Ancient Joker is a rare multiplicative Mult Joker with highly variable power. At the end of each round, a new suit is chosen at random (meaning it won't pick the same suit twice in a row). If multiple Ancient Jokers are held, they will all pick the same suit as each other. Each time a card of the current suit is scored, Ancient Joker applies X1.5 Mult.
This effect can vary from incredibly powerful to practically irrelevant. Ancient Joker can carry a run into the late Antes, but only if the deck is built specifically to take advantage of its effect.
Synergies[]
Decks[]
Black Deck allows for stronger Joker synergies to combine with and build around Ancient Joker's powerful effect, and works well to mitigate Black Deck's fewer hands.- Magic Deck's Fools could be used to create multiple Wild cards, which always trigger Ancient Joker, or to create Deaths that can copy a red seal card that can trigger Ancient twice.
- Nebula Deck can level up Flushes very quickly, making Ancient Joker work off of a higher base Mult as well as providing modest Chip scaling.
- Zodiac Deck allows you to see more Tarot cards, which can create more Wild cards or other strong enhancements, as well as more Jokers, giving more chances to see one that would work well with Ancient Joker.
Poker Hands[]
All Flush hands benefit greatly (though inconsistently) from Ancient Joker, since they will trigger its effect the maximum number of times compared to other hands. Unlike other Flush-based builds, it's best to not centralize around one suit, as Ancient Joker will only select it one in three times (1/4th on the first selection), and never more than half of all times. Wild Cards add flexibility in triggering Ancient Joker when other suits are chosen.
Jokers[]
Ancient Joker's power can be quite inconsistent, but can be exponentially scaled with the effects of other Jokers.
- Since Ancient Joker is a "When Scored" effect, retriggering cards will repeat the application of Ancient Joker, such as Dusk, Sock and Buskin, Hack, and especially Seltzer, as it is an unconditional retrigger for 10 hands.
- Similarly, Jokers which apply additive Mult effects when cards are scored, such as Lusty Joker, Even Steven, Walkie Talkie, and Scholar, can benefit from Ancient Joker. Most notable are other Jokers that trigger X Mult effects, though. Mostly, this will be Photograph, since the others require heavy centralization around suits and ranks, but they will all scale off the effects of retrigger Jokers.
- Ancient Joker's Mult is added when cards are being scored, so additive Mult Jokers that trigger during the Joker scoring step do not benefit from its effect. However, multiplicative Mult effects will combine regardless of when they are applied, such as Acrobat, Hologram, and Cavendish.
- The Tribe can work especially well, since you are ideally always playing Flushes, making it a smaller, consistent bonus.
- Since Ancient Joker loves Flushes so much, ways to level up Flushes are very strong in combination. The best ways to do this with Jokers are through Burnt Joker and Space Joker, though other Jokers can help with planet scaling in other ways, like Constellation to add an extra bonus for using planet cards, or DNA to duplicate Blue Sealed cards (which are ideally also Wild or Steel).
- Other planet-focused builds, even if they aren't Flush-based, can utilize Ancient Joker well, as the high base Mult of the poker hand gives Ancient a higher starting point. Even only triggering its effect three times makes it equivalent to a X3 Mult Joker.
- Blueprint and Brainstorm allow for especially powerful repetition of Ancient Joker's exponential scaling.
- Smeared Joker makes the effect of Ancient Joker much more consistent to trigger, as well as allowing for easier Flush hands of either suit pair.
Anti-Synergies[]
Decks[]
- Checkered Deck should be avoided as it only has two suits, meaning Ancient Joker will be inactive half of the time. Smeared Joker will prevent this, however.
- Erratic Deck's randomness means it'll rarely have evenly distributed suits, making it hard for Ancient Joker to work.
Blinds[]
- The Club, The Goad, The Window and The Head all debuff a specific suit, rendering Ancient Joker useless if it happens to pick the to-be-debuffed suit upon entering the Boss Blind. One trick to avoid this is to check Ancient Joker's chosen suit before entering Big Blind: If it's not the to-be-debuffed suit, Skip Blind to ensure it'll be active during the boss blind.
Trivia[]
- Unlike Castle, which chooses its suit proportionally to the composition of the current deck, Ancient Joker chooses evenly amongst the four suits, regardless of the current deck's composition.
- The card's artwork is a reference to OLBAP, a face that Twitch streamer michaelalfox (MALF) would often sketch when streaming games that involve drawing.
- The icon for The Flint may also be a small reference to OLBAP, due to it resembling its ear.
- The icon for
Update History[]
- Effect
- The selected suit is no longer able to repeat between rounds
In other languages[]
| Language | Name | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Chinese (Simplified) | 古老小丑 | |
| Chinese (Traditional) | 古代小丑 | |
| Dutch | Oeroude Joker | The prefix 'oer' refers to origins - a direct translation would be 'ur-joker'. Hyperbolically refers to really old objects. |
| French | Joker antique | |
| German | Antiker Joker | |
| Indonesian | Ancient Joker | |
| Italian | Jolly antico | |
| Japanese | エンシェントジョーカー | |
| Korean | 고대 조커 | |
| Polish | Pradawny Joker | |
| Portuguese (Brazilian) | Curinga Antigo | |
| Russian | Древний джокер | |
| Spanish (Spain) | Comodín antiguo | |
| Spanish (Latin America) | Comodín antiguo |
