Espresso Shot, Rare
"+0 hand size. Increase handsize by 1 if 4 or less cards remain in hand at end of round. Resets if handsize is above 10."
#Espresso Shot
cinder trellis
foggy granite
ectoplasm:
pastel storm
ABOVE ten? Is it even possible to do that using this without getting down to your last few cards in the deck?
Plus this just completely invalidates all handsize minus effects assuming you aren’t an idiot about it
bleak torrent
What do you mean that there are only 18 cards in hand, the deck has 52. Though yeah this is utterly broken
Considering that the next best option is troubador for +2 hand size and it has a downside is crazy.
This is just play 5 card hands for 10 rounds and then stop.
Edit: I misread everything.
pastel storm
The best comparison power wise would be bean and that literally kills itself after five rounds
bleak torrent
Wait, nevermind I just realized, it isn't that unbalanced at all
Having 4 cards held in hand becomes very difficult with high hand size
pastel storm
Yeah so you can’t make it go above ten to reset
bleak torrent
I see you original point now
pastel storm
Which is negating the downside
bleak torrent
I don't know why the ten reset is even there, it just adds confusion. Edit: I misread as a cap of +10 hand size instead of 10 hand size.
pastel storm
Having 4 cards held in hand becomes very difficult with high hand size
You still get infinite ectoplasm usage though since you can literally go into the negatives without this and it’d keep you from dying
-15 Base + 25 Espresso = 10, still alive
There is no world in which this ever resets so there’s basically zero downsides and this is a straight upgrade to every other method of obtaining hand size
bleak torrent
Perhaps to trigger it, you need to play a straight or some other condition that gets progressively hard to do with reduced hand size. I think that makes it more interesting as it becomes harder to get back up when you negate hand size reductions and it makes the hand size cap make more sense. In an ante 8 run you are getting at most 5 free ectos out of this, which also requires you to find those 5 ectos after getting this joker. You also can never sell this, so it is more like 4 ectos that you actually get. That might be overly strong but as a rare, it really isn't that broken. The hand size it resets to could also be reduced to 9 or even 8 though I think 8 is too far.
cinder trellis
Perhaps to trigger it, you need to play a straight or some other condition that ...
8 being the rest threshold makes this literally useless on its own
The minute you increase from base, itd reset to 8 handsize
cinder trellis
I don't know why the ten reset is even there, it just adds confusion. Edit: I mi...
It was originally "if hand contains more than four cards" but I felt it went on too long
Let's say it resets at 10 handsize.
Thats 10 TOTAL handsize, not 10 increases from this joker
Though I think I should change it to "if handsize is equal or above 10"
My only idea to balance this more fairly would be to make this "final hand of round" so you MUST win using your last hand of round
Also, this is finite ectoplasm; no matter how far you scale this, you'll either reset it (hitting 10 via removing a card from hand before playing like Hanged Man) or will die from the tenth Ecto (the max you can use is 9 since after that you'll either reset the handsize or hit 0 handsize, both killing you)
cinder trellis
There is no world in which this ever resets so there’s basically zero downsides ...
Except it requires scaling, doesn't work with smaller hands, can be reset with other handsize jokers, doesn't work on a certain deck :)
Lmk if I misunderstood any of your points btw
pastel storm
Though I think I should change it to "if handsize is equal or above 10"
This changes it a lot since then you can’t play five card hands when you’ve got nine hand size, otherwise it resets. Makes it less impactful but that’s a good thing in this case cause it’s really overtuned atm.
Nine possible ectoplasms is still reeeeally strong. Hanged man is mostly used in tarot packs, where you CANT play a hand afterwards, and if anyone with a semblance of a brain has this they’re not gonna use hanged man and then play a hand without discarding first.
Apart from that, requiring scaling doesn’t matter much when it’s a hand size a round, which is REALLY fast. Smaller hands would work perfectly fine since you just need to set up a win using five card hands or PURPOSEFULLY use the hanged man thing you mentioned to trigger the increase. You wouldn’t need more hand size jokers if you’ve got this, just having a singular juggler is usually worth it in non-endless runs for a lot of builds already and this is ten times as effective. Also which deck would this not work on?
cinder trellis
This changes it a lot since then you can’t play five card hands when you’ve got ...
A) its nine perfectly timed and placed ectos, not just nine ectos period. The time you have to wait to find and use those ectos increases every time you use one.
B) for the smaller hands thing, you're just deadwrong. Most runs (I've personally had or seen) where playing smaller hands, it is damn near impossible to setup for a 5 card hand to win- I'm sorry but "setting up to win with a five card hand" just doesn't make sense when we're discussing smaller hands and building around them.
D) it wouldn't work on painted. It'd reset itself the minute it scales in most situations :3
E) i see the scaling point though, that doesn't really change much at all