3 balls no buy ins.

I have all my games on 3 ball and have never seen any wizard mode on any of them.

5 balls for me until I can get there

Too me, if its done on 5 balls than it comes with an asterisk. 3 balls but with extra balls turned on should be the standard. Extra bragging rights for 3 balls with extra balls turned off.

The general consensus is 3 balls with a max of 3 earned extra balls. No buy ins. That being said, 99.99% of the pinball population will never see wiz modes like Valinor or SDMEWM on those settings.

If someone is struggling to reach a relatively easy wiz mode (T3, Spidey), I would suggest other things first before going to 5 balls or buy ins. Decrease the rake, close the outlanes, change game settings, loosen tilt, replace white rubbers with black, don't wax the playfield, things like that.

Even at 3 balls, just getting to the wiz mode doesn't necessarily impress me. Lots of other factors to consider (see above). Getting to a wiz mode in A division at PAPA might impress me, but otherwise, I'm going to need to see you play to tell if you're a good player. I've been to the Gauntlet a few times (doubt many here even know what game that is), but always on games with very easy settings (floaty, loose tilt) and factory default 5 extra balls max. I'm not a great player. Decent, but not great.