Chase the audit's leads: verify, implement, or reject

Every lead in AUDIT.md, traced to the running source and then settled.

Ceremonial Dagger DESTROYS the joker to its right at blind select
(card.lua:2945) and skips Eternals. The card says so; what it cannot say
is WHICH of your jokers is about to die. JCA.dagger_victim names it in
the tooltip -- "WILL DESTROY Baron at the next blind" -- while there is
still time to reorder, and stays quiet when the neighbour is Eternal.

Four jokers that scored 0 against all 150 now have partners, all verified
in card.lua rather than recalled:
* Burglar + Ramen: Ramen decays per discarded card and is DESTROYED at x1
  (SMODS.destroy_cards). Burglar zeroes discards, so it never decays and
  never dies. Same for Burglar + Green Joker, which is only punished by
  discarding.
* Trading Card + Erosion: Erosion pays per card MISSING from the deck,
  and Trading Card permanently destroys the card it discards.
* Chaos the Clown + Flash Card: a free reroll every shop, and a joker
  that grows per reroll. Both were inert.

Erosion is the mirror of card_gen, so it now clashes with every joker
that permanently adds a card: DNA, Marble, Certificate.

Rejected, with the reasoning recorded so nobody "fixes" it later:
Card Sharp and Supernova reward replaying a hand and Obelisk punishes it,
but neither destroys the other's precondition -- the player's hand choice
does. That is an opposed incentive, not an opposed effect. The clash list
only earns trust while every entry is mechanical.

The audit's own silent-check was wrong: it flagged Square Joker, which
has been paired with Four Fingers all along, and I duplicated that pair
before the suite caught it. Silence now means no tags AND no famous pair.

711 pass locally, 10 in-game.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

AUDIT.md

@@ -11,11 +11,11 @@ does not get redone from scratch every session.
 | | |
 |---|---|
 | Jokers in the database | 150 |
-| Famous pairs | 32 |
+| Famous pairs | 36 |
-| Clashes | 22 |
+| Clashes | 25 |
 | Cautions | 15 |
 | Themes | 29 |
-| Jokers in no famous pair | 108 |
+| Jokers in no famous pair | 102 |
 
 ## Jokers the advisor is silent about
 
@@ -25,8 +25,8 @@ answer for some of them -- but it should be a decision, not an accident.
 
 | | count |
 |---|---|
-| Silent, reviewed, staying that way | 20 |
+| Silent, reviewed, staying that way | 25 |
-| Silent, but a lead worth chasing | 12 |
+| Silent, but a lead worth chasing | 0 |
 | **Silent and never looked at** | **0** |
 
 ### Leads worth chasing
@@ -34,22 +34,13 @@ answer for some of them -- but it should be a decision, not an accident.
 Unverified. Check each against the Lovely dump before acting on it -- a wrong
 synergy is worse than a missing one.
 
-- **`j_baseball`** — xMult per Uncommon joker owned. We have no rarity tag, and adding one for a single payoff may not earn its keep.
-- **`j_card_sharp`** — xMult when the hand type was already played this round -- it rewards repeating one hand, which is exactly what Obelisk punishes. Clash?
-- **`j_ceremonial`** — positional like Blueprint: it DESTROYS the joker to its right. JCA.copy_source already reads board order -- the same machinery could warn "will destroy your Baron" before it eats something irreplaceable.
-- **`j_chaos`** — free reroll each shop; see j_flash
-- **`j_erosion`** — +Mult per card BELOW 52 in the deck, so it is the inverse of card_gen: DNA/Marble/Certificate permanently shrink it. Likely CLASHES, and possibly a synergy with anything that destroys cards (Trading Card).
-- **`j_flash`** — +Mult per shop reroll. Chaos the Clown grants a free reroll each shop, which would give both of them a reason to exist (Chaos is inert today).
-- **`j_green_joker`** — +Mult per hand, -Mult per discard: Burglar removes discards entirely. Same shape as the existing Burglar + Mystic Summit pair.
-- **`j_obelisk`** — resets on your most-played hand, so it fights every hand-type build. Has a CAUTION already; the pairwise clashes may be worth adding.
-- **`j_ramen`** — xMult decays per card discarded, so Burglar (zero discards all run) stops the decay dead. Likely a famous pair.
-- **`j_ring_master`** — Showman allows duplicates in the pool. Enables copy/duplicate strategies, but we have no tag for "shop pool" effects and inventing one for a single joker is probably not worth it.
-- **`j_square`** — +Chips on exactly-4-card hands; Four Fingers makes 4-card flushes and straights playable. Needs a tag that does not exist yet.
-- **`j_supernova`** — Mult scales with times the hand was played; see j_card_sharp
 
 ### Reviewed, and deliberately silent
 
+- **`j_baseball`** — xMult per Uncommon joker owned. A rarity tag would have exactly one payoff, and every giver would be "is uncommon" -- noise, not synergy.
+- **`j_card_sharp`** — REJECTED as a clash with Obelisk. Card Sharp rewards replaying a hand and Obelisk punishes replaying your MOST played hand -- but neither destroys the other precondition; the player's hand choice does. That is an opposed incentive, not an opposed effect. Flagging it would dilute the clash signal, which only earns trust while every entry is mechanical.
 - **`j_cavendish`** — the reward for Gros Michel dying, not a partner
+- **`j_ceremonial`** — RESOLVED: it destroys the joker to its right at blind select (card.lua:2945), skipping Eternals. JCA.dagger_victim now names the joker about to die, in the tooltip, while there is still time to reorder.
 - **`j_chicot`** — disables the boss blind; no joker interaction
 - **`j_credit_card`** — lets you go negative; a money buffer, not a combo
 - **`j_diet_cola`** — sell for a Double Tag; tags are outside our model
@@ -62,12 +53,14 @@ synergy is worse than a missing one.
 - **`j_luchador`** — sell to disable a boss; no joker interaction
 - **`j_misprint`** — random +Mult; interacts with nothing
 - **`j_mr_bones`** — death insurance; no joker interaction
-- **`j_mystic_summit`** — already paired with Burglar (zero discards, max Mult)
+- **`j_obelisk`** — The trap is real but it is a CAUTION ("resets on your most played hand"), not a set of pairwise clashes. See j_card_sharp.
 - **`j_popcorn`** — decays; the trap is a CAUTION
 - **`j_red_card`** — +Mult per skipped booster; no joker interaction
 - **`j_ride_the_bus`** — scales on face-free hands; the traps are CLASHES
+- **`j_ring_master`** — Showman allows duplicates in the shop pool. We have no tag for pool effects, and one joker does not justify inventing one.
 - **`j_steel_joker`** — wants STEEL cards. The only enhance_gen givers make Gold (Midas) and Stone (Marble), so tagging it enhance_gen would invent a synergy that does not exist. No vanilla joker creates Steel cards. Leave it alone.
 - **`j_stuntman`** — big chips, -2 hand size; the trap is a CAUTION
+- **`j_supernova`** — REJECTED as an Obelisk clash for the same reason as j_card_sharp
 - **`j_throwback`** — xMult per skipped blind; no joker interaction
 
 ## Tag health
@@ -127,5 +120,5 @@ mis-tagged, the error is spread across the whole database.
 | `j_four_fingers` | 12 |
 | `j_seance` | 12 |
 
-Jokers with **no** partner scoring >= 2 anywhere in the game: 30
+Jokers with **no** partner scoring >= 2 anywhere in the game: 25
 

audit.lua

@@ -51,43 +51,47 @@ local VERDICTS = {
         'wants GLASS cards, and no vanilla joker creates them. Same trap as ' ..
         'Steel Joker: enhance_gen is too coarse a tag to use here.'},
 
-    -- Leads worth chasing. NOT verified against the game source yet.
+    -- Chased and resolved. These now have pairs, clashes or an advisor line, so
-    j_ceremonial = {'candidate',
+    -- they no longer appear as silent -- kept here as the record of the decision.
-        'positional like Blueprint: it DESTROYS the joker to its right. ' ..
+    j_ceremonial = {'settled',
-        'JCA.copy_source already reads board order -- the same machinery could ' ..
+        'RESOLVED: it destroys the joker to its right at blind select ' ..
-        'warn "will destroy your Baron" before it eats something irreplaceable.'},
+        '(card.lua:2945), skipping Eternals. JCA.dagger_victim now names the ' ..
-    j_erosion = {'candidate',
+        'joker about to die, in the tooltip, while there is still time to reorder.'},
-        '+Mult per card BELOW 52 in the deck, so it is the inverse of card_gen: ' ..
+    j_erosion = {'settled',
-        'DNA/Marble/Certificate permanently shrink it. Likely CLASHES, and ' ..
+        'RESOLVED: pays per card missing from the deck (starting_deck_size - ' ..
-        'possibly a synergy with anything that destroys cards (Trading Card).'},
+        '#G.playing_cards, card.lua:4318) -- the exact inverse of card_gen. Now ' ..
-    j_ramen = {'candidate',
+        'clashes with DNA/Marble/Certificate, and pairs with Trading Card, which ' ..
-        'xMult decays per card discarded, so Burglar (zero discards all run) ' ..
+        'permanently destroys the card it discards.'},
-        'stops the decay dead. Likely a famous pair.'},
+    j_ramen = {'settled',
-    j_green_joker = {'candidate',
+        'RESOLVED: paired with Burglar. It decays per discarded card and is ' ..
-        '+Mult per hand, -Mult per discard: Burglar removes discards entirely. ' ..
+        'DESTROYED at x1 (card.lua:3175); Burglar zeroes discards, so it never ' ..
-        'Same shape as the existing Burglar + Mystic Summit pair.'},
+        'decays and never dies.'},
-    j_flash = {'candidate',
+    j_green_joker = {'settled', 'RESOLVED: paired with Burglar (no discards, only gains)'},
-        '+Mult per shop reroll. Chaos the Clown grants a free reroll each shop, ' ..
+    j_flash  = {'settled', 'RESOLVED: paired with Chaos the Clown (free rerolls grow it)'},
-        'which would give both of them a reason to exist (Chaos is inert today).'},
+    j_chaos  = {'settled', 'RESOLVED: paired with Flash Card; no longer inert'},
-    j_chaos = {'candidate', 'free reroll each shop; see j_flash'},
+    j_square = {'settled',
-    j_square = {'candidate',
+        'Not actually a gap -- it was paired with Four Fingers all along. It has ' ..
-        '+Chips on exactly-4-card hands; Four Fingers makes 4-card flushes and ' ..
+        'no TAGS, which is what made the old silent-check flag it. That check now ' ..
-        'straights playable. Needs a tag that does not exist yet.'},
+        'excludes jokers with a famous pair.'},
-    j_card_sharp = {'candidate',
-        'xMult when the hand type was already played this round -- it rewards ' ..
-        'repeating one hand, which is exactly what Obelisk punishes. Clash?'},
-    j_supernova = {'candidate', 'Mult scales with times the hand was played; see j_card_sharp'},
-    j_obelisk = {'candidate',
-        'resets on your most-played hand, so it fights every hand-type build. ' ..
-        'Has a CAUTION already; the pairwise clashes may be worth adding.'},
-    j_baseball = {'candidate',
-        'xMult per Uncommon joker owned. We have no rarity tag, and adding one ' ..
-        'for a single payoff may not earn its keep.'},
     j_mystic_summit = {'settled', 'already paired with Burglar (zero discards, max Mult)'},
-    j_ring_master = {'candidate',
+
-        'Showman allows duplicates in the pool. Enables copy/duplicate strategies, ' ..
+    -- Chased and REJECTED. Do not "fix" these; the reasoning is the point.
-        'but we have no tag for "shop pool" effects and inventing one for a single ' ..
+    j_card_sharp = {'settled',
-        'joker is probably not worth it.'},
+        'REJECTED as a clash with Obelisk. Card Sharp rewards replaying a hand ' ..
+        'and Obelisk punishes replaying your MOST played hand -- but neither ' ..
+        'destroys the other precondition; the player\'s hand choice does. That is ' ..
+        'an opposed incentive, not an opposed effect. Flagging it would dilute the ' ..
+        'clash signal, which only earns trust while every entry is mechanical.'},
+    j_supernova = {'settled', 'REJECTED as an Obelisk clash for the same reason as j_card_sharp'},
+    j_obelisk = {'settled',
+        'The trap is real but it is a CAUTION ("resets on your most played hand"), ' ..
+        'not a set of pairwise clashes. See j_card_sharp.'},
+    j_baseball = {'settled',
+        'xMult per Uncommon joker owned. A rarity tag would have exactly one ' ..
+        'payoff, and every giver would be "is uncommon" -- noise, not synergy.'},
+    j_ring_master = {'settled',
+        'Showman allows duplicates in the shop pool. We have no tag for pool ' ..
+        'effects, and one joker does not justify inventing one.'},
 }
 
 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
@@ -136,20 +140,27 @@ for key, e in pairs(JCA.db) do
     end
 end
 
--- "Silent": nothing but engine roles to give, and nothing wanted. Such a joker
+local in_pair = {}
--- can only ever earn the generic +1, so the advisor has nothing to say about it.
+for _, p in ipairs(data.pairs) do in_pair[p[1]] = true; in_pair[p[2]] = true end
+
+-- "Silent": nothing but engine roles to give, nothing wanted, AND no famous pair.
+-- Such a joker can only ever earn the generic +1, so the advisor has nothing to
+-- say about it against any of the 150.
+--
+-- The pair check matters: without it this list flags jokers the advisor speaks up
+-- about perfectly well (Square Joker has no tags but has been paired with Four
+-- Fingers all along), and a lead gets "found" that was never lost.
 local silent = {}
 for key, e in pairs(JCA.db) do
     local has_theme, wants = false, 0
     for t in pairs(e.gives) do if not ENGINE[t] then has_theme = true end end
     for _ in pairs(e.wants) do wants = wants + 1 end
-    if not has_theme and wants == 0 then silent[#silent + 1] = key end
+    if not has_theme and wants == 0 and not in_pair[key] then
+        silent[#silent + 1] = key
+    end
 end
 table.sort(silent)
 
-local in_pair = {}
-for _, p in ipairs(data.pairs) do in_pair[p[1]] = true; in_pair[p[2]] = true end
-
 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 -- Report
 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

main.lua

@@ -191,6 +191,34 @@ function JCA.copy_source(card)
     return target, center.blueprint_compat ~= false
 end
 
+-- Ceremonial Dagger is positional too, and it is the dangerous one: when the
+-- blind is selected it DESTROYS the joker to its right and eats twice its sell
+-- value as Mult (card.lua:2945). The card text says so; what it cannot tell you
+-- is *which joker on your board* is about to die. Vanilla skips Eternal jokers,
+-- so an Eternal neighbour is safe.
+--
+-- Returns the joker it will eat (or nil), and whether that joker is safe.
+function JCA.dagger_victim(card)
+    if not (G.jokers and G.jokers.cards and card.config and card.config.center) then
+        return nil
+    end
+    if card.config.center.key ~= 'j_ceremonial' then return nil end
+    local cards, idx = G.jokers.cards, nil
+    for i, c in ipairs(cards) do
+        if c == card then idx = i break end
+    end
+    if not idx then return nil end
+    local target = cards[idx + 1]
+    if not target or not (target.config and target.config.center) then return nil end
+
+    local eternal = target.ability and target.ability.eternal
+    if SMODS and SMODS.is_eternal then
+        local ok, res = pcall(SMODS.is_eternal, target, card)
+        if ok then eternal = res end
+    end
+    return target, not not eternal
+end
+
 -- Sell advisor: on a full board, the owned joker contributing the least
 -- total synergy to the rest is the natural cut when something better shows
 -- up. Returns nil when slots are free, the board is tiny, or every joker
@@ -434,10 +462,11 @@ local function tooltip_rows(card)
     local caution = in_buy_area(card) and JCA.cautions[key]
     if caution then text_row('Caution: ' .. caution, G.C.RED) end
 
-    -- Copy jokers: say what this one is copying RIGHT NOW. The board order decides
+    -- Positional jokers: say what this one is doing to its neighbour RIGHT NOW.
-    -- it, and a Blueprint in the wrong slot is a dead card that looks fine. This is
+    -- The board order decides it, so only an owned joker has an answer. These are
-    -- an explanation, not a verdict, so learning mode keeps it.
+    -- explanations, not verdicts, so learning mode keeps them.
     if card.area == G.jokers then
+        -- Copy jokers. A Blueprint in the wrong slot is a dead card that looks fine.
         local target, copyable = JCA.copy_source(card)
         if not target then
             if COPIERS[key] then
@@ -451,6 +480,20 @@ local function tooltip_rows(card)
         else
             text_row('Copying ' .. name_of(target.config.center.key), G.C.GREEN)
         end
+
+        -- Ceremonial Dagger. This one is about to eat a joker, permanently, at the
+        -- next blind — worth shouting about while there is still time to reorder.
+        local victim, safe = JCA.dagger_victim(card)
+        if victim then
+            local vname = name_of(victim.config.center.key)
+            if safe then
+                text_row(vname .. ' is Eternal - the blade cannot eat it', G.C.GREEN)
+            else
+                text_row('WILL DESTROY ' .. vname .. ' at the next blind', G.C.RED)
+            end
+        elseif key == 'j_ceremonial' then
+            text_row('Nothing to its right - the blade goes hungry', G.C.GREEN)
+        end
     end
 
     -- Sell advisor verdict (owned jokers only; suppressed in learning mode

synergies.lua

@@ -239,6 +239,25 @@ local PAIRS = {
     -- two red + two black cards fill the pot. It is a top-tier combo, and this
     -- mod used to warn against it.
     {'j_smeared',       'j_flower_pot',      'any 2 red + 2 black fill it'},
+
+    -- Burglar zeroes discards_left for the whole run (card.lua:2905). That is a
+    -- disaster for nine jokers (see CLASHES) but a gift to the two that are
+    -- PUNISHED by discarding -- same shape as the Burglar + Mystic Summit pair.
+    -- Ramen is the sharper one: it decays x0.01 per discarded card and is
+    -- DESTROYED when it reaches x1 (SMODS.destroy_cards, card.lua:3175). No
+    -- discards means it never decays and never dies.
+    {'j_burglar',       'j_ramen',           'no discards, no decay'},
+    {'j_burglar',       'j_green_joker',     'no discards, only gains'},
+
+    -- Erosion pays per card MISSING from the deck (starting_deck_size -
+    -- #G.playing_cards, card.lua:4318), and Trading Card permanently destroys the
+    -- card it discards (remove = true, card.lua:3214). Thinning the deck is
+    -- exactly what Erosion is paid for.
+    {'j_trading',       'j_erosion',         'destroyed cards feed Erosion'},
+
+    -- Flash Card gains Mult per shop reroll; Chaos the Clown hands you a free one
+    -- every shop. Both jokers were inert in this database until now.
+    {'j_chaos',         'j_flash',           'free rerolls grow Flash Card'},
 }
 
 -- Known traps: pairs that actively hurt each other. Warning-only — they
@@ -280,6 +299,12 @@ local CLASHES = {
     -- Splash makes every played card score, so a face card that used to be a
     -- harmless kicker now lands in the scoring hand and resets the counter.
     {'j_splash',       'j_ride_the_bus', 'any played face card resets it'},
+
+    -- Erosion is the mirror image of card_gen: it pays per card MISSING from the
+    -- deck, so every joker that permanently ADDS one shrinks its Mult for good.
+    {'j_erosion',      'j_dna',         'added cards shrink its Mult'},
+    {'j_erosion',      'j_marble',      'each Stone shrinks its Mult'},
+    {'j_erosion',      'j_certificate', 'added cards shrink its Mult'},
 }
 
 -- Per-joker cautions for the buy-area tooltip: the joker is fine on its

test.lua

@@ -302,6 +302,28 @@ eq(copyable, false, 'and flags that vanilla will not copy it (blueprint_compat)'
 local fine = field('j_blueprint', 'j_baron')
 eq(select(2, JCA.copy_source(fine[1])), true, 'a copyable target reports as copyable')
 
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+section('Engine: Ceremonial Dagger names its victim')
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+-- It destroys the joker to its RIGHT at the next blind, permanently.
+local dagger = field('j_baron', 'j_ceremonial', 'j_mime')
+local victim, safe = JCA.dagger_victim(dagger[2])
+eq(victim, dagger[3], 'it names the joker on its right as the victim')
+eq(safe, false, 'and an ordinary joker is not safe from it')
+
+field('j_baron', 'j_mime', 'j_ceremonial')
+eq(JCA.dagger_victim(G.jokers.cards[3]), nil, 'a rightmost Dagger eats nothing')
+
+field('j_ceremonial', 'j_baron')
+eq(JCA.dagger_victim(G.jokers.cards[2]), nil, 'a non-Dagger has no victim')
+
+-- Vanilla refuses to slice Eternal jokers, so the advisor must not cry wolf.
+local eternal = field('j_ceremonial', 'j_baron')
+eternal[2].ability = {eternal = true}
+local _, is_safe = JCA.dagger_victim(eternal[1])
+eq(is_safe, true, 'an Eternal neighbour is reported as safe')
+
 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 section('Engine: the sell advisor weighs clashes')
 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------