Troubadour

Troubadour

Effect

+2 hand size,
-1 hand each round

Rarity

Uncommon

Unlock Requirement

Win 5 consecutive rounds by playing only 1 hand

Stats

Buy Price

6

Sell Price

3

Type

Effect

Activation

N/A (Passive)

Compatibility

Copyable

✗ No

Perishable

✓ Yes

Eternal

✓ Yes

Troubadour is an Uncommon Effect Joker that provides +2 hand size at the cost of 1 Hand being taken away when Blind is selected.

To unlock this Joker, the player must win 5 consecutive rounds by playing only 1 hand.

• Blue Deck ( {{hl|blue|+1}} hand every round Discover at least {{hl|orange|20}} items from your [[collection]] Blue Deck.png) works best with Troubadour thanks to its +1 hand per round bonus, offsetting the -1 hand penalty of this Joker. This effectively transforms the Blue Deck into a more flexible Painted Deck ( {{hl|orange|+2}} hand size, <br> {{hl|red|-1}} Joker slot Win a run with any [[Decks|deck]] on the {{Stake|Green}} difficulty or harder Painted Deck.png).
• Golden Needle ( ) starts with 1 hand, and Troubadour cannot reduce hands below one, turning Troubadour into a +2 hand size without any penalty.

Any strong 5 card hands can benefit from Troubadour, as the increased hand size means a higher chance to draw needed cards to form the hand. Troubadour can also be good in High-card builds that rely on cards being in hand to score, such as with Baron (Each {{hl|orange|King}} held in hand gives {{xmult|1.5}} Rare Multiplicative Mult On Held Baron.png) or Steel cards.

• Any held-in-hand effect Joker will be improved by Troubadour by virtue of holding more cards in hand.
  • This includes Baron (Each {{hl|orange|King}} held in hand gives {{xmult|1.5}} Rare Multiplicative Mult On Held Baron.png), as mentioned previously, Shoot the Moon (Each {{hl|orange|Queen}} held in hand gives {{mult|+13}} Play every Heart card in your deck in one round. Common Additive Mult On Held Shoot the Moon.png), and Reserved Parking (Each {{hl|orange|face}} card held in hand has a {{hl|green|1 in 2}} chance to give {{Money|1}} Common Economy On Held Reserved Parking.png).
• Mime (Retrigger all card {{hl|orange|held in hand}} abilities Uncommon Retrigger On Held Mime.png): More cards in hand means more cards for Mime to retrigger.
• Mail-In Rebate (Earn {{Money|5}} for each discarded [[Card Ranks|{{hl|orange|[rank]}}]], rank changes every round Common Economy On Discard Mail-In Rebate.png): With increased hand size, it can be easier to find the card rank required for that round.
• Burglar (When [[Blind|{{hl|orange|Blind}}]] is selected, gain {{hl|blue|+3}} Hands and {{hl|orange|lose all discards}} Uncommon Effect On Blind Select Burglar.png): Add three extra hands, offsetting the -1 hand penalty of this Joker at the cost of no discards.
• Baseball Card ([[Uncommon Jokers|{{hl|green|Uncommon}}]] Jokers each give {{xmult|1.5}} Rare Multiplicative Mult On Other Jokers Baseball Card.png): As Troubadour itself does not directly increase score, having Baseball Card would give it immediate scoring value. It may be ideal to pair these two together due to the -1 hand penalty, which may make defeating Blinds more difficult.

With Troubadour's increased hand size, it can make it easier to draw into Steel Cards ({{xmult|1.5}} while this card stays in hand Steel Card.png) and/or Gold Cards ({{money|3}} if this card is held in hand at end of round Gold Card.png), as well as cards that have a Blue Seal (Creates the {{Planet|}} card for final played [[Poker Hands|{{hl|orange|poker hand}}]] of round if {{hl|orange|held}} in hand<br>{{room}} Blue Seal.png).

• Grabber (Permanently gain {{hl|blue|+1}} hand per round Base Grabber.png) and Nacho Tong (Permanently gain an additional {{hl|blue|+1}} hand per round Play a total of 2,500 cards Upgraded Nacho Tong.png) can mitigate Troubadour's -1 hand penalty.

• If Crimson Heart ( Showdown Crimson Heart.png) disables Troubadour, the hand size will return to normal but the current hand will stay intact until the next discard (ex: 10/8). By quitting to the Main Menu and returning, the hand size actually permanently increases (ex: 10/10), giving players a permanent hand size upgrade.

• Black Deck ( {{hl|orange|+1}} Joker slot <br> {{hl|blue|-1}} hand every round Discover at least {{hl|orange|100}} items from your [[collection]] Black Deck.png) makes it difficult to use Troubadour on, as its -1 hand per round penalty means players will only have 2 hands to beat each blind.
• Similarly, Blast Off ( ) makes it even more difficult to use Troubadour on, as its -1 hand per round penalty means players will only have 1 hand to beat each blind.

• Overall, any scaling Joker that requires hands to be played is impeded by the -1 hand penalty, giving fewer opportunities to scale them efficiently.
  • This includes Green Joker ({{mult|+1}} per hand played <br> {{mult|-1}} per discard <br> {{Currently|{{mult|+0}}}} Common Additive Mult Mixed Green_Joker.png), Ride the Bus (This Joker gains {{Mult|+1}} per {{hl|orange|consecutive}} hand played without a scoring {{hl|orange|face}} card <br> {{Currently|{{Mult|+0}}}} Common Additive Mult Mixed Ride the Bus.png), Supernova (Adds the number of times [[Poker Hands|{{hl|orange|poker hand}}]] has been played this run to Mult Common Additive Mult Independent Supernova.png), Runner (Gains {{Chips|+15}} if played hand contains a {{ph|Straight}} <br> {{Currently|{{chips|+0}}}} Common Chips Mixed Runner.png), Square Joker (This Joker gains {{Chips|+4}} if played hand has exactly {{hl|orange|4}} cards <br> {{Currently|{{Chips|0}}}} Common Chips Mixed Square_Joker.png), Spare Trousers (This Joker gains {{Mult|+2}} if played hand contains a [[Poker Hands|{{hl|orange|Two Pair}}]] <br> {{currently|{{mult|+0}}}} Uncommon Additive Mult Mixed Spare Trousers.png), and Obelisk (This Joker gains {{xmult|0.2}} per {{hl|orange|consecutive}} hand played without playing your most played {{hl|orange|poker hand}} <br> {{currently|{{xmult|1}}}} Rare Multiplicative Mult Mixed Obelisk.png).
• Vagabond (Create a [[Tarot Cards|{{hl|purple|Tarot}}]] card if hand is played with {{Money|4}} or less Rare Effect Independent Vagabond.png) and Space Joker ({{hl|green|1 in 4}} chance to upgrade level of played [[Poker Hands|{{hl|orange|poker hand}}]] Uncommon Effect On Played Space Joker.png) suffer from the -1 hand penalty, as Jokers that generate a resource or trigger when a hand is played have fewer opportunities to trigger.
• Card Sharp ({{xmult|3}} if played {{hl|orange|poker hand}} has already been played this round Uncommon Multiplicative Mult Independent Card_Sharp.png) can activate one less time.
• Loyalty Card ({{xmult|4}} every {{hl|orange|6}} hands played<br>{{hl|grey|5 remaining}} Uncommon Multiplicative Mult Independent Loyalty Card.png) becomes harder to activate.
• Blackboard ({{xmult|3}} if all cards held in hand are {{suit|Spades}} or {{suit|Clubs}} Uncommon Multiplicative Mult Independent Blackboard.png) can be harder to trigger, as the increased hand size can make it harder to hold only  Clubs and  Spades in your hand.
• More cards in hand mean that Blue Joker ({{Chips|+2}} for each remaining card in {{hl|orange|deck}} <br> {{currently|{{chips|+104}}}} Common Chips Independent Blue Joker.png) will give fewer chips.
• The increased hand size will make it hard for Raised Fist (Adds {{hl|orange|double}} the rank of {{hl|orange|lowest}} ranked card held in hand to Mult Common Additive Mult On Held Raised Fist.png) to give more score from high-ranked cards.

• Hieroglyph ({{hl|orange|-1}} Ante, <br> {{hl|blue|-1}} hand each round Base Hieroglyph.png), as it gives an additional -1 hand, should be avoided if Troubadour is essential to the current Joker build. Coupled with the Black Deck ( {{hl|orange|+1}} Joker slot <br> {{hl|blue|-1}} hand every round Discover at least {{hl|orange|100}} items from your [[collection]] Black Deck.png), it can reduce the total number of hands to as low as 1.

• The House ( Boss The House.png) is particularly bad for big hand size, as it means that more cards will be drawn face down.

• The Five-Card Draw ( ) challenge bans Troubadour.
• Because the hand is taken away when Blind is selected, selling Troubadour during a blind will only remove the extra Hand Size while keeping the -1 hand effect for that Blind.
• Troubadour cannot reduce hands per round below 1. When it's equipped against Golden Needle ( ) (Challenge) or The Needle ( Boss The Needle.png) blind, it effectively provides +2 hand size without penalty, as players always start with 1 hand per round.
  • In addition to this, as of Update 1.0.1o, having multiple Troubadours and/or other methods of reducing hands per round can make The Needle ( Boss The Needle.png) erroneously give the player more hands instead of reducing it to 1.

• A troubadour was someone who composed music and performed poetry during the Middle Ages. Troubadour songs were mainly about chivalry and courtly love.

This information has been manually compiled. Some updates may not be included yet.