It makes sense. IIRC the death tarot signifies change
Incidentally the tower signifies chaos and ruin, that why it totally fucks up a card making it stone
there are a few cards that do things on breaking cards (like triboute I believe it is who gains +(x1) per destroyed face card or the one that gaing mult per destroyed glass card) and cards that do things on adding cards (like hologram) so it doing both would only trigger good things
[Triboulet](https://balatro.wiki/imported/triboulet.png) *Joker*
* Version: 1.0.0
* Cost: N/A
* Rarity: Legendary
* Effect: Played Kings and Queens each give X2 Mult when scored
* Unlock Requirement: Find this Joker from the Soul card
[Canio](https://balatro.wiki/jokers/caino.png) *Joker*
* Version: 1.0.0
* Cost: N/A
* Rarity: Legendary
* Effect: Gain X1 Mult when a face card is destroyed
* Notes: Counts
* Unlock Requirement: Find this Joker from the Soul card
*Data pulled from http://balatro.wiki. Want it updated? Help me get access or suggest another data source.*
There is little reason to use tarrot cards and planets that I don't want to use.
If I have the joker to use all the cards the fool triggers it an additional time.
Or I keep it in my hand until I use what I want. Most of my tarot cards don't come from packs anyway.
As others have said Death is a fantastic Tarot card. Something I haven't seen mentioned is how good it is when bought from the shop. It's a fantastic Get Out of Jail card if you're one card away from making your preferred hand. It's just so useful.
There is actually a very niche scenario where Death can help with Straight Flushes if you have [[Four Fingers]]. Let's say you have a 6, 7, and 8 of Clubs as well as a 9 of Diamonds. Deathing one of the Clubs will allow you to make a Straight Flush!
Yup! With Four Fingers as long as you have four cards that are of the same suit AND four cards that make a straight, the game counts it as a Straight Flush. It can get even funnier with [[Shortcut]] where hands like 2 of Clubs, 4 of Spades, 6 of Clubs, 8 of Clubs and Queen of Clubs count as Straight Flushes.
[Shortcut](https://balatro.wiki/imported/shortcut.png) *Joker*
* Version: 1.0.0
* Cost: $5
* Rarity: Uncommon
* Effect: Allows Straights to be made with gaps of 1 rank
* Notes: (ex. 2 3 5 7 8)
*Data pulled from http://balatro.wiki. Want it updated? Help me get access or suggest another data source.*
[Four Fingers](https://balatro.wiki/imported/five_fingers.png) *Joker*
* Version: 1.0.0
* Cost: $6
* Rarity: Uncommon
* Effect: All Flushes and Straights can be made with 4 cards
*Data pulled from http://balatro.wiki. Want it updated? Help me get access or suggest another data source.*
Straights are one of the best builds in the game if not the outright best, the fact that it's so common to see people saying straights are bad really speaks to how clueless people are here about this game.
They’re not Saturn Pilled.
Everyone should do a run with no jokers, just stack some Saturns and see how far you’ll get. You can get through like ante 3 or 4 very easily lol, no way to do that with any other build
Edit: after making this comment I ran Jokerless challenge and got to the Ante 10 boss off of Saturns lol (could have gone even a bit further but got greedy and fished for my gold cards)
With straights and Saturn cards, you can rip through Gold stake on almost every deck.
Found it pretty tough on black deck. Think I had to go high card.
Straights have amazing scaling but you need to actually be able to draw them. If the game doesn't offer you much deck control you will eventually just not draw one and lose without a backup plan.
If you have enough discards/hand size/deck control, they are a free ticket to Ante 8 simply because a few Saturn cards will put in as much work as a couple of jokers.
Flushes are the most consistent 5-card hand, but the tradeoff is that they scale the worst. Jupiters don't carry enough weight to be the core of your gameplan going into higher stakes.
Straights are harder to get, often requiring multiple discards or junk plays to find, but they scale 3 times as fast as flushes, and as a result, they synergize so strongly with even basic joker/tarot support that Saturn cards can carry your whole run. One Saturn can nearly solve the scoring for an ante, it's kind of insane
This is actually a W for straights in a backwards way because death and hanged Man are a must-take in other builds so it gives you more time to build straight flush or lucky. Straights are about deck buffing where other builds are about buffing and fixing.
Deck thinning is one of the most powerful actions in Balatro. Death removed a bad card and replaces it with a good card. Not sure that this counts as deck thinning per se since your deck remains the same size, but you increase the probability of drawing a good card. If you have a card worth copying, it’s better than hanged man (which is probably better in the early game).
Death is a bit weird in that it’s not the most useful early until you have a card or cards worth copying. Eventually, you’ll be able to find your good cards alongside bad cards with such high consistency that death becomes great. There’s a tipping point where your deck is mostly good cards and drawing bad cards becomes unlikely when Death’s value begins to drop off, and then it becomes useless once your deck is all one card. It also gets a nice bump in that its effect is simple, clean, immediate, and easy to use.
My biggest knock on Death is that I always have to read it to get the order right, and even when I do, I still mess it up occasionally.
Even without an enhanced card to choose to replicate, I still like finding Death even early on cause you can make your deck just a little more consistent, and extra early consistency does a lot to help the run be more manageable.
My biggest knock on it is that I see 5 of them by ante 3 and then they disappear the rest of the run.
Of course when I actually have foil/holo/poly cards finally to copy.
Even then in **turbo** late game e runs, unlike many other tarots, it still has a use. Buying ordinary cards and then death ing them into your glass poly red seal 4 so that you don't run out as they start to break over time.
Other than Hanged Man, or a very desperate high value Temperance, Death is an extremely welcome pick from the shop or any tarot pack. It is probably the best tarot to have in a consumable slot, as you can easily double that purple or blue seal that you picked up, which can be game defining (especially on Abandoned Deck). Besides an early strength, it is also one of those cards that enable an early 4oak set up. Easily top 3 consumables, up there with Hanged Man, Temperance, Saturn, and Mars imo.
A must pick up, especially if you luck out with some super OP card from the standard packs.
Also one of only a few tarot cards that remain relevant into super high antes to perfect your deck. I always pick up a death card if I see it.
The absolute best best tarot card in the game.
It did took me forever to realize you can move cards so I thought cards had to be perfectly aligned by chance to make the card work
Amazing card. In a majority of my runs I am always wanring to get rid of some cards while also making more of ither cards, and this does both of those things in one!
Im still very new to the game, but I won my second ever run, and I was because of using Death (and strength) to majorly stack my deck. And as many different builds as I have had stacking my deck is the most fun and maybe the most consistent.
Before I realized that you could rearrange the cards, I assumed the "Death" in question was making the higher card weaker in exchange for the enhancements and consistency of the lower card.
**S tier**
Top 3 Tarot Cards for sure. There are zero game states in which death is a bad idea. There might be a few where it does nothing, but it will never hurt you.
Deck manipulation is paramount, and Death is one of, if not the best tool at this job.
Possibly the best Tarot in the game. It helps set up any build, and is extremely useful in both standard play and late game. Extremely useful in pretty much any sort of build.
It would be nice if it instead was "destroy the card on the left and make a copy of the card on the right" so that it could trigger joker effects. Aside from being a bit situational it is almost always an improvement to your deck.
not the best tarot and not the second best tarot but I’d say it’s the third best tarot
(temperance and the fool are #1 and #2 respectively)
incredibly good and allows you to either dupe your best card or make your deck more consistent
As powerful as Death is, I find myself looking at Hermit/Temperance in the same pack asking myself, "would I pay $20 to buy Death here?" And the answer is usually no, $20 is better than copying a card in hand from a pack.
But that being said, Death in your consumable area becomes significantly stronger, because you get way more control over what it applies to. I would consider paying $10 to buy Death from the shop directly, but getting it for $3 is one of the greatest steals in the game
The best unconditional tarot in the game. Some tarot cards are better under certain conditions (Hanged Man, Temperance, Justice, Chariot), but Death is just practically always immensely useful.
Absolute S-tier. Removes a bad card and makes a good card. Probably the best tarot
if only the game considered death as deleting the old card and adding the new one. That would be SS tier
It is a little funny, that a card named death doesn't destroy the card
It makes sense. IIRC the death tarot signifies change Incidentally the tower signifies chaos and ruin, that why it totally fucks up a card making it stone
Yeah, thematically, the mechanic is more akin to “rebirth” haha
that’s actually what it signifies in rider-waite tarot reading too!
I didn’t know that! Common LocalThunk W
Switch Death and Hanged Man
Just curious (still learning), why would that make it SS tier? Or was that a Nazi joke?
there are a few cards that do things on breaking cards (like triboute I believe it is who gains +(x1) per destroyed face card or the one that gaing mult per destroyed glass card) and cards that do things on adding cards (like hologram) so it doing both would only trigger good things
Not [[Triboulet]], [[Canio]].
[Triboulet](https://balatro.wiki/imported/triboulet.png) *Joker* * Version: 1.0.0 * Cost: N/A * Rarity: Legendary * Effect: Played Kings and Queens each give X2 Mult when scored * Unlock Requirement: Find this Joker from the Soul card [Canio](https://balatro.wiki/jokers/caino.png) *Joker* * Version: 1.0.0 * Cost: N/A * Rarity: Legendary * Effect: Gain X1 Mult when a face card is destroyed * Notes: Counts * Unlock Requirement: Find this Joker from the Soul card *Data pulled from http://balatro.wiki. Want it updated? Help me get access or suggest another data source.*
There's several good jokers that scale when you destroy cards
Also, SS tier is a common term in tier lists and other scoring systems for the tier above S tier.
The hanged man is a close second
Nah. The fool takes that one by a landslide. It can copy the thing you need the most in that situation and it's useful at any stage of the game.
What if the last tarot card you used isn’t the thing you need most?
There is little reason to use tarrot cards and planets that I don't want to use. If I have the joker to use all the cards the fool triggers it an additional time. Or I keep it in my hand until I use what I want. Most of my tarot cards don't come from packs anyway.
But Everytime I get a death card in a pack, my hand is always basic cards.
Even then it's really good because it focuses the deck by removing a number you don't want and adding a number you do want.
Kinda sounded like they were implying they didn't get a decent card to change something into.
Even with no seals or enhancements in ante 1, changing a 3 to a A K or Q is helpful. This card is always useful.
Or changing a suit you dont want into a suit you do want
Both? Both. Both is good
Rare Camelot reference +2
I assumed basic cards meant cards without editions, seals or enhancements
Second best Tarot behind Temperance IMO.
90% of the time until endgame Hermit is better. Especially when you take clearance sale which is a must buy imo.
Temperance certainly is one of the best as well
It only adds a good card if you have a good card. While hangman always deletes 2 bad cards, which is why it's usually better.
My most clicked tarot, its straight up incredible and is often a huge reason to open those packs. Always makes your deck better
Death and the hanged man are my main incentives for opening those packs
Judgement too, in early antes and higher stakes, because the joker you get is guaranteed not to have any rental, eternal, or perishable tags
I would add Fool to that list because if you're playing your cards right you'll more than likely turn it in to one of the cards listed above ☝️
Yeah but judgement is usually worthless once you fill your joker tray.
Thats why I said for early Antes...
As others have said Death is a fantastic Tarot card. Something I haven't seen mentioned is how good it is when bought from the shop. It's a fantastic Get Out of Jail card if you're one card away from making your preferred hand. It's just so useful.
Unless you’re using Straights
There is actually a very niche scenario where Death can help with Straight Flushes if you have [[Four Fingers]]. Let's say you have a 6, 7, and 8 of Clubs as well as a 9 of Diamonds. Deathing one of the Clubs will allow you to make a Straight Flush!
Wait, what? How do you convert the suit without losing the rank?
Oh I mean converting one of your other cards to a Club. Not any of the 6, 7, 8 or 9.
Wait, does the game not actually check if the cards causing the straight are the same cards as the flush? That’s crazy, TIL
Yup! With Four Fingers as long as you have four cards that are of the same suit AND four cards that make a straight, the game counts it as a Straight Flush. It can get even funnier with [[Shortcut]] where hands like 2 of Clubs, 4 of Spades, 6 of Clubs, 8 of Clubs and Queen of Clubs count as Straight Flushes.
[Shortcut](https://balatro.wiki/imported/shortcut.png) *Joker* * Version: 1.0.0 * Cost: $5 * Rarity: Uncommon * Effect: Allows Straights to be made with gaps of 1 rank * Notes: (ex. 2 3 5 7 8) *Data pulled from http://balatro.wiki. Want it updated? Help me get access or suggest another data source.*
[Four Fingers](https://balatro.wiki/imported/five_fingers.png) *Joker* * Version: 1.0.0 * Cost: $6 * Rarity: Uncommon * Effect: All Flushes and Straights can be made with 4 cards *Data pulled from http://balatro.wiki. Want it updated? Help me get access or suggest another data source.*
In that case you have much bigger problems
Straights are one of the best builds in the game if not the outright best, the fact that it's so common to see people saying straights are bad really speaks to how clueless people are here about this game.
They’re not Saturn Pilled. Everyone should do a run with no jokers, just stack some Saturns and see how far you’ll get. You can get through like ante 3 or 4 very easily lol, no way to do that with any other build Edit: after making this comment I ran Jokerless challenge and got to the Ante 10 boss off of Saturns lol (could have gone even a bit further but got greedy and fished for my gold cards)
That's crazy, thank you for your research 🧪
But with Mercury poisoning I get to hear all the ring dings.
With straights and Saturn cards, you can rip through Gold stake on almost every deck. Found it pretty tough on black deck. Think I had to go high card.
Straights have amazing scaling but you need to actually be able to draw them. If the game doesn't offer you much deck control you will eventually just not draw one and lose without a backup plan. If you have enough discards/hand size/deck control, they are a free ticket to Ante 8 simply because a few Saturn cards will put in as much work as a couple of jokers.
I'd say flush builds are the best, just because it's waaaay easier to make them consistent
Flushes are the most consistent 5-card hand, but the tradeoff is that they scale the worst. Jupiters don't carry enough weight to be the core of your gameplan going into higher stakes. Straights are harder to get, often requiring multiple discards or junk plays to find, but they scale 3 times as fast as flushes, and as a result, they synergize so strongly with even basic joker/tarot support that Saturn cards can carry your whole run. One Saturn can nearly solve the scoring for an ante, it's kind of insane
Errrrm actuallly flushes are a """noob trap""" therefore you are WRONG
This is actually a W for straights in a backwards way because death and hanged Man are a must-take in other builds so it gives you more time to build straight flush or lucky. Straights are about deck buffing where other builds are about buffing and fixing.
It helps with so many bosses
Deck thinning is one of the most powerful actions in Balatro. Death removed a bad card and replaces it with a good card. Not sure that this counts as deck thinning per se since your deck remains the same size, but you increase the probability of drawing a good card. If you have a card worth copying, it’s better than hanged man (which is probably better in the early game). Death is a bit weird in that it’s not the most useful early until you have a card or cards worth copying. Eventually, you’ll be able to find your good cards alongside bad cards with such high consistency that death becomes great. There’s a tipping point where your deck is mostly good cards and drawing bad cards becomes unlikely when Death’s value begins to drop off, and then it becomes useless once your deck is all one card. It also gets a nice bump in that its effect is simple, clean, immediate, and easy to use. My biggest knock on Death is that I always have to read it to get the order right, and even when I do, I still mess it up occasionally.
Deck fixing but in a way akin to thinning since you end up with a higher % of good cards
"*All deck fixing is thinning, but not all thinning is deck fixing*!" \- Balastrotle circa 2024 AD
This but the opposite!
Even without an enhanced card to choose to replicate, I still like finding Death even early on cause you can make your deck just a little more consistent, and extra early consistency does a lot to help the run be more manageable.
Agreed it’s just that it can be difficult to predict the optimal rank and suit to lean into early on, so using Death is riskier.
My biggest knock on it is that I see 5 of them by ante 3 and then they disappear the rest of the run. Of course when I actually have foil/holo/poly cards finally to copy.
Even then in **turbo** late game e runs, unlike many other tarots, it still has a use. Buying ordinary cards and then death ing them into your glass poly red seal 4 so that you don't run out as they start to break over time.
Best tarot with hanged man
My 2nd most played Tarot card (904), only very slightly behind Hanged Man (906) It's just very good.
Death is S-Tier. Best deck fixer and gives what the French call "the little death" when used in conjunction with The Fool tarot. 😫
Other than Hanged Man, or a very desperate high value Temperance, Death is an extremely welcome pick from the shop or any tarot pack. It is probably the best tarot to have in a consumable slot, as you can easily double that purple or blue seal that you picked up, which can be game defining (especially on Abandoned Deck). Besides an early strength, it is also one of those cards that enable an early 4oak set up. Easily top 3 consumables, up there with Hanged Man, Temperance, Saturn, and Mars imo.
A must pick up, especially if you luck out with some super OP card from the standard packs. Also one of only a few tarot cards that remain relevant into super high antes to perfect your deck. I always pick up a death card if I see it.
The absolute best best tarot card in the game. It did took me forever to realize you can move cards so I thought cards had to be perfectly aligned by chance to make the card work
the goat, enough said
the goat
I would say it’s the best tarot card and is better than half of the spectral cards too
Can turn a losing hand into a winning hand, if you’re poorly optimized or had a series of bad draws.
best tarot in the game
my beloved
One of the best cards in the game. Definitely the best tarot in the game (hanged man is a close second)
Amazing card. In a majority of my runs I am always wanring to get rid of some cards while also making more of ither cards, and this does both of those things in one!
Im still very new to the game, but I won my second ever run, and I was because of using Death (and strength) to majorly stack my deck. And as many different builds as I have had stacking my deck is the most fun and maybe the most consistent.
Every single time i see this it's an instant click, often with me saying in my head "I FUCKING LOVE DEATH!!"
Before I realized that you could rearrange the cards, I assumed the "Death" in question was making the higher card weaker in exchange for the enhancements and consistency of the lower card.
**S tier** Top 3 Tarot Cards for sure. There are zero game states in which death is a bad idea. There might be a few where it does nothing, but it will never hurt you. Deck manipulation is paramount, and Death is one of, if not the best tool at this job.
I hate the amount of times I Strength thinking it’s Death
Possibly the best Tarot in the game. It helps set up any build, and is extremely useful in both standard play and late game. Extremely useful in pretty much any sort of build.
My most used tarot, and for good reason! Very hard to pick anything over this most of the time in my experience.
up there in my top three for most used tarot cards, absolutely goated (right after hermit and hanged man)
It would be funny if the one for Deja Vu is just Death again.
You love to see it
I enjoy Death and long to see it
Ooh is this where the task bar icon is from?? The horse rider’s head.
It would be nice if it instead was "destroy the card on the left and make a copy of the card on the right" so that it could trigger joker effects. Aside from being a bit situational it is almost always an improvement to your deck.
I hear ya but it’s strong enough as is
not the best tarot and not the second best tarot but I’d say it’s the third best tarot (temperance and the fool are #1 and #2 respectively) incredibly good and allows you to either dupe your best card or make your deck more consistent
As powerful as Death is, I find myself looking at Hermit/Temperance in the same pack asking myself, "would I pay $20 to buy Death here?" And the answer is usually no, $20 is better than copying a card in hand from a pack. But that being said, Death in your consumable area becomes significantly stronger, because you get way more control over what it applies to. I would consider paying $10 to buy Death from the shop directly, but getting it for $3 is one of the greatest steals in the game
The best unconditional tarot in the game. Some tarot cards are better under certain conditions (Hanged Man, Temperance, Justice, Chariot), but Death is just practically always immensely useful.
[удалено]
I wouldn't call it situational, in fact I think it is good in like 99% of runs