Core principles

Econ is KingCopy Anchor Link

Gold CardGold Card$3 if thiscard is held in handat end of roundenhancement

Having more money than your opponent generally leads to more wins.
More money lets you roll into stronger jokers earlier, significantly improve your deck through tarots, and gain strong levels using planets.
It is also a great feeling to look at logs after the game and find out that by ante 5, every joker you saw, your opponent never ended up seeing.

High Card vs RetriggersCopy Anchor Link

BaronBaronEach Kingheld in handgives X1.5 Multrare · $8

Baron and Mime with enough handsize has the higher top end score

Each extra hand size with red seals gives about 1e (2 jokers), 2es (3-4 jokers), 3 es (5 jokers)
Or for no red seal: 0.5e (2 jokers), 1e (3-4 jokers), 2es (5 jokers)

The IdolThe IdolEach played ?of ? givesX2 Mult when scoredCard changes every rounduncommon · $6

Retriggers with Idol or Ancient are more common as there are more joker synergies that pair with these strong x mult jokers
They are also significantly easier to get strong scoring with as a single suit changer can be all you require

The full comparison is in High Card vs Retriggers.

Strength of PlanetsCopy Anchor Link

MarsMars(lvl.1) Level upFour of a Kind+3 Mult and+30 chipsplanet · $3

Levels are useful to survive blinds with few to no scoring jokers and to gain several multiples on your opponent without sacrificing a joker slot
Using 5 planets for 4oak results in a base score increase of ~8x and 10 planets is ~21x

CeresCeres(lvl.1) Level upFlush House+4 Mult and+40 chipsplanet · $3JupiterJupiter(lvl.1) Level upFlush+2 Mult and+15 chipsplanet · $3

High tier planets are more valuable than low tier planets
At base level a flush house is ~8x a flush
High tier planets scale more than twice as fast as low tier planets making them cheaper and more valuable
They also synergize with more x mult/retrigger jokers as many perform better the more of the same card you have

AsteroidMultiplayerAsteroidRemove 1 level fromyour Nemesis'highest level poker handat start of PvP Blindplanet · $3

To protect against asteroids that can significantly delevel your strong hands, having a mix of a few alternative hands such as 4oak, high card, and flush that synergizes with your jokers is useful to have
Generally 5-10 levels in your secondary hands is good to get you through the game, whereas ideally your best hand reaches 10-15 levels

Blocking consumablesCopy Anchor Link

Square JokerSquare JokerThis Joker gains +4 Chipsif played hand hasexactly 4 cards(Currently 0 Chips)common · $4

When you have a consumable in your shop or consumable slots, this keeps them from appearing in the packs. Blocking 2 above and 2 in shop reduces the number of tarots found in the packs by ~19% (4/21)
This increases to ~31% when blocking for planets (4/13) up to 40% (4/10) if secret hands are not unlocked
To increase the odds of getting better consumables, you can enter the pack then use a High Priestess or Emperor

Work out your own odds with the blocking calculator.

Playing Hands/DiscardingCopy Anchor Link

GrabberGrabberPermanentlygain +1 handper roundvoucher · $10

Consider your deck and jokers before deciding to play hands or discard
With business card or reserved parking, discarding first can be more valuable,
whereas with various seals, rebate, and vagabond, playing your hands first is better
In pvps, you generally want to play hands first then discard as it can allow you to hold more steel cards when putting out your highest hand to avoid needing to discard one near the end

Joker/Enhancement OrderCopy Anchor Link

Square JokerSquare JokerThis Joker gains +4 Chipsif played hand hasexactly 4 cards(Currently 0 Chips)common · $4

Some jokers, such as photo, works on a card trigger whereas others like trio works after all the cards trigger
To maximize score, you want to move the +mult before the xmult
This is the same with empress and holographic cards

Tarot UtilizationCopy Anchor Link

The HermitThe HermitDoubles money(Max of $20)tarot · $3

To money or not to money, that is the question
The earlier you get money, the more overall money you will obtain, from finding econ jokers/tarots, to being able to greed more from easily surviving blinds
Generally you want to play for hermits in ante 1-4 so that you can quickly build up a joker lineup and prepare for pvps
When you have strong enough econ generators (rebate), then you can start hanging cards to get guaranteed draws for seal/enhancement value and reduce the chances of idol missing