Well-Laid Plans: what are the good combos to use?

[Goblin King]

I keep reading good things about Well-Laid Plans, but in all my Silent decks it has been pretty useless.

The issue is that I never got a good combo with Silent, all her cards work ok by themselves but don't really benefit from being played together.

For example Poison cards don't perform better if played in the same turn, and there are few combos with the Shivs.

Maybe I'm missed out something?

EDIT: I was under the misconception that Well-Laid Plans reduced the number of cards drawn at the start of the turn. That is not the case. Now I get why it is such as good card!

[DJDiceZ]

Yes. It can combo. It doesn't need to, though, because the incredible utility and control it gives over your deck and hand is enough. Having more cards to choose from in a turn is always better, and well laid plans allows you to set up such turns.

Poison cards don't perform better if played in the same turn. But maybe you don't have the energy to play all of your poison card in a turn and you don't want to cycle through your whole deck to get the cards again. Maybe the enemy is attacking and you'd rather defend but that important card you couldn't play this turn can be retained for the next.

Got a block card but the enemy is doing nothing aside from preparing an attack? Well, maybe it'd be nice to save it for the next turn.

Hold onto a piercing wail until you really need it for a multihit attack. Wait for the very best turn to apply catalyst, not too early, not too late, so you don't run the risk of not drawing it on the right turn. Holding onto Bane until you have poison. Your expensive cards until you have energy. Discard related cards until you draw their synergies. Blur for when you know you can stack block. Calculated Gamble for a free hand reroll any time you need it. Hold onto finisher and an attack to set it up. Flechette and a skill for the perfect turn. Heel hook and weak on the right turn. Holding onto Skewer with Ice Cream. Making sure Time Eater doesn't reduce your hand down to 4 cards.

Playing Adrenaline, Alchemize, Bullet Time, Burst, Grand Finale, Nightmare, Phantasmal Killer, Storm of Steel, Wraith Form on the right turn. Timing. Set up. Energy Management. Keeping a discard card if you have a curse so you can discard it anytime it shows up. Many niche situations like those.

And as i've said before, the obvious, keeping attacks for when you know you're gonna need attacks, and block for when you know you're gonna need block.

You won't always have enough energy to play all your cards, or enough cards to use all of your energy, and WLP balances that out.

There's just so many good reasons for WLP. You might not always want to pick it over other cards, but you'll almost NEVER have a good reason to skip it, aside from already having one.

[DuckSonata]

Basically, it lets you plan across turns, for those runs where your deck isn't so good that you just always draw whatever you need on every single turn.

[Goblin King]

Originally posted by faceplant712:

Basically, it lets you plan across turns, for those runs where your deck isn't so good that you just always draw whatever you need on every single turn.

Obviously I play my best cards first, meaning I'm left with average to poor cards at the end of my turn.

What's the point in carrying over a crappy card?

Chances are, what I will draw next turn will be better.

[STORYXAN]

As Dice said, you don't always have the energy to play all your good cards. Imagine you have a crippling cloud and a bouncing flask with only 3 energy. Some good cards don't want to be played as soon as possible either. Wraith form comes to mind. Also, holding on to a strike means you don't have to draw it again, basically drawing you a card.

[Gentlest Giant]

Originally posted by Guillaume:

What's the point in carrying over a crappy card?

Chances are, what I will draw next turn will be better.

What defines a crappy card varies on context. A whole lot. Context changes from one turn to the next, due to enemy intents, relic interactions, other cards present, etc.
As such, there will be a huge variety of circumstances that require different tools. An attack that deals 200 damage for 3 energy is pretty bad when you can't kill the enemy and they attack for 45 damage. It's pretty good next turn when you only get attacked for 21 and can cover that with cheap cards you know you will draw.

I don't think I can explain it better than DJDice already did though.

[DuckSonata]

Originally posted by Guillaume:

Originally posted by faceplant712:

Basically, it lets you plan across turns, for those runs where your deck isn't so good that you just always draw whatever you need on every single turn.

Obviously I play my best cards first, meaning I'm left with average to poor cards at the end of my turn.

What's the point in carrying over a crappy card?

Chances are, what I will draw next turn will be better.

Ok, trolldar is going off a little here, but let's proceed in good faith anyway. First, which cards are "best" changes from turn to turn depending on what the enemies are doing. And unless your deck is extremely homogeneous, not every shuffle is going to give you that perfect balance of 2-3 "good" cards per turn (which, again, is a label they need to luck into based on enemy intent).

You can't just expect every turn to be average. Some are unusually good, and some are unusually bad. Well-laid Plans lets you transfer some of the overflow from the good turns to the bad turns.

The ability to retain a card also affects what's optimal play. When you know that you're going to discard anything you don't use, then it's correct to just play all the high impact cards. But if you know you can save 1 or 2, then sometimes it's correct to not play them. For instance, you could use Immolate on turn 1 to kill Reptomancer's 2 starting daggers, or you could hold it and play it on turn 2 where it will also kill the 2 more that she just summoned.

Finally, there is in fact a reason to carry over a crappy card, like a Wound or a Slime: to remove it from the next cycle.

[Gentlest Giant]

Originally posted by PsychoDino:

caltrops

Caltrops?

[Spawnling]

Originally posted by Guillaume:

Originally posted by faceplant712:

Basically, it lets you plan across turns, for those runs where your deck isn't so good that you just always draw whatever you need on every single turn.

Obviously I play my best cards first, meaning I'm left with average to poor cards at the end of my turn.

What's the point in carrying over a crappy card?

Chances are, what I will draw next turn will be better.

You don't draw less cards, e.g. holding onto a crappy card means you wont reshuffle them into your draw pile, thus increasing chances that the cards you draw are better ones.

Holding onto nightmare until you draw catalyst, hold catalyst, play 4 catalyst(+) next turn, killing every boss even if you have low poison on it. (Increases posion * 81 on a single turn, prevents champ or time eater from entering stage 2.)
Or just keep catalyst in hand until you have stacked up enough poison.

Snecko Eye: Got any 0 cost block cards you don't need this turn? Keep em.

It's also essential if you ever want to play a Grand Finale deck. Once you draw it, hold onto it until your draw pile is empty.

[DaBa]

Any card that you frequently need at a specific point and you don't want to draw too early. There's quite a lot of those: Catalyst, Burst, Wraith form, finisher, most block cards etc. The list goes on.

Also, looking at it from another angle, well laid plans essentially guarantees you get a specific card each turn, without lowering your draw. So it's like an extra draw each turn, that gives you a guaranteed card. That sounds like a really good prospect.

[Goblin King]

Originally posted by Spawnling:

You don't draw less cards, e.g. holding onto a crappy card means you wont reshuffle them into your draw pile, thus increasing chances that the cards you draw are better ones.

Oh wow!

All this time, I thought holding onto cards reduced your draw! So I thought holding on to two cards meant you only drew three!

Now that I've been corrected, I can really see the potential of this card! Beside the 10 cards hand limit, there is basically no downsides to holding on cards!

[DJDiceZ]

On top of everything that's been said already we could come up with even more situations. Got infinite blade? Generating a kunai every turns? Now you can keep up to 2 around (or more if you have more wlps) to use them on a turn a boss isn't blocking a massive ammount to the point where using them is useless, and not using them clogs up your draw pile later.

Got a good aoe? Maybe you want to keep it for when Gremlin Leader/Collector/Reptomancer is summoning those minions.

There's still more.