Friendship is Card Games: Rainbow Rocks · 10:47pm Oct 5th, 2014
For my opinion on the movie, see here. Note that there will be spoilers. There will also be somewhat more oblique spoilers in the cards, so I'll just cut it off here.
Note that I work with the song titles I'm given. All the songs in the climax? The credits simply list them as "Rainboom Battle." Yeah.
In any case, let's get this rolling. Marker:
Cookie Cache 1W
Instant
Remove any number of counters from among permanents you control. You gain life equal to the number of counters removed this way.
"I always believe in getting as much as you can from the buffet of life."
—Pinkie Pie
"Rainboom Battle" 1WW
Enchantment — Song
At the beginning of your upkeep, put a verse counter on "Rainboom Battle".
2WW, Sacrifice "Rainboom Battle": Non-Aura enchantments you control become X/X creatures until end of turn, where X is the number of verse counters on "Rainboom Battle". They're still enchantments.
Sweet Duet 2W
Creature — Human Band
Finale — Whenever you sacrifice a Song, creatures you control gain lifelink until end of turn.
Tickled ivories, warmed hearts
1/3
Mistress of the Beat 3W
Creature — Human Artificer Band
Protection from Sirens
Finale — Whenever you sacrifice a Song, put a +1/+1 counter on each creature you control.
Many listen to music. Some play it. Only a select few live it.
1/1
Astral Vortex 2WW
Sorcery
Exile target creature and all other creatures with the same name as that creature.
"Star Swirl never was one for subtlety."
—Princess Celestia
The Sound of Friendship 5WWW
Legendary Creature — Pony Avatar
Affinity for Songs
Flying, indestructible
The Sound of Friendship's power and toughness are each equal to the number of creatures you control.
Creatures you control with power less than The Sound of Friendship's power have indestructible.
*/*
Appeal to Authority U
Instant
Kicker — 1, Tap an untapped creature you control.
Counter target spell unless its controller pays 1. If Appeal to Authority was kicked, counter that spell instead.
"Shake Your Tail" U
Enchantment — Song
At the beginning of your upkeep, put a verse counter on "Shake Your Tail".
1U, Sacrifice "Shake Your Tail": Choose up to X target creatures, where X is the number of verse counters on "Shake Your Tail". You may tap or untap each of those creatures.
Misapplied Principles 1U
Instant
Choose a card type. Counter target spell unless its controller pays 1 for each card of the chosen type in his or her graveyard.
Expecting the same result from different variables will rarely end well.
Peer Between Worlds 1U
Sorcery
Choose one —
• Look at the top four cards of your library. Put one of them into your hand and the rest into your graveyard.
• Look at the top three cards of your planar deck. Put them back in any order.
Magnetic Personalities 1UU
Creature — Human Band
Finale — Whenever you sacrifice a Song, tap target creature. It doesn't untap during its controller's next untap step.
True art cannot be limited to only one medium, even when the rules say it should be.
1/1
Analytical Occultist 2U
Creature — Human Wizard
Whenever an opponent casts a spell, you may draw a card unless that player pays 1.
"Call me crazy if you must. There's something going on here, and I intend to find out what."
1/2
Awakened Potential 2U
Enchantment
Spells cost 1 less to cast.
With one massive burst of energy, the precedent was set, and a world would never again be without magic.
Mage's Block 2U
Instant
Put target spell on top of its owner's library.
"Okay. It's okay. I know this. I'm sure I do. Given what would happen if I didn't, I'm sure I do."
—Princess Twilight Sparkle
Stone's Companion 2U
Creature — Human Artificer
When Stone's Companion enters the battlefield, target artifact becomes a 5/5 artifact creature for as long as Stone's Companion remains on the battlefield.
She first heard the stone when magic entered the world. Now she wonders how she had ever lived before.
1/1
Glamorous Group 2UU
Creature — Human Band
Finale — Whenever you sacrifice a Song, you may return target nonland permanent to its owner's hand.
"We make the competition's chances disappear."
2/2
Sonic Surrealists 3U
Creature — Human Band
Finale — Whenever you sacrifice a Song, you may draw a card.
"We're here to make you think, even if all you think is, 'What was that supposed to be?'"
1/3
Exit Stage Down 3UU
Instant
Put target creature on the bottom of its owner's library.
"Who put a trapdoor there!?"
—Rainbow Dash
Siren-Swayed 4UU
Tribal Enchantment — Siren Aura
Affinity for Songs (This costs 1 less to cast for each Song you control.
Enchant creature
You control enchanted creature.
Strife-Song Siren 5U
Creature — Siren Spirit
Flying
At the beginning of combat on your turn, target creature can't be blocked this turn.
Even tricksters and temptresses can appreciate the direct route.
3/3
Conduct Cognition 6UU
Tribal Instant — Siren
Affinity for Songs
Gain control of target spell. You may choose new targets for that spell. (If that spell is a permanent spell, the permanent it becomes enters the battlefield under your control.)
Pull the Plug 6UU
Instant
Split second
End the turn. (Exile all spells and abilities on the stack, including this card. The player whose turn it is discards down to his or her maximum hand size. Damage wears off, and "this turn" and "until end of turn" effects end.)
Counterchorus XUU
Instant
Convoke (Each creature you tap while casting the spell pays for 1 or one mana of that creature's color.)
Counter target spell unless its controller pays X.
"Harmony as a concept is much more than voices joining together, but that's still part of it."
—Princess Twilight Sparkle
"Battle" 1B
Enchantment — Song
At the beginning of your upkeep, put a verse counter on "Battle".
1B, Sacrifice "Battle": Up to X target creatures gain lifelink until end of turn, where X is the number of verse counters on "Battle".
Social Pariah 1B
Enchantment — Aura
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature can't be the target of spells or abilities its controller controls.
There are few things more pathetic and reviled than a failed villain.
Dedicated Classicist 2B
Creature — Human Band
Finale — Whenever you sacrifice a Song, return target creature card from your graveyard to your hand.
As long as their work is heard, the old masters live on.
1/1
Drop the Mike 2B
Sorcery
Kicker — Sacrifice a Band creature.
Target player loses 4 life. If Drop the Mike was kicked, that player also loses life equal to the sacrificed creature's power.
Unbearable Beatboxers 3B
Creature — Human Band
Finale — Whenever you sacrifice a Song, you may have target creature get -2/-2 until end of turn.
"That… certainly happened. Next."
—Principal Celestia
2/3
Shout Down 4B
Tribal Instant — Siren
Affinity for Songs
Destroy target creature.
A siren's scream can shatter glass and shred souls.
Surrounded by Idiots 4BB
Sorcery
Target player discards a card for each creature he or she controls.
"I know how you feel."
—Adagio Dazzle
"Awesome As I Wanna Be" 1R
Enchantment — Song
At the beginning of your upkeep, put a verse counter on "Awesome As I Wanna Be".
2R, Sacrifice "Awesome as I Wanna Be": Target creature gets +X/+0 until end of turn, where X is the number of verse counters on "Awesome As I Wanna Be". If X isn't 0, that creature gains double strike until end of turn.
"Tricks Up My Sleeve" 1R
Enchantment — Song
At the beginning of your upkeep, put a verse counter on "Tricks Up My Sleeve".
1R, Sacrifice "Tricks Up My Sleeve": Exile the top X cards of your library, where X is the number of verse counters on "Tricks Up My Sleeve". Until end of turn, you may play cards exiled this way.
Earsplitting Feedback 2R
Enchantment
Whenever a player sacrifices a Song, Earsplitting Feedback deals X damage to that player, where X is the number of verse counters on that Song.
Amplifiers are not toys, and they don't appreciate being treated as such.
Thunderous Trio 2R
Creature — Human Band
Finale — Whenever you sacrifice a Song, Thunderous Trio deals 2 damage to target player.
"We are the birth throes of a new generation of rock!"
3/1
Kindle Ambition 3R
Sorcery
Gain control of target creature until end of turn. Untap that creature. It gains haste and dethrone until end of turn. (Whenever it attacks the player with the most life or tied for the most life, put a +1/+1 counter on it.)
"People always want something. I just tell them what."
—Adagio Dazzle
Garage Band 4R
Creature — Human Band
Finale — Whenever you sacrifice a Song, creatures you control gain trample until end of turn.
As much a part of high school as the building itself.
3/3
Slip of the Tongue 4RR
Sorcery
Target creature deals damage equal to its power to target creature with the same controller.
Retrace (You may cast this card from your graveyard by discarding a land card in addition to paying its other costs.)
"No offense."
Eco Rockers 3G
Creature — Human Band
Finale — Whenever you sacrifice a Song, untap all Forests you control.
"They say nature sings through them. I say nature needs an amp."
—Rainbow Dash
2/3
Winsome Weightlifter 4G
Creature — Human Band
Finale — Whenever you sacrifice a Song, you gain 4 life.
Gentle soul, gigantic frame.
4/4
Strionic Amplifier 3
Artifact
Whenever you activate an ability of a Song, copy that ability. You may choose new targets for the copy.
If you're going to play, play it loud.
Heptagon of Hatred 5
Artifact
Whenever a creature attacks, put a charge counter on Heptagon of Hatred.
1, T, Remove X charge counters from Heptagon of Hatred: Add X mana of any one color to your mana pool.
From spleen and bile, magic vile.
Sunset's Journal 5
Artifact
You have no maximum hand size.
4, T: Draw a card.
The most vivid memories it brings were never written in its pages.
Overhauled Portal 6
Artifact
6: You may put a permanent card from your hand onto the battlefield.
"Some ponies may be content with waiting for planetary conjunctions, but I have places to be."
—Princess Twilight Sparkle
"Shine Like Rainbows" GW
Enchantment — Song
At the beginning of your upkeep, put a verse counter on "Shine Like Rainbows".
GW, Sacrifice "Shine Like Rainbows": Each of up to X target creatures gets +1/+1 until end of turn for each of its colors, where X is the number of verse counters on "Shine Like Rainbows".
"Better Than Ever" BGW
Enchantment — Song
At the beginning of your upkeep, put a verse counter on "Better Than Ever".
3BGW, Sacrifice "Better Than Ever": Return up to X target creature cards from your graveyard to the battlefield, where X is the number of verse counters on "Better Than Ever". Put a +1/+1 counter on each of those creatures.
"Welcome to the Show" 1UB
Enchantment — Song
At the beginning of your upkeep, put a verse counter on "Welcome to the Show".
2UB, Sacrifice "Welcome to the Show": Target opponent reveals the top X cards of his or her library, where X is the number of verse counters on "Welcome to the Show". You may cast a nonland card with converted mana cost X or less from among them without paying its mana cost. Put the rest into their owner's graveyard.
The Rainbooms 1GWU
Legendary Creature — Human Band
Finale — Whenever you sacrifice a Song, until end of turn, The Rainbooms gets +X/+X, gains flying, and becomes a Pony in addition to its other creature types, where X is the number of verse counters on that Song.
Whenever The Rainbooms deals combat damage to a player, return target Song card from your graveyard to your hand.
3/3
Sunset Redeemed 2WB
Legendary Creature — Human Unicorn
Whenever another creature you control becomes the target of a spell or ability an opponent controls, that player loses 2 life.
1, Tap two untapped creatures you control: Sunset Redeemed gains protection from the color of your choice until end of turn.
3/2
Photobomb 1GGUU
Instant
Choose target instant or sorcery spell that targets only a single creature. You may put a creature card from your hand onto the battlefield. If you do, copy that spell. The copy targets the creature put onto the battlefield this way.
"I just wanted to feel included."
—Spike
The Dazzlings 4UB
Legendary Creature — Siren Band
Siren spells you cast cost 1 less to cast for each Song card in your graveyard.
Finale — Whenever you sacrifice a Song, you may search your library for a Song card, reveal it, then shuffle your library and put that card on top of it.
4/4
Speaking of "Shake your Tail" was that song anywhere in the movie or just the short. And did Sunset have at least one solo?
You couldn't make at least one band with banding?
2509956
"Shake Your Tail" was performed during the preliminaries of the Battle of the Bands. It also led to the incident that led me to name Photo Finish's group "Magnetic Personalities."
Sunset does indeed get a solo during the 3x song combo that is "Rainboom Battle."
2510025
I would like to remind you that the reminder text for banding—the text that would have to appear on a card to explain what the ability actually does—reads as follows:
(Any creatures with banding, and up to one without, can attack in a band. Bands are blocked as a group. If any creatures with banding you control are blocking or being blocked by a creature, you divide that creature's combat damage, not its controller, among any of the creatures it's being blocked by or is blocking.)
I am not subjecting people to that. And bands with other Bands is right out.
2510066 If you ever played with banding, it's actually easy to grasp.
Of course, banding can be improved. When the Equestria expansion for Magic comes out, the Friendship keyword ability should work like an improved banding.
2510151 2510066
Banding is conceptually difficult but at least an interesting mechanic. I'll take it any day over indestructible (my introduction to which was as a combo with the card that says "you cannot lose the game", which ruins the meta in so many ways I've lost count).
(Edit: This one.)
2510319 Platinum Angel + Indestructibility can still be defeated for one mana, with Swords to Plowshares or Path to Exile.
If you also throw in hexproof, like Privileged Position, it gets harder to deal with.
2510357
Setting aside Platinum Angel as a whole different rant …
The reason Indestructible fails as a mechanic is that the game already had indestructibility baked in: it was just called "regenerate" and carried an opportunity cost. It was limited thematically to Green and a little Black, so it had a specific place in the meta; the opportunity cost made it more interesting and risky to rely on; and even if you kept mana on hand to regenerate things, there were cards that made end-runs around it like Terror, without the mechanic of exiling cards completely. Indestructibility explicitly broke those "mid-range" destruction cards, making exiling into a major mechanic (contributing to the "whoever builds their combo wins" effect, and making most decks untenable for more than casual play unless you had the full set of four of any important cards, because once something's removed from the game you're SOL if you can't pull a duplicate). It also broke the color balance, though I'm sure there are plenty of people here who can say what green's gotten out of the bargain in the sets since I stopped playing.
tl;dr: power creep meh
2510319 As Alaborn noted, hexproof is far more annoying than indestructible. Indestructibility does nothing to protect a permanent from being bounced, tucked, or exiled; and indestructible creatures still die if their toughness becomes zero.
Incidentally, I've clearly been reading too much In Nomine stuff lately, because all this talk of Bands strikes me as fairly demonic.
EDIT: You're overestimating the number of permanents with indestructible, and (I suspect) underestimating how long it's been around. As the phrase "CARDNAME is indestructible", it dates back to Darksteel released February 2004. There were a bunch in that set and Fifth Dawn, but none in most sets since. You're definitely underestimating how long exiling has been an important form of removal; Swords to Plowshares dates back to Alpha.
2510562
I quit when Chronicles came out a month after Ice Age and everyone was spending like crazy to pick up two new sources of cards in a row. (Yes, yes, Chronicles was a reprint yadda yadda.) So these are definitely not new complaints.
That having been said, you're probably right, I just get cranky.
2510534
For the record, when the card in question isn't indestructible for flavor reasons (usually gods of some kind,) the keyword is mostly in green, white, and artifacts. What green gets out of the deal is indestructibility. The color pie is by no means invalidated.
Also, among the other means of killing indestructible creatures mentioned by Proginoskes, sacrificing also works. Terror may not kill them, but Cruel Edict will. Or you can just work around the indestructible creature... provided it isn't Platinum Angel. I'm not defending that. That's just rude.
In short, don't think of it as power creep. Think of it as an arms race, or a very elaborate game of rock-paper-scissors.
(Also, is it really so wrong to slap an apparently broken mechanic on the movie's inexplicable equus ex machina?
Also also, I love how the Rainbow Rocks post inevitably led to an argument, but an argument that had nothing to do with the actual movie.
)
2510955 *notices the smoky green magic swirling away from the comment section*
Excellent.
2511745
Horizon played back in the day. He should recognize when he's being used as a mana battery.
2511762 I read that 30 seconds after DBZ's theme song randomly popped into my head. This made me think (in order, thoughts somehow treated as complete separated by periods) "MtG crossed with MLP:FiM crossed with the Android Saga. Android 19. energy drain. teamfourstar's vegeta fighting Android 19. I'll take your hands. Arms. Armin. Attack on Titan. Eve Online in Equestria. Bacon."
Human unicorn, best creature type ever.
2511888
I think bacon is the best possible conclusion that could've come of that train of thought.
2512237
Not to be confused with Unicorn Human. One is a symbolic reconciliation of two worlds represented in the soul of a prodigal daughter. The other is Moreau-esque magical mutation.
I'm not sure which Lady Amalthea would qualify as. Probably the latter, but with fewer cytoplasts.
2512595 Bacon is delicious. Always. Unless it isn't. Then it has ceased to be able to be bacon.
2510562
I realize that, as 2511745 notes, this is now at the level of Pointless Internet Argument, but it's still gnawing at me: after some research I stand by my claim that exiling, despite existing since Alpha, has turned into a major mechanic as part of the game's power creep. (Exhibit A: They never even had a formal term for it until 10th Ed, when "removed from game" became "exiled".)
S2P was indeed in alpha, but it was one of only two cards in the entire set that exiled — alongside Disintegrate — and both could only target creatures. (Disintegrate also required that you dealt the creature lethal damage first, and S2P carried its own opportunity cost.) The next card that had anything to do with exiling was Ring of Ma'ruf in Arabian Nights, a one-shot anti-exile artifact; there was also the anti-creature Oubliette, which apparently is more like phasing than exile, but is used in the same situations. Legends had a smattering of cards with the exile keyword, but none of them allowed you to target a card and exile it; they were all costs, or self-destructors, or used the exile zone as a holding place. The Dark's Eater of the Dead, Grave Robbers et.al. all worked with exiling creature cards out of graveyards, along with Tormod's Crypt (emptying a graveyard entirely). That and The Dark's Dust To Dust were the first cards ever printed to allow you to exile non-creature cards (but each only under limited, specific circumstances).
The very first card that allowed you to arbitrarily target an exile effect was in Ice Age. Jester's Cap was a huge f'ing deal at the time; when the set first came out it was worth more than dual lands.
Après moi, le déluge.
And now? As of 2011, for a single mana (or two life if you want to throw it into any non-black deck!), you can exile every copy of a given card in a deck. Bye-bye, combos! You can't tell me that's anything like the creature-killers of Alpha.
I'm not certain that it was specifically indestructibility that gave exiling such a major boost (after all, the creep started back in the late 1990s), but I'm pretty sure all of the "scour the deck" chain-exile cards postdate Indestructible.
Does anyone know a trustworthy site I can find an HD rip of Rainbow Rocks on?
2512975
Nnnope.
The first "get that s
t out of here" card, Lobotomy, was first printed in 1997. About a year and a half later, a cycle of similar cards was printed, one for each color focusing on a card type that color particularly disliked. Most notable for our discussion would be Eradicate, which made Darksteel Colossus and friends weep yellow-glowing tears five years before they were printed. (Splinter also works against darksteel creatures, which explains why Baxter Stockman's robots never worked.)
Also, do note that Surgical Extraction needs a card in the graveyard to work. Not a difficult task for black, but you need a little legwork to get to "one black-rexian, you never get to play X."
This isn't so much power creep as the game maturing and exploring what it can do. Also, given that exiled cards are still in the game (especially for effects like Runic Repetition and Warden of the Beyond,) the term "removed from the game" is kind of misleading.
2513160
, though I don't think it changes my point about the arc of the game; it just means I'm wrong about the causal link between Indestructibility and exiling, and wrongly trying to complain about two unrelated things simultaneously.
I stand corrected on the post-1996 history lesson
> This isn't so much power creep as the game maturing and exploring what it can do.
I'm willing to grant you that one, though I think we'll have to agree to disagree over whether that's a good thing. The continual cash-sink aspect of it lost me a long time ago, but also: I guess I just find the magic meta too fast-paced to be fun.
Anyway, thanks for listening and for the education. It's probably time to drop this so I can go back to enjoying your writing and your cardbuilding and your toying with the flavor (which have always been a lot more fun for me than the game itself).
2512975 Okay, yeah, your thoroughness has defeated me regarding the relative importance of exiling over time.
You're almost right about the timing of the "scouring" spells, too: only two predateDarksteel, andBetrayers of Kamigawa(the third set afterDarksteel, which is about as quick as card development can respond to surprises in the meta) has the most of any one set at a full cycle of five (well, four and a reprint of the one fromUrza's Legacy).EDIT: Whoops, how did I miss that the entire cycle dates from Legacy?You shouldn't've chosen Surgical Extraction as your example of ridiculousness, though. That spell is limited in that there needs to be an example of what you want to exile in the graveyard, and it can be less rude than Council of Hoverpopes, which renders the named card a dead draw rather than simply depriving you of it. Memoricide costs four times as much, but it can be used pre-emptively.
2513335
As much as I appreciate the mentioning of hoverpopes, I think we need to put this subject to bed.
The strife amulet is fully charged.I don't think there's anything more to be gained from the discussion.Question for Drop the Mike: If it's kicked, does it cause life loss equal to the sacked creature instead or in addition to the normal four damage?
2541010
In addition. I'll add an "also."