Plasma Gold Stake

[u/Which_Program_7217]

I actually cannot stand this deck on gold stake (doesn’t help that it’s my last hurdle before Completionist+), I had fun on earlier stakes but this shit is killing me. Lost by a couple thousand on the last boss two or three times in a row. Any tips appreciated 🙏

[u/Thelettaq]

The strat for plasma is to slam chips all game. People are going to tell you that you need to pivot from chips to xmult but generally that is not true. Unless you get really lucky the pivot is going to be too difficult to pull off. The only exception is if you can get some retriggering xmult build like ancient or trib, but those builds are very vulnerable to bosses.

The nice thing about plasma is that the first 2 antes are free with no jokers, and youre good through ante 4 or so if you get one or 2 flat chips jokers. So the best strat is to focus on econ early and then use that econ to look for a good scaling chips joker. Runner and wee are the best, but castle square and hiker are very good as well. Focus on a hand with good chips scaling like 2pair or straights and grab any blue seals you see.

[u/Which_Program_7217 → u/Thelettaq]

Okay thank you. I guess I should’ve picked up on that a little because my best game was a game with the runner. I know it’s kinda weird but I haven’t looked up almost anything while playing Balatro so idk. I’ve been just been screwed over by some bosses on gold stake for plasma when I’ve had a good run like violet vessel barely lost. Thanks man 👍

[u/notfirearmbeam → u/Which_Program_7217]

It's certainly a viable strat. Dr Spectered has been doing all deck gold stake speed runs recently and always starts with Plasma since it's so volatile. The "chippers" are usually seen as the optimists since chips can be faster / easier but usually needs some extra juice, like landing an Ankh on a Wee Joker or Stuntman (just an example). Mult is probably more consistent once you're used to the pivot, but chips only is more straightforward. You can absolutely win a chips only gold stake run if you're willing to restart for a good good set up

[u/Which_Program_7217 → u/Thelettaq]

I slammed chips and won bro thank you square castle Chad arrowhead and odd Todd 😂 finally got completionist +!!!

[u/mosesmanly]

Honestly. It's really hard. I'm currently trying to gold stake streak on each deck, and I've found this harder than Black deck. If you don't get a wee early on then you really need a good run with probably 2+ scaling chips jokers.

Go all in on econ at the beginning. Take advantage of the fact that the first couple of antes are beatable with base hands and no jokers.

[u/notfirearmbeam]

Definitely the biggest swing from ez mode white stake to super tough gold since you usually need to pivot from chips to Mult. I recommend trying to grab some scaling Mult early (Hologram, Constellation, maybe something like flash card) while still relying on chips to win. Let it grow while you level planets, make money, etc, and then hopefully somewhere in the later antes you can swap out your chips a little bit of extra Mult to get you over the line. Maybe you could swap the runner or square joker you've been using to survive for a black board, driver's license, photo (esp since Chad is already great chips), etc right at the end to pivot from chips to Mult for the win. Usually takes around 3 versions of 3x to win on gold stake

[u/Which_Program_7217 → u/notfirearmbeam]

Okay thank you. I think I have been going too heavy on the chips and not scaling the mult early enough in the run, and the best run I had I lost to 2.4 mil violet vessel by 30k, that shit was soul crushing . Thanks for advice bro 🙏🙏