Brainstorm

What Brainstorm copies

Brainstorm reads the leftmost joker every scoring trigger and re-applies its effect from Brainstorm's slot. The copy is live, just like Blueprint — current state, not a snapshot.

The catch every new player misses: if Brainstorm is itself the leftmost joker, it tries to copy itself and the effect is a no-op. Brainstorm must have at least one joker to its left to do anything.

Brainstorm vs Blueprint

Both are Rare, both copy, both cost $10. They differ only in direction:

That gives you two flexible "double this" slots. The leftmost slot becomes a logical anchor — whatever you put there is what Brainstorm copies.

The "anchor + chain" pattern

Put your strongest joker in the leftmost slot. Stack Blueprint and Brainstorm to both copy it indirectly:

Slot order Triboulet | Blueprint | Brainstorm:

• Triboulet (leftmost) fires itself.
• Blueprint reads Brainstorm to its right → Brainstorm reads Triboulet → re-fires Triboulet.
• Brainstorm reads Triboulet directly → re-fires Triboulet.

Three triggers of Triboulet from three slots. With 4 face cards: ×3⁴ × ×3⁴ × ×3⁴ = ×531,441.

If the anchor changes (you sell Triboulet, buy something better in slot 1), both Blueprint and Brainstorm follow. Brainstorm is the cleaner "always copy my best" of the two because its reference is positional and Blueprint's is relative.

Brainstorm vs scaling jokers

Like Blueprint, Brainstorm reads the current X-mult of a scaling joker and applies it again. Some pairings worth knowing:

• Yorick (×1 per 23 discards): Brainstorm doubles current Yorick mult. At Yorick ×10, Brainstorm makes it functionally ×20.
• Glass Joker (×0.75 per Glass card destroyed): same, doubles current value.
• Hologram / Constellation / Madness / Vampire: same doubling. None of these gain on Brainstorm itself; Brainstorm just reads their current mult.
• Campfire: works while Campfire is active, but Campfire resets on Boss Blind defeat — so the doubling resets too.

What doesn't work

• Brainstorm + Brainstorm: the leftmost Brainstorm copies itself (no-op). The right Brainstorm copies the left Brainstorm (also no-op). You get nothing. Two Brainstorms is strictly worse than one.
• Brainstorm + retrigger jokers (Mime, Hanging Chad, Sock and Buskin): copying a retrigger does nothing — retriggers belong to the joker's slot context.
• Brainstorm + flat +Mult: works but inefficient. Copying +4 Mult is rarely the best use of a Rare slot.

When to take

Take Brainstorm:

• Anytime your leftmost slot has a strong X-mult joker (Triboulet, Yorick, Glass, Hologram in growth phase).
• Alongside Blueprint for the full triple-trigger chain.
• Early-mid run when slot economy isn't tight yet.

Skip Brainstorm:

• Your leftmost joker is flat +Mult or economy. Don't waste a Rare slot copying $4 of value.
• You're already running Blueprint pointed at the same anchor — second copy from the same chain has diminishing returns unless you can manage slot order carefully.

Related Jokers

Same rarity or category as Brainstorm.