Flush Five for sure!! It’s the culmination of a full run of hard work manipulating your deck, making the correct decisions etc to finally arrive at the point where you are consistently playing Flush Fives. Feels like the most rewarding to play. Plus it’s one of the options to get mega high scores. Playing a socked and busked glass flush five feels great to do
Pair! you called it worse than high cards but I found it easier to do pair builds often because you can pivot towards a pair build earlier than High Card and there are many early jokers that work specifically with pair builds while HC doesn't have that.
I enjoy making Straight Flushes work. I enjoy trying to get it as far as I can in high stakes with it and feels more rewarding to pull off high scores than Steel King go brrrrrr (though that is pretty fun too). Tbh a lot of the fun once you get the foundationals down is adapting to what the game throws at you. Except 3oak...
I was a Jupiter girly for a long time. Maybe the first 80 hours of game play. But now flush 5 is most fun to me. Pluto is best but it’s just not as common for me. Need more luck and skill
In defense of flushes (and why I think they are at least A tier): 1. They are the easiest play to get through ante 1 with minimal hands played to boost econ before you get an econ joker. At least easier than straights and full houses. 2. They thrive in mid-game when you only have common jokers 3. If you can get DNA and use it on a red sealed card, you can very quickly make very powerful flushes. Getting a few uncommon jokers will usually make 5 played cards score higher score than leaving more spots for steel 4. It backs up the Flush 5. Even with an insane flush 5 build, you will still occasionally have a hand where that fifth identical card just didn't come in time
It just falls in this weird spot where I rather just use boats or 4 of a kinds that scale better and can be more hyper specific for synergies with better mult and xmult jokers
i think that flush house might be one of the strongest early game hands ever, now hear me out. you don’t have to build your deck around this, but let’s say you get any of the four tarot cards that convert 3 cards to one suit. you then draw a full house, which probably already has 2 cards of that suit, use the tarot, boom flush house to win an early round in 1 hand and get out with max money. not the most reliable or easy thing in the world but damn it gets you out of some tough spots on high antes
Flush houses are also super fun, and if you're shaping your deck around two cards, you're almost always going to have atleast two of one of them, so I think you oversold the difficulty (once you've built your deck) Solid list overall. I've been underwhelmed on full houses and really need to try our straights more
still somewhat new to the game, great point about high cards and being able to keep all of your hold cards in your hand easily. I've tried high card builds a few times, but now thinking about them in terms of steel cards, blue seals, etc I think will really take me to the next level. thanks!
While I don't disagree with your ranking i don't really like how High Card builds are so good at higher stakes. It's absolutely the least fun build to play for me. Yes it works. But the gameplay itself is the most boring to me. Fishing for a full house and later flush fives is way more fun. To me finding a joker that works with a specific hand type, or combination of cards is what attracted me to Balatro. But a lot of that goes out of the window when switching to High card builds.
@@ZainoTVLive I’m fairly new to it, in that I still have some jokers to unlock and I’m working my way through unlocking decks and stakes. So I’m focusing on completing runs and not fussed about endless and high scores - but I think this is hurting me my ability to deck build with purpose. So I’m using this video as a crutch to skill myself up and change my hand tactics 💪🏻
@@OldManYellsAtSpursTry taking a few runs into endless. You'll be able to unlock some jokers the more shops you're allowed to see. You might discover more combos and synergies that you like!
I think the hands are very well balanced all things considered, each facing their own distinct challenges and advantages. In ranking them people are mainly showing their playstyle biases. Of course High Card and Flush Five are the best in high score/endless runs since those are the only directions you can go to min-max, but in terms of just finding what you need to win a run, there's strength in the versatility and ease of use that comes from the mid-value hands.
I played a lot of economy decks like green and yellow starting out, and I found it helped a lot with achieving gold stake in flushes. Early 1 shotting blinds with flush bonuses was more than enough to make up for gold cards not being in hand
I think flushes are higher tier, but I don't play endless that much I imagine they fall off pretty hard at antes beyond 8. And you bring up some good points, there are boss blinds that just flat out kill flush runs :D Biggest pro is probably that it's a pretty easy/beginner friendly deck to build with all the tarot cards and stuff manipulating your suits you can pretty reliably turn your deck into mostly a single suit. I imagine for endless, as you said I suppose you really want the flush fives, it has all the benefits and synergies of flushes combined with all the synergies for pairs, 3 of a kind, 4 of a kind AND it has higher chips and mults to start with too.
Some comments : - Two Pair : There is one specific situation where I go for a Two Pair build - and that's trying to win with the Plasma deck by focusing on chips only. +20 per planet plus getting to play 4 cards lets you get a lot of chips for a fairly easy to hit hand. That's how I completed the win in 12 rounds unlock (without Stuntman !), and when I'll come to try gold stake plasma I will probably try it again. But outside of plasma I agree with C tier, maybe even D. - Three of a kind : The synergy with Half-joker is nice, and I find it to be a nice transition towards 4 of a kind/flush five build while you don't have enoughcards of the same rank yet. Plus having to keep only three cards to play lets you mine for the gold cards and seals more easily with a standard 8-card hand. I'd maybe bump it to B even though it's not for long-term. - 4 of a kind/5 of a kind : To me 5 of a kind is just a worse version of 4 of a kind. The difference between +30 and +35 chips is just not enough to justify having one more card in hand (which you can again discard to get your gold cards and blue seals to scale). Plus you can get Mars right from the beginning which lets you scale it more. And sure, when you start going endless and duplicating a polychrome glass card to go for the highest score playing 5 cards can be better but then you're playing flush five (even though it is vulnerable to a suit-cancelling boss blind). For these reasons I'd bump 4 of a kind to A and 5 of a kind to C - my best ever endless run was actually with a 4 of a kind.
Flush House's biggest pro is that you can unlock it with a single Tarot card and potentially start planeting it up as early as the first ante. If you're playing Painted Deck or Abandoned Deck then it's even better, in my opinion. _Especially_ with painted deck.
Completionst ++ high stakes disclaimer: Pretty solid list overall. Personally, I would bump Neptune up to C, I typically will use it as a transition late game from straight builds. I'd bump Venus down to D. I have never had a 3ofK run pop off that wouldn't have been better going for a different hand...and that is with over 500 hours. 2 pairs I would go B. There just way to many good scaling jokers/reliable jokers that support the play style for me to put it at C. Mercury I'd probably put at B. Live patch I agree with A for gold but changes to Orange/Gold allow other hands to shine a bit more since you aren't restricted by packs and hand size anymore. I rate it about the same as 2 pair trading better overall jokers for more tarot shennigans/high +mult scaling. Straights...I agree with BU. It is undeniably the best scaling planet for effort now. Easy S for me right now. Definitely a build that requires more thought and deck crafting though. Edit: ...realized dont have an A...I'd probably drop flush five down just requires a lot of set up/prereqs and comes online typically too late for high stakes.
2-pair is currently my go-to hand to play when I just go for winning a run instead of high scores. It's good at nothing but also terrible at nothing. It's not hard to get, unlike big hands that eats discards and/or hands. It's not a 5-card hand, so it does leave some room for smart discard for held benefits. It's also not 1 or 2 card hands meaning jokers that relies on scoring is also not crippled. It's master of none but jack of all trades and is not hard to pivot from which makes it really "flexible" in matter of run strategy. That and squarepants being absolutely bonkers.
I just downloaded this when it was included with Apple Arcade. I can’t even out into words how amazing this game is. I’ve played so many games and nearly enemy game has required a different strategy based on the deck and jokers. This game is amazing
I rmb when full house was the dominant build in the demo version lol (forgot which exact one but it's the one with verdant leaf as the "extra" final boss).
I love playing straights but one bad round of rng without Shoetcut and you lose. Had a level 29 straight build on gold stakes abandoned deck with like 25 cards and the very last round in ante 8 i couldnt hit a straight so i lost. You really need shortcut or four fingers to make straights viable.
I just started and literally the only two times I've been able to win a run had been with early pants jokers and building towards 2 pairs & full houses haha. This tier list broke me
I believe straight/royal flushes should be b tier. Yes they are hard to play around, but they have a few advantages you didn't point out yet. Similar to Flush Houses (even if not quite as strong) can be used as an emergency earlier in the game especially with one of the suit tarot cards or strenght (you dont even make a new planet card available in the shop). Another advantage is that you can pick them up if you play straight or flush depending on what other planet cards are in the shop. It happened to me quite a few times that i accidentally played one, when i went for straights or flushes (it,s great scaling makes this possible even in the later antes). And what i find to be it's best advantage is its suit. Equal to flushes and flush fives does the straight flush trigger suit effects like bloodstone. It does come with higher deck managing, but even in this aspect it does better than flush fives and flush houses as you have 4-7 (four fingers) cards instead of 1-2. If you're building straigh's why not just pick up 2-3 neptunes and 2-3 sun cards for it to be available as an option. But i do agree it to be hard to specifically play around a straight flush build (I take it as a available option which just makes this hand more versatile for me).
Problem is straight flush does not helps you out early game. It’s not a hand you can consistently get below ante 5/6. And by that point you already have scaled something else making it hard to pick up straight flush. It’s hard to get going and the payouts isn’t worth t
I just don't understand how to build for high card builds honestly. It seems like every time i try i lose in early or mid game before things really get going
What the general strategy for thinning the deck in a straight build? I want to play straights but chasing that 1 in 4 chance to get the single or even the two cards I need in the early game feels too risky. If I dont invest in the straight build eary, it falls off which is a conumdrum.
I would say building towards 5 specific cards. In a normal deck I tend to go for A-10, deleting 2s upward. Abandoned I squish towards the middle straight of 8-7-6-5-4 by deleting A/10, then 9/2, 3s
I don't think there's really a reason to play full house over 3oak. It's better with pants and flower pot, and it scales 1.2x quicker in chips? 3oak is easier to draw, leaves more cards in hand and basically activates all the same jokers. I'm curious to hear if I'm forgetting anything.
When I build into full house I try and get my deck to 2 of the same cards at a high number so I can just get 3 of either of them. I do think 3oak is better tho lol. Edit: I actually beat jokerless with full houses second try a couple days agi
I feel like drawing 3oak is difficult enough to where drawing an extra pair for full house isn't a big ask, but I haven't played full house at higher stakes (go straights!). 3oak does have an additional powerful synergy with blackboard
@@leiz8048 You can with splash, since you will have nonscoring cards scoring. Flower pot kind of needs splash or smeared or wildcards to be a functional joker imo.
So what’s the point of playing the game unless you’re going for high card, tier lists kind of ruin games for me as the other hands now seem useless after watching this, and you obviously know what you’re talking about.
Straights are actually extraordinary viable in high stakes post patch. I also think 4oK is as well. I still think below Orange stake high card is the best.
Three of a kind is better than you think. +2 mult for a 3 card hand is pretty good and easy to get reliably. A few planet levels in that and an x mult and you have a solid run going. Since you are only aiming for a 3 card hand, it even works somewhat well with Stuntman. The only hand I can never seem to get to work is Full house(which I agree is bottom tier).
Imo planet X is just too easy to win with while flush five is nice you pretty much need a death often or some sort of copier while planet X can be achieved much easier and is normally enough to win on its own and the cards below can easily be strengthed up more consistently. You also don't have to worry much about all the cards getting cancelled out by a random suit boss.
The math ignored everything but the probability of drawing cards and the base scoring of the hands. Jokers, tarots, boss blinds, and everything are everything in the grand scheme of things.
@@ZainoTVLive Flushes are still the most consistent build archetype, especially for jokers that activate on cards, or for manipulating. There are 9 tarots, and 2 spectral cards that manipulate in favor of flushes, as well as the fact that high card only gives +1 mult with Pluto, Meanwhile Flushes' Jupiter gives +2 mult. Usually, flush builds are the most effective in gold stake runs, unless you get something else early game.