**Battle Royale - The Manacle: round 3**

[ionic sundial]

You're playing Red Stake on Red Deck, and you're approaching The Manacle on Ante 1. So now you can pick one Joker!

[gleaming ore]

fib

[sand dome]

i fear fib will win this even though half is the answer and its hardly close

[gleaming ore]

half is a short term answer

fib is very very unlikely to fail

with 4 discards

[sand dome]

half joker one shots manacle with a 9 pair (fib needs a two pair to one shot), is 3 dollars cheaper, and easily sets you up to play 3oak or more likely pair for the rest of the run

youre pretty likely to hit a fib two pair with 4 discards but it being manacle makes it somewhat feasible to miss which is not at all true of half joker's six possible pairs

and the extra 3 dollars spent puts you on the backfoot immediately for ante 2 anyway

[gleaming ore]

since prices aren't mentioned I kinda assume you choose from a pack

[sand dome]

that wouldn't change my answer but is a fair point, it isn't specified whether this is pack or shop

[gleaming ore]

but ig if you have to buy from shop then half is probably a bit better

I think long term fib lets you survive longer

It's 40 mult at its best, which on red stake isn't impossible

and pair builds are kinda boring

[sand dome]

to get +40 consistently youd either have to play around 5oak/flush5 (infeasible to decide building around with no deck enabling ante 1), flush (for which would either need to be very lucky or do very superflous deck manip), or full house (lol)

[plucky gust]

tbf the original prompt was to “ensure you defeat it”

Fib is stronger but Half is much more consistent to win on Manacle

[sand dome]

i mean if you lose to an ante 1 boss with either of these idk what to tell you

[plucky gust]

Like you’ll win with fib 99.9% of the time but with half 100%

[gleaming ore]

ig if goal is to win 1 specific boss then yes

[sand dome]

yeah half joker can just play three high cards and win

absolute worst case

[plucky gust]

Maybe you get fib and all of the synergy is in the bottom 20 cards of the deck

[sand dome]

i mean even then you get your deck down to 24/52 with just your four discards

so im pretty sure its for real impossible to not have a winning draw by your third hand

maybe if you draw like one of each of A/2/3/5/8 and get baited into using your discards to draw less cards

but even then the chances you dont at least draw into a winning flush are insanely low

[gleaming ore]

the real true answer is jolly joker

[sand dome]

we counted him out too soon

hes $3 man...

[plucky gust]

$3 and you can skip for a rare joker next shop

And not lock yourself into pairs right away

[cedar sandal]

fibonacci team

fibonacci bueno

[plucky gust]

Fibonacci is my favorite joker but it’s not the winner here imo

[west sable]

if it was "i had to beat THIS blind only" then half joker

if it was "i MUST use this joker for the blinds right after," then fibonacci

in this case, since it's the former, i have to go with half joker

[cedar sandal]

oh, then yeah half jonkler it is

[west sable]

also, you can techinally lose with half joker, playing four high card 2's would only give you 588 chips

playing a single 3 would make you win at 609 points minimum

[ancient citrus]

I'm takin that fibonacci because the assumption is that after beating ante 1 you are going to keep playing

And fibo gives me something to build around

[plucky gust]

lmao

you can also lose with half joker by selling it

[desert scaffold]

Half joker is easily better to guarantee the win on the boss but long term fib is better

Though half joker enables lobotomy so it gives you more direction and winning sooner and more consistentcy is still better

[gritty quartz]

Fibonacci because it carries into later antes

You dont need much mult to win ante 1 boss

[gritty quartz]

Im actually surprised half is getting so many more votes

[plucky gust]

I think everyone who wanted fib for long term half for short term are picking half now

It’s a bit different when you can have two and two are clearly better

[gritty quartz]

Isnt fibo just better though

The goal isnt to win by a bunch its just to win

8 mult is plenty for ante 1 boss

A single 5 card hand with 1 fibo card easily wins

And fibo scores before stuff like steel and glass making it way more valuable in the long term

Plus fibo doesnt lock you into 3 different hand types

In most cases you’d just end up selling half joker a few antes later

[gleaming ore]

there isn't too much context, but seems like it's more of a "ensure you win this exact boss"

and half joker guarantees that unless you like sell it or play 2s only

I'm all for fib long term, but changed vote to half

[gritty quartz]

I feel like it’d be kinda silly if this was just to ensure you win this one boss

Because then half is just such an obvious choice

[sand dome]

half and fib winrates vs any ante 1 boss should always be 100%

maybe fib is like 95% vs hook

[gritty quartz]

Yeah

[ancient citrus]

what's hook again?

[sand dome]

discard 2 random cards every hand played

[ancient citrus]

eh you've got 4 hands to play and I'm pretty sure even like 2 high card fibo triggers will just about clear the boss

[gritty quartz]

You also cant lose with half joker because a hc 2 gives 357 chips

[ancient citrus]

yeah half joker is the foolproof win

[gritty quartz]

Im just considering late game personally

[sand dome]

i agree that just interpreting it as beating manacle is pretty silly

so im considering a whole run

and my answer is half still

[gritty quartz]

How come

[sand dome]

i just dont particularly respect fib as a buildaround, the two hands it works best for (5oak and full house) are a pain to set up and 40 mult isn't really enough to make that setup worth in my eyes

half joker gives you a way more consistent early-midgame gameplan to find a proper buildaround and honestly is at least decently respectable endgame too

i respect fib a lot more as tempo but half joker is king of tempo

[gritty quartz]

I guess that makes sense

[ancient citrus]

Yeah that's fair