Stuck on Orange Plasma

[Tommy]

Once again, I am stuck on a stake, so I will now perform my go-to strategy: make a post on Steam Discussion forums to artificially inflate my luck so I can win this damn thing.
This time, it's more I am just getting pure crap for jokers, either utility, small chip, or mult jokers. I don't usually find a scaling +chip until after Ante 4, at which point its too late to scale well for the endgame. I think the highest I've gotten is Ante 7 Small.
I don't really skip any more, except A1Small if I get a free shop tag, reroll, or sometimes a negative/rare
I must've failed at least 40 times by now

[malogoss]

Plasma is the one deck with which you can brute force a win.

Leave all +mult and xmult jokers there, never buy one. Get +chips ones. Early economy jokers, as always, are welcome.

Then try to play something like 2 pairs or Flush. Those hands are easy to make, they involve multiple cards so bonus cards and such are better. Don't neglect stone cards, especially if not playing Flush.

Hand level is not 100% irrelevant, but don't waste too much resources on it. Of course, a Telescope changes everything.

That's pretty much it. As you do, don't skip blinds. Keep banking interest. If you don't beat it in 10 attempts or less, you're very unlucky.

[kone]

A scaling +mult joker will often be weak since one-shotting blinds is common in this deck. There'll be no time for them to scale.
A scaling chip joker (Runner, Castle, Wee) is much stronger and faster.
Burnt, Bull or Stone can also be core to a run if only a little rare, risky or slow.

Since you overkill the early antes so often with little power, play more with economy jokers.
With extra money, you can buy lots of planets, tarots, vouchers, spectral cards etc.

Don't skip on Plasma deck. You can hang around max interest so easy and so early on. None of the tags do that much for your score or income while you miss a shop.

[Tommy]

Originally posted by malogoss:

I've got a good run rolling now. got a Eternal Crafty, a Hiker, Parei, and a Sock. Now I just need a non-rental Scary and it could be a winner.
Almost had a heart attack. hit The Mark Ante 5. was barely able to scrape by thanks to a rental Brainstorm I had picked up.
And then ♥♥♥♥♥♥ myself by not getting a flush on the A6Small

[malogoss]

Yeah, in retrospect I'd say 2 pairs would be better in general. Also gives a use to stone cards.

You'll get there, I believe in you

[Tommy]

Originally posted by malogoss:

Yeah, in retrospect I'd say 2 pairs would be better in general. Also gives a use to stone cards.

You'll get there, I believe in you

Random question now, do Stone Cards retain their suit/rank? bc I got a Blackboard, and it didn't hit the x3. nothing else but spade/club in hand

[Tommy]

Originally posted by Cobalt marbles:

Originally posted by Tommy:

Random question now, do Stone Cards retain their suit/rank? bc I got a Blackboard, and it didn't hit the x3. nothing else but spade/club in hand

No

Then what would cause a Blackboard to not hit? I think there might be some coding involved, since Stone cards are still shown in certain suit rows in the deck, and hitting them with a suit change tarot does move them to a different suit row.

[malogoss]

Blackboard trigger condition is not "no hearts or diamonds in hand".
It's "only spades and clubs in hand".

So since stone cards have no suit, they block Blackboard.

[Goblin]

Mind you, stone cards do "retain" their rank and suit, but they don't count. If you apply a different enhancement to the card (thus overwriting stone) it'll still be the same card it was before.
But like Malogoss said, while stone they count as rankless and suitless. Blackboard's code runs over every card held in hand and checks "do you count as at least one of these two suits?" and activates if the number of times it gets a positive response equals the number of cards held in hand. Wildcard always returns positive for those checks, and stone always returns negative.

[Tommy]

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, even when I get a stellar setup I still can't win. This time, got a shop 1 Odd Todd. next shop I Ecto'd it, shop after that I Ankh'd it. rolled into an eternal Scholar, a natural eternal negative splash, Chad, and a Hiker around Ante 4. kept adding/converting to Aces and other high odd cars whenever possible. still wasnt able to hit 330k in Ante 7 Big.
Seed for that run was IVMHCREW

[Tommy]

then I almost had a winner again. early poly square and invis, got an arrowhead, DNA, and started pumping out Bonus Aces. Unfortunately, lost to an Ante 7 Wall

[malogoss]

A few comments.

Two negative Odd Todd early on is a very strong start, 100% agree.
Scholar is not bad but I'm still not a fan in this context, orange + plasma. Simply put, the +mult changes nothing.
Neg Splash. Well, at least it's negative. It tends to be a good option for plasma and other decks too for the first half of a run. Then it often loses power.
Chad is also a bit underwhelming, unless it fits with something else. Like Wee, for example.
Hiker. Okay, now I can see some value in having Chad and Hiker for a bit, especially if you manage to have a foil card or a red seal. But hiker is something you should get rid of at around ante 6.

Thanks for sharing the seed, it's been a very long time since I last played, I might give it a try at orange with plasma just for fun. The way you described it, it feels like a win from the start but I'll have to try.

Poly on jokers is worthless with plasma. Or should I say, with a +chips plasma build. Sad, but that's how it is.
Square is so awfully slow to scale, it always feels like you have to sacrifice a lot to make it scale enough.

Yeah, I think I'll try that seed.

[Tommy]

Originally posted by malogoss:

A few comments.

Two negative Odd Todd early on is a very strong start, 100% agree.
Scholar is not bad but I'm still not a fan in this context, orange + plasma. Simply put, the +mult changes nothing.
Neg Splash. Well, at least it's negative. It tends to be a good option for other decks though, even more for the first half of a run.
Chad is also a bit underwhelming, unless it fits with something else. Like Wee, for example.
Hiker. Okay, now I can see some value in having Chad and Hiker for a bit, especially if you manage to have a foil card or a red seal. But hiker is something you should get rid of at around ante 6.

Thanks for sharing the seed, it's been a very long time since I last played, I might give it a try at orange with plasma just for fun. The way you described it, it feels like a win from the start but I'll have to try.

Poly on jokers is worthless with plasma. Or should I say, with a +chips plasma build. Sad, but that's how it is.
Square is so awfully slow to scale, it always feels like you have to sacrifice a lot to make it scale enough.

Yeah, I think I'll try that seed.

I would absolutely build a Wee run. If only he would ever show. I think he is my least-seen joker. I think i've only seen him twice, other than the time I bought him for the unlock.

[malogoss]

So I tried the IVMHCREW seed.

Like you did, I picked Odd Todd from the first shop. I think it was an easy choice.
2nd shop, I saw the spectral pack. I remembered you said you Ecto'd Odd Todd. So it felt like cheating, but still, if you want spectral packs, you want them early. So I thought well, I would have probably bought that no matter what. I opened the pack.

There was the Ecto, but there also was an Immolate in there. My hand had more face cards and even cards than odd cards, so I picked the Immolate. And from there it was a crazy economy game. Generating $20 per round from interest alone later, thanks to vouchers.

Soon after that I copied Odd Todd. Got Chad, got Hiker, Ice Cream. I was overkilling everything by a factor 4 in one hand. In retrospect, I could have ditched the Ice Cream earlier, to try to get more card buffs out of the Hiker.

Later switched Ice Cream for the +100 chips for 3oaK joker. I had so much money, I had blue seal cards too, I ended up levelling 3oaK a lot.

I think at ante 6 or 7 I found Seltzer. Start of ante 7 I found Mr Bones IIRC. And that's all I needed. I had plenty of bonus cards in my deck at that point, mostly Aces an 5's, had 3 stone cards too.

Here's what it looked like at the start of ante 8
steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3313301071

Seltzer was running low. I had around $130 in the previous shop, which I spent, knowing that I was going to skip the next 2 blinds anyway.

After 1 hand played against VV (3 of a kind, aces)
steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3313301559

With Mr Bones all I needed was a 600k total. I already had 3/4 of it, in one hand. Had 925k total after one more hand.

steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3313301701

[malogoss]

If it's any motivation to you, keep in mind that purple and orange stakes are basically the same difficulty. Perishable jokers are annoying. But it seems that you value a good economy, and that's what you have to do for orange to feel like purple.

You'll get there, guaranteed.

[Tommy]

Originally posted by malogoss:

If it's any motivation to you, keep in mind that purple and orange stakes are basically the same difficulty. Perishable jokers are annoying. But it seems that you value a good economy, and that's what you have to do for orange to feel like purple.

You'll get there, guaranteed.

FUGGIN DID IT! had to be on a 6 oz glass of pina colada (i.e. my "I no longer give a damn about today" juice) to make it work.
seed H2G166FV
went as follows:
very early stuntman, went for High Card
soon after, Foil Burnt
Hallucination for more deck changing
Eternal Space
perish Oops! to maximize Space
got a Telescope voucher early, focused cash on opening Celestials
Replaced Hallucination with perish Bull in Ante 8. had a Foil Devious from a buffoon, swapped for an eternal Chad
Cerulean Bell, scraped by on last hand with 868k. ended with High Card on lvl 40.
and now... for gold stake. I can assume it could be similar strat to orange, except money with rentals will be extra ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥