There’s no “correct” way to play Balatro. But there are fundamental strategies that can help you navigate the many micro-decisions you’ll be making during your runs. The very first decision you’ll be making — assuming you have them all unlocked — is which deck to build your game-plan around. Each deck comes with their own ups and downs and unique ways of carrying you through the higher antes. Whether you’re new to Balatro and trying it out on mobile or the game has had its hooks in you since its initial release in February, here are some sure-fire ways to complete runs with all 15 decks.
Unlock Condition:
There is none. This is the default starting deck.
Effect:
This deck contains the usual 52 cards and gives players +1 discard every round.
Strategy:
The extra discard, while helpful, isn’t amazing. The Red Deck is generic enough that a basic game plan of building your economy to $25 as fast as possible — to start earning $5 interest every round — is a solid start. Then it’s time to start spending responsibly, keeping an eye out for a Joker that scales +Chips and +Mult like Fortune Teller or Supernova. During the mid-to-late game, like with most decks, you should have at least one xMult Joker.
Build around whatever hands make sense with the early Jokers offered to you, but keep in mind the extra discard does make it easier to find your high scoring hands like Straights and Full Houses.
Downsides:
The deck’s +1 discard gets hard countered when facing The Water Boss Blind.
Unlock condition:
This is the first deck players will unlock as it becomes available after discovering 20 items — Tags, Vouchers or Jokers — from your collection.
Effect:
The Blue Deck gives players +1 hand every round.
Strategy:
The good ol’ trusty Blue Deck is a consistent and reliable deck. It builds economy in the early game as the extra hand every round means you’re also earning an extra dollar per round at minimum. During the mid-game you should already be in the progress of scaling up +Mult Jokers like the Green Joker which likes it when you have more hands to work with. The extra hand is also one more chance at life in dire, late-game situations.
Downsides:
Without strong Jokers in place that rely on playing more hands to scale (Square Joker, Castle, Spare Trousers), this deck can run out of steam by Ante 4. The Needle, which forces you to play only one hand, a Boss Blind we definitely don’t want to face with the Blue Deck.
Synergies:
Merry Andy and Stuntman are great Joker picks because the Blue Deck mitigates their -1 and -2 hand size effect. Card Sharp is more likely to trigger with the Blue Deck. Sixth Sense and DNA are better too, as it feels less bad to waste a hand on their single card requirement.
Unlock condition:
Discover at least 50 items from your collection.
Effect:
Players start with an extra $10 at the start of a run.
Strategy:
Save, save and save your money. More money means more strength, which can snowball into massive value later on. If the early tags offer financial rewards, skip them. The Yellow Deck makes it easier to reach $25 faster, and players shouldn’t let their economy dip below that amount once they get there. Treat $25 as there new $0 and you’ll be earning an extra $5 per round. Once you’ve got a healthy amount of cash stick to purchasing Jokers, Vouchers and Rerolls.
Downsides:
It’s hard to find something bad to say about this deck. Who doesn’t love free money?
Synergies:
Watch your bankroll grow even larger through interest by buying To the Moon, the Golden Joker and the Seed Money Voucher. Bootstraps can be a reliable way to grow your flat +Mult score and the same goes for the Bull Joker for Chips.
Unlock condition:
The Green Deck is unlocked after players discover at least 75 items from their collection.
Effect:
The Green Deck doesn’t earn interest but provides $2 for every remaining hand and $1 for every remaining discard at the end of the round.
Strategy:
The Green Deck teaches you how important conserving your hands and discards can be, because without accumulating interest, it’s how you get a good economic engine going. Players should focus on one-hand knockouts that can score big like Flushes, Straights and Full Houses. They’ll leave you with more hands left over to earn money with. You’ll be balling in the early game but make sure you’re optimizing and thinning your deck around a specific hand by using Tarot cards to survive the higher antes, where you’ll have to use more hands and discards.
Downsides:
Several Jokers, including Mystic Summit, Burnt Joker, Dusk and Acrobat all become a lot worse with the Green Deck. Castle becomes a problem to use efficiently and should also be avoided.
Synergies:
Jokers like Burglar, Merry Andy or Drunkard and Vouchers like Grabber and Wasteful can boost your earnings by giving you more hands and discards. The Green Deck incentivizes players to spend all their money in the shop, making the Vagabond another great Joker to combo with.
Unlock condition:
After discovering at least 100 items from your collection, the Black Deck becomes unlocked.
Effect:
This deck might be the hardest one to win with as it offers +1 Joker slot but also -1 hand every round.
Strategy:
Pray the Grabber Voucher spawns to make up for this deck’s evil nature. Minus one hand every round is terrible but having an extra Joker can help set up some tighter synergies and shenanigans with Jokers you might typically ignore like Oops All 6s. Ignore Celestial and Tarot Cards in most cases and focus on Rerolls and Jokers that buff or are buffed by other Jokers. If a blind offers a Negative tag, skip it to boost your Joker count further and make them even stronger.
Downsides:
This deck’s built-in downside makes it hard to grow your economy, which generally requires finishing rounds with more hands.
Synergies:
While 6 Jokers is no joke, consider rocking only the Joker Stencil instead and focusing on upgrading your hands with Celestial and Tarot cards to earn an easy x6 Mult. Burglar can also make the Black Deck less painful because it offers +3 hands at the cost of all your discards. Mr. Bones may be your biggest friend as he can save you from death if you satisfy his score requirement, and trust me you’ll be dying a lot!
Unlock condition:
Win a run with the Red Deck on any difficulty.
Effect:
The Magic Deck gives the player the Crystal Ball voucher and 2 copies of The Fool at the start of the run.
Strategy:
The two extra Fools can make up for the bad luck of not getting a good Joker on your first shop.
Consider using both on a good Tarot or Planet card. The Hermit for example can double your money twice for a quick infusion of cash. Alternatively, if you want to specialize in a certain hand, the triple level up on most Planet cards can carry you out of the early stages while setting you up for long-term value in the late game.
Downsides:
The first Shops need to offer strong Tarot cards to make the most of your extra Fools and if they don’t, this deck struggles.
Synergies:
Grab Jokers that benefit from the extra consumable slot earned from the free Crystal Ball Voucher. Cartomancer, 8 Ball, Vagabond, Superposition and Hallucination all create Tarot cards under certain conditions. Séance and Sixth Sense create Spectral cards and you want to make sure you have room for them. If Certificate gives you cards with a Purple or Blue Seal, they become easier to use with a Magic Deck.
Unlock condition:
Win a run with the Blue Deck on any difficulty.
Effect:
Players start the run with the Telescope voucher but lose one consumable slot.
Strategy:
The Nebula Deck is a reasonably good deck if you’re building around one specific hand. The free Telescope voucher allows you to reliably level up whatever hand you’re building around because it ensures that Celestial Packs always contain the Planet card for your most played hand. Straights are likely your best hand to build around, as they one of the strongest 5-card hands in the late game.
Downsides:
Depending on the hand, long-term scaling may be difficult and not worth the early stage upside it initially offered. The -1 consumable slot makes many Jokers difficult to synergize with including Vagabond, Red Card and Certificate. It also makes the Observatory Voucher much worse.
Synergies:
Constellation, Satellite and Astronomer are the best Jokers to pair with the Nebula Deck because as their names suggest, they all care about Planet cards. The Crystal Ball voucher gets around the deck’s downside.
Unlock condition:
Win a run with the Yellow Deck on any difficulty.
Effect:
With the Ghost Deck players start with a free Hex Spectral Card, and all Spectral Cards except for The Soul and Black Hole have a chance of appearing in the Shop.
Strategy:
The first shop is crucial with the Ghost Deck. The free Hex card adds Polychrome (x1.5 Mult) to a random Joker while destroying all the others. You should use the Hex card as soon as you find a good Joker that you plan on keeping all game long. There’s no shame in resetting the game until you see a really strong Joker to upgrade after the first run.
Spectral cards can drastically change your strategy and lead to explosively broken runs so avoid specializing in a specific hand early on. Leaving your options open until a Deja Vu, Cryptid or Aura card shows up in the Shop. You’ll be in a better position to pivot and build around a single, powerful Joker.
Downsides:
Whiffing on a good Joker early. It also feels bad to destroy good Jokers with Hex if you were forced to wait to use it.
Synergies:
One extremely effective strategy is saving a Deja Vu in the consumable slot until you buy a Baron Joker. Then you can slap a Red Seal onto one of your Kings and begin constructing a deck that is full of Kings for a ridiculous amount of x1.5 multipliers.
Unlock condition:
The Abandoned Deck is unlocked after winning a run with the Green Deck on any difficulty.
Effect:
The Abandoned Deck is a pre-thinned 40-card deck that doesn’t have any face cards.
Strategy:
Removing cards from your deck is valuable in Balatro and the Abandoned Deck comes with 12 removals for free! With fewer cards right out the gate, players can plan around much more consistent strategies. Abandoned Deck players will find it much easier to set up Straights and even hit Three-of-a-Kinds, Four-of-a-Kinds and Full Houses much more often. No face cards also means we are never afraid of facing the Mark and the Plant Boss Blinds.
Downsides:
The lack of face cards can sometimes work against you as it’s harder to get chip values and rack up points, especially in the early game when beating blinds in one hand is important for jumpstarting your economy and getting good Jokers.
Synergies:
Getting the Ride the Bus Joker — especially early — turns the lack of face cards into a serious benefit. Scale it up all game long without any concern of it resetting. Wee Joker, Fibonacci and Scholar are also Jokers you’d love to invite to the party.
Unlock condition:
Win a run with the Black Deck on any difficulty.
Effect:
The Checkered Deck doesn’t feature any Clubs or Diamonds. Players start their run with 26 Spades and 26 Hearts in a deck that seems to be inspired by a red and black Checkers board.
Strategy:
The Checkered Deck is flush with Flushes in Balatro. With only Hearts and Spades in your deck, Flushes and Straight Flushes are much easier to accomplish. If you’ve got a Joker that boosts your hand size, you’re almost always bound to hit a flush. But players should also invest in backup hands like Straights or Four-of-a-Kind because Flushes can fall off quickly against some of the higher blinds in the later antes.
Downsides:
Getting half of your deck neutered by The Goad and The Head Boss Blinds. The deck can also feel a little one-note with its focus on Flushes.
Synergies:
You’ll absolutely need Jokers to boost your Mult score like Card Sharp which provides x3 Mult when a specific hand is played again in the same round, or The Tribe which provides x2 Mult when a Flush is played. Bloodstone is good too because it makes Heart cards have a 50% chance of gaining x1.5 Mult when scored as well as Arrowhead which provides +50 chips when Spade cards are scored. Free Spectral cards are easier to earn with Séance which needs a Straight Flush to be played while Four Fingers and Shortcut can make it even easier to build that hand.
Unlock condition:
Win a run with any deck on the Red Stake difficulty of higher.
Effect:
Players start the run with Tarot Merchant, Planet Merchant and the Overstock Vouchers.
Strategy:
With the starting Vouchers providing an extra card slot in the shop and Planet and Tarot cards appearing 2x as frequently, players see more things in the shop but they are less likely to be Jokers. Hold onto specific Tarot and Planet cards in your consumable slot to either upgrade a hand mid-round, or prevent copies of those cards from appearing in the Shop.
Downsides:
Fewer Jokers in the shop can make the early-rounds tough.
Synergies:
Focus on Jokers that care about Tarot cards like Fortune Teller, Driver’s License and Vampire, as well as ones that care about Planet cards such as Constellation, Satellite and Astronomer. Players are also more likely to see the Temperance Tarot card which will increase the sell price of the Egg Joker and make the Gift Card Joker even stronger. Campfire is easier to upgrade for higher xMults by selling cards.
Unlock condition:
Win a run with any deck on the Green Stake difficulty of harder.
Effect:
The Painted Deck provides +2 default hand size but -1 Joker slot.
Strategy:
The Painted Deck is a great deck during the early antes as it essentially comes with a free Troubadour. Players can cruise through the early rounds by taking advantage of those larger hands to find Flushes. But because Flushes don’t scale well, don’t go all-in on them and play your Straights and Full Houses which really shine here. These hands score big and are much easier to find thanks to the deck’s ability.
Aggressively crack open Spectral Packs or use Spectral skip tags to turn a Joker negative with Ectoplasm to counter the -1 Joker slot downside. You can also use the Ouija Spectral card with more confidence.
Downsides:
High Card and Two Pair builds are clunky because they don’t take advantage of the deck’s larger hand size. The -1 Joker slot starts to feel particularly painful after Ante 4 and on higher-stakes where Eternal Jokers show up.
Synergies:
The bigger hand size means you are seeing more cards, so lean on Jokers that care about having specific cards like Mime, Shoot the Moon, Baron and Reserved Parking.
The Stuntman Joker also has his -2 hand size downside negated with the Painted Deck.
Unlock condition:
The Anaglyph Deck becomes available once you win a run with any deck on the Black Stake difficulty or harder.
Effect:
With the Anaglyph Deck, each time you defeat a Boss Blind, you are rewarded with a free Double Tag, which gives you a copy of the next Tag selected.
Strategy:
If you’re planning a run around skipping certain Small and Big Blinds, consider the Anaglyph Deck to reap some potentially big rewards. It’s a high-risk, high-reward type of deck because it all depends on what kind of tags are offered to you. Doubling up on the Negative tag will offer you two extra Joker slots, if you can afford them, while copying the Investment Tag can net you a free $50 after defeating the next Boss Blind. The Double Tags keep stacking until you skip a blind, even after you defeat the Boss Blind. That makes saving them until you come across an Ethereal Tag an extremely powerful strategy. If timed correctly, skipping an Ethereal Tag can earn you several free Spectral Packs, which contain some of the most potent effects in the game, including the chance to earn a Legendary Joker.
Saving your Double Tags until you see an Orbital tag to skip can be an impressive way to massively boost a specific poker hand and essentially decide your strategy for you.
Downsides:
You won’t always be offered the perfect skippable tag. The Anaglyph Deck is also weak alongside scalable Jokers like Ride the Bus, Runner, Hiker, Green Joker, Madness, Obelisk, Fortune Teller and Square Joker, because they all require you to actually beat the blinds in order to remain effective in the late game.
Synergies:
The Throwback Joker is a no-brainer because it cares about skipping blinds. Diet Cola is nice too because it helps you build a bigger stockpile of tags.
Unlock condition:
Win a run with any deck on the Blue Stake difficulty of harder.
Effect:
The Plasma Deck has a unique design in that it changes how your hand score is calculated by averaging together total Chips and total Mult before they get multiplied. This will give you a much higher score which is why the deck also doubles the size of the blinds you have to beat.
Strategy:
More than any other deck, the Plasma Deck lets you blow past the early rounds because of how overvalued the early Chip generators are. This gets you through Ante 1 with a lot of money and ideally some decent Jokers to boost your Chips with. Card modifiers like Bonus Cards (obtained with The Hierophant Tarot Card), Foil Cards and the Red Seal are also worth paying for.
Downsides:
Chip generators don’t scale well in the late game so a purchasing pivot is required.
After Ante 4, like with most decks, you still need a source of xMult because despite the deck’s gimmick, it remains the fastest way to force a high score. Vampire and Driver’s License are great xMult sources when you’ve spent the game adding Enhanced Cards to your deck for those early Chip bonuses.
Synergies:
If players can get a high Chip generating Jokers like Sly Joker, Wily Joker, Clever Joker, Devious Joker, or Crafty Joker and build around those relevant hands, it becomes easier to survive some of the most annoying Boss Blinds like The Wall. Stuntman is incredibly powerful because it gives +250 Chips and doesn’t need time to scale.
Unlock condition:
Win a run with any deck in the Orange Stake difficulty or higher.
Effect:
This deck has 52 cards but the suits and ranks are completely randomized.
Strategy:
The Erratic Deck can be hit or miss but overall it’s a strong deck. It has some of the similar advantages that Abandoned Deck has with the downside of being a little less reliable. Players should always check the full deck list before buying any Jokers or upgrades to get a sense of what hands to prioritize. Double check it every time you are considering what to discard as well.
If your deck lists contains more cards with one or two suits, consider a Flush strategy.
However if your deck lists gives you say 22 Sixes then obviously go all-in on a Three, Four, or Five-of-a-Kind strategy and enjoy the warmth of the flames. The Erratic Deck can allow for some truly insane builds while giving players the opportunity to develop a Joker strategy early and invest in strengthening it throughout the run.
Downsides:
The deck is generally bad for hitting Straights, a hand that’s best suited in a deck with an even distribution of numbered and face cards. It’s also the most RNG-dependent deck.
Synergies:
With the ranks and suits different each run, there are no clear synergies that apply to every player’s experience with the Erratic Deck.
Read the full article here
