Well, he is! When Cardin gets Jaune to write his essays for him, Cardin proofreads them to make sure they aren't crap. And from those essays, Cardin comes up with the syrup prank. Which he gets Jaune to collect and do for him so that he and his team can rest up. That way they have the energy to defend themselves in case the rapier wasps decide to go after all of the students.

In his short screentime, Cardin has shown more logical and detailed planning than any of the other antagonists of this series.

He should be the one interviewing Cinder for a spot on HIS team.