Compared to launch Gold Stake is MUCH better.. Except the -1 Discard.

I feel like this Stake alone causes absolutely nothing but frustration. I have gotten gold stake on all decks, some are easier than others of course but the only real constant amongst them is that I lose 40% of my runs to simply getting RNG'd on.

I understand that the CORE of this game is a random card game, I get it. But I genuinely feel like this Stake effect is purely worse gameplay. If you don't find a joker that can get you through the first Two or Three Ante's I pretty much just reset at that point. The sticker system also makes that annoying to deal with but these can be played around and is genuinely interesting.

Getting to Ante three with a half decent joker and still loosing because of your pitiful two discards didn't provide you with what you needed just feels like a waste of everyone's time, every time.

However, I understand that for fun sake, I could just play red deck which nullifies the effect of the Stake entirely. Here is the thing though, With red deck, I have about a 50% win rate in Gold stake. I know I am not alone in this either, The instant you get a discard voucher, or any additional discards the run becomes infinitely more salvageable.

I don't want this Stake to simply disappear since that would make Gold stake so much easier. The problem comes from the fact that the ONLY reason why Gold stake feels as hard as it does is from this RNG non avoidable run killer that doesn't feel like YOU made a mistake, you were simply told that this run dies now. Just wasting your time.

What kind of ideas would you have to replace this Ante while maintaining the difficulty of Gold Stake?