Friendship is Card Games: Imposing Sovereigns IV · 1:07pm February 18th
It’s that time again. Let’s cap off the latest addition to the dynasty with collectable cardboard representations of each entry, as per tradition.
The easy-to-parse guide of what story inspired what card can be found here.
Love Song of Hope and Faith 1W
Enchantment — Saga
(As this Saga enters and after your draw step, add a lore counter. Sacrifice after III.)
I — Exile target creature.
II — Exile target creature card from your graveyard.
III — Return the exiled cards to their owners’ hands.
Unicornian Border Guard 2W
Creature — Unicorn Soldier
Vigilance
Each player can’t cast more than one non-Unicorn spell each turn.
More than a millennium after Equestria’s founding, even Princess Platinum herself could barely budge those still loyal to Unicornia.
3/3.
Bomber Thopter 82 3W
Legendary Artifact Creature — Thopter
Flying
Whenever Bomber Thopter 82 deals combat damage to a player, if you control another legendary creature or planeswalker, you may sacrifice Bomber Thopter 82. If you do, exile all nonland permanents that aren’t legendary.
3/2
Curse of Solemn Duty 4W
Enchantment — Aura Curse
Enchant player
Enchanted player can’t attack with more than one creature.
“All of House Mistymorn exists for one reason, to give Princess Celestia a family. Nopony else can do what we must.”
—Prince Blueblood
Terran Ghost 1UU
Creature — Human Mystic Assassin
Terran Ghost has hexproof as long as it isn’t attacking or blocking.
Terran Ghost can’t be blocked.
Officially, the Ghost Corps doesn’t exist. Unofficially, they’re the keystone of the Hegemony’s survival.
2/2
Insistent Contrarianism 2U
Instant
Counter target spell unless its controller pays 3. If they do, return Insistent Contrarianism to your hand.
Every proposal Luna made as student president led to another hour of bureaucratic nightmares.
Inquisitive Harpy 3U
Creature — Harpy Scout
Flying
When Inquisitive Harpy enters the battlefield or dies, draw a card.
Daring to scale Mount Equestria is a death sentence, whether at the hands of the cold, the rocks, or the gods.
2/1
Snails, Gastropod King 3U
Legendary Creature — Unicorn Noble
Whenever one or more cards are put into a graveyard from a library, you may create a number of 1/1 black Slug creature tokens equal to the greatest mana value among those cards. Do this only once each turn.
2(ub): Each player mills three cards.
A simple king for a simple kingdom.
1/6
Longing Dreams 1B
Sorcery
As an additional cost to cast this spell, discard X cards.
Each opponent sacrifices X creatures and/or enchantments.
Sunset dreams of bygone contentment.
Deathly Pall 2B
Enchantment
1B: Destroy target creature that was dealt damage this turn. Transform Deathly Pall. Activate only as a sorcery and only once each turn.
Death comes for us all in time…
Plutonia, Princess of Death
(B) Legendary Creature — Avatar
Alicorn (This creature is also a Pony Pegasus Unicorn.)
Flying, menace, deathtouch, indestructible
Plutonia, Princess of Death can’t block.
When Plutonia attacks, transform it at end of combat.
… Some more aggressively than others.
5/2
Spin Control 2B
Instant
You control target spell’s controller as that spell resolves. (You see all cards that player could see and make all decisions for the player. This doesn’t change the spell’s targets.)
Draw a card.
“Perception is nine-tenths of a reign.”
—Queen Haven
Consumerist Nightmare XBB
Sorcery
Create X tapped Treasure tokens. (They’re artifacts with “T, Sacrifice this artifact: Add one mana of any color.”)
Amass Zombies X. (Put X +1/+1 counters on an Army you control. It’s also a Zombie. If you don’t control an Army, create a 0/0 black Zombie Army creature token first.)
Flora Da Mare 1R
Creature — Pony Citizen
Double strike
1R: Flora Da Mare gets +1/+0 until end of turn.
“No princess is going to tell me I can’t own coal-powered chainsaws!”
0/2
Deserter’s Execution 2R
Instant
Cast this spell only if a creature attacked this turn and only after blockers are declared.
Deserter’s Execution deals 5 damage to target creature that didn’t attack or block this turn.
Sombra expects the best from his soldiers.
Lèse-Majesté 3RR
Sorcery
This spell costs 2 less to cast if it targets the monarch.
You become the monarch. Goad all creatures target opponent controls. (Until your next turn, those creatures attack each combat if able and attack a player other than you if able.)
Totemic Pyre 4R
Sorcery
As an additional cost to cast this spell, exile a creature card from your graveyard.
Totemic Pyre deals damage equal to the exiled card’s power to each creature, planeswalker, and player.
No other kirin were allowed to help with the funeral. This was Rain Shine’s atonement.
Case of the Sabotaged Sweets 1G
Enchantment — Case
When this Case enters the battlefield, create a Food token. (It’s an artifact with “2, T, Sacrifice this artifact: You gain 3 life.”)
To solve — You control five or more tokens. (If unsolved, solve at the beginning of your end step.)
Solved — 1G: Create a token that’s a copy of target token you control.
Hard Bargaining 1G
Enchantment
Creatures you control have “Ward — Sacrifice an artifact.” (Whenever a creature you control becomes the target of a spell or ability an opponent controls, counter that spell or ability unless its controller sacrifices an artifact.)
Whenever a spell is countered, that spell’s controller creates a Treasure token.
Flurry’s Amarok 2GG
Snow Creature — Wolf
Trample
3SS: Monstrosity 3. (If this creature isn’t monstrous, put three +1/+1 counters on it and it becomes monstrous. S can be paid with one mana from a snow source.)
When Flurry’s Amarok becomes monstrous, it deals damage equal to its power to up to one target creature an opponent controls.
4/4
One with Magic 3G
Enchantment — Aura
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature gets +1/+1 for each creature you control.
Whenever a player casts a noncreature spell, create a 1/1 colorless Spirit creature token.
It’s a rough job, but someone’s got to do it.
Uplifting Duet 3GG
Sorcery
Create a token that’s a copy of target creature that dealt combat damage to an opponent this turn, then populate. (Create a token that’s a copy of a creature token you control.)
“Not how I expected to boost recruitment.”
—Princess Celestia
Altar of Renewal 2
Artifact
T, Sacrifice a creature: Create a Blood token. If the sacrificed creature was legendary, create two Blood tokens instead. (They’re artifacts with “1, T, Sacrifice this artifact, Discard a card: Draw a card.)
T, Sacrifice four other artifacts: Return target creature card from your graveyard to the battlefield.
Harbinger Titan 9
Artifact Creature — Construct
Prototype 4WB — 4/4 (You may cast this spell with different mana cost, color, and size. It keeps its abilities and types.)
Flying
When Harbinger Titan enters the battlefield, if it was cast, destroy X target permanents, where X is a quarter of its power, rounded up.
8/8
Threaten the Creche 1BR
Sorcery
Will of the council — Starting with you, each player secretly votes for detonate or deceive. If detonate gets more votes, Threaten the Creche deals 3 damage to each creature. If deceive gets more votes or the vote is tied, each player sacrifices a creature with the greatest power among creatures they control.
Oath of Tonatiuh 1(gu)(gu)
Enchantment
Players play with their hands revealed.
Players can cast spells only during their own turns.
Twilight hoped the Truth Talisman would help her understand Cozy Glow, showing just how poor her understanding was.
Insistent Overseer 2(wb)
Creature — Unicorn Advisor
Flash
When Insistent Overseer enters the battlefield, other creatures you control gain persist until end of turn. (When a creature with persist dies, if it had no -1/-1 counters on it, return it to the battlefield under its owner’s control with a -1/-1 counter on it.)
“We will see the dawn.”
2/3
Sour Sweet, Grindbone Heir 3GU
Legendary Creature — Human Werewolf
Ward 2
Whenever this creature enters the battlefield or transforms into Sour Sweet, Grindbone Heir, you may exile two creature cards from your graveyard. If you do, create a 5/5 green and blue Horror creature token with trample.
Daybound (If a player casts no spells during their own turn, it becomes night next turn.)
2/4
Sour Sweet, Grindbone Alpha
(GU) Legendary Creature — Werewolf
Hexproof, trample
Whenever Sour Sweet deals combat damage to a player, any number of target players mill that many cards.
Nightbound (If a player casts at least two spells during their own turn, it becomes day next turn.)
6/5
Unstable Simulation 3BBRR
Sorcery
Exile all cards from your graveyard. For each creature card exiled this way, create a token that’s a copy of that creature, except it has haste. At the beginning of the next end step, exile all nonland permanents.
Sunset: ”How long has it been?”
Midnight: “Years for them. Seconds for me.”
While 27 entries is still very respectable state for IS in its 4th iteration, mostly I notice how that results in less custom card than even the average FiCG blog these days.
Which got me to thinking: how does the time and process compare for a blog like this, where you just zone in on the core of each story or one particular aspect, to a normal one based on an episode, group of shorts or book, where you need to extrapolate something from nearly every strand or thread to reach a satisfying quantity of output? Obviously both ways have their pros and cons, though I'd say one like this could vary from fic to fic to latch onto something to use for a card.
…Yes, the ability of MtG to hold my interest for it specifically, as opposed to things shared by CCGs, is so low that I can only latch onto commonalities about the creation process of these cards for a blog where it's just cards.
Oh, I've been looking forward to this. I was very curious to see what you'd make of The Queen's Speech, and that is certainly an interesting one. I feel like Celestia would approve
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It's not terribly useful, mind you. Both targets and costs were already chosen when the spell was initially put on the stack, with the former warranting reminder text. Probably the most consistently effective way to use the card is We Have Gitaxian Probe At Home.
[parser becomes nervous]
5768763
This was a comparatively quick blog, though in some cases it was a challenge to find something that adequately represented a theme, character, or other feature of the story while maintaining my self-imposed challenge to keep the colors balanced (a recent development, but one that I'm enjoying.) Children of Darkness and Light was especially challenging given the overt World War II parallels limiting what I felt comfortable even approaching. I needed to take a moment to think about my life after making a Magic card that was two degrees removed from the Enola Gay.
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Its best use case is against search effects. It's no Opposition Agent, but it does a good impression of Shadow of Doubt while letting you see another player's hand and library. Especially since you can have them fail to find. Spells that let players cast other spells as part of their effect also get silly.
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Blame Aquaman... and how I couldn't bring myself to call it "The Enola Hay."
I was expecting whatever you came up with to focus on Paussus.
Instead, you chose Kevin. Huh.
Actually, I've got a rules clarification question on Snails.
"Whenever one or more cards are put into a graveyard from a library, you may create a number of 1/1 black Slug creature tokens equal to the greatest mana value among those cards. Do this only once each turn."
Does this mean you have the opportunity to do it the first time in a turn it happens and can choose not to drop any tokens, or that you can keep retrying the ability (or other mill outlet) until you get a result you like?
Wait, no comics this week? I thought this would be the perfect time to cover last week's Valentine's Day special. Ah, well, I guess we'll have to wait another week for the card based on Discord-as-Friar-Lawrence.
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I did consider a number of investigate, search, and copy effects—Magic already has several attention deficit doppelgangers—to say nothing of cards that would have you count how many creatures you control. But both that last scene and the overall theme of Chrysalis both getting less respect than she expects and (grudgingly) accepting it made this feel fitting. And I had to work in the monarch mechanic somewhere in this batch.
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The latter. The opportunity keeps presenting itself until you take it, at which point the ability will stop triggering that turn.
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Another three weeks, I'm afraid. A single one-shot is not enough material to work with; I'm waiting for the Mane Event comic to pair with it, and by the time that comes out, there will be a full batch of Tell Your Tale shorts to examine.
Today in Magic news: Caesar's Legion using "decimate" correctly. I mean, "each opponent sacrifices a tenth of the creatures they control, rounded up" is going to just be "each opponent sacrifices a creature" in the vast majority of cases but it's still great trinket text.
I don't have the faintest idea how this card game system works, but I love the name of the one for my Diamond Tiara story: Consumerist Nightmare.
Also, is the werewolf entry two cards, or one card with two conditions? I'm finding it hard to parse.
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Sour is, as with most werewolves in Magic, a single card with two faces. This should demonstrate the concept nicely. (If you're wondering how one plays with such a card without it becoming apparent that you're going to draw it, that's where substitute cards and card sleeves come in.) Plutonia is likewise double-faced, manifesting from a general sense of dread that heralds her arrival.
Suffice to say, as long as Sour (and both players) can keep busy, then she can just cuddle the unspeakable horror she threw together out of convenient corpses. But when the sun sets and the moon is full, the Wolf comes out to start making fresh bodies.
And yes, the concept for Diamond of the Dead was easily put together: Spend as much as you can to maximize both profit and zombie output.