to put 6s and 7s in the same tier. Most spectral cards aren't exactly worth that level of investment early, after all. Only Cryptid, Red/Purple seal and Immolate are worth it (and maybe Ankh for some situations). I just am a bit biased towards 6s because they and Sixth Sense were how I got my first e score (I got Red Seal + Cryptid lmao), so I have a bit of a soft spot for them. But yeah lol they bad.

[@MisterAssasine]

If I have to decide, in early game I would rather delete 9s or 7s than 6s to have the option of grabbing 6th sense when I still have free joker space, use it 2-3 times (or until I find a more relevant joker) and then sell it. Meaning I can thin my deck out AND get value for it

[@askthepizzaguy]

Obviously, the diamond cards are the best. They're objectively the prettiest, and look the best when you make them lucky and give them gold seals. None of this has anything to do with their value in balatro, but I don't play the game because I'm good at it, I play because it's steady dopamine hits combined with pretty sparkly animations and sounds. Therefore everyone else has an objectively more valid opinion about balatro than me.

[@Dookstone]

Same reason I always skip for the spectral pack and take wheel of fortune! I know it's probably objectively wrong but it feels so good when it hits.

[@ZainoTVLive]

Fudge, I got beat by facts and logic

[@themobius5798]

I mean diamond (and spades) does have a minor advantage as they're rightmost (and leftmost) when sorted by suit, so it's a little more resilient against face-down bosses if you are flushing

[@askthepizzaguy]

@@themobius5798 That's a valid point. I just like how the darn thing look when they're already gold and then they have gold seals and then the white background is also gold and it's sparkly af. I GUESS the card also generates me some money, so that's dope, but I'm not even considering rational reasons to love these cards. I had a run with the greedy joker and diamond flushes and it's objectively the worst suit, but I felt rich af the whole run and I loved the colors. I usually play games with my brain but I'm just clicking buttons in this one until I get good.

[@askthepizzaguy]

@@Dookstone You're talking my language. I have been burned by wheel too many times to like that one, but I'm taking 2 free arcana picks or 2 free spectral cards or a negative joker whenever the tags come up, unless I know for a fact it will end my run. It's often the wrong decision, but I like getting free gifts too much to talk myself out of it. You're supposed to level up your cards by playing them and level up your hands by playing them with the associated jokers that help you win by playing hands and specific cards... but I want my free magic spells. I want ultimate arcane power for all the wrong reasons, I am become Vaarsuvius from Order of the Stick. Getting those magical power cards feels too good to pass up unless I know I'm not going to be able to play past the next blind and enjoy the fruits of my cards. That's the last bit of my sanity holding on, but it's never enough.

[@acantilado]

Unexpectedly fascinating ranking! Here are some tier list ideas off the top of my head: -Boss Blinds ranked by difficulty -Tags -Challenges by difficulty -“Builds” (e.g. high card, flush, etc) -Stakes by incremental difficulty -re-ranking jokers after the game update occurs

[@KaviDGaming]

Diamonds should be in the same tier as the other suits. Especially considering retriggers aka Hanging Chad. Economy is just as important as scoring points

[@askthepizzaguy]

Awesome, okay I watched the whole video and it's very informative especially for someone like me who only got the game this week and hasnt even played some of these rank builds once yet. My other comment is a joke but this one's serious. Appreciate it, thanks!

[@TwentySeventhLetter]

THIS is the tierlist I wanna see. I already know blueprint is broken, but tell me how 2s are actually greater than 3s cuz that's much less obvious

[@isaiaheads6327]

King of hearts no matter what. Swing for the fences

[@ZainoTVLive]

o7

[@scruffyhawk2775]

Just so I can get a better understanding, when it comes to unseeded runs, what should I anticipate the success rate being regardless of strategy? Is this like Breath of the Wild where losing a lot is a part of the learning process, or will there be a viable path forward in runs more often than not?

[@DrMonty-ng5fo]

depends on the deck and the stake. In the lower difficulties, a good player can get a near 100% win rate. But as a new player...you will lose. And that's ok! Learning is part of the run. :)

[@Droid6689]

Depends on the stakes. I don't have the stats, but I'd assume high stakes is a sub-50% win rate even at the highest skill, while lowest stake is at least sub-100% if not sub-90%. This isn't a game like Slay the Spire where there is usually some kind of winning strat. It's way more RNG focused. Part of this is there is never a "visible path". You get very little information choice to choice in Balatro and very few ways to control your options. Then you are forced to make big choices with no info.

[@ZainoTVLive]

As other mentioned depends on stake and deck, some decks are harder and higher stakes can be brutal. But white stake/red deck is something that a good player can basically 95-100% win rate.

[@askthepizzaguy]

I am also a newb, and I lose a lot, but I have won a few times and the thing is, you will lose and find out that whatever you are doing isn't increasing in value fast enough to work as-is. If you learn from those doomed runs, and you can play a couple dozen runs pretty quickly in a sitting, you will learn rapidly that you need more chips, more mult, more mult multiplier, more dollar generation economy, and also, that you dont have enough money or opportunity cost to do everything at the same time, so you gotta pick between things you want to do, and only pick the stuff you should be doing. If you learn by doing, you just need to identify the factors that contributed to a loss, and it isn't always oh, I didnt get the card I wanted, sometimes it's literally it doesn't matter what cards you draw, even your best hand will not beat the boss blind, so you havent leveled your deck properly or your jokers or your planets or whatever. Just learn from every run, and you will learn quickly.

[@scruffyhawk2775]

@@Droid6689 Okay, that makes me feel a little better. I've won a couple rounds after much trial and error (and avoiding fishing solely for flushes), but whether its just my tendency for back luck, I find myself often pulling the same ranks for 2/3 cards discarded, and from there, skewering ensues. I struggle to repeat the success of white stake, as I never can secure a simple mult joker or enough planets, etc. to scale the score properly.

[@takeachance5881]

This is exactly what I needed. I have got most things down about the game in my mind but I always struggle with which ranks to choose to focus on. This solves the dilemma really quickly in situation where I don't get a specific number joker and need a general direction when I start deck modification.

[@ZainoTVLive]

Glad I could help!

[@adamkoepke1366]

I used Fibonaci, Odd Todd, and Even Steven on a flush build and that went crazy

[@askthepizzaguy]

It's nice to hear that lifelong rivals Todd Stephens and Steven Todd can come together over their shared love of Fibonacci.

[@astralaegis6283]

I feel like you vastly underestimate Cloud 9. I had a run where I was running Vagabond and Cloud 9, and I'd get paid like $15 every round and I'd spend it all. Great synergy. Easy five of a kinds.

[@thomasoverlund5373]

My goal is usually to go for 4 and 5 of a kind with aces. Is using strength tarot cards on queens better than on kings you think because kings are so high tier?

[@ZainoTVLive]

Yes, because Kings work with a lot of other jokers like Baron or Triboutlet. It also has the benefit of being able to be retriggered by sock and buskin. If you're not playing endless and just to win, aces are probably fine though.

[@cohenkarnell7799]

I felt the same way about straights, but I also somehow feel like I'm just being small brained about it (although it truly does seem hard to make them work, especially with how you're so often going for 1 fewer outs than a flush). Balatro university seems to think at least the planet cards for straights scale very well

[@ZainoTVLive]

They do scale well, but it's just so hard to get online!

[@flashtirade]

I think it's just very hard to modify a deck to be better at consistently drawing straights At least, way harder than modifying it to hold more cards of the same rank and/or suit And jokers more often than better support single rank/suit builds than they do straights

[@cohenkarnell7799]

I agree. I also think it makes discarding decisions much harder to go for straights compared to anything else.@@flashtirade

[@benaaronwalters]

Been looking forward to this one

[@thomasoverlund5373]

Also I usually go for flushes early game and 4 and 5 of a kind late game is that what you guys do?

[@ZainoTVLive]

That's normally a strategy for me. Probably focused on straights since they scale faster for the mid-early game. But I transition to 4oK/5oK very quickly.

[@ZaneDidIt]

Love the tier list vids!

[@terrydactyl2077]

Do you have a guide for playing high cards or pairs? I can never work out how to get to high scores with these types of hands. I’ve gotten e17 with others though like flush, five of a kind. But yeah. I can’t work out high card or pair runs.

[@ZainoTVLive]

I can make a video on it sometime! But high card is not meant for super high scores unless you have Baron and Mime

[@terrydactyl2077]

@@ZainoTVLive ah right! Well if you ever get around to it I’d be keen!

[@RobinClower]

​@@terrydactyl2077 card in hand vs played card builds. Card in hand means you want to play as few cards as possible and have as many cards left in your hand. So think red seal steel kings. You play a single king, then each of your others gets triggered 4+ times with mime/baron. Burnt joker to upgrade high card, buy every Pluto. Supernova/half joker can help with additive mult early (useless later because they trigger after steel), obv a perkeo would help a ton to copy deaths for your kings

[@terrydactyl2077]

@@RobinClower ok I’ll give that a go. Thanks! Maybe the new blue seal will help as well. Played the experimental patch tonight and got flush to level 48 pretty easily. Some more fun with planet cards with that at least

[@juliepfordresher4389]

You should make a card enhancement, seal and edition tier list

[@arios6443]

I still don't understand why there isn't a "White Board" for Hearts and Diamonds.

[@ZainoTVLive]

Ohhhh I would love that, wonder what effect it could be!

[@arios6443]

@@ZainoTVLive Assuming it isn't just a clone of "Black Board"? The only thing I could see being equivalent would be if it retriggered the whole hand (which would arguably be more busted with some setup).

[@badaboum2]

Well because they're red, not white. But yeah they should have an equivalent, maybe Red Tape or something like that, with a different but equally strong effect from Black Board.

[@Jack_Sparrow_85]

Bro, just a small tip from the perspective of the viewer, you should consider going through your videos during editing and adding an image of the specific joker you are talking about when you are talking about them, most people watching for advice probably don't know most of the jokers by their names so you may as well be speaking another language.

[@ZainoTVLive]

I tested adding a few, but I'll add all of them in the future. I need to just create a database of images that I can pop in.

[@Jackoooooooooooo]

Card enhancement plus seal plus card edition tier list?

[@askthepizzaguy]

I would enjoy that. +1 from me. People have spoken about the individual things, but no one's told me about the combos.

[@ZainoTVLive]

Yes, but hopefully after the update as I think this gets major changes!

[@Jackoooooooooooo]

@@ZainoTVLivevery cool! Can’t wait

[@malayus7155]

Where would you put stone cards on here?

[@ZainoTVLive]

It's an enhanced card so doesn't fit perfectly, but mid. Unless you are playing high stakes where high card builds are super viable, then it's Elite

[@nubixnubix7982]

2 should be in elite wee joker scales so well and of you hack red seal you automatically win

[@ZainoTVLive]

I could see the argument.

[@realityisenough]

I still don't understand the high rating of the twos. If its just mostly for wee joker, if I have other chip jokers working already, why would I hangman a higher scoring card like 9s rather than a card worth literally 80% less

[@ZainoTVLive]

It's also because it works with hack

[@beaster1095]

I dont think its fair to say shoot the moon is garbage, it wont go far into endless but with help from just about any xMult joker and a decent amount of queens, it can fairly easily get past ante 8. Im not super experienced in the game, but ive got past orange stake on multiple occasions thanks to shoot the moon

[@ZainoTVLive]

That's a good point, for high card builds it can work. But it's hard to have the queens to make it work. I see your point though

[@alexbarber1566]

bloodstone 2X's when scored (not after your mult jokers bink) so not rly = Duo

[@ZainoTVLive]

Good point, as duo can work with additive mult jokers

[@cluelesspug1]

Are we really building around Queens because of Tribulet, a joker you might see 1 in 100 runs if you're lucky? I don't think so.

[@ZainoTVLive]

No, more so building around Queens because of all the other face card buffs and the fact it's almost a king.

[@cluelesspug1]

@@ZainoTVLive Gotcha.

[@dylie]

i think clubs are better than spades on average due to seeing double and onyx agate

[@ZainoTVLive]

I think arrowhead being one of the best chip jokers takes the edge, but seeing double is fantastic.

[@theunamedpotato]

why are diamond cards almost always a tier lower?

[@ZainoTVLive]

Because the suit jokers associated with it are not as good as the others

[@kirbot]

12:50 What do you have against the 10 of spades 😭😭😭 Edit: ITS FIXED

[@ZainoTVLive]

HAHAHA I'm glad I fixed it in time

[@nuttbhanidch8735]

So where is position of stone card inside this tier list

[@ZainoTVLive]

C tier, I think. It's really cool but Its only good for high card builds

[@ddddsasawwfdwafaw]

this is gold

[@ZainoTVLive]

Oh I didn't go over gold and enhanced cards yet /s Thank you!

[@JudeofAwesometon]

4 minutes in and I will not stand by this Square Joker snub

[@ZainoTVLive]

IT STINKS 🦨

[@JudeofAwesometon]

@ZainoTVLive How dare you good sir. Square Joker carried me to half my completionist+ runs in his big strong blocky arms.

[@askthepizzaguy]

Works well in the early to mid game when combined with a dedicated pair build. You have unlimited discards, so you can run purple seals in a very synergistic manner, as soon as you have your purple seals online you have unlimited free arcana which allows you to power up your deck. You have all the chips you ever need now, and pairs work well with stone cards as the extra 2 slots for square joker. Pair, stone, stone. Then you get one of the cards that powers up or retriggers the specific rank you have a lot of copies of, and instead of playing 3, 4, or 5 of a kind, you continue along with your very beefy pairs that have been improved in rank and played a lot and you've modded your deck so that certain numbers appear more often and others have vanished, so it's nearly impossible for you not to have at least one pair at all times. And then you've got hella space for steel cards to pop pop pop off. Square is okay. It's not the strongest boi, but it is mid to good.

[@L1s3L_893]

Next one : Balatro Buttons Tier List: What is The Best Button to Press?

[@angelcaru]

Skip Blind: F Tier

[@L1s3L_893]

@@angelcaru did bro like himself😭

[@myboatforacar]

I guess you could say the trash cards are... at sixes and sevens YEAHHHHHHHHH

[@AllineVayn]

The diamond joker should've give 2 dollars every played diamonds, 5 dollars per flush diamond hand is honestly pathetic

[@ZainoTVLive]

Maybe 1 in 2 chance of $3 so it's 1.5, and then crazy good with oops all 6s/retriggers?

[@badaboum2]

It would be ridiculous at 2$ per card imo. As is it's already a strong eco joker, it's fairly easy to play around without much risk, has a decent floor and a high ceiling because it's one of the only eco jokers that can benefit from retriggers AND blueprit/brainstorm (alongside Business Card and Reserved Parking). 2 flush diamond hands with some retriggers can net you 20$ in a round, which is insane compared to most other eco options. Its role is just different from the other color jokers, and in the end eco isn't really the key to high scores.

[@askthepizzaguy]

@@ZainoTVLive I like that for balance.

[@AllineVayn]

@@ZainoTVLive making the red suit chance-based would be a nice piece of flavor

[@gnutscha]

next video: seed tierlist

[@ZainoTVLive]

Oh interesting!!!

[@Dookstone]

Need a Balatro U collab since he's memorized and mapped them all lol.

[@hotdogskid]

The ultimate tier list thirty million years in the making

[@marcuscostello5635]

This is so dumb

[@ZainoTVLive]

Yes, but how much is so dumb

[@marcuscostello5635]

@@ZainoTVLive dumber than 100 black people