Playing Around Be Prepared

I wanted to write up a quick list of pointers about playing around Be Prepared, because it’s a pretty powerful card in the current Lorcana constructed metagame, so it’s good to know what your options are when you know your opponent has this card in their deck.

So, the first thing is when you’re playing against a known Be Prepared gamer, keep an eye on your opponent’s inkwell. It’s fine to play characters on curve for the first few turns of the game, but as your opponent starts getting closer to the 7 ink they need to play Be Prepared, you may want to pump the brakes. Consider sandbagging the best cards in your hand and play out some characters you don’t feel as bad about losing, or maybe don’t play any characters at all. What exactly you should play depends on what’s in your hand, what the board state is, what your win condition is, etc, but one of the factors on your mind should be “how bad do I feel if this character is banished on my opponent’s next turn?”

One of the factors that may go into your decision making is if there’s a way you can spend your ink without committing more characters to the board. It’s a cost to play characters into a potential Be Prepared, but there’s also the opportunity cost of not spending all your ink every turn. If you have the ability to spend your ink on actions or items, turn 6 may be a good time to do that, as you still get to spend your ink but without overplaying into Be Prepared. Again, this isn’t to say you should always do this, just that it’s another thing that could nudge you in one direction or the other.

The next thing I want to talk about is something I’ve heard paraphrased a few times now, which is “There’s no way to know if my opponent has Be Prepared in hand.” This is true in a literal sense unless you played Nothing to Hide on them, but even if you can’t know for sure if your opponent has it or not, there are clues that can suggest whether or not they have it. Consider a couple things about the card:

1. The effect is symmetrical.
2. A single Be Prepared can banish multiple characters.

With regards to #1, think about it from the perspective of the player playing Be Prepared. They probably would prefer not to blow up their own characters. As such, they may, in the turns leading up to playing Be Prepared, save some of their best characters in hand. With regards to #2, your opponent probably wants to maximize the impact of their Be Prepared, so they’re unlikely to play strong challengers or other removal actions in the 1-2 turns before playing Be Prepared.

Putting both these things together, take note of which cards your opponent is choosing to play. Your opponent passing on turn 6 without playing any cards is a pretty clear sign that they plan to Be Prepared on turn 7; if they weren’t planning that, they probably would have played a character to the board or played an action to banish one of your characters. If turn 6 they play Friends on the Other Side and pass, that’s kind of the same thing.

In the current metagame, the Be Prepared decks are by and large also playing Lady Tremaine - Imperious Queen. These two cards together lead to a pretty powerful play pattern: I play Be Prepared, you play your best character, I play Lady Tremaine and force you to banish it. Lady Tremaine has the biggest impact the turn after a Be Prepared. As such, if you see your opponent play Lady Tremaine FIRST, that might be a clue that they don’t have Be Prepared; if they did have it, they’d probably want to wait until later to play Lady Tremaine. Note that this is just one possible explanation of their actions; it could also mean that their hand is all uninkables, or it could mean that they’re stupid. It’s just a single data point that should be taken into consideration along with the rest of their plays.

Another good card to watch for is Maui - Hero to All. Maui is a reckless character, and as such has no purpose in the deck other than removing opposing characters. If your opponent plays Maui, it’s unlikely they have Be Prepared; again, if they did, they’d probably not bother playing Maui to remove some characters that will be banished in a couple turns anyways. What I think is really interesting about Maui is that he’s inkable. Be sure to pay attention to what your opponent inks for the turn. A player planning to cast Be Prepared doesn’t need Maui, so they might ink him instead. On turn 1 or 2 this doesn’t necessarily tell you anything (maybe it was just their only inkable card that turn), but on turn 6 inking Maui makes it highly likely your opponent has Be Prepared.

No single one of these clues necessarily points to Be Prepared being likely, but in the aggregate they can paint a picture of your opponent’s hand. If your opponent is just sitting back, drawing cards, not playing any removal, and inking cards like Maui, they probably have Be Prepared. If they’re aggressively playing rush characters and removal actions on everything you play, they probably don’t have Be Prepared.

The last thing I want to talk about is what you should do when you’re pretty sure your opponent has Be Prepared in hand. I hope I’ve made it pretty clear you don’t want to overplay your hand into Be Prepared, but if you never play a character worth removing, your opponent will never play Be Prepared. So what should you do?

The way things play out is like a cat and mouse game between the two players (the above cards aren’t really related, I just needed a cat and a mouse). You are trying to play exactly enough characters to force your opponent to pull the trigger on playing their Be Prepared, but leaving enough powerful cards in hand to rebuild after they do. How exactly you do this depends on your deck, but here are some ideas.

Consider playing characters that provide immediate value the turn you play them. Maleficent - Sorceress replaces herself by drawing you a new card, so she’s a pretty noncommittal way to add to the board. Merlin - Goat (and all the Merlins for that matter, except the human one) also provide some immediate value. These little value characters don’t quest for a ton on their own, but together they can put enough pressure on your opponent to make them want to play Be Prepared, which will clear the way for you to play your heavy hitters.

Note that the Be Prepared player themselves may play these sorts of cards for the same reason that it’s good for you: it allows them to still put characters to the board in a way that’s not too punishing for them when they sweep the board. I mentioned earlier that the Be Prepared player only wants to play characters when they don’t plan to use Be Prepared soon, and it may LOOK like that’s what they’re doing when they play a card like Merlin - Goat, but don’t fall for their tricks. Look for characters that have a big impact when they stay in play, like characters that quest for two or more, or characters with high strength and willpower.

A couple more examples of value characters (ok if I had realized I was going to use Lucifer as an example I wouldn’t have used him for the cat and mouse thing earlier but whatever I’m not going to go back and change it).

If your deck has a backline threat (which is to say, a character that can do its thing without needing to become exerted) that has the ward keyword, these put a ton of pressure on your opponent to play Be Prepared. Ruby decks don’t have a great way to deal with a character that can’t be challenged and can’t be targeted by actions, so Be Prepared is often their only option. Cards like Prince John and Bucky by themselves can force your opponent to use Be Prepared. It’s good to be mindful of this when playing these kinds of cards; you’ve already priced your opponent into playing Be Prepared, so no need to put more characters on the board that will get swept away when they inevitably do.

I’m out of stuff to talk about but I’m not totally sure how to end this. In conclusion, if your opponent plays a good card against you in a children’s card game, flip the table over and run out of the building. But if the venue owner asks, I'm not the one who told you to do this.

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