The Best Cards To Destroy In Balatro

Summary

• Glass cards are fragile and disposable, with a low chance of self-destruction and limited benefits.
• Sixes can be exchanged for spectral cards, offering potentially powerful synergies in certain rounds.
• Face cards offer high scores, but be open to prioritizing high-value cards and special jokers over weaker ones.

Balatro is all about playing cards and achieving the highest round scores possible through careful modifier selection and precise combinations. However, sometimes sacrifices have to be made in order to take down the boss blinds and progress through the higher antes.

There aren’t an overwhelming number of card destroyers at the player’s disposal, and therefore, each decision has to be calculated and directed towards the correct target in order to tailor a deck in the most efficient way possible. Sometimes, it is as simple as removing an individual card, and other times, entire numbers have to be wiped from the run in the place of a more consistent and powerful deck. With that in mind, these are the most consistently beneficial cards to destroy in Balatro.

8

Glass Cards

See Right Through It

If there is any card that should always be on the chopping block, it’s the glass cards. Fragile as they are futile, after each score, there is a one in four chance that the card will be destroyed. Whether it’s a high-value face card or a lowly two, it’s completely gone from the deck.

Though they do come with a handy x2 multiplier, it’s not a big enough incentive to keep these cards around. There are a few exceptions to this rule, one being the glass joker, which gains a multiplier for each glass card destroyed, either by another card or from disintegrating of its own accord, but in most other cases, these are the cards to burn.

7

Sixes

The Devil’s Favourite

The six is a middling card that is useful for many straight-hands, being almost at the center of the suits. However, the destruction value comes from a specific synergy with the Sixth Sense. This card benefits players by granting them a Spectral card in exchange for destroying a six. The condition is that the first hand of a round must contain a single six, so some risk is needed for the reward.

Spectral cards can be incredibly powerful, and even grant access to even further card destruction with big-time card removers like Immolate. However, if there isn’t a great incentive to keep them around, a six is never a bad card to throwaway.

6

Gros Michel

Absolutely Bananas

Slippery and nutritious, this banana-shaped joker has some serious power but won’t stick around forever. Holding a +15 multiplier has to come with a drawback, that being that there is a one in six chance for the card to be destroyed every round. This destruction cannot be forced, as if it is, the Joker will simply return to the pool and make its twin inaccessible.

Holding Gros Michel for long enough will surely end in its demise, but it’s not all bad news. Once it self-destructs, Cavendish enters the shop pool, and despite having a downgraded x3 multiplier, it still makes it an incredibly strong common Joker to pick up, even if it’s a weaker shadow of its brother.

5

Face Cards

All The Kings And Queens

If the run gets off to a good start and the modifiers for the royals start rolling in, why not cast aside the stragglers? There are plenty of incentives to buffing high-scoring face cards and, when combined with something like the Trading Card, allows the player to generate some income by disposing of the lower-value cards.

Destroying face cards is very dependent on the run. In general, it is a good idea to keep as wide and broad a deck as possible, focusing on straights and flushes and potential large face-card hands. However, if the run is leaning more towards the digits, destroying the queens will never let the player down.

4

Sevens

Lucky Number Seven

No synergies. No Fancy Jokers. Seven is just average in every way. Aside from a few general Jokers affecting entire suits or specific types of numbers, there isn’t one that directly interacts with the number seven. Traditionally in gambling settings and other well-known card games, a triple seven spells jackpot, not pot luck, but as always, Balatro tips convention on its head and forces new creative ways of succeeding in a run.

Although sevens are a key component in several straights, there are far more important cards when it comes to constructing high-scoring hands of that kind, like a ten or a five. So, if worse comes to worst, players shouldn’t feel bad for cutting a few from the deck.

3

Weak Jokers

It Hurts To Say Goodbye

It says it all on the tin. Destruction should be reserved for the weakest links, and if it comes down to making space for some more powerful Jokers to come, sometimes burning a few weaker Jokers is the best course of action.

Madness brings this to another level, allowing the player to randomly destroy Jokers with each small and big blind selection. The randomness does pose some issues, but early on, weak Jokers like Clever Joker can be pushed aside and buff the multiplier. What’s more, the focus will always be on non-eternal Jokers if eternal ones are present, giving a bit more control in spite of the randomness.

2

Non-Face Cards

God Save The Kings

This one hurts and comes with a caveat. Face cards are the high scorers, the high base chip numbers that can send players over thresholds in just a few short hands. But the Canio Joker changes the game from holding onto the power of royalty to overthrowing them, boosting the multiplier by x1 each time a face card is destroyed.

Cards like the Hanged Man accelerate the multiplication process, boosting it to an immediate x3, and any further destruction continues the growth and creates a monstrous clown that can solo win runs with its immense power. Thankfully, players can pick up some extra Jokers for the boss stages at no risk of Canio being destroyed, whether powerful or a throwaway.

1

Twos

When All Else Fails

The other end of the scale, two cards are the lowest value and one of the least useful cards to have lying around. Getting rid of them is a great choice and frees up the deck for plenty of great combinations, like Odd Todd, shifting the attention to odd cards, which becomes easier when there are fewer useless twos.

It can be good to stay optimistic about the state of the run, but if the scales start tipping in a certain direction, abandon two cards and focus on high scores that are built around face cards and flush combinations.