Prepared card is dangerous and useless

[Amenophys]

With or without its bonus, the prepared card is useless.

Without upgrade, this card is actually an handicap. With upgrade it is just useless.

Why?

When you play this card in its basic version, it draws a card and allows you to discard one. Then it discards itself. So you are down a card, from 5 to 4, and it did not help at all.

Because instead of using Prepared to draw that one card you need, you could actually have NOT TAKEN Prepared and you would not only have this useful card in hand, but also be up to 5 cards!

Prepared+? Same kinds of issues: as it discards itself it lets you down to 4 cards. However because it allows you to redraw/discard 2 cards it actually permits to "rearrange" the hand but at the cost of 1 slot card which could have been used to draw if not for Prepared, so you only benefit the rearrange effect for 1 single card in your hand!

You would actually have to give me gold to pick up this card in any deck!!

[Xiarn]

It serves its purpose as a free filter/cycle at the cost of a draw, and an enabler for the "on discard" cards. Unless you're playing your whole hand every turn, why not turn bad/mediocre cards into better suited ones for that turn?

Honestly, discard is rarely a drawback.

[Amenophys]

Originally posted by Xiarn:

It serves its purpose as a free filter/cycle at the cost of a draw, and an enabler for the "on discard" cards. Unless you're playing your whole hand every turn, why not turn bad/mediocre cards into better suited ones for that turn?

Honestly, discard is rarely a drawback.

I admit that the only benefit is that it discards and can be used to discard curses or burns or with relics on discard. But it should never be used primarily to draw extra cards and rearrange the hand, because this mechanic does not work.

Considering it takes a useful slot and the very few use cases, I would say it is trash unless you have a specific discard deck.

[Xiarn]

I don't understand your issue then. It does what it does, it's not really "draw", and I've used it as a filter to my benefit plenty of times. IMO the card is fine as long as you don't run more than 2. There are exceptions to this, of course.

[jacobpaige]

It's also an enabler for running situational cards that have no real value in many fights, especially once it's upgraded.

[r-cane]

Well it's mainly to work together with discard decks and to get rid of curses. It serves that purpose mediocre/well in its base/upgraded form. If you arent planning on using discard synergies and aren't running a curse heavy deck just dont pick it. There's a reason why you can always decide not to pick a card.

[Player 2]

Your point would be pretty good.....if there werent enemy types that flood your deck with ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.


Prepared is a filter card. Every run you will have games where your hand is too biased towards defense or attack, or filled with burns/wounds/dazed. If only there were cards that did a good job of addressing those fights.

Oh, right.

[JellyPuff]

It's almost a staple on my silent runs, mostly because it's a 0-cost skill with great synergy potential.

On it's own, it's a great card to cycle through your deck for free. Worst case scenario is, that it does nothing.

[Flinch]

In a vaccuum it isn't particularly good, though filtering useless cards into potentially useful cards is ok. In a discard deck or in combination with after-image it becomes pretty good. Pretty simple solution, don't pick it up if you aren't going combo.

[Serell]

Smart enough to see that Prepared is card disadvantage, but not smart enough to see the importance of cycling your deck.

[iangoth]

As other have mentioned, it's good for discard combos and getting rid of curses/burns, but also, the Silent has some cards that benefit from just spamming as many cards as possible, like Thousand Cuts, and Prepared is useful there. But yeah, you shouldn't take Prepared just because it's available. It's not a free cycle, like, say, Escape Plan.

[Daemon]

Well besides the discard synergy cards and relics and getting rid of curses and statuses as others have mentioned, prepared serves as a 0 energy way for combo decks to dig for their cards. If you have a deck that revolves around key cards like bullet time or wants to get thousand cuts active as soon as possible this card is great.

[Amenophys]

Originally posted by Daemon:

Well besides the discard synergy cards and relics and getting rid of curses and statuses as others have mentioned, prepared serves as a 0 energy way for combo decks to dig for their cards. If you have a deck that revolves around key cards like bullet time or wants to get thousand cuts active as soon as possible this card is great.

I am detailing in the OP exactly why this logic is flawed.

[iangoth]

Originally posted by Amenophys:

Originally posted by Daemon:

Well besides the discard synergy cards and relics and getting rid of curses and statuses as others have mentioned, prepared serves as a 0 energy way for combo decks to dig for their cards. If you have a deck that revolves around key cards like bullet time or wants to get thousand cuts active as soon as possible this card is great.

I am detailing in the OP exactly why this logic is flawed.

He's right that the upgraded version lets you dig further into your deck. It turns a hand of 5 into "draw 6, keep 4," which could be preferable in certain circumstances. Putting combos together is one case, and another is when the quality of your deck is poor.

[Thrax]

It is extremely useful to have 2 or so Prepared+ in decks that filter. it is a common that if I get I always upgrade. Combine it with Calculated Gamble + and Acrobatics +, you can reliably rotate a deck several times. You can discard wounds, curses, and unneeded cards.
If you get lucky on some relics you can deal damage and get block from discarding, tons of synergy with zero cost and cards that also let you draw.

One thing I have noticed about this game is that I will look at a card and go, meh. It seems a bit under the curve, or too situational. But the more I play, I see more synergies and strategies. Some cards are pretty weak, but when you upgrade them they are game changers.

Originally posted by Serell:

Smart enough to see that Prepared is card disadvantage, but not smart enough to see the importance of cycling your deck.

Yeah, proper cycling can lead to card advantage. Before I had massive trouble getting decent draw power playing red. I undervalued things like pommel bash, Warcry, and battle trance because of either appearing lack luster, exhausting, or putting limits on draw. Then I realized Pommel Bash + gave 2 draw, and did decent damage for 1 cost. That Warcry could set up a draw for next turn, get me a card this turn, and thin my deck, and that Battle Trance being free and drawing cards was better than no draw at all.

The more I play the less useless any of the cards seem.

[Serell]

Cards are a resource, and in most card games, cards that result in card disadvantage are pretty bad. But when you discard and draw a new hand every turn, suddenly card disadvantage isn't such a big draw back.

Originally posted by iangoth:

Originally posted by Amenophys:

I am detailing in the OP exactly why this logic is flawed.

He's right that the upgraded version lets you dig further into your deck. It turns a hand of 5 into "draw 6, keep 4," which could be preferable in certain circumstances. Putting combos together is one case, and another is when the quality of your deck is poor.

Draw 6, keep 4, is preferable 99% of the time.