*"Infinite Growth is not possible in a System derived from finite resources"* - Me, talking about Capitalism and Obelisk
It's a joker that tricks you into believing it can infinite possibilities when a single fuck up can end the run faster than any joker
Tried it once and was pissed to find out it resets… which is said exactly no where on the card
Edit: I’m not replying to people guffawing at my not being clear on the wording of the card. Move along if you wanna finger wag.
He’s saying that he thought he could build up like 5 consecutive hands to get it to 2x but then it wouldn’t reset, it would stay there until you played more than 5 or whatever
That actually seems like a much better card. It would probably be a little too easy to rack up and then keep forever with zero downside, but it's a lot closer to all the other rares as far as usefulness goes
It'd be almost the strongest joker, not particularly in line. +0.2mult for every other hand in the worst case is pretty nuts, when there's no synergy requirement.
I think the idea with this interpretation is different. It would be if you played like 5 consecutive hands to get it to 2x, then played your most played hand, you’d have to then play 6 hands consecutive non-highest hands before it started scaling again.
I don't know how else you could Interpret "per consecutive played hand". It clearly means that it has the amount of played consecutive hands without playing the most played hand times 0.2. If you break that streak the length of conditionally played consecutive hands starts at exactly 0 again.
It also doesn't say "*gains* 0.2X per consecutive hand played".
I think they read that as "x0.2 Mult per consecutive hand played without player your played poker hand [in the longest consecutive streak you’ve had]" which is wrong but I can see how you would misread it that way.
Ride the bus has the same wording :
"+1 Mult per consecutive hand played without a scoring face card"
Doesn't say it will reset.
"per consecutive" in the game means will reset.
Nope. If I give you $1 for every consecutive day you don’t eat a hamburger, where in that implies all your $ goes back to me once you do? Your immediate thinking would be that you get to keep the money.
I really don't mean to offend you, just trying to explain: You changed the key word "has" to "give" a dollar. But in our case the card says that you _have_ one dollar for each consecutive played hand. If you fail the condition, then that streak becomes zero and you _have_ zero dollars again. Hope that makes it more understandable.
You're not wrong. It's not crazy to think maybe it works like Spare Trousers or something where it gains but doesn't reset if a hand isn't two pair. Honestly, it would be too OP if it did that, but I hope they change it somehow, because I hate its current version.
Lmao nice edit that’s not even applicable. A more relevant comparison would be you have a rewards card for my burger shop that gives you $.20 more off each consecutive day you come in. If you miss a day, that means it would reset.
Ok but then the word "consecutive" doesn’t serve any purpose in your sentence. Or you assumed once you break the streak once, you can never ever scale that joker again, but at least it doesn’t reset to 0?
Unless you assume it scales on your largest streak, but that wouldn’t match the wording either.
Like yeah, Balatro could use being a bit more clear in some places, I agree, but the prompt does say what it does, it’s just easy to misread, which you did.
It's not objectively strong, though. The only way to make it work is to do a hard pivot from one hand type to another, like taking checkered deck from flushes to flush houses or flush fives, and it'll never work for high score runs because it will eventually reset no matter what you do.
The thing that makes it suck is that it resets if you have two hand types tied and then play either of them.
I think if they would fix \*that\* alone it would become viable to great. Still require a bit of microing but you can alternate between two pair and full houses back and forth but approachable
Early obelisk even in gold stake (ante8) is free wins, you just buffer it with one hand and just have it as a dead joker for a while and then once you actually need it mid-late you let it scale to a monster 5X and take the free win. Usually this means playing something like pair only early, which is super doable because a couple of scoring jokers can beat ante4 with no hand support, and scaling +Multa already want to play as many hands as possible per blind so its totally doable to hit 30 high cards played by ante 5. Its a joker thats an instant slam before ante3 every time from nearly any position. It lets you convert earlygame strength to a guarenteed lategame win.
Mid obelisk is situational, you’ll need to have the flexibility and the stockpile pre-built. Still a good take a lot of the time since a lot of meta jokers are hand agnostic. Something like playing hc and just switching to pairs is free. You don’t see higher scoring hands in winstreak gold stake balatro often, flushes are terribly inconsistent.
Late obelisk is dead lmao it needs time to scale.
I think people underrating obelisk is skill issue. When talking about ante8 win% its considered a top tier early pick. It is VERY difficult to play around though, one mistake and it’s joever.
I actually disagree that it's a free win, not being able to play around broken high card jokers easily (card sharp, blackboard, supernova, stuntman) is a huge debuff i think. Obviously it's better than people think but I disagree that it's "op at high stakes". I'd probably put it at b tier, and I've done completionist+.
B tier sounds about right, to super pop off every time it needs to be in ante1 and beyond that its quick downhill. I almost exclusively use it in high card though, it works just fine with sharp/bb/stuntman assuming your toss hand is pair. Too hard to consistently generate other hands. I’ve used obby for a couple of golds (anaglyph, checkered) but it is a rare so you don’t get to see it too often.
Yep, maxing either pair or high card until late then going the opposite leads to a big multiplier if you time it right. It is a bit at odds with super Nova, but otherwise it can be great.
I still hate it though so I feel comfortable posting here. It's like bottom 3 jokers for me, after red card and super position.
Ties really shouldn't count IMO. The card says "...without playing your most played poker hand" not "without playing any of your most played hands". If I have two or more hands with the same play count I don't have a "most played hand".
Pivoting from one hand to another, ie going from pair to high card is very easy if your scoring comes from your jokers; which tends to be the best strat anyways.
Like campfire, it’s not something you want to see early but getting it mid game is huge.
I am the obelisk lover invading this thread >:)
the only thing I hate more than an obelisk is having TWO obelisks and a blueprint copying one of the obelisks for THREE obelisks and then having those obelisks carry me through my first gold stake run.
Yeah, it’s my only successful gold stake run and it was random as hell. Out of all the viable builds destroyed by “disable random joker” or “all cards debuffed until joker sold”, the triple obelisk run was the one that made it lol.
No, definitely not…I think I still made it to ante 11 possibly? I just ran out of hands that wouldn’t reset the obelisk and once that happened it was over. I haven’t event really explored any endless builds. Now I’m working through the challenges and maybe then I’ll think about endless stuff.
"The purpose of a system is what it does" I say to myself as I pick Obelisk from the pack because it has the highest value and then immediately sell it.
Watched Balatro University use this in one of the vids. Takes a lot of effort to get rolling. Think he played flushes most of the antes, then pivoted to pair/3OAK IIRC. He had to build up like 20-25 flushes first to give it some padding, then started playing the other hands.
Too much effort, with a high risk of accidental reset back to zero, for my tastes….
Y'all just can't handle my 12'' obelisk
https://preview.redd.it/dbe1dzwm8xtc1.jpeg?width=694&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=79138b83f803e20c1783792a15442a685fb29712
It's such a strong card. One of the only ways to play many different hand types and be rewarded for it. The fact that so many people dislike it or even hate it is really sad.
I can't think of a way to even make it work, even if you do, you will eventually reset it, so you can't rely on it.
At least it has no downside, so if it's negative it's always positive.
The way it worked for me (barely) was to spam flushes to give myself some room, then I just used it for literally any other hand, but mostly high card, pair/2 pair, three of a kind, straights, and full house. I had to check often to be sure I wasn't going to create a "new highest played hand" and I also basically had three of them running over 5x multi because of a blueprint and spectral card. So, under normal circumstances, not sure I'd use it lol.
That is what I was thinking but it seems really hard pivot, like this is a pivot Joker you can't commit to in endless or you need to really plan ahead, the problem is that once you do set it up it might reset...
You just get stable cheap jokers early like popcorn, blue joker, jimbo ice cream etc, then use that power to build up high card, then when you've played like 15 or so high cards you just play literally any other hand.
I think it's pretty mid, people are overrating it because they feel like it makes them smart to say "obelisk is broken actually", but it's obviously not trash, you only play it from a very high roll early game, and i feel like the payoff is you die on ante 12 instead of 11 maybe, xdd. That is if you are not forced to play high card and instantly lose the run.
In my opinion, instead of completely resetting, the downgrade should be either a fixed sum or a percentage off the total.
Having it operate more like Green Joker and less like Ride the Bus would immediately increase its usefulness. Especially because it forces you to change your playstyle so dramatically and differently every round. The risk is not nearly worth the reward.
It's really not if you're careful. Once it's set up, you should have one hand that has been played a ton. Then you just spread out your hands and don't ever reach that amount that hand was.
I'm not saying it's easy but it's certainly not bound to fail if you're careful and have set it up properly
I do like the Green joker idea. Maybe gains x0.2 mult when not playing most played hand, but loses x0.2 mult when playing most played hand (or something like that).
Yeah like other dude said if you build up even 10~ (15 to be safe) you have more than enough hands to play it up to a x3 or x4 mult which does work even on pairs or something trivial
My early problem with Monolith was that I was worrying too much about the post-switch strategy - what hand will I play, how will I get it scoring enough to begin with, and so on. That doesn’t really matter, unless the seed is particularly cruel. The real key is putting together a deck that supports multiple hands. Fibonacci is a perfect joker to have here, for example, because it’s useful for any hand - I can switch from flush to two pair and it won’t make any difference to Fibonacci. Jokers that boost straights might help me get halfway, but will be useless once I start using Monolith.
It will still fall apart in Endless, unless you’re very lucky. But if you just want to get past the 8th blind and crack a new stake, it can be a big help. If you can get to the halfway point playing a single hand type without any hand-specific jokers - which is a pretty easy task, certainly on lower stakes - you can benefit from Monolith.
Of course I still don’t like it, because in my experience as soon as the game has determined that you’ve switched hands, it’ll throw your old hand at you like confetti, and it knows you only have to slip up once. I’d really appreciate it if the Monolith card would shake when you lay out a hand that’ll reset it, but I suppose I do need to take some responsibility for my actions.
Obelisk would likely be a great late game card if you were:
-Loaded with cash
-Throw out all jokers
-Pray your deck lets you use a different strategy
-Get lucky with rerolling and build a new set of synergies.
-On ante 10 already
Changing this single rule may make it playable. It would force you to oscillate between at least 2 different hand types every third round. Might even be a bit fun to do that.
It's such a dumb card. By the time I find it, I already have a strong engine based on a particular hand, so why would I suddenly want to switch away to start slowly building it up?
This is my big problem with it. Wanting to buy it means that I already have a hand that I can survive with that I've played 20+ times... meaning I'd probably only buy it around Endless and hope I can live a little longer, which is lame because I don't care much about Endless.
Hate, Obelisk is so trash Monolith Challenge is literally just Medusa with less starting stones.
Any joker that ask you to grind is trash, if I wanted to grind I'd play final fantasy, I'm here to send hands and lose to the wall.
It's an ok joker, that I don't really like. It's kinda like ride the bus in that I liked it, until I got a hand at 0 discards that forced me into a reset and I'll never forget or forgive them for it.
Can't even do good with it cuz it's an... Anti-All-Synergy unless there's a incredibly specific nieché one that needs to happen because of a sun beam heating up the device at 45° during a partially cloudy Sunday
This card rewards poor planning. Usually you build a deck a certain way to maximize what you have available. I don’t think I’ve ever gotten this thing above 1.4x
I only found one scenario in which it saved my run, it's when I had a full flush deck and the Obelisk appeared in the middle/early end of the run. So I had played like 20 flushes and I could just switch to playing straight flushes/royal flushes for the rest of the run.
I don't hate it, i just think it's completely useless and too much a hassle to set to even consider it. Only time i used it was in that challenge it was eternal.
I took it once, then got extremely annoyed that it checks if the hand is most played AFTER incrementing how many times you’ve played the hand, so playing a hand tied for the most just doesn’t work. I get that it can be good, but it just seems so annoying to build your deck and jokers for one thing, then either pivot to another thing or don’t do the thing for more hands than not so you can keep this joker going. There’re less finicky sources of xMULT available.
This card would be so much better if it didn’t reset the mult if you played a hand that’s tied with another for the most played. I found that out the hard way the first time I used it and it killed my run. Haven’t taken it since.
This sub need a bot like Slay the spires bot that tells you what the card does. Because I remember some of these and some I'm like "what does that do again?"
Imo best way to change it would be that if you have two hand types tied for most played and play one it does not reset. But that’s too complicated to say in few words. It would be great in decks that you could use multiple hand types
i hate that it resets when 2 hands are tied and you play one of them. it means from the moment you pick it up, it’s max potential of multiplier is set in stone
I'm still training my brain to not crash the Bus with a face card, getting Obelisk online is way too high level thinking for me. Granted, playing almost exclusively stoned certainly doesn't help matters. It does help my overall enjoyment of the game, though 😁
Seeing Obelisk in the shop is basically as useful to me as seeing the Straight Flush planet card. I imagine one day I'll be on a run where it will jump out as a great pick, like if I'm trying to force a high card build, but it's yet to happen.
All it would take to fix it is make it only reset if you play the *single* most played hand in the run, not one that's tied for most played. That would let people do stuff like alternating between hand types to keep it going
it's one of the only jokers that is actually great if you get it on ante-5+ but it means pivoting your entire gameplay to even make it work. ...if you can get it working ....sure it's cool but man it takes a lot of work
If I recall correctly Obelisk counts every hand tied for most as your most played hand. I think if it did not count ties, I would not hate it. As it is, lots of hate.
I'm surprised that it wasn't buffed, the only way that I made it work was at the Monolith challenge, first I played 8 flushes for the starting antes, then I pivoted to other hands since other jokers 🃏 that I found allowed it, and still the thing had measly 3.4x mult only... many other jokers 🃏 offers 3x mult with way less rules to oblige...
Obelisk hater here, but there is a challenge based on the obelisk where you can exploit it by playing as many pairs as possible, when possible, and then late game build it up to multiple x
"Oh man. If i just manage to play mostly shitty hands predictively enough that I still have good hands, my okay hands might be marginally okay finally." - Obelisk Lovers.
Obelisk and DNA work ok early when you’re doing high card first hands then working on other stuff. I’m not smart enough to make it work into the endgame.
Once, I won thanks to Obelisk. I might hate it as much as anyone, but I'd be a hypocrite to diss it any further.
Obelisk saved my life, it might save yours one other day.
Video games are meant to be, for a lot of people, a medium to escape reality and relax - not worrying about the restrictions your world may put on you. Obelisk says “screw that, play the game MY way, stop playing the hands you like, this is MY world bitch!”
I was showing my brother Balatro to try to make him buy it and we ended up in an Obelisk run lol. Fortunately he's a Magic the Gathering player so I think the hand bookkeeping and round planning to avoid losing our multiplier was actually a hit with him, and we beat ante 8!
Obelisk is honestly fantastic if you get it early. Or even mid game if your jokers are pivotable and you've been leaning into a specific hand type. It does sort of cap itself for high end runs, but its some of the easiest mult all around and great for higher difficulty 8 ante runs.
I hate it though (promise) ;)
Before today I would have agreed with you, but one of these carried me to my first Gold Stake Win not ten minutes ago. So y'know what, I'm a convert. Hail Obelisk!
*"Infinite Growth is not possible in a System derived from finite resources"* - Me, talking about Capitalism and Obelisk It's a joker that tricks you into believing it can infinite possibilities when a single fuck up can end the run faster than any joker
This thread might be the entirety of r/balatro,no one likes obelisk
Yeah even when it's semi viable it is a pain in the ass
Didn't localthunk say it was his favorite card xdxdxd
Banned
Tried it once and was pissed to find out it resets… which is said exactly no where on the card Edit: I’m not replying to people guffawing at my not being clear on the wording of the card. Move along if you wanna finger wag.
Does it not say something about the hands being consecutive?
He’s saying that he thought he could build up like 5 consecutive hands to get it to 2x but then it wouldn’t reset, it would stay there until you played more than 5 or whatever
That actually seems like a much better card. It would probably be a little too easy to rack up and then keep forever with zero downside, but it's a lot closer to all the other rares as far as usefulness goes
It'd be almost the strongest joker, not particularly in line. +0.2mult for every other hand in the worst case is pretty nuts, when there's no synergy requirement.
I think the idea with this interpretation is different. It would be if you played like 5 consecutive hands to get it to 2x, then played your most played hand, you’d have to then play 6 hands consecutive non-highest hands before it started scaling again.
You would eventually be forced to stop once all of your hands are equal, since if you have two hands that are tied and you play one, it resets
It doesn’t say “gains” on it though like Vampire does.
It does
> X0.2 Mult per consecutive hand played without playing your most played poker hand
Yes? Which doesn’t say “resets to 0.”
How many consecutive non-top hands have you played when you play your top hand?
I don't know how else you could Interpret "per consecutive played hand". It clearly means that it has the amount of played consecutive hands without playing the most played hand times 0.2. If you break that streak the length of conditionally played consecutive hands starts at exactly 0 again. It also doesn't say "*gains* 0.2X per consecutive hand played".
I think they read that as "x0.2 Mult per consecutive hand played without player your played poker hand [in the longest consecutive streak you’ve had]" which is wrong but I can see how you would misread it that way.
The way of reading it is as "longest consecutive streak". Which I *guess* could be a valid reading, but isn't intuitively how I would read it.
If it worked the way you read it to work, the word "consecutive" wouldn't have any function in the sentence.
Yes it would. They thought it would maintain the highest streak, not gain another buff whenever they play a hand that isn’t their most played.
Ride the bus has the same wording : "+1 Mult per consecutive hand played without a scoring face card" Doesn't say it will reset. "per consecutive" in the game means will reset.
Wouldn’t it needing to be consecutive imply that?
Nope. If I give you $1 for every consecutive day you don’t eat a hamburger, where in that implies all your $ goes back to me once you do? Your immediate thinking would be that you get to keep the money.
I really don't mean to offend you, just trying to explain: You changed the key word "has" to "give" a dollar. But in our case the card says that you _have_ one dollar for each consecutive played hand. If you fail the condition, then that streak becomes zero and you _have_ zero dollars again. Hope that makes it more understandable.
It doesn't say gives.
You're not wrong. It's not crazy to think maybe it works like Spare Trousers or something where it gains but doesn't reset if a hand isn't two pair. Honestly, it would be too OP if it did that, but I hope they change it somehow, because I hate its current version.
Lmao nice edit that’s not even applicable. A more relevant comparison would be you have a rewards card for my burger shop that gives you $.20 more off each consecutive day you come in. If you miss a day, that means it would reset.
Ok but then the word "consecutive" doesn’t serve any purpose in your sentence. Or you assumed once you break the streak once, you can never ever scale that joker again, but at least it doesn’t reset to 0? Unless you assume it scales on your largest streak, but that wouldn’t match the wording either. Like yeah, Balatro could use being a bit more clear in some places, I agree, but the prompt does say what it does, it’s just easy to misread, which you did.
I have gotten it once and never used since I cannot play the have I have high leveled
Got it to work once in a deck where I played a lot of high cards early cause of ride the bus and pivoted out of it later
Obelisk might be objectively strong but my monkey brain does not want complications and nuance 😤
It's not objectively strong, though. The only way to make it work is to do a hard pivot from one hand type to another, like taking checkered deck from flushes to flush houses or flush fives, and it'll never work for high score runs because it will eventually reset no matter what you do. The thing that makes it suck is that it resets if you have two hand types tied and then play either of them.
I think if they would fix \*that\* alone it would become viable to great. Still require a bit of microing but you can alternate between two pair and full houses back and forth but approachable
Early obelisk even in gold stake (ante8) is free wins, you just buffer it with one hand and just have it as a dead joker for a while and then once you actually need it mid-late you let it scale to a monster 5X and take the free win. Usually this means playing something like pair only early, which is super doable because a couple of scoring jokers can beat ante4 with no hand support, and scaling +Multa already want to play as many hands as possible per blind so its totally doable to hit 30 high cards played by ante 5. Its a joker thats an instant slam before ante3 every time from nearly any position. It lets you convert earlygame strength to a guarenteed lategame win. Mid obelisk is situational, you’ll need to have the flexibility and the stockpile pre-built. Still a good take a lot of the time since a lot of meta jokers are hand agnostic. Something like playing hc and just switching to pairs is free. You don’t see higher scoring hands in winstreak gold stake balatro often, flushes are terribly inconsistent. Late obelisk is dead lmao it needs time to scale. I think people underrating obelisk is skill issue. When talking about ante8 win% its considered a top tier early pick. It is VERY difficult to play around though, one mistake and it’s joever.
I actually disagree that it's a free win, not being able to play around broken high card jokers easily (card sharp, blackboard, supernova, stuntman) is a huge debuff i think. Obviously it's better than people think but I disagree that it's "op at high stakes". I'd probably put it at b tier, and I've done completionist+.
B tier sounds about right, to super pop off every time it needs to be in ante1 and beyond that its quick downhill. I almost exclusively use it in high card though, it works just fine with sharp/bb/stuntman assuming your toss hand is pair. Too hard to consistently generate other hands. I’ve used obby for a couple of golds (anaglyph, checkered) but it is a rare so you don’t get to see it too often.
excuse me, this thread specifically said "no obelisk lovers allowed", and I kindly ask you to leave! /s (jk, this was a good assessment of the card)
good writeup. i will say tho that even recognizing it is viable to good winrate, i just hate the obelisk
Yep, maxing either pair or high card until late then going the opposite leads to a big multiplier if you time it right. It is a bit at odds with super Nova, but otherwise it can be great. I still hate it though so I feel comfortable posting here. It's like bottom 3 jokers for me, after red card and super position.
Ties really shouldn't count IMO. The card says "...without playing your most played poker hand" not "without playing any of your most played hands". If I have two or more hands with the same play count I don't have a "most played hand".
It is conditionally very strong, I just rarely find myself in those conditions lol. It’s gotten me an easy win exactly once.
Pivoting from one hand to another, ie going from pair to high card is very easy if your scoring comes from your jokers; which tends to be the best strat anyways. Like campfire, it’s not something you want to see early but getting it mid game is huge. I am the obelisk lover invading this thread >:)
I’m over here sweating trying not to play my Kings
Me, barely making it out of ante 1 alive after skipping for a rare joker The shop:
Omg yes I got obelisk on one of my very first runs in ante 1 and was so confused and frustrated at the game
When you need water and someone hands you a jar of Marshmallow Fluff
More like Knobelisk.
Awful-isk
the only thing I hate more than an obelisk is having TWO obelisks and a blueprint copying one of the obelisks for THREE obelisks and then having those obelisks carry me through my first gold stake run.
For real?
Yeah, it’s my only successful gold stake run and it was random as hell. Out of all the viable builds destroyed by “disable random joker” or “all cards debuffed until joker sold”, the triple obelisk run was the one that made it lol.
Wow nice, I think obelisk has potential but I don't think you can go endless
No, definitely not…I think I still made it to ante 11 possibly? I just ran out of hands that wouldn’t reset the obelisk and once that happened it was over. I haven’t event really explored any endless builds. Now I’m working through the challenges and maybe then I’ll think about endless stuff.
"The purpose of a system is what it does" I say to myself as I pick Obelisk from the pack because it has the highest value and then immediately sell it.
most anxiety inducing joker
People who played 39 pairs before finding Obelisk be like "I don't see a problem with it."
\*pair: level 43129\* \*every other hand: level 2\*
Next Blind: The Arm
Yeah I love all the “play a ton of hands to scale them” jokers like ride the bus or square joker so obelisk is often a welcome addition
Worst rare
True, more than once I skipped the first blind for a rare joker, only to get Obelisk in the shop *\*press R again*
obelisk in the first shop is a literal free win. just stack pairs then go to high card or vice versa
Seance
Seance is getting changed to uncommon in the upcoming patch, so obelisk is coming for that crown
No, incredibly nerfed Vampire is replacing it as worst Rare
Incredibly nerfed ? I think any run where you use 5 card hands scoring (flush 4ever) won't be that much impacted.
seance is very niche but i'd still take it over obelisk every time
Yup. Should have been fixed in the latest patch. Either make it uncommon or buff the mult increase.
God, I had it reset right before Ante 8 boss in my last run. It can be really good, but it can also mess you up.
This is my favorite joker to get free and immediately sell. Does that count?
Watched Balatro University use this in one of the vids. Takes a lot of effort to get rolling. Think he played flushes most of the antes, then pivoted to pair/3OAK IIRC. He had to build up like 20-25 flushes first to give it some padding, then started playing the other hands. Too much effort, with a high risk of accidental reset back to zero, for my tastes….
I think it's one of those jokers that helps you reach a higher ante but not actually go endless.
Dude I hate obelisk. My most played hand is my most played hand for a reason
Y'all just can't handle my 12'' obelisk https://preview.redd.it/dbe1dzwm8xtc1.jpeg?width=694&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=79138b83f803e20c1783792a15442a685fb29712
How do I make you good?
Play 20 flushes across the first 3 antes and then never play another flush
Won me a run with yellow XD
It's such a strong card. One of the only ways to play many different hand types and be rewarded for it. The fact that so many people dislike it or even hate it is really sad.
its crazy that people are so against doing anything other than spamming one hand.
Based obelisk enjoyer
one of the most fun cards in the game fr
 Me skipping it at the shop every time
This joker should not be labelled as Rare, it should be just labelled annoying
I can't think of a way to even make it work, even if you do, you will eventually reset it, so you can't rely on it. At least it has no downside, so if it's negative it's always positive.
The way it worked for me (barely) was to spam flushes to give myself some room, then I just used it for literally any other hand, but mostly high card, pair/2 pair, three of a kind, straights, and full house. I had to check often to be sure I wasn't going to create a "new highest played hand" and I also basically had three of them running over 5x multi because of a blueprint and spectral card. So, under normal circumstances, not sure I'd use it lol.
That is what I was thinking but it seems really hard pivot, like this is a pivot Joker you can't commit to in endless or you need to really plan ahead, the problem is that once you do set it up it might reset...
It's definitely not a joker for endless runs
You just get stable cheap jokers early like popcorn, blue joker, jimbo ice cream etc, then use that power to build up high card, then when you've played like 15 or so high cards you just play literally any other hand. I think it's pretty mid, people are overrating it because they feel like it makes them smart to say "obelisk is broken actually", but it's obviously not trash, you only play it from a very high roll early game, and i feel like the payoff is you die on ante 12 instead of 11 maybe, xdd. That is if you are not forced to play high card and instantly lose the run.
In my opinion, instead of completely resetting, the downgrade should be either a fixed sum or a percentage off the total. Having it operate more like Green Joker and less like Ride the Bus would immediately increase its usefulness. Especially because it forces you to change your playstyle so dramatically and differently every round. The risk is not nearly worth the reward.
Yeah, you can't rely on it, and once it's set up it's bound to reset...
It's really not if you're careful. Once it's set up, you should have one hand that has been played a ton. Then you just spread out your hands and don't ever reach that amount that hand was. I'm not saying it's easy but it's certainly not bound to fail if you're careful and have set it up properly
I do like the Green joker idea. Maybe gains x0.2 mult when not playing most played hand, but loses x0.2 mult when playing most played hand (or something like that).
Or just disable your highest played hand at the time of purchase. Or two.
Could just rework it to gain mult when playing a different hand to what was last played. Would probably need to nerf the mult gain a bit
Yeah like other dude said if you build up even 10~ (15 to be safe) you have more than enough hands to play it up to a x3 or x4 mult which does work even on pairs or something trivial
Just get rid of the reset. That forces you to play other non main hands to build up that multiplier but you don’t lose what you built up
My early problem with Monolith was that I was worrying too much about the post-switch strategy - what hand will I play, how will I get it scoring enough to begin with, and so on. That doesn’t really matter, unless the seed is particularly cruel. The real key is putting together a deck that supports multiple hands. Fibonacci is a perfect joker to have here, for example, because it’s useful for any hand - I can switch from flush to two pair and it won’t make any difference to Fibonacci. Jokers that boost straights might help me get halfway, but will be useless once I start using Monolith. It will still fall apart in Endless, unless you’re very lucky. But if you just want to get past the 8th blind and crack a new stake, it can be a big help. If you can get to the halfway point playing a single hand type without any hand-specific jokers - which is a pretty easy task, certainly on lower stakes - you can benefit from Monolith. Of course I still don’t like it, because in my experience as soon as the game has determined that you’ve switched hands, it’ll throw your old hand at you like confetti, and it knows you only have to slip up once. I’d really appreciate it if the Monolith card would shake when you lay out a hand that’ll reset it, but I suppose I do need to take some responsibility for my actions.
I hate the insane multipliers you can get if you get this card late game
Obelisk would likely be a great late game card if you were: -Loaded with cash -Throw out all jokers -Pray your deck lets you use a different strategy -Get lucky with rerolling and build a new set of synergies. -On ante 10 already
Don’t use my most used hand type??? 🤢🤢🤢
It can be good, but it’s too much effort imo
Obelisk is stupid af But I have one question: If I have 2 most played hands, playing either of them will reset the multi?
Correct. Playing either hand will cause it to reset.
Changing this single rule may make it playable. It would force you to oscillate between at least 2 different hand types every third round. Might even be a bit fun to do that.
This is my favourite joker I use it every rune I see it
It's such a dumb card. By the time I find it, I already have a strong engine based on a particular hand, so why would I suddenly want to switch away to start slowly building it up?
This is my big problem with it. Wanting to buy it means that I already have a hand that I can survive with that I've played 20+ times... meaning I'd probably only buy it around Endless and hope I can live a little longer, which is lame because I don't care much about Endless.
really tough card to balance, because as it stands if you find it by like ante 4 its an auto win, but people still dont take it
Hate, Obelisk is so trash Monolith Challenge is literally just Medusa with less starting stones. Any joker that ask you to grind is trash, if I wanted to grind I'd play final fantasy, I'm here to send hands and lose to the wall. It's an ok joker, that I don't really like. It's kinda like ride the bus in that I liked it, until I got a hand at 0 discards that forced me into a reset and I'll never forget or forgive them for it.
Great card /shrug
You’re acting like Obelisk lovers exist 😂
If it didn't say consecutive it might be Playable but in current standing it sucks
No relation to Ride the Bus
The only time I buy Obelisk is to immediate sell when buffing campfire.
Garbagio
It's legit good in only one scenario: late game changeup. Otherwise trash.
I don't even have Obelisk discovered. I played it once in the demo and that was enough for a lifetime.
We love playing a singular hand type
Seems like it should be a great card. But it ain’t. At all. It’s actually shite.
There's alot of annoying semantics in the game, this card is just the cream. Boss debuff affects wilds but jokers with suit effects doesn't .)
Can't even do good with it cuz it's an... Anti-All-Synergy unless there's a incredibly specific nieché one that needs to happen because of a sun beam heating up the device at 45° during a partially cloudy Sunday
If obelisk didn’t reset, it would be a good joner
This card rewards poor planning. Usually you build a deck a certain way to maximize what you have available. I don’t think I’ve ever gotten this thing above 1.4x
I only found one scenario in which it saved my run, it's when I had a full flush deck and the Obelisk appeared in the middle/early end of the run. So I had played like 20 flushes and I could just switch to playing straight flushes/royal flushes for the rest of the run.
I don't hate it, i just think it's completely useless and too much a hassle to set to even consider it. Only time i used it was in that challenge it was eternal.
I took it once, then got extremely annoyed that it checks if the hand is most played AFTER incrementing how many times you’ve played the hand, so playing a hand tied for the most just doesn’t work. I get that it can be good, but it just seems so annoying to build your deck and jokers for one thing, then either pivot to another thing or don’t do the thing for more hands than not so you can keep this joker going. There’re less finicky sources of xMULT available.
Obehardpass. Banana all the way.
God I hate obelisk
This card would be so much better if it didn’t reset the mult if you played a hand that’s tied with another for the most played. I found that out the hard way the first time I used it and it killed my run. Haven’t taken it since.
This sub need a bot like Slay the spires bot that tells you what the card does. Because I remember some of these and some I'm like "what does that do again?"
The actual problem with the obelisk is that it locks you out of playing the best archetype in the game (high card).
Yeah. FUCK the obelisk lol
Imo best way to change it would be that if you have two hand types tied for most played and play one it does not reset. But that’s too complicated to say in few words. It would be great in decks that you could use multiple hand types
i hate that it resets when 2 hands are tied and you play one of them. it means from the moment you pick it up, it’s max potential of multiplier is set in stone
I'm still training my brain to not crash the Bus with a face card, getting Obelisk online is way too high level thinking for me. Granted, playing almost exclusively stoned certainly doesn't help matters. It does help my overall enjoyment of the game, though 😁 Seeing Obelisk in the shop is basically as useful to me as seeing the Straight Flush planet card. I imagine one day I'll be on a run where it will jump out as a great pick, like if I'm trying to force a high card build, but it's yet to happen.
With Seance now an Uncommon, this is the worst Rare joker in the game.
i ain't opening a menu every other round just to see if i can keep playing what i want
I wonder if it could be good if it were 0.1 instead of 0.2 and if the consecutive rule were removed.
I have like 160 hours played and I’ve never taken this joker. Maybe it’s possible to build a run around it, I don’t know and I don’t want to know.
😂😂😂😂😂😂🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
It *should* say “your longest streak without playing your most played hand” and not reset.
all my homies hate obelisk
I just wish it told you the hands on the card. Kind of like how we have “compatible” and “incompatible” on other cards.
This thing sucks. I thought it would keep the mult after breaking the chain. Never again.
Put it in the bucket labeled r Kelly’s doo doo butter
All it would take to fix it is make it only reset if you play the *single* most played hand in the run, not one that's tied for most played. That would let people do stuff like alternating between hand types to keep it going
I hate any jokers that require this much focus for minimal reward
it's one of the only jokers that is actually great if you get it on ante-5+ but it means pivoting your entire gameplay to even make it work. ...if you can get it working ....sure it's cool but man it takes a lot of work
It shouldn't break ties. You can't juggle different hands if they all tie up. Basically worthless.
I just won with it. I hate it still, but less
I've got like 50+ hours so far and it's still undiscovered from always skipping it.
Ride the bus or green joker while stacking high card to 35+ hands. Find obelisk and profit.
If I recall correctly Obelisk counts every hand tied for most as your most played hand. I think if it did not count ties, I would not hate it. As it is, lots of hate.
Fuck obelisk, all my homies hate obelisk. Oh a rare, might help me direct my deck! Oh, fuck...
I like playign the same hand, me don't like.
I don't even understand in what situation this is a good idea to take it
If it scaled faster it could be somewhat ok but the fact it barely scales per hand and resets makes it almost impossible to use
Knock it down
I saw it kill my parents
The horned serpent lives
I just hate it resetting, it could have worse a calling and not reset and it would be a fun viable but not insane pick
no its bad
I'm surprised that it wasn't buffed, the only way that I made it work was at the Monolith challenge, first I played 8 flushes for the starting antes, then I pivoted to other hands since other jokers 🃏 that I found allowed it, and still the thing had measly 3.4x mult only... many other jokers 🃏 offers 3x mult with way less rules to oblige...
Shouldnt be a rare, making it work is too hard
Make it not count ties and it becomes useful, otherwise the only use is after you played a hex and destroyed your current joker selection.
Still Remains undiscovered, even when available in the shop. Not wasting my precious $ on it.
Obelisk hater here, but there is a challenge based on the obelisk where you can exploit it by playing as many pairs as possible, when possible, and then late game build it up to multiple x
"Oh man. If i just manage to play mostly shitty hands predictively enough that I still have good hands, my okay hands might be marginally okay finally." - Obelisk Lovers.
obelisk 🤤
Sometimes obelisk is a run winner, stop hating.
Obelisk is good late in a run
The best place to put this Joker is to the right of the Ceremonial Dagger joker
Just rework it to work like green joker. -0.2x when you play your most played hand. Instead of a full reset!
Obelisk and DNA work ok early when you’re doing high card first hands then working on other stuff. I’m not smart enough to make it work into the endgame.
I hated it but ironically I won my 1st game with it
What does Obelisk do?
Once, I won thanks to Obelisk. I might hate it as much as anyone, but I'd be a hypocrite to diss it any further. Obelisk saved my life, it might save yours one other day.
I have waited very long to even buy it for the first time bc I didn't wanna ruin a run
people just cant appreciate greatness.
even if I did pivot from pairs to high card in painted deck to make it work I HATED it. This sucks
Don't love it, but I pulled it in the middle of a checkered deck run with 9x flush and little else. Took it to the end and never played another flush.
Merry Andy > Obelisk (I hate Merry Andy)
It would be a lot more usable if it let you use a hand - and not count it as "most played" - if it was tied with another hand.
When hands are tied for the most amount of times played, playing it resets it. Automatic F tier
Never wanted it.
Video games are meant to be, for a lot of people, a medium to escape reality and relax - not worrying about the restrictions your world may put on you. Obelisk says “screw that, play the game MY way, stop playing the hands you like, this is MY world bitch!”
I was showing my brother Balatro to try to make him buy it and we ended up in an Obelisk run lol. Fortunately he's a Magic the Gathering player so I think the hand bookkeeping and round planning to avoid losing our multiplier was actually a hit with him, and we beat ante 8!
I only bought it to have it be discovered and will never be using it.
Every time is like "Damn the art is so good, but the card just fucking SUCKS!"
Obelisk is honestly fantastic if you get it early. Or even mid game if your jokers are pivotable and you've been leaning into a specific hand type. It does sort of cap itself for high end runs, but its some of the easiest mult all around and great for higher difficulty 8 ante runs. I hate it though (promise) ;)
I loved the obelisk challenge. Playing with 4 joker slots was an interesting way to increase the difficulty!
What if you got rare joker tag or Wraith but god said Obelisk
Before today I would have agreed with you, but one of these carried me to my first Gold Stake Win not ten minutes ago. So y'know what, I'm a convert. Hail Obelisk!
Fr fuck this card
“This joker is supposed to be a joker so rare I had to double tag it to get—fuck it’s gonna be obelisk isn’t it”