the secret trick to using red card and still having fun is that if you spam click where the skip button will be, you can skip a booster pack without even seeing the contents. it's psychologically freeing
In a way I actually like red card better on gold stakes because it's more likely the shops will be bad, so it rewards me for all the crappy eternal rentals in buffoon packs.
@stevenluoma1268 really any other deck. The issue with the red card as opposed to the bus or green is it requires econ to function. Yellow deck starts with more money so it is literally just better for red card
@@superdog3293 You aren't wrong, but a huge part of BU's argument for Red Card is that you are normally buying most booster packs after your econ stabilizes anyway, so the money you spend on red card isn't as much as you think it is. Also, he's playing on Gold Stakes.
@@nephel6158 I understand the argument. My point is for other decks that would be later in the run than on yellow. In this video he literally skips a booster pack immediately, which would leave you broke on other decks
Haters will always keep moving the goal posts. If you use Yellow Deck, they'll say you couldn't have done it without Yellow Deck. If you take the Rocket, they'll say you couldn't have done with without the Rocket, etc. Saying Red Card is less powerful under different starting conditions is both true and pointless to say. "Less powerful" doesn't mean "not at all powerful." Better economy makes Red Card stronger, but poor economy doesn't make Red Card useless. Red Card does not *require* you to take any game actions you wouldn't already. In *any* run, you should be trying to open as many booster packs as you can. Then, in cases in which booster packs would "miss" (which is less than always but still more than never), Red Card gives you something instead of nothing. Regardless of how "unlucky" your shops are, Red Card will continue to grow steadily, even if slowly. Red Card doesn't need to hit +90 like it did in this run. Even just hitting +40 is super "worth it" because it only takes up *one* joker slot and doesn't require "extra" expense. In contrast to Bus which turns Face Cards into land mines and Green Joker which prevent discarding for Gold Cards and Blue Seals, with both Bus and Green requiring you to play *a lot* of hands to match the pacing of Red Card.
BRUH, i just had the funniest game of my life thanks to you. i have never played a red card. watched a video, immediately launched a game, was stuck on gold stake green deck for a while, got an eternatl foil red card in the first booster pack. got an ankh in second ante, got burglar in third ante, got second ankh in sixth ante, finished gold stake with high card lvl 3 and 3 red cards +117 mult, zero mult multipliers, thank you doctor!
Red Card simply means that a booster pack with 3 cards now has *4* choices that potentially help your run. The worst outcome from a normal booster pack is “you get nothing,” but with Red Card the worst-case scenario is now “+3 Mult.” It makes bad/neutral situations permanently good!
I must say that continuously having an open mind to cards that I never use- for one reason or another- has indeed challenged me, but has also created alternate perspectives to a more malleable approach in my play-style. There is no “right way” to play the game, but many ways of adapting to the rng to make any seed a more fun and possible play-through. Thank you for always challenging my attitude with thoughtful perspectives. May the big number forever go up, my Jimbroni.
15:43 first ante against The Hook, you've already drawn a winning hand before discarding. Two Pair Js + 9s is 120 chips w/ Odd Todd and 5 mult w/ Red Card = 600 points.
This is such a good video, very informative educational content that lives up to the channel name. I really appreciate the in depth analysis at the beginning to help me understand *how* to use Red Card, as I've felt like it was powerful like Bus or Green, but didn't quite understand how to scale it properly. Thanks professor!
I've been playing Red Card a lot more lately after seeing good players respect the reroll mult builder (JJ, I forgot the real name lol), and it has been really really strong. Feels good to have that experience validated in class now.
This is fascinating because I saw the red card and immediately went “this looks like it outscales the the game if you invest in it” so I just assumed it was accepted as a good joker
Tbh last time i got red card i quickly learned how many boosters i skipped, or could easily skip for a little mult. I still think it's an expensive scaling solution, but it's still a scaling solution
i think a good way to look at tarot packs when one of the options is hermit or temperance is "would i PAY [$X] to do any of the alternatives?" and the answer is usually no
I like these vids. I feel like you were starting up a run, saw the red card and dedicated a lesson to it, which is great. The deliberate skipping of econ jokers to further prove your point was great. I would like to request something similar like this vid for Shoot the Moon and Baron. I feel like I don't know how to play these two; they kinda force you to keep multiples in your hand, handicapping what you can play (i.e. pairs, full houses). Confusing feeling.
I think red card is just one of the more boring jokers since it encourages shopping without actually shopping. I think jokers like constellation or hologram are a lot more fun because they let you have your cake and eat it too while red card makes you give up opportunity cost. Definitely super powerful but it feels really bad to use.
Well, the point was to win with only Commons, and Chad is a Common. At the end, we scored half as many points when Red Card was disabled, despite many folks arguing that high Hand Levels and xMult make +Mult *entirely* obsolete.
I thought Red Card was trash,always avoided it. Then I stumbled on it on Gold Stake runs. If you have the econ to support it it goes bonkers. It is criminally underrated. People are too busy worshipping the bus but man this can put in nasty work. It can be almost as good as Flash card
Red card holds up quite well even compared to Flash Card or Dagger. Dagger has a better conversion rate early, but requires an empty slot to level which sucks in the late gane. Flash Card without support costs 18 bucks to scale by 6, but pops off with clown or the voucher. People overcommit to it too early, and blame the joker when they lose.
I just feel red card should start with +3 milt so it’s viable on ante 1. It good if you have extra cash and can double up with a short term scoring boost
Dagger is a bit more efficient on the money to mult conversion, but you need to go out of your way to make it bigger and you have to keep an empty joker slot.
Couldn't have described my feelings about Red Card better than you did. It increases the decision space when opening booster packs, which I find engaging, while also guaranteeing at least some value in every pack. Red Card hate seems to stem from the misconception that the other scaling commons don't cost anything. Skipping the $4 spent on a booster pack (which you may have skipped anyway) feels more immediately expensive than spending 4 hands scaling the Bus or missing out on gold/blue card value when using Green. I would like to see you analyse Throwback. It's definitely not a good Joker, but it's another one that compensates for skipping value in a similar way to Red Card. Does x0.25 mult ever make the occasional Skip Tag more compelling?
On one hand, each blind increases by 50% over the previous, so skipping to only gain a 25% boost seems like a losing proposition. Moreover, the bigger the Throwback, the less each new skip is worth. For example, the difference between x1.5 and x1.75 is only a 16% boost, with further diminishing returns thereafter. However, because you have a limited number of Joker slots, Throwback only becomes "worth it" after you've *already* skipped a few (but not necessarily a lot) of times. Sometimes, you can take a late Throwback with the expectation, oh I should be able to skip all the way to the end from here. Overall, I would like to see Skip Tags reworked more. Without that rework, Throwback probably needs a buff. Faster scaling would be good enough.
@@drspectred Great analysis! The fact that it takes two Antes worth of skips to become as strong as other sources of easy X2 Mult means you've probably already lost by the time it gets there. I did have something of a goldilocks run when I gambled on an early Throwback (it was one of the few remaining jokers I didn't have a gold sticker on) with a handful of compelling skips along the way, and it worked out surprisingly well. Admittedly it was riding on a solid foundation and a little luck - but as someone who very rarely skips, it was a fun experience to actually engage with that mechanic and assess which skips were worth taking. I'd also love to see a buff/rework to enable that a little more often.
Red Card may have a bit too much stigma... I still kinda don't feel like taking it that much though. EDIT: I think it's because subconsciously, I know Red Card is probably the worst "money to mult" converter. And me not always getting good starting economy to snowball hurts Red Card even more, because usually you'll still want *something* out of the packs. having backup in case you whiff a pack might be good enough though.
Hey I know it’s probably answered in the video, but is there a point where you don’t need chips jokers and take mult almost every time, and if so, where would you say that line is? (Assume exceptions for bull with insane money)
One idea for buffing red card you didn't mention, but might be too convoluted: the mult scales based on the cards remaining in the pack when you skipped. Wouldn't play well with spectral I suppose, but makes it more interesting for jumbo packs
Can’t believe I’m posting this but I have a genuine disagreement with Balatro U! I feel that take on Fortune Teller is off - while it’s very weak scaling compared to the likes of Red, etc its power comes in that its scaling is retroactive. It’s a great pickup in ante 5+ if your run has already had a lot of tarot manipulation. By then my economy is usually in good shape and the $6 doesn’t hurt as much. It’s just bad to take in the early game. A common that can help you a lot in the late game? Sign me up!
Fortune Teller being retroactive is useful, but not $6 useful because it grows so slowly. Saying that the price doesn't matter late in a run (when you would actually pick it up) is *not* an excuse for it to being overpriced. Supernova is also, for example, retroactive. Saying Fortune Teller can "help you *a lot* in the late game" is way overselling it. You don't think I value Tarot cards? You don't think I open every Arcana Pack I can afford, before doing anything else every shop? Even under ideal conditions, if Fortune Teller is the best you can do in Ante 5, a lot must be going wrong in your run. Fortune Teller just needs to scale faster (+2 instead of +1 would be a rarity shift to Uncommon, too) *or* cost less, like Swashbuckler.
@@drspectredok as always you have owned me with your logic - sold on reducing it $1-$2! I still like it more than most commons if I’m late in a run and down a joker slot and it feels great to have if I have tarot merchant, vagabond, etc. it’s like a common version of lucky cat. I love the uncommon +2 mult idea btw. It feels right
Why do you never use the free rentals? Something like 8 ball that you buy and sell for 1 dollar could be used for a round to generate value if you have the extra joker slot surely? 37:55
Hey, it's not "never." But I did drop the ball here, out of habit. Not because it was a rental, but I generally think of 8 Ball as a blank card. In my Yellow Deck win streak series, I use "single-use" rentals at most opportunities.
okay you've convinced me that red card is definitely viable on white stake, and maybe even fun, but i dont think it wouldve beat the boss without photochad and glass, and red card didnt add much at all to final hands. it was at like 380 mult and red card added 90. and the last hand scored less bc todd didnt do anything either ya know
the secret trick to using red card and still having fun is that if you spam click where the skip button will be, you can skip a booster pack without even seeing the contents. it's psychologically freeing
underrated
So true
In a way I actually like red card better on gold stakes because it's more likely the shops will be bad, so it rewards me for all the crappy eternal rentals in buffoon packs.
Me, a red card hater, answering with full confidence "YES" to all the hypothetical questions at the beginning
Also, I'd be a bit more convinced if this wasn't on the yellow deck
@stevenluoma1268 really any other deck. The issue with the red card as opposed to the bus or green is it requires econ to function. Yellow deck starts with more money so it is literally just better for red card
@@superdog3293 You aren't wrong, but a huge part of BU's argument for Red Card is that you are normally buying most booster packs after your econ stabilizes anyway, so the money you spend on red card isn't as much as you think it is.
Also, he's playing on Gold Stakes.
@@nephel6158 I understand the argument. My point is for other decks that would be later in the run than on yellow. In this video he literally skips a booster pack immediately, which would leave you broke on other decks
Haters will always keep moving the goal posts. If you use Yellow Deck, they'll say you couldn't have done it without Yellow Deck. If you take the Rocket, they'll say you couldn't have done with without the Rocket, etc. Saying Red Card is less powerful under different starting conditions is both true and pointless to say. "Less powerful" doesn't mean "not at all powerful." Better economy makes Red Card stronger, but poor economy doesn't make Red Card useless.
Red Card does not *require* you to take any game actions you wouldn't already. In *any* run, you should be trying to open as many booster packs as you can. Then, in cases in which booster packs would "miss" (which is less than always but still more than never), Red Card gives you something instead of nothing. Regardless of how "unlucky" your shops are, Red Card will continue to grow steadily, even if slowly.
Red Card doesn't need to hit +90 like it did in this run. Even just hitting +40 is super "worth it" because it only takes up *one* joker slot and doesn't require "extra" expense. In contrast to Bus which turns Face Cards into land mines and Green Joker which prevent discarding for Gold Cards and Blue Seals, with both Bus and Green requiring you to play *a lot* of hands to match the pacing of Red Card.
BRUH, i just had the funniest game of my life thanks to you. i have never played a red card. watched a video, immediately launched a game, was stuck on gold stake green deck for a while, got an eternatl foil red card in the first booster pack. got an ankh in second ante, got burglar in third ante, got second ankh in sixth ante, finished gold stake with high card lvl 3 and 3 red cards +117 mult, zero mult multipliers, thank you doctor!
You can't convince me red card is good. I don't want to be convinced. Checkmate.
Red Card simply means that a booster pack with 3 cards now has *4* choices that potentially help your run. The worst outcome from a normal booster pack is “you get nothing,” but with Red Card the worst-case scenario is now “+3 Mult.”
It makes bad/neutral situations permanently good!
I must say that continuously having an open mind to cards that I never use- for one reason or another- has indeed challenged me, but has also created alternate perspectives to a more malleable approach in my play-style.
There is no “right way” to play the game, but many ways of adapting to the rng to make any seed a more fun and possible play-through.
Thank you for always challenging my attitude with thoughtful perspectives.
May the big number forever go up, my Jimbroni.
Michelle was a double agent in this run, stuck around way too long
I saw someone on the balatro sub arguing vehemently that Red Card sucks, now I can link a full dissertation to the contrary
It's not about being bad, it's about not being fun
Skipping Temperance or skipping a Purple Seal for +3 Mult might be strategically optimal, but, boy, do it feel bad
Red Card is a metaphor and scapegoat for my discontent.
Tbf it was a lot worse pre-1.0.1 patch
15:43 first ante against The Hook, you've already drawn a winning hand before discarding. Two Pair Js + 9s is 120 chips w/ Odd Todd and 5 mult w/ Red Card = 600 points.
Listening to you talk really shows that you are a teacher, and I am all for it. I haven't had this many "a-ha!" monents since I was in school.
This is such a good video, very informative educational content that lives up to the channel name. I really appreciate the in depth analysis at the beginning to help me understand *how* to use Red Card, as I've felt like it was powerful like Bus or Green, but didn't quite understand how to scale it properly. Thanks professor!
I've been playing Red Card a lot more lately after seeing good players respect the reroll mult builder (JJ, I forgot the real name lol), and it has been really really strong. Feels good to have that experience validated in class now.
the bus is one of my favourite cards and probably my favourite joker to see in the ante 1 shops
Banana was an absolute trooper
clingy
This is fascinating because I saw the red card and immediately went “this looks like it outscales the the game if you invest in it” so I just assumed it was accepted as a good joker
Tbh last time i got red card i quickly learned how many boosters i skipped, or could easily skip for a little mult.
I still think it's an expensive scaling solution, but it's still a scaling solution
I've watched 30 seconds and I recently came to the same conclusion after seeing the power of Superposition
I don't think I've ever seen anyone optimizing Fist + Steel card hand order before
yeah tbh me either
you learn shit watching this guy
i think a good way to look at tarot packs when one of the options is hermit or temperance is "would i PAY [$X] to do any of the alternatives?" and the answer is usually no
I like these vids. I feel like you were starting up a run, saw the red card and dedicated a lesson to it, which is great. The deliberate skipping of econ jokers to further prove your point was great. I would like to request something similar like this vid for Shoot the Moon and Baron. I feel like I don't know how to play these two; they kinda force you to keep multiples in your hand, handicapping what you can play (i.e. pairs, full houses). Confusing feeling.
I think red card is just one of the more boring jokers since it encourages shopping without actually shopping. I think jokers like constellation or hologram are a lot more fun because they let you have your cake and eat it too while red card makes you give up opportunity cost. Definitely super powerful but it feels really bad to use.
I love how you skip Ramen and other good stuff to flex but then go with photochad which is one of the most busted combos 😅
Well, the point was to win with only Commons, and Chad is a Common. At the end, we scored half as many points when Red Card was disabled, despite many folks arguing that high Hand Levels and xMult make +Mult *entirely* obsolete.
I thought Red Card was trash,always avoided it. Then I stumbled on it on Gold Stake runs. If you have the econ to support it it goes bonkers. It is criminally underrated. People are too busy worshipping the bus but man this can put in nasty work. It can be almost as good as Flash card
49:24 See?! You need to be modded to make red card good
This starts off as legitimate therapy and I love it ❤
I was a hater and I’m in shambles
Red card holds up quite well even compared to Flash Card or Dagger. Dagger has a better conversion rate early, but requires an empty slot to level which sucks in the late gane. Flash Card without support costs 18 bucks to scale by 6, but pops off with clown or the voucher.
People overcommit to it too early, and blame the joker when they lose.
Red Card may be good, but it's not fun.
I just feel red card should start with +3 milt so it’s viable on ante 1. It good if you have extra cash and can double up with a short term scoring boost
I always overlooked red card but damn might wanna try it more
Would you be interested in doing a speedrun to Ante 39 or a speedrun to naneinf?
I love jokering all over the floor!
My first whitestake completion was with a red card, so it has a special place in my heart. (I do still usually skip it though)
Dagger if it was good
Dagger is a bit more efficient on the money to mult conversion, but you need to go out of your way to make it bigger and you have to keep an empty joker slot.
dagger has all the coolness that red card lacks
Okay, but consider:
Dagger has style points
I beat gold stake blue deck with 6 commons, including a nat negative Cavendish 😊
Couldn't have described my feelings about Red Card better than you did. It increases the decision space when opening booster packs, which I find engaging, while also guaranteeing at least some value in every pack. Red Card hate seems to stem from the misconception that the other scaling commons don't cost anything. Skipping the $4 spent on a booster pack (which you may have skipped anyway) feels more immediately expensive than spending 4 hands scaling the Bus or missing out on gold/blue card value when using Green.
I would like to see you analyse Throwback. It's definitely not a good Joker, but it's another one that compensates for skipping value in a similar way to Red Card. Does x0.25 mult ever make the occasional Skip Tag more compelling?
On one hand, each blind increases by 50% over the previous, so skipping to only gain a 25% boost seems like a losing proposition. Moreover, the bigger the Throwback, the less each new skip is worth. For example, the difference between x1.5 and x1.75 is only a 16% boost, with further diminishing returns thereafter. However, because you have a limited number of Joker slots, Throwback only becomes "worth it" after you've *already* skipped a few (but not necessarily a lot) of times. Sometimes, you can take a late Throwback with the expectation, oh I should be able to skip all the way to the end from here.
Overall, I would like to see Skip Tags reworked more. Without that rework, Throwback probably needs a buff. Faster scaling would be good enough.
@@drspectred Great analysis! The fact that it takes two Antes worth of skips to become as strong as other sources of easy X2 Mult means you've probably already lost by the time it gets there. I did have something of a goldilocks run when I gambled on an early Throwback (it was one of the few remaining jokers I didn't have a gold sticker on) with a handful of compelling skips along the way, and it worked out surprisingly well. Admittedly it was riding on a solid foundation and a little luck - but as someone who very rarely skips, it was a fun experience to actually engage with that mechanic and assess which skips were worth taking. I'd also love to see a buff/rework to enable that a little more often.
Red Card may have a bit too much stigma... I still kinda don't feel like taking it that much though.
EDIT: I think it's because subconsciously, I know Red Card is probably the worst "money to mult" converter. And me not always getting good starting economy to snowball hurts Red Card even more, because usually you'll still want *something* out of the packs. having backup in case you whiff a pack might be good enough though.
Masterful!
Is this still part of the gold sticker completion ++ run? And if so, why did you turn the gold stickers on the jokers off lol
Hey I know it’s probably answered in the video, but is there a point where you don’t need chips jokers and take mult almost every time, and if so, where would you say that line is? (Assume exceptions for bull with insane money)
The short answer is take Mult every time.
@@drspectred guessing long answer is "depends on the build and your money"
One idea for buffing red card you didn't mention, but might be too convoluted: the mult scales based on the cards remaining in the pack when you skipped. Wouldn't play well with spectral I suppose, but makes it more interesting for jumbo packs
@stevenluoma1268 it would still convert money to mult less efficiently than the dagger (without sale vouchers)
Can’t believe I’m posting this but I have a genuine disagreement with Balatro U! I feel that take on Fortune Teller is off - while it’s very weak scaling compared to the likes of Red, etc its power comes in that its scaling is retroactive. It’s a great pickup in ante 5+ if your run has already had a lot of tarot manipulation. By then my economy is usually in good shape and the $6 doesn’t hurt as much. It’s just bad to take in the early game. A common that can help you a lot in the late game? Sign me up!
Fortune Teller being retroactive is useful, but not $6 useful because it grows so slowly. Saying that the price doesn't matter late in a run (when you would actually pick it up) is *not* an excuse for it to being overpriced. Supernova is also, for example, retroactive.
Saying Fortune Teller can "help you *a lot* in the late game" is way overselling it. You don't think I value Tarot cards? You don't think I open every Arcana Pack I can afford, before doing anything else every shop? Even under ideal conditions, if Fortune Teller is the best you can do in Ante 5, a lot must be going wrong in your run.
Fortune Teller just needs to scale faster (+2 instead of +1 would be a rarity shift to Uncommon, too) *or* cost less, like Swashbuckler.
@@drspectredok as always you have owned me with your logic - sold on reducing it $1-$2! I still like it more than most commons if I’m late in a run and down a joker slot and it feels great to have if I have tarot merchant, vagabond, etc. it’s like a common version of lucky cat.
I love the uncommon +2 mult idea btw. It feels right
"-o-o- yellow deck carried" - haters
Why do you never use the free rentals? Something like 8 ball that you buy and sell for 1 dollar could be used for a round to generate value if you have the extra joker slot surely? 37:55
Hey, it's not "never." But I did drop the ball here, out of habit. Not because it was a rental, but I generally think of 8 Ball as a blank card. In my Yellow Deck win streak series, I use "single-use" rentals at most opportunities.
doesn't count, won with photochad /s
Green card wr?
okay you've convinced me that red card is definitely viable on white stake, and maybe even fun, but i dont think it wouldve beat the boss without photochad and glass, and red card didnt add much at all to final hands. it was at like 380 mult and red card added 90. and the last hand scored less bc todd didnt do anything either ya know