The rarest of all the booster packs and consumables to come across inBalatrois the Spectral Card, which grants an extreme modification to your deck or Jokers (oftentimes with a negative attribute to balance the effect).
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Spectral Cards are given rarely because they can contain extremely useful cards, in some cases reformatting a significant chunk of your deck to the same rank or suit. Not all Spectral Cards are created equal, so it’s good to keep in mind which ones are the best to select when given the option.
Adds Polychrome to a random Joker and destroys the rest.
Hex is a great early-game Joker to use when you’re locked in on a specific Joker, as well as when playing a game with Eternal Jokers. Multiplying your total Mult by 1.5x is a great boost at any point in the game.
The downside here is the destruction of your other Jokers (if playing with Eternal Jokers, this is less of an issue since they are indestructible), so the best strategy when using the Hex card is to choose which Joker you want to enhance, then sell all of your others to guarantee your choice is picked.
Creates a copy of 1 of your Jokers at random, then destroys the others, leaving you with two identical Jokers.
Duplicating one of your Jokers at the expense of the rest of them, Ankh can be useless in some scenarios or game-breaking in others. The potential of two high-power Jokers of the same kind can cause massive multiplications and combos.
For example, if you were to duplicate a Blueprint card (copies the ability of the Joker to the right) and place both of them to the left of a card with x3 Multd, it would triple the Mult two more times, acting as a x27 Mult to your build.
Adds a Foil, Holographic or Polychrome edition (determined at random) to 1 selected card in hand.
Low risk and solid reward, the Aura Card enhances a normal card in your deck with Foil (+50 Chips), Holographic (+10 Mult), or Polychrome (1.5x Mult), which is activated whenever that specific card is used in Scoring.
While these enhancements are much better used on Jokers in the latter end of scoring, it never hurts to have a boost like these without any punishment to your build. If it’s between this and skipping the Spectral Pack, always pick Aura.
Creates a random Rare Joker (must have room), but sets money to $0.
Coming across a Wraith at the right time in a run can be a killer change-up, especially if you were low on cash anyway. If you’re at $8 or less in your wallet and come across a Wraith card, you might as well see what it has to offer.
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The worst-case scenario is that you get a Joker that you may’t use effectively and you sell it to free up another slot in your inventory. The best-case scenario is getting a Rare card that enhances your build to an insane degree.
Creates 2 exact copies (including Enhancements, Editions and Seals) of a selected card in your hand.
Cryptid is extremely useful in same-rank builds (Pair, Three of a Kind, etc.) and enhanced card builds. By creating two copies of a card, it becomes way more likely that you’ll draw it (also opening up the ability to create unreal hands like Five of a Kind).
Since the Cryptid Card also copies any upgrades to your playing cards, it can be effective if used after the Aura Joker is played or if you’ve been collecting enhanced playing cards from the booster packs in the shop.
Converts every card in your hand to a single, random Suit.
Every hand is better when it’s a flush (especially if you have a Joker like The Tribe or Droll Joker). Sigil makes it easier to land flushes in your game, as well as better hands like the Straight Flush, Flush House and Flush Five.
While there’s no direct detriment to your base deck or build, the choice of Suit that it converts your hand to is random. This means if you have Jokers aimed at a different suit, or if a Boss Blind comes around that deactivates your suit, your build could be in big trouble.
Converts every card in your hand to a single, random Rank, but reduces total hand size by 1.
The best way to get consistent same-rank hands is to use the Ouija card. By converting eight or more cards in your deck to the same rank, it becomes easier to land Three, Four or Five of a Kind hands in the future using that same rank of card.
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While your total hand size does unfortunately decrease by one, it’s easily balanced out by the use of a Joker or Voucher to increase your hand size. Even if you don’t effectively “undo” the decrease in size, there are so many more cards of your rank at this point that finding a high number of them should come easily.
3Ectoplasm
Adds Negative to a random Joker, but reduces total hand size by 1.
Ectoplasm basically grants you an extra Joker slot in your inventory, allowing you to add another ability to the mix. If utilized correctly, this can double or triple your Mult output, or increase your cash earnings tenfold each round.
Losing hand size is obviously a bummer, but you can always use that extra Joker slot to modify your hand to be even bigger than it was before. The Negative is the best enhancement in the game hands down, and Ectoplasm is an immediate “choose” whenever we see it.
2Black Hole
Upgrades every poker hand by one level.
The Black Hole Spectral Card is an interesting one, because it can actually appear outside of Spectral packs, popping up rarely in Celestial Packs under the right circumstances.
Upgrading all of your hands by a full level can come in handy for any build, but especially those not focused on a single hand type. The potential of every single hand being leveled up at any point in the game is a welcome sight, especially when there’s no negative side to this card.
Creates a Legendary Joker, if you have room.
It’s almost always worth making room for a Legendary Joker, which can only be added to your inventory with the Soul Card. There are five Legendary Jokers in total, each of them extremely powerful and diverse in potential.
The five Legendary Jokers are Triboulet (grants x2 Mult whenever a King or Queen card scores), Yorick (gains x1 Mult for every 23 discarded cards), Canio (gains x1 Mult when a face card is destroyed), Perkeo (creates a negative copy of a consumable upon leaving the shop) and Chicot (disables all boss blind effects).
Review: Balatro
Simple to get into, hard to put down, Balatro’s endless possibilities result in one of the best and most rewarding takes on deck-building yet.
