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Shogay Hoetani

@morrowind.bsky.social

Banged out a quick run on Plasma just for the post. Chips chips chips. Arrowhead is almost an auto win on plasma, as it translates to 125^2 if you play 5 spades. Unfortunately I couldn't find one, but I (say the line Bart) got some blue Seals and played pairs! Yay!!! Details in alt text.

I was playing two pair for a bit, and it does scale in chips better but I got ahead on pairs quick and stuck with it.

First time Square Joker actually had some motion, I just played Pair with two throwaways or Stone cards, and the occasional 4 card high card. As you can see there's not a lot of scoring power, even with Foil Sly Joker giving me +100 chips a hand. My fifth Joker before I had to sell it for the Verdant was Burglar. You really don't need to discard in pair builds, so I had EIGHT hands.

8 x 100k, easy gold stake. Big Square Joker :)

As you can see outside of hierophant I tried to prep my deck for Arrowhead. I never found it, but I stand by it. Mult, Lucky, Glass, etc are all wasted. Pivoting to 3/4kind would've probably been a disaster.

December 27, 2024 at 12:19 AM

Shogay Hoetani

@morrowind.bsky.social

🎰 Erratic Deck 🎰

Yeah I just got lucky lol. Started with a bunch of Aces and Kings and just spammed full houses. Hexed some Trousers and mixed with Card Sharp and Campfire it wasn't even close, even with some egregiously bad shuffling RNG.

Don't have much else to say 🤷

74 I think is my record in any non endless run. Looking at this now, I'm not even sure if Campfire was the negative in my Nebula run but whatever

Didn't get a chance to axe much, did use the Grim spectral card once or twice though lol

December 26, 2024 at 11:32 PM

Shogay Hoetani

@morrowind.bsky.social

🧑‍🧒‍🧒 Anaglyph Deck 🧑‍🧒‍🧒

A test of balance between greed and fundamentals. This run didn't even make sense, I somehow ended up with Straight Flushes and barely skipping? I think Sigil may have helped but I axed the face cards with hanging men and I believe a bit of trading card. Yes thats Brainstorm.

The base mult was high enough on straight flush to justify The Family on the left, I trusted in RTB and it didn't fail me. Using pairs as ways to toss Face cards while stacking and padding score was essential. Somehow my anaglyph run with party joker and tons of negatives failed though. Gold stakes keep you honest.

I think I got some blue seal value but not much. Tarots were dedicated to money, making more spades, destroying Face cards and the occasional Strength or Hierophant. No time for gold or steel. Vouchers were also a bit of everything, extra hand, extra discard, etc.

December 26, 2024 at 11:32 PM

Shogay Hoetani

@morrowind.bsky.social

🎨 Painted Deck 🎨

By no means an easy deck, but the hand size enables trickier hands. Early rocket funded my phone exploits. Ouija gave me Kings iirc, or I just got a ton of Death cards I don't remember honestly. Chad Kroeger combo (Hanging + Photograph) is just a ton of points.

I think 14 hand size is the 4 from bean, +2 from Paintbrush and Palette vouchers, and the +2 default hand size is reduced by Ouija. I believe Vampire was naturally negative or from negative skip.

I think two or even three Polychrome kings were involved in this score. X27 on the first king before everything else

I don't even remember how I got so many jacks LMFAO

December 26, 2024 at 11:32 PM

Shogay Hoetani

@morrowind.bsky.social

♍Zodiac Deck♍

I don't even know where to begin with this run. Early stencil, into invisible Joker, into lucky Wheel is basically GG. Played a mix of everything, from pair to 5kind. Tried to make as many clubs as possible. Score got ridiculous with x54 mult.

Double stencil is insane if you get it

Zodiac is a fun deck in general because it basically just gives you a bigger toolbox. If you get one or two solid jokers early you're gonna have a good time.

Onyx Agate is nice but any decent flat mult would've been fine, the extra hands were egregious but they were extra discards or a couple extra bucks

December 26, 2024 at 11:32 PM

Shogay Hoetani

@morrowind.bsky.social

🎴Checkered Deck 🎴

This was my first gold stake on PC, and for good reason, it's the easiest won. One blue seal and some Xmult and you're basically there. Flushes are almost guaranteed. This is one of the few decks where Blackboard sees play and I used it here, alongside Constellation.

Not much to say, got Flush leveled decently high, never got the right setup for Straight Flush or Flush House so kept it simple. Fibonacci and Fist came from Double tag Holographic. Had some steel cards which helped the scoring get above 100k.

It was funny because I tried forcing Flush House or Flush Five in other runs and it didn't work. All you need is xMult and some blue Seals, crazy.

December 26, 2024 at 11:32 PM

Shogay Hoetani

@morrowind.bsky.social

🏚️ Abandoned Deck 🏚️

The Premier deck for Straights and Ride the Bus. So I used both. I think Space Guy procced a few times, made a lot of Hearts and Wild Cards for Bloodstone. Got Ramen for extra points with one round left.

Not much to say, will leave some wayward thoughts in alt text

I think Runner was at something gross like 400, and RTB at 50 or so

December 26, 2024 at 11:32 PM

Shogay Hoetani

@morrowind.bsky.social

👻 Ghost Deck 👻

I love love love this deck. So much fun. Like I mentioned in last post's alt text, Madness can be quite good in Gold Stake! I immediately Hex'd it, and went to town. Just stacked Eternal jokers, including my beloved Baseball Card, and waltzed into 8-8 like it was nothing.

Amber Acorn is rarely a problem, and with my scoring potential being what it was it was kind of a joke

I think my only deck modifications were making Spades and the occasional steel or gold card

December 26, 2024 at 11:32 PM

Shogay Hoetani

@morrowind.bsky.social

All I have for my Plasma deck run is this lone screenshot, and I barely remember it. Eternal Polychrome (?) Certificate so I had endless amounts of seals and I believe Hanging Chad + Arrowhead combo. I'll do another run so I can be more detailed!

Bigger deck = bigger blue joker = more chips. Chips is the easiest source of points in Plasma, as x Mult at a large scale is hard to come by.

December 26, 2024 at 11:32 PM

Shogay Hoetani

@morrowind.bsky.social

🌌Nebula🌌 is one of the harder decks in gold, mainly due to 1 consumable slot and Constellation not being terribly valuable early.

Stuntman and Ectoplasm put me down to a hand size of 5, but I used what little econ I had to fuel my Campfire to drop 150k point hands.

More in alt text

Using most of your hands and having one consumable slot doesn't give you a lot of potential to develop an economy, so no money for rerolls, just buy selling whatever was presented to me and relying on planet packs.

Jokers like Campfire and Madness are indirectly buffed with all the unique stickers, as Campfire loves rental jokers (buy for 1, sell for 1) and Madness can't eat Eternals but still gets the mult

Don't let your experience from lower stakes tunnel vision your play. Pairs are good. Almost every joker has a use!

December 26, 2024 at 11:32 PM

Shogay Hoetani

@morrowind.bsky.social

🔮Magic Deck🔮
This one wasn't even impressive lol. I just pulled a foil Yorick immediately and just discarded to X11. Fortune Teller was also at something stupid. Think I eventually made a 4kind deck.

Yorick is the best legendary Joker to pull in a normal run, especially a gold stake. Just never skip and you're guaranteed 10X mult by Ante 8.

This was a month ago, but the low rerolls told me I just spammed boosters for a while I think

December 26, 2024 at 11:32 PM

Shogay Hoetani

@morrowind.bsky.social

🏴 BLACK DECK 🏴
This is without a doubt the hardest gold stake. The 3 hands is horribly restricting in terms of scoring, and losing out on even $3 in the first two rounds can ruin you.

I thought it was over when my Ante 1 Gros Michel died, but Cavendish showed up next shop to save the run. Alt text!

I even survived Violet Vessel, with 130k points over using only 3 hands. I don't think I had many vouchers, other than Overstock, but I used Abstract Joker in his natural environment and spammed Xmult to smash through each ante. I skipped for a Polychrome, Rare, and I believe some Boss Blind money, and skipped for a negative and something else when Party rolled around

20+ planets used, but playing Pair and 2Pair was easiest and most straightforward. Easy to play and highest base mult for all the xMult anyways.

I believe I got Wee Joker decently early, and stacked it a good amount for some extra chippage. 28 is not a lot of base mult, but stack on X3, X3, x1.5, x2.25, all of a sudden it's nearly 1k. We take those

December 26, 2024 at 11:32 PM

Shogay Hoetani

@morrowind.bsky.social

💲Green Deck💲
Green removes interest and rewards you directly for remaining Hands and Discards. On gold stake you ABSOLUTELY need to be playing one shot hands to get past Ante 6. I forgot to screenshot the jokers, but a late game Triboulet locked in the run. A lot to go over in alt text.

Originally this build was designed to be a 4/5kind, but a Foil Half Joker limited me to 3kind, which was fine. Don't remember if my other Xmult was constellation or The Trio but it doesn't matter.

Green is tricky to navigate, don't get too complacent with your early game

Early Ouija fed me a bunch of 7s, and I naturally filtered towards Kings as back up with Hanging 8s-Js, and using Strength on 6s and Q's. I dived for Deaths and a Mega Spectral gave me a Red Seal into a Cryptid which combined with Triboulet gave me a scoring potential north of 1mil.

December 26, 2024 at 11:32 PM

Shogay Hoetani

@morrowind.bsky.social

🟡Yellow Deck🟡
Yellow is one of the easier Gold Stakes as you have a bit of starting cash. I played this run at like midnight so I don't remember much, but it was a pretty straightforward Flat Mult + Scaling Mult and plenty of xMult.

Iirc it was 4kind build, with again, blue Seals.

Playing High Card as a pseudo discard is low risk, if not encouraged, when you are playing 4kind or other hyper specific/one shot builds. I don't remember if Ouija gave me a bunch of kings, or I death'd a bunch. I did Hang plenty of cards and used Magic Trick to replenish later while scaling Hologram.

Since I played all 24 rounds, Business Card being holographic was raw, from a Buffoon Pack iirc. An early Ankh from a spectral was my early scoring and econ source, and I bounced between different jokers until settling on Hologram and Duo. An early hologram is almost a guaranteed win, it just needs a decent economy to fuel it.

I checked the timestamps, and I was definitely drunk during this time, so this is all I remember lol.

December 26, 2024 at 11:32 PM

Shogay Hoetani

@morrowind.bsky.social

🔵 Blue Deck 🔵
Extra hand screams Pair/2Pair build, so that's what I did. Trousers are one of the best scaling jokers in the game, and an early death from Gros Michel turned into a cakewalk when Cavendish dropped in Ante 3. Didn't use the DNA effect once, Two Pair was at level 14+, more in alt text!

Scoring potential was ridiculous, so Cerulean Bell was again a breeze even without optimal hands.

Almost every hand I played was Two Pair or full house, so Trousers was maxed out to the best of my abilities, you can get it to ~100 by 8-8 but that requires low scoring overall, so 70 is equally impressive and comfortable.

70 x 1.5 x 2 x 3 is 630 mult on the joker board alone, ignoring Fibonacci and the pair joker.

Scoring is a concept people can struggle with, but there are "safe" benchmarks to be at, and minimum 100k a hand by Ante 7 is always a good sign.

Hanged Man is extremely valuable, as it reduces variance in your hands and draw algo. Pair decks don't care as much, but two pair, 3/4/5kind, etc. all LOVE it as you narrow in on only a quarter of your deck or less.

Blue Seals are so so so important in higher stakes, as Planet scaling weans you off Joker reliance. With enough planet scaling, you can rely on less scoring from your jokers and have more room to invest into Packs and other value sources.

I believe the 7 was from a pack, but the blue seal king came from a Mega Spectral. Trance -> Cryptid seemed risky but was immensely valuable as I was getting free Uranus almost every round, sometimes two. Blue Seals are the goat.

December 26, 2024 at 11:32 PM

Shogay Hoetani

@morrowind.bsky.social

🔴 Red Deck 🔴
Extra discard can enable more complex hands, and I used it to propel my favorite scaler - The Runner.

Early on, Straights rack up a lot of points but are very inconsistent the longer the game goes. Sitting on Egg gave me a fat pirate and I pivoted to Pairs for an easy win.

Cerulean Bell normally destroys 5-card builds, but is merely a slight annoyance when playing pairs. My extra hand vouchers helped but didn't matter at the end of the day.

Swashbuckler got to a massive +87 mult, alongside a Foil Red Card sitting at around 30. A double tag from cola gave me two negatives and Hit The Road Jack gave me some extra scoring potential.

Runner was at roughly +250 chips, being equivalent to a Stuntman or Arrowhead with none of the drawbacks or requirements. Kept Justice around as a break glass in case of scoring emergency.

December 26, 2024 at 11:32 PM

Shogay Hoetani

@morrowind.bsky.social

Lexington photo dump before the holidays

Lexington living in a box because he won't get a job

December 21, 2024 at 4:55 AM

Shogay Hoetani

@morrowind.bsky.social

I love Twitter still its the only place where a sports account calls me a slur for celebrating a CEO getting dropped and tries to take the moral high ground