If I was a Modder, what would I add..?

[PrimeSilver]

When I enjoy a piece of media enough, I usually end up wanting to add to it something unique that feels in line with its core. So, though I lack the skills to do so, I thought it'd be fun to post some concepts I came up with for Balatro. Specifically, one Spectral Card, Joker, and Deck, as follows:

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Blight

a spectral card
Add a Black Seal to 1 selected card.

• Black Seal Creates a Spectral Card when destroyed. (Must have room)

I had this idea when wondering what a new seal might function like. Many decks would probably not want a Black seal when offered one in a pack, but I imagine it would be useful in a couple ways. Firstly, in any deck that can create copies of cards reliably, it'd enable you to invest into future spectral cards. Also, you'd have the chance to indirectly gain spectral cards from card packs. Finally, it would also be a reliably neutral pick from a spectral pack when the other options are undesirable. Notably, it probably should never produce more Blights, however.

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Brioche

a rare joker
Every card triggered while held in hand counts in scoring.

Named after Marie Antoinette's famous quote, I'm actually uncertain if this should instead be a a Legendary Joker (In which case it might be named Panasco after Joao de Sa). Conceptually, the way this would work is that Steel Cards, for instance, would also contribute their chips to your score. It gets more complicated once effects like seals, jokers, and Mime get involved. Probably, a card would be scored as long as it met one held-in-hand ability's criteria, regardless of if it hits mutliple. It would be scored an additional time with Mime or Red Seals, however. On its own, this Joker wouldn't be very strong, but it would be a consistent source of extra chips with Steel Cards, and once you introduce powerful Editions like Polychrome, or Glass Kings with Baron, it'd become a powerful source of added Mult. All that said, I am also unsure if this Joker would not infringe on the general design philosophy of Balatro or make High Card builds far too desirable by adding another synergy.

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Vinyl Deck

a... deck. yeah, go figure
Start run without one suit. Cards played or discarded are shuffled back into your deck.

This is my favorite creation, but also very tricky to balance. It's intended to enable you to replay key cards in the same round, but being able to calculate what you might draw based on what remains in the deck is often crucial, and this deck impedes that by keeping the itself mostly full besides what's in your hand. In other words, especially early, it may be hard to reach what you desire. That said, I believe this concept could work in some form, and this is my current angle at it. Firstly, let me clarify two things. After some internal debate, I decided that cards you Discard are not shuffled into the deck until after you draw their replacements, whereas cards you Play are shuffled in before . This ensures that when discarding you can make reasonable predictions based on what's already in the deck and are more likely to get one of those cards than simply redrawing what you just tossed. However, the deck's philosophy entails that a card you play should be able to be played again, and thus the cards you play can immediately be redrawn, though that impedes slightly your ability to predict what you'll draw.
The question that removing one suit answers, hopefully, is how do we ensure the deck is not too difficult early in each run? In short, it's smaller and therefore easier to manipulate. Also, it's smaller in a way that is unique from the Abandoned Deck. The removed suit would be chosen at random each run, which would have some interesting consequences. Notably and annoyingly, though, this modification means that certain hands, namely Four of a Kind, are impossible to play with the starting deck, something I've decided is a necessary evil for an interesting idea. Ultimately, this deck's purpose would be to enable a unique playstyle revolving around replaying specific cards, something other decks can't do except by having multiple copies. Effects which want you to use specific cards, hands which other decks could otherwise play maybe twice, those things might be easier to abuse with the Vinyl Deck. Also, it would enable you to discard important Gold Cards or Blue Seals, for instance, while you search for the hand you need, but knowing full well that you could still recover them by the time they're most convenient. I suspect it'd be fun.
As for the name, I chose it in reference to broken or scratched records and their capacity for endless repetition. I imagine the card back would reflect this as well.

And that's all! If you've read this far, I appreciate your patronage and indulgence in this little thought experiment. I'd love to hear anyone's thoughts in response, and, though it's probably too much to ask, should anyone wish to mod these in themselves, I say feel free! I'd love to see them in action. Also, here's hoping all the formatting worked properly

[CMDR Shven]

I think the issue with the black seal is that it does nothing inherently and requires an additional effect or tarot card to generate any value, whereas other seals are immediately of use upon playing, holding, or discarding. There may be very fringe cases where it's extremely useful but 99% of the time it would be passed over in favor of almost any other spectral effect.

I could see the joker working just fine if it only counted the chip value of cards left in hand. In fact that way it would even work as a common because it would rarely be able to exceed 100 additional chips. If it counted card modifiers then it would absolutely need to be a legendary and would immediately be one of the most powerful jokers in the game. A deck comprised entirely of steel polychrome cards would trigger 8+/- of each effect regardless of the hand type played and before any other joker effects are even considered.

The deck sounds like an interesting idea. I've had a similar thought before. I don't know that it should even be a single suit. I think just having the cards cycle would be enough of a shakeup.

[CMDR Shven]

On further thought I think this hypothetical black seal would work better if it destroyed the card when scored and generated a spectral card. That way it would work as a sort of hybrid between hanged man and the sixth sense joker, but being more versatile than the latter because it can be applied to any card and also copied.

You could even have a fun chaotic joker that puts a black seal on a random card held in hand every time another black seal card is destroyed. Get lots of spectral cards at the cost of a randomly and rapidly collapsing deck.

[Bad Medic Buddy]

I would add chud joker that sets all probabilities to 0.

[noisyturtle]

Super High Resolution Texture Pack

[PrimeSilver]

Originally posted by CMDR Shven:

I could see the joker working just fine if it only counted the chip value of cards left in hand. In fact that way it would even work as a common because it would rarely be able to exceed 100 additional chips. If it counted card modifiers then it would absolutely need to be a legendary and would immediately be one of the most powerful jokers in the game. A deck comprised entirely of steel polychrome cards would trigger 8+/- of each effect regardless of the hand type played and before any other joker effects are even considered.

Well, I may be mistaken but I imagine that would be pretty difficult to set up. To a certain extent, a deck of Steel Kings with Baron achieves the same thing and is probably easier to create. Yet, at the same time, the fact this stacks on top of that, with the added benefit of chips, is worth noting, and there is some flexibility in its design. Having a Legendary Joker that revolves around card in hand effects doesn't sound half bad anyway.

Originally posted by CMDR Shven:

On further thought I think this hypothetical black seal would work better if it destroyed the card when scored and generated a spectral card. That way it would work as a sort of hybrid between hanged man and the sixth sense joker, but being more versatile than the latter because it can be applied to any card and also copied.

You could even have a fun chaotic joker that puts a black seal on a random card held in hand every time another black seal card is destroyed. Get lots of spectral cards at the cost of a randomly and rapidly collapsing deck.

I do like this version of it, including that Joker. It sounds like a lotta fun. Naming is always tricky, but perhaps it could be a Plague Doctor, or something like that. I worry, though, that the Seal would be too powerful in that form, being a combined removal of a targeted card and a Spectral as well. With the initial design, I imagined that it'd be necessary to make it hard to use given the potency of its reward. But you may be right, it is certainly true the other Seals have no inherent second step besides things you can already do every round. Then again, if the Black Seal goes away too easily, it'll be hard to abuse by way of duplication. I am a bit torn. It is worth noting that getting a Hanged man to hit the seal would probably take a few rounds but would still happen fairly consistently, I imagine, so long as you hold onto any you find in the shop and open plenty of arcana packs, things which are usually good ideas anyway. Conversely, if the Black Seal Spectral applied it to a random card in hand, but worked as you described otherwise, then maybe that would be perfect. Though Black Seals in card packs may then be problematic, they could perhaps have a lower drop rate than the other Seals. Or perhaps I'm overestimating Spectral Card values.

[Goblin]

Originally posted by CMDR Shven:

I could see the joker working just fine if it only counted the chip value of cards left in hand. In fact that way it would even work as a common because it would rarely be able to exceed 100 additional chips. If it counted card modifiers then it would absolutely need to be a legendary and would immediately be one of the most powerful jokers in the game. A deck comprised entirely of steel polychrome cards would trigger 8+/- of each effect regardless of the hand type played and before any other joker effects are even considered.

Steel polychrome would only activate the polychrome. Steel doesn't do anything when scored so the joker has no bearing on that part of it.
Glass cards on the other hand would increase your score a lot. But the exact wording is they get scored, and guess what glass cards have a 1 in 4 chance of doing when scored?

Mind you I do agree it'd be better as a legendary, just saying that it's more balanced than you might think. And honestly, having a full deck of steel polychrome cards means all balance is out of the window already anyway.

Originally posted by Bad Medic Buddy:

I would add chud joker that sets all probabilities to 0.

And what would be the upside to it? Because without one, there'd be pretty much no reason to ever take this. Except maybe the 1 in 7 drawn face down boss/challenge, but as a boss that's already super easy and the challenge would probably ban the joker.

[PrimeSilver]

Originally posted by Bad Medic Buddy:

I would add chud joker that sets all probabilities to 0.

And what would be the upside to it? Because without one, there'd be pretty much no reason to ever take this. Except maybe the 1 in 7 drawn face down boss/challenge, but as a boss that's already super easy and the challenge would probably ban the joker. [/quote]

Well, you're forgetting the very glass cards you just mentioned! It'd be insane with Glass. It'd also be kinda funny with Gros Michel though. Besides glass it'd be mostly a meme, but Glass is too easy to come by for it to be considered weak.

Originally posted by noisyturtle:

Super High Resolution Texture Pack

The "it's just actually Poker" mod.

Also, Formatting has been repaired! Yippee, we done it.

[CMDR Shven]

It would synergize with glass cards but that's about it. But glass cards are already powerful enough and when endless builds, for example, inevitably lose, it's not because their glass cards have all shattered and they could have survived if not for this hypothetical joker. It would almost never be worth taking over any card that doubles triggers or otherwise provides additional x mult. A passive joker that just reduces the chances of one bad thing happening and otherwise provides no scoring benefit would be immediately discarded in favor of anything else most of the time.

[PrimeSilver]

I suppose that's true, but there is merit in the value of such a joker for those who are merely concerned with beating ante 8. After all, there are countless common jokers which are never gonna be a part of any optimal deck, they just serve to get you through those early antes.