Working on getting all my gold stakes, and am struggling with plasma much more than expected- having to either get a great combo of chips jokers or pull off a switch from chips to xmult mid run is a tall order. At least right now, it’s joining Black Deck on my shitlist. Favorites include Anaglyph (econ go brrr), and erratic deck for flushes (yes, I reset until I get a good pull).
What about y’all?
I’ll mention one that hasn’t been mentioned yet: Abandoned Deck is my favourite. I get the appeal of playing face cards and I’m the last one to turn down a photochad. But I just love playing numbers. The smaller deck size makes the deck also more consistent in some ways and allows for relatively easy deck sculpting. Ride the Bus is fun too
Current least favourite is Red Deck because I can’t beat gold stake on it for the life of me :c
I’m kind of weak for the Checkered Deck. Easy flushes are a good time
I default to flush if I’m not thinking about it, and checkered deck was my first favorite. My first gold stake win also!
Hate Black Deck. It’s not even a good trade-off. An extra hand is worth more than an extra joker slot in my opinion. You don’t even need jokers to win. You have to play hands. This is a deck I take only because I want the extra difficulty, not because it’s better in any way or even more fun.
Favorite is Yellow Deck. Getting your economy up and running is priceless. That’s worth like an Ante. It puts you so far ahead and gives you early options.
Glyph and zodiac honorable mention. Interesting mechanics. Interesting mechanics.
I don’t like the erratic deck that much because restarting to get the deck I want feels cheesy. No judgment. It’s just a game. But I prefer to play the game as is whenever I start.
I used to favor green deck over yellow but it definitely helps get things off the ground at higher stakes. Fair take on erratic deck- rerolling is super cheesy, but sometimes I’m in a cheesy mood with roguelikes. Definitely depends
Favorite deck is definitely Anaglyph, no question. The feeling of hitting several negative tags is just far too fun for me, but obviously it gives you much more flexibility for skipping to really turn around something you’re behind on (like economy as you mentioned). I also like Ghost deck a lot given the free polychrome, and the unique ability to get spectral cards in the shop.
I think people hating on Black deck is pretty much the norm, so I’ll say another one that bothers me is Nebula deck. It’s not even that it’s particularly super hard as much as it is that I can’t stand only having one consumable until maybe Crystal Ball shows up as a voucher. I want to collect tarots to utilize in the shop before opening a tarot pack, so I have to hold one fewer card. I want to gamble on High Priestess and Emperor sometimes (or maybe just pump numbers up for Constellation or Fortune Teller), but they are way less useful. Sometimes I’ll just take one absent-mindedly and then realize, that’s right, I’m on dumb Nebula deck and only get one card roll. Sometimes I want to hold onto a copy of the fool and utilize a blue seal, or maybe two blue seals, and I can’t do that either. Ante 1 telescope voucher is not worth this price.
As for Erratic deck, I was expecting a lot more than what it actually is because I guess I didn’t consider probability properly. Most of the time when I check the deck for any given seed I get a somewhat even suit spread with all cards somewhere between like 2-6 in quantity. I already reset for an actually useful small blind skip tag, no way I’m also tacking on significantly more for a much more rare interesting Erratic deck.
Nebula is also lower on my list. Hitting the double or triple $25 payout after boss blind with Anaglyph goes crazy too. Pair any of that with throwback and you’re in for a fun run
Erratic deck goes hard for five-of-a-kind or flush builds sometimes. Sometimes you get two really good ranks and full house into flush house builds are best.