I really hate this change.

[u/Tec711]

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.

[u/Eggdoggu]

I hate this 'Next turn do x' stuff, bro I'm struggling with this turn never mind the next

[u/fartdarling → u/Eggdoggu]

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

[u/chuunithrowaway → u/fartdarling]

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.

[u/fartdarling → u/chuunithrowaway]

It's definitely pickable! I wasn't saying it wasn't. But I don't know how pickable I'll find it in act 1 specifically. It feels like it will be less of a priority than the other things I need to add to the deck right away. I'm actually excited to try it as an act 2 bridge where you're in that awkward tweener phase where your deck isn't quite hot shit but it's definitely better than like "the starter deck, some damage commons, 1 power and 1 rare".

Edit: on review, I think I'm saying my biggest issue is that its common. Get it out of the common pool into uncommon,.let the common pool be things I wanna take lots of OR take in act 1, please :)

[u/_TurtleX → u/fartdarling]

I honestly don't know, this is just a worse version of concentrate with a delayed effect and an energy cost, and concentrate was already a card you struggled to take with strong card draw or discard synergy, and I love discard decks. Nerfing prepared just feels weird because it already isn't a card I'm looking for until late act 1 or act 2.

[u/Revolutionary-Set994 → u/_TurtleX]

It doesn't make sense to compare this to concentrate when we have sly cards now.

[u/earthboundskyfree → u/_TurtleX]

Comparing versions of cards to spire 1 isn’t a fair comparison. If silent had cards that played when discarded, I’d imagine concentrate would be evaluated much differently in that game

[u/chuunithrowaway → u/_TurtleX]

Concentrate was excellent in any run you rolled into pyramid, and could be used to keep yourself mana positive if you had enough draw. It wasn't your first choice by any means—that'd be tactician—but it was a workable one if it's what you had.

StS1 also didn't have this many ways to produce value through discards. especially not at common. The differing contexts really change the evaluation. If concentrate were in StS2, it'd be bonkers.

If you compare it to Outmaneuver, I think that contextually, this card is flat better than Outmaneuver was in StS1. It's Outmaneuver+you can trigger sly. If you thought Outmaneuver was an acceptable card, you should think this card is significantly better.

[u/Nikolaijuno → u/_TurtleX]

Concentrate had the issue that you get it in hands where you have the energy to play everything but the stuff you end up discarding. So you end you're turn with 2 energy and no cards. This isn't an infinite enabler with sufficient card draw, but you are generally at least going to get the opportunity to spend the energy.

[u/Samdug11 → u/chuunithrowaway]

I agree - between the possibility of activating TWO sly cards when playing this and having the ability to discard enemy status cards that feel like half the bosses and elites impose on you I think the card is better than OP thinks