Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-26184894-20150716154728/@comment-24674051-20150717171951

First off, this really belongs in the off-topic forum, and is being moved accordingly.

second, with a day to prepare, the first thing that Emma and Regina do is take steps to nullify Mal's biggest magical threat, which is her sleeping spells. The easiest defense for this is to deliberately put themselves under a sleeping curse, and then have TLK executed on them to wake them up. No more sleepy time interruptions.

Second, Emma and Regina gather any relevant non-combatants (specifically Henry) to the Diner, and then cast a spell of protection over the diner. This keeps them from being used as pawns against them. Mal and Zelena may do the same (Mal primarily getting Lily out of harms way).

One final note. Mal and Zelena have never been team players. Zelena has always been on her own (except when she was puppetmastering Rumple), and Mal was never fully invested into the QOD. As we have seen, Regina and Emma know how to work together to combine their power. Ultimately, the teamwork of Regina and Emma will win over Mal and Zelena.