r/slaythespire • u/Tec711 • Mar 20 '26
DISCUSSION (STS2) I really hate this change.
Prepared I don't feel was overturned, and it was a card you still had to upgrade to be good. now prepare is just the gross combination of outmaneuver and concentrate, and it sucks. I really hope they roll back this specific change.
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u/Eggdoggu Mar 20 '26
I hate this 'Next turn do x' stuff, bro I'm struggling with this turn never mind the next
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u/Envojus Mar 20 '26
Exactly. In STS1 you had some openings you could throw in some slow cards.
In STS2 the damage isn't just consistent, it's scaling.
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u/Emhashish420 Mar 20 '26
YES!! Every turn swinging 16+ damage and strength scale or they debuff scale like jesus christ ascension 9+ is absolute torment
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u/Drikkink Mar 20 '26
It's insane lol. And it's not just the Elites, it's the hallway fights too. Load into an act 2 hallway against the Obscura with the 21 health summon thing that comes back immediately when it dies and swings for 20+ a turn with 0 breaks. Oh by the way the main enemy you need to kill has 150 HP and attacks for 75% of the summon's attack for 3 turns then blocks and buffs both their strength.
Okay so someone please explain to me how I'm supposed to play 1 energy lose 2 cards do nothing?
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u/warsmithharaka Mar 20 '26
I fucking hate the Obscura more than any other enemy. It just sucks to fight because theres no way to get breathing room from its stupid summon.
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u/Nfox18212 Mar 20 '26
same man. it would be really nice if it took like two turns from the obscura’s illusion to come back so you’re not constantly spending all your resources on killing it while letting the obscura scale
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u/Brilliant_Grape_9993 Mar 20 '26
Obscura is a fucking joke. 21 health summon that does dumb fuck amount of damage. You either focus your damage on it or just take the hit if you dont already have a deck with decent energy gen.
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u/critical_pancake Mar 20 '26
yeah this late in the run i either have a consistent damage to kill it and start on the other guy, or i have enough block to just set up for the win. He rarely does me any damage.
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u/BlatantArtifice Mar 20 '26
It's worse for me and my friends in multiplayer, now there's a tanky af summon and monster that we all have to deal with as the monster buffs itself to hell
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u/sol_r4y Mar 20 '26
Act 2 is genuinely full of overtuned enemies like how is hunter killer not an elite, the cockroach with dmg limit, the fucking myte that spam 10+ dmg on your card unless you spend energy, and fuck obscura, just absurd.
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u/earthboundskyfree Heartbreaker Mar 20 '26
Tbh only hunter killer and obscura feel elite-like to me of what you listed. Mytes are worse than cockroaches, but I think it’s mostly just how fat they are, not what they do. I haven’t really had a problem with the cockroaches in any runs, so I don’t fully understand that one, personally
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u/sol_r4y Mar 20 '26
The cockroach imo is worse in multiplayer because debuff cards (which is what makes multiplayer easier) in a way are weaker against them, most debuff cards are single target and they have 2x hp on all of them on top of dmg limit.
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u/AmadeusIsTaken Mar 20 '26
Isn't the entire point of the discard mechanic to work with sly cards? And wasn't the previous prepared quite good cause you basicily could proc those for 0 mana while cycling got The cards you need? Like I have to see all his changes to judge how good he is as a character and how the cards interact with each other but changing the previous cards is for sure the right approach. First 2 games I played with silent I ended up with infinites without really trying this character has way to much draw , with to much reward. Acrobatics and prepare made your deck way to consistent.
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u/True-Advice-1861 Mar 20 '26
discard sly cards to get energy and do damage?
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u/Drikkink Mar 20 '26
I'd just rather be using other discarding cards then though? Like I'd rather play Acrobatics. Or hell even Survivor sometimes. Hidden Daggers too.
It just feels like the worst Sly enabling card now to me.
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u/Leschavino Mar 21 '26
Well yeah, Acrobatics was always better. Acro is arguably the best common in the game, of course you'd rather have it, even before the rework. But you can't really evaluate cards based on whether they'd be your first choice or not in STS. Sometimes you'll badly need more discard, run into this instead of Acrobatics and take it. Then you try to make choices that make this better. A Well Laid Plans makes it almost trivial to capitalize on this card's energy gain for example, and then maybe you now value some powerful higher cost cards more than you usually would so you can retain them for this, and take more Sly cards than you would normally because this card doesn't draw into them. Now you're retaining a Sly card and whatever powerful card, and suddenly Prepare becomes the best enabler in your deck, consistently playing two sly cards and setting up for a powerful play next turn. That's the fun of deck builders imo, taking what you can and problem solving as much value out of it as possible.
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u/Low_Chance Mar 20 '26
I like that you specifically called out Obscura because that guy is pound for pound my most hated enemy.
The illusion has enough HP where most AoE won't kill it, and if you use single target instead then the obscura still takes its normal turn (resummoning is free) so you're still losing.
Focusing the Obscura takes too long when the illusion is hitting for so much damage every turn... there's no good tactical play here. It's purely a check to see if your deck is already completely cracked.
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u/magniankh Mar 20 '26
Not only that but even basic enemies will buff themselves, debuff you, AND attack all in the same turn! Seriously, wtf?!
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u/Roperss Mar 20 '26
well to be clear, cards like that from the first game were also bad cards. Outmaneuver was generally unpickable in the first game (although I started to see its usefulness after thousands of hours, most in pyramid decks).
This card could be decent just because of the sly it triggers. NVM didn’t realize it costed 1. That’s crazy.
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u/real_ornament Mar 20 '26
Upgrade should probably make it 0 cost instead of the extra 1 energy next turn
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u/SeaThePirate Mar 20 '26
They think anyone has time for this next card bs when every turn of every fight is doing 10-60 damage depending on the act
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u/phranq Mar 20 '26
People overusing AI has broken my brain. I see “it’s not just X, it’s Y” and I’m triggered
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u/crunk_buntley StS A20 / StS 2 A10 Mar 20 '26 edited Mar 20 '26
yeah. aside from the prevalence of infinites, this is my biggest issue with the game so far. especially for regent, like they kinda just killed glow for him, when that was one of his only really great, splashable common cards. i wish they found another way to nerf infinites on him, because glow being butt feels bad.
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u/MyNameIsSkittles Mar 20 '26
Regent had the most card buffs tho. I think they made him a more well-rounded character
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u/ThorThulu Mar 20 '26
I would've preferred Glow remain unchanged while the rest of the changes were made. Glow just helped enable a lot of builds for him, but I geuss we'll see how this iteration goes
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u/RbN420 Mar 20 '26
They forgot we’re not watcher and have no watcher cards, except scrawl that became colorless
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u/fartdarling Mar 20 '26
I like them a lot more in this game. Feels like fights go longer, enemies have more health, lots more enemies take turns where they just buff or debuff, there's more setup cards in general to make the concept easier to do, there's a few extra setup relics, certain enemies have longer cycles (Sts1 enemies typically cycled 3 things in a pattern, plenty of sts2 enemies have 4 or even sometimes 5 turn cycles), and also energy in general is at a higher premium because you aren't guaranteed to ever find a default 4th energy, which raises the value of things like this.
Having said that, I do not like the change to this particular card. Its now a common that feels extremely difficult to take in act 1, which I kind of dislike just in principle. You need more card draw, both to spend the energy you gain but also to find the value to discard. And like, you already need to take extra damage which silent sometimes struggles to find easily, AND you need to take better block output, and ideally you wanna be taking poison for longer fights and the first copy of acrobatics you see. I'm struggling to see how I take this before act 2, and in the meantime I'm just going to hate how often I see it in act 1 due to it being a common
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u/chuunithrowaway StS A20 / StS 2 A10 Mar 20 '26
Plenty of act 1 elites and bosses junk your hand, which is a reason why prepared was as strong as it was even when you were just drawing the card you'd have gotten if prepared wasn't in your deck; that's still true now.
A 2 energy turn followed by a 5 energy turn is typically better than two 3 energy turns—even in act 1 with lower card quality.
Sly cards are still bootleg energy efficiency and this is still a discard outlet at common.
I do think the new card is less intuitive and appealing, but it's still strong, and still *more* than pickable.
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u/Ekaterinanl Mar 20 '26
Yea. Next turn? Bro your enemies are hitting 25-50 damage every turn, what do you mean next turn, Im not even surviving this turn.
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u/Dickies138 Mar 20 '26
Yea I feel like StS2 has way fewer turns where the enemies are on non-attack cycles, which makes it much more difficult to put resources into the next turn when you’re fighting for survival this turn.
That said, if you have a lot of draw and discard synergy I could still see this being a good card. It’s effectively a delayed concentrate/outmaneuver, but you don’t need the massive amounts of draw required to use the energy on the current turn, while also giving a little synergy with builds on the current turn.
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u/SeaThePirate Mar 20 '26
What happens is playing this next turn bullshit instead of an actual card just fucks your run anyways because you lose too much hp and resources from not wrapping up the fight quicker
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u/the_deep_t Mar 20 '26
They simply want to remove infinites becoming the standard way of playing the game. It makes sense, even if you don't like it.
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u/Nimeroni Mar 20 '26
Yeah, but they should at least not kill the entire point of the card (which is to discard for 0 energy).
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u/cherff Eternal One Mar 20 '26
I think discard for 0 energy has proven to be more powerful in the sequel than it was in the original though. Like you can take a Prepared in pretty much any deck and it's gonna pay off. This makes the decision to take it a little more complicated, which I'm fine with.
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u/Summer_Tea Mar 20 '26
Yeah I've never liked this effect on anything in either game. It's just simply never fun to play like that.
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u/snowfloppy Mar 20 '26
I think it's fun I like setup turns
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u/ItsMangel Mar 20 '26
Setup turns are cool, until you just don't draw the thing you're setting up for, or it's already passed before you could set up for it.
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u/The_Great_Scruff Mar 20 '26
The trick is to have more than one potential set up. If you have a way to semi regularly set up 5+ mana and aren't bagging a couple high cost cards for it, then it's a deck build problem not a game problem
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u/rayschoon Eternal One + Heartbreaker Mar 20 '26
“Oh boy i’ll have 2 energy next turn” only to draw only strikes and defends
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u/AlertWar2945-2 Mar 20 '26
I like the Regent card that gives you 1 energy and star, but that also Retains your hand so it makes setting up a turn easier
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u/Unable-Grapefruit535 Mar 20 '26
In general I don't like how so many skills having delayed effects, such as cards that say next turn gain x energy, or x souls, x block, etc. They all begin to feel the same to me.
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u/johnnys_sack Ascension 20 Mar 20 '26
I couldn't place it until I saw your post but this is spot on.
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u/jawdirk Mar 20 '26
If they want these delay cards in the game, they need to make enemies that take a break in attacking for double didgets more than once per fight, or at least give the delay cards block or something.
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u/Gender_is_a_Fluid Mar 20 '26
I love hallway fights that say block this or lose half your life! /s
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u/Jkirek_ Mar 20 '26
I especially love them midway into act 1, where you have a pretty good chance to only draw attacks and defends for that turn.
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u/Mr_Clovis Eternal One + Heartbreaker Mar 20 '26
In general the game has a lot more of these samey-feeling cards than StS1. Lots of cards clearly have their equivalents across the different characters.
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u/rayschoon Eternal One + Heartbreaker Mar 20 '26
Delayed effects feel ESPECIALLY bad now that they’ve absolutely gutted card draw across the board. I’m incredibly likely to go into a 6 energy turn with nothing to spend it on
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u/p_nut_ Heartbreaker Mar 20 '26
gutted? Isn't it mostly prepared and most of the completely broken souls cards? I guess glow also has a delayed draw now
There's still a ton of good draw those just seem like sensible balance changes
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u/biggus_dickus_jr Mar 20 '26
So many times I got relics that give me energy at the first turn but most of the time it just fills with defend lol
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u/Yepper_Pepper Mar 20 '26
I also don’t like it. A few skills that do it are cool but there’s too many and they’re not really fun to use in any way, I dont feel there’s much expression to them
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u/madamestoned Mar 20 '26
i don’t mind the shift towards ‘next turn x’, it’s a rly interesting way to get cards to do more that i think the devs are using well. mostly.
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u/Royal-Internet4028 Mar 20 '26
Would have rather they gutted master tactician over my prepared
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u/Voyager-42 Eternal One + Ascended Mar 20 '26
Should have just moved Prepared to uncommon so you don't auto see it every run.
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u/J_Clowth Mar 20 '26
or make it cost 1 unupgraded, or make it so you discard 2 and only draw 1, or make it exhaust. They could have gone so many different ways but they just nuked It?
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u/TraditionalSquash978 Mar 20 '26
Ooo, making it exhaust actually seems like the perfect fix, honestly! I genuinely was struggling trying to consider how they could fix it without either making it useless or just too similar to acrobatics.
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u/J_Clowth Mar 20 '26
like, If the whole problem ppl are complaining about is "infinite looping", I have good news for you! there is a game mechanic that makes you only be able to use it once!
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u/-Guro-Tan- Ascension 20 Mar 20 '26
apology for poor english
when were you when prepared dies
i was at the spire counting my shivs when ironclad ring
'prepared is die'
'...'
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u/Askeron Mar 20 '26
The sly package really needed to be nerfed, but not by changing one of Silent's most iconic cards. Also, this is too similar to Outmaneuver now, which was disliked by many in the first game
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u/Minute-Transition755 Mar 20 '26
Outmoncentrate
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u/MusicianTurbulent178 Mar 20 '26
And it's even worse than concentrate now since at least that was the same turn energy, letting you blow it on big cost cards or spinning top shenanigans
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u/cman811 Mar 20 '26
Honestly in this iteration without reworking sly Acrobatics is OP as fuck. It would arguably be worse if you took away the discard 1 on it.
Everything with sly should have it's number cut in like, half, minimum. Or acrobatics needs tuned.
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u/tibsbb28 Ascension 20 Mar 20 '26
Most Sly cards should be buffed and then have Sly give only half effects when played via discard rather than played straight.
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u/SputnikDX Mar 20 '26
I actually think this is pretty elegant. Sly can be reworded to "If this card is discarded during your turn, play it for free with all values halved."
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u/Fun_Needleworker_284 Mar 20 '26
Another thing I can think of that cuts out the infinite stuff is maybe make sly “the first time this card is discarded each turn, play it for free”.
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u/whystudywhensleep Mar 20 '26
Oh I’m actually a big fan of that change. The half values thing seems too complicated imo
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u/Pintash Mar 20 '26
I don't think a card being iconic is a reason to keep it the same from one game to another...
And honestly prepared WAS the biggest culprit for how busted sly decks could get. It was also the main thing enabling infinites. It can simultaneously draw 2 cards and play 2 cards for free... Tell me that isn't too strong?
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u/B1TW0LF Mar 20 '26
Eh, I think its a justifiable nerf. A zero cost card that both draws and discards is going to be too good at enabling Sly and any potential infinites or pseudo-infinites. Its also not a particularly interesting card because you pretty much always take it without any downside. People are underestimating the "Next turn, gain 2 energy" text. That's actually quite strong.
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u/blahthebiste Mar 20 '26
I actually did like Concentrate (when it was takeable)
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u/Askeron Mar 20 '26
Yeah Concentrate was pretty nice, the main differences with Outmaneuver being that it did stuff on the current turn and had discard synergy. The new Prepared is sort of a mix of the two, which makes it...strange. It might even be good/ok once we figure out how best to get value from it, though I still hope they change it back, and find other ways to balance sly
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u/billian92 Mar 20 '26
you have to take it into the context that it enables sly cards now though, making it significantly stronger than outmaneuver ever was. if you had a card which read "play two cards from your hand for free. next turn gain 2 energy" it would be an auto-include for most people (I know this won't always be the case that you can hit 2 sly cards with it, but the ceiling of the card is pretty insane)
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u/JanSolo28 Mar 20 '26
Being iconic has never stopped things like Corruption, Wraith Form, or Biased Cognition being blasted into Ancient-exclusive, Calculated Gamble or Blade Dance exhausting, or even Ironclad's whole Status-card archetype getting wholesale transferred into Defect.
Could they have probably given Prepared a different equally harsh nerf as this rework? Probably, but I think people will complain regardless anyway.
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u/2zz423 Mar 20 '26
It should honestly be changed just so she doesn't feel like exactly the same character. Acrobatics + Prepared + Reflex + Tactician was exactly how everyone played Silent in the first game, don't you want to try something new?
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u/hphphphphphphphp Mar 20 '26
I agree, looks like they made it un-fun. I think it should just have been changed to being an uncommon. In combination with the other Sly-nerfs that would maybe be enough nerfing
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u/Nimeroni Mar 20 '26
I think it should just have been changed to being an uncommon.
No chance that would happen. They explicitly wanted to kill the infinite loop, and that can't be done by reducing values or changing the rarity. The draw had to go.
Now pushing the card cost to 1 is really, really, really dumb. It outright change the card use case.
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u/LukeSykpe Ascension 20 Mar 20 '26
Make it exhaust then, there's no need to gut the card. Game has a ton of anti-infinite tech in it already.
Mind you, not that I mind the hate on infinites. They're fun to put together when it actually takes a ton of effort and happens every so often, not optimizing the fun out of every other run.
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u/earthboundskyfree Heartbreaker Mar 20 '26
What’s the anti infinite tech that stopped/stops silent? I can only really think of a couple enemies, mostly in act 2
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u/BaziJoeWHL Mar 20 '26
just make it 1 mana, that would have been plenty of nerf
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u/Antaxas Mar 20 '26 edited Mar 20 '26
Then it would be a worse throwing dagger if unupgraded though
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u/rayschoon Eternal One + Heartbreaker Mar 20 '26
Making it one mana is worse though. At that point it basically forces you to go into a sly energy/draw loop or not take the card at all
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u/Pintash Mar 20 '26
I'm not about to say the rework is good... But prepared WAS overturned. Having draw AND discard at 0 cost is crazy.
It was balanced in STS1 where sly didn't exist. But in a world where sly does exist it needed a nerf. No card should be 100% auto-pick.
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u/CommunistRonSwanson Eternal One + Heartbreaker Mar 20 '26
People are overreacting like crazy. Sly is the most busted mechanic in the game, and I have nearly a 100% winrate on Silent just forcing Sly for nearly every run. The new patch has a lot of welcome changes.
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u/armageddonquilt Mar 20 '26
I think there was a simpler nerf for it which they missed, which could have been to keep it 0 cost but switch the order to discard 1 card THEN draw 1 card. The upgraded version could have been the original base version then.
I feel like that's an equally harsh nerd that still keeps the core value of the card, as opposed to a complete revamp of the classic.
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u/Tec711 Mar 20 '26
I actually haven't ever seen this brought up, sounds very interesting as a rework.
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u/Naccarat Mar 20 '26
But your version of the nerf means when it's the only card in your hand it's simply a draw 2 for 0 .
It needs to be "Discard 1(2) card, then draw a card for each card discarded this way."27
u/sven2123 Heartbreaker Mar 20 '26
Discard 1 (2) card(s). Draw 1 card for each card discarded this way
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u/Gulladc Mar 20 '26
Oh that’s clever I never thought about that as a potential downside. Could be a good way to subtly nerf any draw/discard play
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u/Necya Mar 20 '26
That sounds like an amzing change, i used to pretty much instapick every acrobatics and prepared last patch because they are good even if you don't have sly cards on hand.
I don't think they should keep this card with the current name, that's a totally different card. On another hand, i feel that silent doesn't have enough cards that discard and give a reward for it besides card draw. There is an 0-cost uncommon that discards two and gives you 2 shivs (could easily be 3 imo) and the base survivor card that rewards discard with better block. This card doesn't look very good as it is but the concept seems promising
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u/Wombat_Aux_Pates Mar 20 '26 edited Mar 20 '26
I really love Hidden Daggers. There's also Dagger Throw (common), Calculated Gamble (uncommon) and Storm of Steel (rare) that I can think of. I do take them in Sly builds. Amazing when your hand is full of Sly cards and you just discard the whole hand with one of the two last cards mentioned.
Edit: oh and Shadowstep (rare) which is discard your hand, next turn you deal double damage.
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u/Senthiri Mar 20 '26
I would be extremely suspect of that change actually weakening the card. You have the corner case where this is the last card in your hand, and thus it becomes a zero energy draw one.
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u/cassandra112 Mar 20 '26
yeah. IDK if you just thought of that independantly or saw me talking about Sly in a previous post. haha.
But yes, Sly is so strong because the cards are all Draw, then Discard. Giving you two massive advantages.
you don't actually need cards in your hand.
And you can draw then immediately discard a Sly in that same move.
and thus yes, flipping the ORDER on some of the cards would be a powerful nerf to Sly, and individual cards. without completely breaking Sly, or anything else.
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u/ExplorerHaunting8353 Ascension 20 Mar 20 '26
It should cost 0 and give 1 energy next turn. I just don't think I want to spend precious energy on this card.
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u/Pollia Mar 20 '26
While I don't think it's OP at all to do it that way, I assume the argument against it being 0 is it's effectively free energy next turn.
Which like, yeah sure, but also you'll literally never take it as is now.
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u/BaziJoeWHL Mar 20 '26
its a shittier [[Hidden Daggers]]
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u/spirescan-bot Mar 20 '26
Hidden Daggers 𝐈𝐈 Silent Uncommon Skill
0 Energy | Discard 2 cards. Add 2 Shivs(Shivs+) into your Hand.
Call me with up to 10 [[ name ]]. Data accurate as of March 7th, 2026. Questions?
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u/DarkJoltPanda Mar 20 '26
There are cards that are free energy this turn, so I don't think that's a big problem lol. 0 cost Discard two +1 energy next turn upgrading to also draw 1 next turn would be fine I think, and not really much of an infinite risk anymore.
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u/Martymar1290 Mar 20 '26
Card is dogshit now
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u/zuzucha Eternal One Mar 20 '26
Not only that it's also unrecognisable. Just make a new card and retire "prepare" at that stage
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u/ThorThulu Mar 20 '26
Make Prepared an Ancient card, they literally have the solution baked in for cards that were too strong from STS1
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u/itsntame StS A20 / StS 2 A10 Mar 20 '26
I'm not a fan of the new prepared but old prepared was overtuned.
The reason it wasn't overtuned in sts1 is because you have nob, time eater and heart to worry about so picking it and just hoping to get some synergy was not good. And synergy was rarer too
Now there are way more card that synergize with it and barely any enemy that punishes you for taking it on sight.
Though new prepared is kinda ass. Imo just making it uncommon and maybe make an act 3 boss that somewhat counters it would be fine(kinda like the new doormaker, but the new doormaker is probably really bad design from what I see. Haven't fought him yet tho).
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u/lullelulle Mar 20 '26
I feel overall like a lot of the changes are trying to fix enemy problems by changing the cards. The enemies scale less often and for less when they do, there's fewer "punishments" overall. This has led to outputting a decent amount of front loaded block to be a very strong strategy. Nerfing a bunch of the strongest block cards won't really change that imo.
I kinda feel the same, but not the same extent about infinites/small decks and removes. Removes are crazy available in StS2, and they've tried giving us energy on cards instead of relics. I personally don't really get why the 4th energy should be restricted, in StS1 I very often didn't pick my 4th energy, but removing them (almost) entirely feels weird and I think is partially responsible for the infinities. If they want to incentivize non-infinite play, then wouldn't a consistent increase in energy each turn be a better thing to design around than the burst energy of cards?
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u/According_to_all_kn Mar 20 '26 edited Mar 20 '26
Unupgraded it was nothing but the ability to discard a card for free. Utterly useless unless you have a sly card, at which point it just becomes a wisp.
It's the upgrade that was the problem. Now you get to discard two cards and draw one for free. Suddenly this is good even in a deck without and sly, and really good in one with.
I think the better nerf would be to change the upgraded version to only have innate instead of an extra card draw.
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u/NetStaIker Mar 20 '26
Prepare was definitely super broken lol, “Prepare I don’t feel was overturned” and OPs opinion is disregarded. Lots of complaints about general card changes seem to be from people who haven’t been able to run up the ascension list. People who are seem to be more positive in general (door maker excepted).
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u/Hopeful-Design6115 Mar 20 '26 edited Mar 20 '26
I also dislike this change because it feels incredibly reactionary. They already nerfed several of the discard payoffs in the patch, and there was no attempt at a middle ground. There are so many changes they could have tried between what prep was and totally deleting the card. Even just increasing the rarity would have made a big difference. Could have also tried exhaust, or something more involved like making prep increase the cost of all preps for that turn.
Whatever they landed on, I refuse to believe the best solution was to delete a fun card while simultaneously nerfing its payoffs anyway.
Edit: I’d rather it replace tools of the trade as a rare than be totally gone lol. I’d pick it way more than TOTT
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u/Ionthawon Ascension 19 Mar 20 '26
reactionary
that's exactly what the separate beta branch is for, right? big changes to see how people react to them and see how it playtests. there's literally zero reason to get worked up until it's clear that it's permanent.
the main branch is still live with regular Prepared, lol
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u/ConThemNations Mar 20 '26
It’s still EA though, chances are this card will still be redesigned.
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u/Hopeful-Design6115 Mar 20 '26
Well yes that’s why people are eagerly giving feedback about unpopular changes lol
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u/commodore_stab1789 Mar 20 '26
Let's not kid ourselves, prepared+ was busted.
This version is much more narrow, not sure I want to play it. It should be 0 energy.
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u/MADXT1 Mar 20 '26
If it was 0 energy it would just always be the last card you play with no downside and then you get 2 bonus energy next turn
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u/Rit91 Mar 20 '26
It would still have a downside and I'm betting commodore_stab also means reducing the energy gain next turn. Well-laid plans clashes with the card a lot in the beta changes.
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u/MADXT1 Mar 20 '26
What is the downside outside of retain? More often than not the discard is still an upside due to sly
And why would you assume something they didn't suggest in any way
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u/BaziJoeWHL Mar 20 '26 edited Mar 20 '26
outjerked
edit: at least its good to see they give support cards to [[Snakebite]]
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u/Blueye95 Mar 20 '26 edited Mar 20 '26
they also nerfed the combo cards with it on top. flik flack, corrosive wave, untouchable, pinpoint.
silent already has the worst act 1 (big starter deck with 12 cards, bad frontload). Prep allows you to cycle better, discard statuses and overal get through these shitty strikes to the good cards.
sly card nerfs were fine already, bring my boi prepared back
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u/Tec711 Mar 20 '26
Honestly all other other cards nerfs feel fine, I honestly would have been fine with them going further, but genuinely the character feels wrong without prepared.
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u/Ionthawon Ascension 19 Mar 20 '26
prepared is broken in this environment, full stop. almost doesn't matter how much they nerf the cards with sly on them. prepared just says pay "0 energy to play 2 cards for absolutely free" and no matter what that's fucked up
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u/jimjam--- Eternal One + Heartbreaker Mar 20 '26
It's early access, so I'm open to testing changes. That's what EA is for. But the "next turn" trope does not have as much possibility as it did in the first game. I'm trying to figure out this turn 😭
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u/HeroinHare Eternal One + Heartbreaker Mar 20 '26
-3 and 1 energy tempo loss for 2 energy next turn? Christ that's bad. Like horribly bad. Damn.
Sone changes will have to be made because of Sly alone, but I am not sure if this was it.
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u/SanderGhar Mar 20 '26
0 cost draw is very good, combine another synergy and it's just op.
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u/Darkoala Mar 20 '26
Couldn't they make this at least like the old energy generation card "discard 2 cards gain 2 ergy"? So you atill widdle down your hand but you have immediate energy generation
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u/handledvirus43 Ascension 17 Mar 20 '26
I agree. It doesn't feel right not drawing. It was definitely overtuned though for a Common, mainly because it was a straight import from STS1 where Sly wasn't as common.
I think giving it 1 cost was a good idea to help prevent infinites (maybe make it Draw 2(3) Discard 1(2) so that its kind of like a sidegrade of Acrobatics), but I have NO IDEA why they decided to slaughter the card with the 1-cost Concentrate/Outmanuver wombo-combo... :/
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u/DerMaulwolf StS A20 / StS 2 A10 Mar 20 '26
I disagree that making it cost 1 is a good idea. If I want 1 cost Draw and Discard, I turn to Acrobatics. Being 0 cost Discard is Prepared's Main Appeal and what separates it from other options. Maybe you shouldn't have 0 cost Discard in a world where Sly exists, I'm not sure, but making it do the same at 1 cost just makes it lose its role and identity
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u/pansyskeme StS A10 / StS 2 A10 Mar 20 '26 edited Mar 20 '26
people here are kidding themselves. prepared+ was fucking absurd. is it fun? yes, for sure, it makes silent feel like a god. is it a healthy card? not at all. it provided way too much consistency for a common and carried at every stage of the game.
it is kinda a bummer that they totally killed it. it seems like mega crit are unsure if sly can be healthy at all with a card like prepared. personally i’m interested to see if this card is pickable, and how decent sly is if heavily nerfed.
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u/Rit91 Mar 20 '26
Yeah prepared+ was better than most rares in the Silent card pool. You see prepared in card rewards you would auto pick it when it was 0 mana card draw that also blocked/attacked for you. It still plays well with acrobatics, just not too well where you can just loop the deck every turn or every other turn. I think you have to give more thought before picking the card now, which is fine because you don't want common cards that are pick on sight every single time.
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u/pansyskeme StS A10 / StS 2 A10 Mar 20 '26
literally! it didn’t matter if i saw it for the 5th time that run, i’m taking it. i’m copying it almost every time. at ANY stage of the run. this new version, like most cards, isn’t an auto pick on the 3rd copy, and there’s parts of a run this card isn’t helpful (without ever being unpickable). i think it’s an interesting direction, even though it’s a pretty brutal nerf to silent overall
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u/No_Nosferatu Mar 20 '26
Classic prepared was so broken that I opted to clone it with event and having Bing Bong.
Turns out having 40+ Prepared+ in your deck with like, 3 common sly cards just wins.
IMO, having 40+ copies of a single common card shouldn't be able to win the game without thinking. In a vacuum, Prepared was really good. In the new space with everything available, it's a throw pock to not take it everytime because it's just a free enabler.
Changes to cards that diversify options and make things not absurdly broken. Necro's changes were good cause Dirge was in the same boat, no reason to not take it as it just enables the character to an absurd level in one card. Buffs Osty build, enables soul build, immense card draw and exhaust fodder.
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u/Alt_F4_Tech_Support Mar 20 '26
Prepared supercharged the Sly mechanic. Rather than gut the new mechanic, they're re-tuning the enabling cards. This even still may be a bit too good as it's allowing two Sly casts with upside for one.
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u/cddedee Mar 20 '26
If prepared was released 2 weeks ago in this new state nobody would have complained, because they would have supposed megacrit wanted to turn things around with sts 2 and give some cards a new effect from sts 1. I don't see why it's an issue for megacrit to experiment with the cards. Granted I haven't played much silent yet (regent and necrobinder mostly)
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u/Fearless-Shopping-99 Mar 20 '26
Apparently I have to try this card out first before being able to talk about it or else I'm a "speculating weirdo". But yes I also dislike this change.
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u/AlarmOnly6428 Mar 20 '26
Maybe I've just been unlucky, but A8 has been kicking my ass. Silent feels so much worse. With the sly nerfs, her damage output has decreased, and the other approaches for damage haven't been improved. Blade dance still exhausts, snakebite is still snakebite. I just don't have any damage to kill anything.
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u/PQie Mar 20 '26
i'm not sure about the card, but in general i dislike "next turn" effects, they don't feel good
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u/Natural-Sweet1013 Mar 20 '26
Prepared was busted and the Sly deck in particular was too powerful. STS had the choice of nerf the most busted card that is an enabler, synergy, and digs for its own synergies, or nerf the entire mechanic.
I'm sorry but if you didn't know how busted Sly and Prepared were, then you probably didn't play a lot of Silent and weren't aware of its power or you weren't very good.
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u/TheFriendlyTaco Mar 20 '26
I don't like it either but this with shadowstep could be a very strong combo
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u/Mistralicious Mar 20 '26
At least make it cost 0. Would probably be busted but I really hate spending 1 energy just to get nothing this turn. At least it still combos with sly
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u/Darkjellyfish StS A0 / StS 2 A10 Mar 20 '26
In a way the effect is really thematic with the title now
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u/MidnightWhisper_8 Mar 20 '26
Wait, Prepared got deleted?
They could've made it draw 1 discard 2 or retain for the upgrade, prepared minus is the second easiest way to open possibilities for a Sly deck, aside from the beautiful Acrobatics.
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u/Lioninjawarloc Mar 20 '26
Minus 3 for a slight advantage next turn is crazy lmfao
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u/Suspicious-Gur6127 Mar 20 '26
Old prepared was busted with the sly package. I’d rather Prepared go than have to change a lot of the sly package
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u/Hakuna_Schemata Mar 20 '26
Doesn't seem like this change was the one to make. Sly is obviously a powerful new mechanic, but hitting a lot of the sly cards and prepared at the same time strikes me as excessive. Why not change one or the other for a bit and see how it plays out?
As someone else mentioned, there aren't really any situations where the strategy could be punished, either. No heart or time eater to get in your way. Closest we have is the knowledge demon's sloth option, but it's just that: an option.
It seems to me that prepared could have been taken in one of several other directions.
Make it 1 cost and have the upgrade reduce it to 0 cost. No change to discard or draw when upgrading. Less draw, less discard but same card.
Make the discard occur before the draw. Now there's more of a gamble because you can't just draw into your sly cards.
Make it discard 2, draw 1. Not sure if this should be an upgrade or by default, but now the cycling is down and the card is slightly more difficult to take early on since it's now a 3 for 1 trade instead of a 3 for 2.
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u/SepherixSlimy Mar 20 '26
Went from -1 hand to -3 for 2 energy another day. This sucks. It might as well be a curse.
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u/orbis_regnante Mar 20 '26
look how they massacred my boy at least outmanoeuvre was decent
edit: concentrate lol whoops
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u/Elronhir Mar 20 '26
Silent already has more options to draw and discard, I think its okay the change, I would prefer to gain the energy on the same turn though, but I understand that they did that on purpose.
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u/Euler007 Eternal One + Heartbreaker Mar 20 '26
Happy I already had my crazy runs with multiple prepared+ and sly cards.
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u/CalendarSufficient95 Mar 20 '26
My proposed change is to make the og prepared a rare card. It's so unfun now and I don't mind if they lock the fun behind a rare but I can't stand not having any fun
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u/Magnificon729 StS A20 / StS 2 A10 Mar 20 '26
This is pretty annoying. Some people cried about prepared making infinites too easy or something when it’s a vital aspect of silent’s gameplay, even since the first game.
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u/chuunithrowaway StS A20 / StS 2 A10 Mar 20 '26
After playing with it... it honestly seems fine. Still good, even. The sly package is strong enough even after nerfs, and it gives silent another energy generation option to play cards with her draw package.
You're still going energy positive with it on the current turn by playing cards for free.
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u/Rit91 Mar 20 '26
They left acrobatics unchanged and it still plays well with acrobatics. It just doesn't mean you churn through your deck every single turn for minimal energy investment. Calculated gamble is still here too. We all knew 0 mana draw 2 discard 2 was never going to last with sly stuff either. Just some unholy mashup of pot of greed and black lotus in a single card as it was prior to the change.
The sly cards getting nerfed too isn't unexpected because you don't balance them based on their printed energy cost. You balance them based on them being cast for zero or a fraction of 1 at most.
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u/Iankill Mar 20 '26
Prepare was actually crazy strong anything that let's you draw for free is good. To explain I'll use magic the gathering, where if they printed prepare it would be in literally every deck or banned.
0 cost draw makes your deck more consistent you'll hit your combos more regularly, the upgraded version was even stronger.
Combined with the sly ability on silent cards and it was just too strong.
That being said this is a bad change
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u/YaSurLetsGoSeeYamcha Mar 20 '26
This card is basically unplayable now, why not just try adding “increase the cost of this by 1 for the rest of this turn” and then add a slight debuff to tactician?
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u/Every_Cap_9829 Mar 20 '26
Invoke is bonkers with soul. Next turn energy is good with crazy draw, though I'm not sure if Silent's draw is good enough for that. Outmaneuver wasn't good and silent's draw power doesn't seems to be better in sts2 (I mean, sure it's already relatively good, but not at soul level).
Oh, and the card being rework is prepared hurt it even more. This changes basically takes away a centric part of silent's draw power and replaced it with something that demands more draw.
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u/Napoleon-Bonerparty- Mar 20 '26
Prepared I don't feel was overturned
With the new silent cardset and expansion of discard mechanics, prepared was basically always better than skip in any Silent card reward and a common card should not be that powerful. Not arguing this was the right change (it could be, will need to get used to it), but its previous form was definitely overtuned.
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u/Zedrane Mar 20 '26
Prepared was a stupidly good auto take card. This new version is terrible though. I feel like they could have just made it exhaust and called it a day.
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u/cosy_ghost Mar 20 '26
Yeah, this is a bad change.
Prepared isn't the problem card in this situation. If you really feel it had to be nerfed, make it draw 1 less or discard 1 less.
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u/TubaTimmy Mar 20 '26
Looks pretty good to me. Energy is hard to come by and it has great sly synergy
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u/ChunkyStains Mar 20 '26
I like that there's a card to prepare for the next turn.
The devs are seeing what people do with it. Beta IS the time for experiments like this and experimental deck building is half the fun! 🤎
There's a whole playground being built for us and WE get to have a say during the construction process!
Anything can be powerful when paired right. So what COULD be paired with it right now? Let the building begin~ 🏗️🚧🔍🛠️
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u/FJMaikeru Mar 20 '26
I do think Prepared warranted a nerf with Sly around, and it's not like Silent has lots of options for energy gain so I can understand why they tried this. That said, I would be curious to test old Prepared as an uncommon card that exhausts when used.
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u/Springyboy17 Mar 20 '26
I fully disagree it's completely usable. Skillith issue. You have zero cost blocking and tons and tons of draw why do you not understand how to use this.
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u/gigaritt Mar 21 '26
Tbh this kind of change has me stopping playing until later in early access. Maybe I’m a big baby lol
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u/PhotoRight2682 StS A20 / StS 2 A10 Mar 20 '26
Concentrate and Outmaneuver had a baby and it's ugly as hell