Joker Tier List

[BeautifulFlowerField]

Tier List[ibb.co]

Put a lot of thought into it - The tiers themselves are not in a ranked order, so it doesn't mean anything which jokers come first or last in the specific tier.

• S Tier - The most powerful jokers that can be either win conditions in and of themselves or combo/scale so easily that getting one is enough to make me think I'll probably win the run. Gros Michele has to be in S tier because you have to get it and have it destroyed to buy Cavendish.
  
• A Tier - The jokers I consider to be the very best in their categories such as econ, build enabling/utility, mult, chips, etc. Falling just short of the S-tier jokers due to power level or consistency.
  
• B Tier - Highly playable jokers that I'm glad to see in almost every run but some are more dependent on your build and having specific other jokers than others. Hack is much better with fibonacci than without for example but it can pop off in other packages where you abuse repeats as well.
  
• C tier is split in half - the plus category are cards I feel are either more consistent or have a higher ceiling than the cards in the lower half, but all of them are playable in a wide variety of runs and maybe even very strong in a specific build like Splash with Fibonacci
  
• D tier - Jokers I might buy when desperate or in need of something very specific but I'm looking to ditch these as soon as I can.
  
• F tier - I'd probably rather just keep the money. Frankly some of these could probably be in D if I thought about it more, but nitpicking about the bad jokers isn't that interesting.

I'm currently stuck on purple stake and haven't had that much time to play in the last week. I took a break from grinding it with magic deck to unlock more jokers. Some of them I haven't played with and ranked speculatively. Few. I'm curious to hear what better players who are beating high stakes consistently think.

Also I tried to mostly represent each category of joker in each tier. So some of the econ or utility jokers in higher tiers are obviously worse in a vacuum than some of the lower tier jokers but I didn't want to relegate all those kinds of jokers to lower tiers. So some of the distribution is based on how I feel about the jokers relative to others of their type.

[Shot_Trip]

It is really interesting how many econ jokers landed so low, and how a lot of my Bs became like, Ds for you. Egg and Swashbuckler together makes for a really funny wincon, the joker that drops seal'd up cards into your deck just enhances Hologram (a great defense against its main weakness of standard packs sometimes refusing to show up).

There's a lot of two-joker run nukes that sit in your lower tiers, to be honest.

[Amplify]

Half joker, the bananas and the duo definitely belong in S tier, along with blueprint and the jokers that give scaling for skipping rounds and adding cards to your deck respectively. They will win you gold stake runs without too much trouble. Many mult multiplying jokers belong at least in A tier, probably the most mediocre one are the one that gets only 0.1x per planet used and probably the obelisk, plus x3 for Straights unless your deck and stuff are set up specifically for it.

[malogoss]

I'm curious, you ranked them for what type of game?

Beat ante 8, low stake?
Beat ante 8, high stake?
Endless mode, white stake?

Something else? Or maybe a bit of every situation mixed in one ranking?

Overall there's maybe 2 or 3 jokers per tier that I'd move by more than 1 tier up or down if I made a similar list. And since it's impossible to fully agree with anyone about such ranking, I think that's pretty good!

[S♥ShiMe]

Originally posted by BeautifulFlowerField:

Tier List[ibb.co]

• S Tier - The most powerful jokers that can be either win conditions in and of themselves or combo/scale so easily that getting one is enough to make me think I'll probably win the run. Gros Michele has to be in S tier because you have to get it and have it destroyed to buy Cavendish.
  .

some jokers are so situation in the S tier. like mime and baron, these 2 are actually so difficult to pull off a combo.
Jokers like Banana and shiny Banana is definitely in there, and along this line of thought, Misprint and half-joker are a solid S or A, in and by themselves, single joker, can breeze you through Ante 3 up to a certain difficulty stake..

[sab0t]

interesting that you put both marble joker and stone joker in F tier. if you get both of these at the same time it is INCREDIBLY powerful.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3171782593

even on their own i think both are pretty great jokers.

also interesting that many of my favourite economy jokers are near the bottom for you. mail-in rebate and cloud nine are both amazing for generating money. and i just unlocked the gold card today so i haven't used it yet, but that also seems like a great economy card.

mr. bones, also another great card. it is basically a get out of jail free card when you are up against a boss that completely counters your build. plain "joker" is only $2, it is a great early pick at that cost. and 10-4 is extremely good imo, it's basically the same thing as "scholar" which you've put in B, which is interesting. burglar is also an amazing joker imo, i usually use it for 5 or 6 rounds and make some extra money from the extra hands, but occasionally keep for the whole run.

the 3 that i also would put in my own F tier are the matador, the lotto punch card one, and delayed gratification.

also interesting to see Perkeo and Chicot down in your list, all the legendary jokers would be in my S tier.

always interesting to see how differently our subjective opinions on these are, thanks for posting this! my main suggestion after looking at this, would be to try a build based on marble / stone joker (ideally both), they are genuinely surprisingly great jokers!

[BeautifulFlowerField]

Originally posted by sab0t:

interesting that you put both marble joker and stone joker in F tier. if you get both of these at the same time it is INCREDIBLY powerful.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3171782593

even on their own i think both are pretty great jokers.

also interesting that many of my favourite economy jokers are near the bottom for you. mail-in rebate and cloud nine are both amazing for generating money. and i just unlocked the gold card today so i haven't used it yet, but that also seems like a great economy card.

mr. bones, also another great card. it is basically a get out of jail free card when you are up against a boss that completely counters your build. plain "joker" is only $2, it is a great early pick at that cost. and 10-4 is extremely good imo, it's basically the same thing as "scholar" which you've put in B, which is interesting. burglar is also an amazing joker imo, i usually use it for 5 or 6 rounds and make some extra money from the extra hands, but occasionally keep for the whole run.

the 3 that i also would put in my own F tier are the matador, the lotto punch card one, and delayed gratification.

also interesting to see Perkeo and Chicot down in your list, all the legendary jokers would be in my S tier.

always interesting to see how differently our subjective opinions on these are, thanks for posting this! my main suggestion after looking at this, would be to try a build based on marble / stone joker (ideally both), they are genuinely surprisingly great jokers!

A lot of things are probably just easier to make work than I think, or I'm not playing the decks they thrive in. chicot is a don't lose card, a very good one, but in general i don't value that sort of thing. perkeo is nuts and deserves s tier, i didn't think that one through.

Originally posted by malogoss:

I'm curious, you ranked them for what type of game?

Beat ante 8, low stake?
Beat ante 8, high stake?
Endless mode, white stake?

Something else? Or maybe a bit of every situation mixed in one ranking?

Overall there's maybe 2 or 3 jokers per tier that I'd move by more than 1 tier up or down if I made a similar list. And since it's impossible to fully agree with anyone about such ranking, I think that's pretty good!

i took a general approach. the b and c tier cards are ones i feel are probably sufficient to beat 8 ante up to black stake and the a tier and s tier jokers are the ones i'd be aiming for to take into endless.

[brickey.8]

It's weird that you put the "hold a lot of money for extra mult" joker in A tier when you're sleeping on almost all the jokers that directly give you money. Just because you want to sell it before the endgame doesn't mean it doesn't massively improve your run.

Several of the ones you ranked high are ones I maybe haven't given a fair shake, and visa versa.

I think the one I'm most curious about is Vampire. S feels weird for a card that is strong if you plan around it but can lose you the run if you drop it into an otherwise-established deck, even if negative. Maybe I've just been too cautious with it though.

Baffled by Chicot at B tier. Guaranteed immunity to boss RNG for the rest of the run? Sign me up.

[BeautifulFlowerField]

Originally posted by brickey.8:

It's weird that you put the "hold a lot of money for extra mult" joker in A tier when you're sleeping on almost all the jokers that directly give you money. Just because you want to sell it before the endgame doesn't mean it doesn't massively improve your run.

Several of the ones you ranked high are ones I maybe haven't given a fair shake, and visa versa.

I think the one I'm most curious about is Vampire. S feels weird for a card that is strong if you plan around it but can lose you the run if you drop it into an otherwise-established deck, even if negative. Maybe I've just been too cautious with it though.

Baffled by Chicot at B tier. Guaranteed immunity to boss RNG for the rest of the run? Sign me up.

it's actually really easy to get crazy high money, especially with a deck like anaglyph. when you make quadruple negative jokers off of a tag some of them will probably be econ. if i play for money i can expect 300-500 chips from bull with no downsides like the stuntman. vampire like any joker does require the right situation and time to buy it, but compared to the other scaling the potential for it to rise extremely quickly and high is the best. if you pick up a midas mask you'll crush the run. if you're rich from picking good tags you can reroll for tarots and get enough enhancements even without comboing vampire with another joker. in that case you'd just need to get it fairly early but that's true for most of the scalers.

[sab0t]

Originally posted by BeautifulFlowerField:

A lot of things are probably just easier to make work than I think, or I'm not playing the decks they thrive in. chicot is a don't lose card, a very good one, but in general i don't value that sort of thing. perkeo is nuts and deserves s tier, i didn't think that one through.

totally, i completely get what you mean. there are alot of builds and jokers that I thought were way too situational or difficult to get value out of, but when I actually try them it is generally not nearly as difficult as i thought it would be. for example, 10-4 was one of those jokers that "felt" really niche and situational, but then i tried it when i got it early in a run and it ended up completely carrying me (combining it with re-trigger cards works really well) and i realized focusing on 10's and 4's is actually really simple. same thing with Green Joker, this used to be my least favourite joker as i never got its mult higher than 2 or 3, but then I decided to try and focus on building it up, so I went for a high card / pair build that didn't rely on discards, and i eventually had it around +30 mult and paired it with Banner (another joker i used to not like at all) which was an excellent combination, and i could definitely have gotten it way higher if i paired it with something like burglar.

i also see where you're coming from with Chicot, depending on the run it there's a decent chance it really isn't needed at all.

[BeautifulFlowerField]

Originally posted by sab0t:

Originally posted by BeautifulFlowerField:

A lot of things are probably just easier to make work than I think, or I'm not playing the decks they thrive in. chicot is a don't lose card, a very good one, but in general i don't value that sort of thing. perkeo is nuts and deserves s tier, i didn't think that one through.

totally, i completely get what you mean. there are alot of builds and jokers that I thought were way too situational or difficult to get value out of, but when I actually try them it is generally not nearly as difficult as i thought it would be. for example, 10-4 was one of those jokers that "felt" really niche and situational, but then i tried it when i got it early in a run and it ended up completely carrying me (combining it with re-trigger cards works really well) and i realized focusing on 10's and 4's is actually really simple. same thing with Green Joker, this used to be my least favourite joker as i never got its mult higher than 2 or 3, but then I decided to try and focus on building it up, so I went for a high card / pair build that didn't rely on discards, and i eventually had it around +30 mult and paired it with Banner (another joker i used to not like at all) which was an excellent combination, and i could definitely have gotten it way higher if i paired it with something like burglar.

i also see where you're coming from with Chicot, depending on the run it there's a decent chance it really isn't needed at all.

Walkie Talkie is as fine as any four mult per card joker, but less consistent than suits or even stevens and not as potentially powerful as scholar. Overall I think the issue with all of these cards is max 20 mult isn't great to begin with. I think Walkie Talkie maybe shines when it's your first joker because it gives you chips and mult but I still think it's a little worse than all the other similar jokers.

[Shot_Trip]

Originally posted by brickey.8:

It's weird that you put the "hold a lot of money for extra mult" joker in A tier when you're sleeping on almost all the jokers that directly give you money. Just because you want to sell it before the endgame doesn't mean it doesn't massively improve your run.

Several of the ones you ranked high are ones I maybe haven't given a fair shake, and visa versa.

I think the one I'm most curious about is Vampire. S feels weird for a card that is strong if you plan around it but can lose you the run if you drop it into an otherwise-established deck, even if negative. Maybe I've just been too cautious with it though.

Baffled by Chicot at B tier. Guaranteed immunity to boss RNG for the rest of the run? Sign me up.

Vampire has several ways to pop off, once you consider that its only wincon is "reliably create Enhanced cards". Midas mask, anything that generates tarot, the joker that generates stone cards, standard packs, DNA, etc

[malogoss]

Originally posted by BeautifulFlowerField:

i took a general approach. the b and c tier cards are ones i feel are probably sufficient to beat 8 ante up to black stake and the a tier and s tier jokers are the ones i'd be aiming for to take into endless.

Okay, so you had endless in mind too, with "endless" jokers getting a free pass to S tier, or almost. Makes sense, to me the list seemed built that way.

Some jokers I'd rank lower are:

Yorick, Erosion, Bootstraps, Ceremonial Dagger, Séance, Obelisk, Merry Andy, Madness.

The main reason for that comes down to how rarely I pick them and how situational they all are. For example, Yorick is impressiive. But as soon as you get -1 discard from stake, it's hard to live with it doing nothing in your lineup while you try to use discards to unlock it. If you're already way ahead, then fine. Else it's a a major problem. Erosion is nice too, but it is tough to destroy cards in this game, and easy to add some, and only 1 deck starts with less than 52 cards. Bootstraps requires wealth (to have some sort of real impact) which is often a problem on high stakes. Dagger, same thing, it often revolves around being rich, and on top of that, to make it stronger you have to agree to have an empty joker slot. To me Séance is funny, but that's it. Obelisk can be insane but realistically, most of the times it's impossible to grow it at all. Merry Andy to me is F tier. Same with Madness, I used it successfully only for a specific challenge.

Some jokers I'd rank higher are:

Trading Card, Abstract joker, Fortune Teller, Hack, Square joker, Seeing Double, Banner, Troubadour, Cloud 9.

I won't go in details, but it mostly comes down to how often I pick them. Trading Card is an easy S. Banner is not a S, but grabbed early, it makes the first 3-4 ante easy, generates money from saved hands. At ante 4-5, just sell it, it did its job. Cloud 9 is an insane money joker. No idea why one would put Golden joker ahead of Cloud 9. Finally Troubadour, not an S, but since you have endless mode in mind, I feel it has to be at least a B. It's a joker I'd like to have in 90% of my endless runs.

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Note:
My comments are not meant to make you rethink every joker I mention. Just a feedback that could be used, if others give similar feedback about same jokers, to maybe change a few things later. Overall your list makes sense, that's what matters.