People always want to say that Obelisk is supposedly a “good” joker, but calling a joker “good” is less reliant on how strong it is individually, but how consistently it leads to winning runs when you get it during a run. Blueprint and Brainstorm? Essentially grant free wins on the basis of just being a copy of your best joker. Mime, arguably the best non-copy joker in the game, gives score, jokers synergy, Econ, and hand levels, all while allowing you to play the easiest possible hand type. Constellation and Hologram are easy to scale xMult with minimal setup to use and minimal downside (Hologram only has a downside when going past ante 8). Card Sharp is essentially conditionless xMult.

Obelisk doesn’t have these. It’s inconsistent in a very best case scenario. The first scenario in which it’s usable is getting it early so know you’re setting up for it and to keep a hand level unplayed while playing another one. Your second scenario is just needing to be lucky that how you’ve been playing during this run aligns with Obelisk when you find it in ante 6 or 7 (I know, shut up). If you are in any ante prior to the second scenario, it’s title of “fastest scaling xMult” doesn’t matter because you’ll have enough time to scale any other xMult option enough or you’ll run out of hands for Obelisk. These are pretty lucky conditions to settle on. 

The worst part about this is that these are identical to Baron, yet Baron gets flak all the time for being bad in Ante 1 because it’s a paper weight that simply provides temperance value. The second scenario for Obelisk is actually worse than Baron because Baron only relies on how you’re probably already fixing your deck anyways (Kings) while Obelisk replies on a specific hand setup while also having a significantly lower score ceiling.

Obelisk is like Baron’s cousin who’s somehow gaslit everyone that he’s better than Baron by making everyone who likes him feel like they’re some super intellectual. They’re both just as situational, that being very, and not super usable in the average use case, especially for Gold Stake. 

Obelisk \*can\* be good, but in the same way that every joker has the potential to win a run, so does Obelisk, it’s potential is just very low in the average case because it’s so situational. Baron in comparison has the same potential as Obelisk but is significantly more powerful and easy to use. Obelisk not an F-tier joker, but it’s not some hidden S-tier gem that no one knowns about. It’s a mid to low tier joker that can occasionally win but is subpar when compared to other available options for scaling xMult or easy to use normal xMult.

Obelisk is not “Good”