Happy Monday, folks, and welcome to the Weekly Video Games Thread!

Now, normally, your humble Wolfman Jew’s a bit too serious for this kind of carnival hooliganism, but I’ve been up to my eyes in clowns. That’s right; I started Balatro! Oh my god, this thing feels great. It’s like I’m that horrible old man from that one episode of Cheers who can have “three queens in my hand at any given time!” And while I did beat the “final boss” for the first time just minutes before prepping this thread last night, I’m excited to push things a little further. There’s just so many strategies you can come up with in this very basic yet complex card game. The biggest involve your Joker cards, which give you special bonuses in ways that can mesh together. But Tarot cards also give your cards bizarre powers, Planet cards improve the multipliers of your hands, and… you know, I’ve used plenty of Spectral cards, but I don’t even know how you classify them. Beyond “scary.”

For instance, this shot is right after finally beating the eighth ante. Oh boy, my setup was great. See, the five Jokers on the top give specific powers. From left to right: treating every card like a face card, giving face cards a huge chip bonus, adding a multiplier for every Spade card played, adding a huge chip bonus for every Spade card played, and a multiplier that gets stronger with every Planet card you use throughout the run. And I got so much out of these systems. I regularly used the World Tarot to turn my Clubs, Hearts, and Diamonds into Spades, ensuring I’ve be able to make Flushes with relative ease. The first two Jokers and the second two worked in tandem, constantly giving unique buffs for the same thing. And by committing to empower that final Joker—which is to say, getting as many Planet cards as possible, in one instance getting a Two of Spades with a blue stamp that summons cards into your inventory—I also made extreme bonuses for the various hands I played. This is a game that is really good at giving you systems that work together and play off each other.

Let’s ignore that, though, or the roguelike mechanics, or whatever. We’re just gonna talk about the cards. Because the cards in Balatro look really, really good. The Jokers are the most obvious and apparent—I love the Booster pack with the depressing stand-up comedian, like it’s a prequel to Joker, as well as the matador and vagabond cards—but the others are great too. The Planets and Tarot cards use a sort of soft retro pixel aesthetic, united by blues and golds. And even your normal cards look powerful, mysterious, and even threatening once they get smooshed under a gold plate, covered in scratches and wear, or turned to glass. This is the kind of game that makes you revel in the aesthetic of cards and card games.

So here’s the prompt: what are your favorite card designs in video games? So, like, those Tarot cards Joker gets with his Confidants? That counts! Those really terrible-sounding sexy trading cards The Witcher apparently had? I don’t know why you would necessarily admit to liking them, but that’s an option! And there are plenty of other dedicated card games with assuredly great designs; I think Slay the Spire is also on the docket for me before the end of the year, and some of its cards looked pretty cool.

Anyway, how did the playing go for you this weekend?