Friendship is Card Games: Hearth's Warming Eve · 5:38pm Jan 11th, 2015
I know, this is a bit late. Think of it as one last taste of the holidays, like a Christmas cookie that managed to survive unnoticed until now. Read on for the true meaning of Hearth’s Warming, the latest installment of Derpy Cameo Justification Theater 3000, and one of my weirder bits of headcanon.
Winter always seems to be a less eventful time for the Mane Six. Of course, it’s easier to have adventures without cold and snow in the way.
I figure the trees are an earth pony tradition. That’s actually an interesting question: how did each of the tribes contribute to Hearth’s Warming? (And the holiday is most likely called Hearth’s Warming. It doesn’t make sense to have an Eve without the the day after. All Hallows’ Eve outgrew the name. Also, kudos to the always awesome scoots2, whose Command Performance is exploring a number of Hearth's Warming traditions.)
I see Jet Set and Upper Crust are just as insufferable during the holiday season. Their snootiness may actually tie in nicely to what Ditzy’s doing here: given the number of familiar background ponies in the cast and audience, Celestia likely wanted all of Ponyville’s best and brightest performing in this year’s pageant, and their friends and families followed to watch them. (Or it’s just conservation of Flash resources, but I prefer Watsonian explanations.) Set and Crust are, of course, horribly incensed by such crass provinciality, but they daren’t say anything in public.
Rarity demonstrates that everypony forgets how to manage Fluttershy when the script calls for it. Hilarious. 
This episode nicely established pegasus resistance to extreme temperatures. Even in the unnatural blizzard, when the clouds themselves were freezing, pegasi were just hungry.
Smart Cookie’s proposal for the earth pony nation’s name suggests that the planet itself isn’t called Earth. That, or there was a linguistic distinction that was lost over the centuries.
I have to wonder how the formation of the Fire of Friendship worked on stage. I quite like Twilight being able to unleash UNFATHOMABLE ARCANE POWER™ on cue. Also, who was playing the windigos?
I should note that windigos and wendigos are very different things. Primary difference? Windigos don’t encourage cannibalism. Well, not directly.
That Equestria banner raises so many questions…
The end if the episode really emphasizes the true moral of the story of Hearth’s Warming End: Get along with the other phenotypes or we’ll all die in the ensuing ice age.
Okay, before we get to the cards, I’d like to put out a bit of headcanon I’ve been holding onto for a while. I was going to put it in a story, but I focused on polishing Terror Incognita instead. (I still got you ponies for the holidays. I just wrapped them in angst.)
I don’t think the Hearth’s Warming story actually happened.
I do think all of the major figures existed. I don’t think they were contemporaries. (Not those of different tribes, anyway. Smart Cookie was Chancellor Puddinghead’s secretary, et al.) I do think the tribes were less intermixed once, back before Discord went madder than usual and warped the world. I don’t think they had that fractious a relationship; there were tensions and misunderstandings, certainly, but they were minor compared to the many external threats.
The Hearth’s Warming story came about after Discord’s defeat, when ponies were trying to assemble a coherent history out of the fragments of half-remembered lore that had survived the reign of chaos (and the fragments that Discord made up. He always felt it was more interesting to experience events for one’s self than study what others had done in the past.) Six figures from pre-Discordian history were blended together with a parable about the importance of intertribal cooperation, one which nopony realized was fictional. The end result is performed across Equestria to this day.
(Where were Celestia and Luna in all of this, you ask? Spending time with their uncle, helping him complete the creation of Equestria. The ponies were showing unsettling signs of worshipping the sisters, something neither of them wanted. They thought it best to give the ponies some space and time to sort things out amongst themselves. Of course, that put them at ground zero when Discord ran out of things to do, lost his coping mechanism, and was consumed by grief. Their memories were the most scrambled out of anypony’s.)
Right, now that I’ve gotten that off my chest, let’s move on:
Bombardment Hoplite 1W
Creature — Pegasus Soldier
Flying, protection from Unicorns
"Spin around them until they can't see straight, then release your payload. Works every time."
2/1
Hurricane’s Hostility 1W
Tribal Instant — Pegasus
Hurricane’s Hostility deals 4 damage to target attacking or blocking non-Pegasus creature.
Pegasi do not share airspace readily or gladly.
Pegasopolis Medic 2W
Creature — Pegasus Soldier
Flying
T: Prevent the next 1 damage that would be dealt to target creature or player this turn.
T: Prevent all damage that would be dealt to another target Pegasus creature this turn.
"My own glory is unimportant compared to ensuring that others may yet achieve theirs."
1/2
Winter Carol 2W
Enchantment — Song
At the beginning of your upkeep, put a verse counter on Winter Carol.
1W, Sacrifice Winter Carol: Each player gains X life for each creature he or she controls, where X is the number of verse counters on Winter Carol.
Worsening Winter 2WW
Snow Enchantment
Cumulative upkeep 1 (At the beginning of your upkeep, put an age counter on this permanent, then sacrifice unless you pay its upkeep cost for each age counter on it.)
At the beginning of each player's upkeep, that player taps X nonsnow lands he or she controls, where X is the number of age counters on Worsening Winter.
Sturdy Snowpony 3W
Snow Creature — Pony
Whenever Sturdy Snowpony blocks, prevent all combat damage that would be dealt to and dealt by it this turn.
T: Sturdy Snowpony deals 1 damage to target creature it’s blocking.
The spring sun will be the last thing its coal eyes see, but until then, it’s as enduring as its builders.
1/2
Commander Hurricane 3WW
Legendary Creature — Pegasus Soldier
Flying
Other Pegasus creatures you control get +1/+1, have vigilance, and are Soldiers in addition to their other types.
Whenever Commander Hurricane deals combat damage to a player, put a 1/1 white Pegasus creature token with flying onto the battlefield.
3/3
Coldhearted Spite U
Snow Enchantment — Aura
Enchant creature
Whenever enchanted creature attacks, put an ice counter on Coldhearted Spite.
Enchanted creature doesn’t untap during its controller’s untap step unless that player pays 2 for each ice counter on Coldhearted Spite.
Platinum’s Haughtiness U
Tribal Instant — Unicorn
Target creature gains shroud until end of turn. If you control a Unicorn, you may draw a card. If you do, discard a card. (A permanent with shroud can’t be the target of spells or abilities.)
The metal platinum is a potent but temperamental catalyst for pony magic, named after the Founder that shared this behavior.
Icy Gust 1U
Instant
Tap target creature. It doesn’t untap during its controller’s next untap step.
Recover UU (Whenever a creature is put into your graveyard from the battlefield, you may pay UU. If you do, return this card from your graveyard to your hand. Otherwise, exile this card.)
Tribal Tension 1U
Instant
Counter target spell unless its controller pays 1 for each creature type among permanents he or she controls.
The Grand Summit was meant to address and allay the concerns of the three tribes. Historians still find that hilarious.
Princess Platinum 1UU
Legendary Creature — Unicorn
1U: Change the target of target spell with a single target to a Unicorn you control.
1U: Target Unicorn you control gains hexproof until end of turn.
"The mud ponies may grow food. The horseflies may thwart invaders. But without the unicorns, there would be nothing worth feeding or defending."
2/2
Set the Stage 2U
Sorcery
Each land becomes a copy of target nonlegendary land until end of turn.
"Illusions have always been a form of theater. Some are just more upfront about it."
—Ditzy Doo
Student of the Bearded One 3U
Creature — Unicorn Wizard
You may look at the top card of your library. (You may do this at any time.)
1: Reveal the top card of your library. If it's an instant, sorcery, or Unicorn card, you may cast it this turn.
Star Swirl's pupils were prized as royal advisors. They already knew how to work with and around immense egos.
1/3
Sneering Watchstallion 1B
Creature — Unicorn Soldier
Lifelink, protection from Ponies
"Back to your hovel, peasant. Your betters have more important concerns."
2/1
Bad Blood 3BB
Enchantment
Whenever a creature enters the battlefield, that creature’s controller sacrifices a creature that doesn’t share a creature type with it.
Even without the windigos, the tribes’ resentment and intolerance would have destroyed them in time.
Cycle of Strife 1RR
Enchantment
At the beginning of combat on each player's turn, if that player was dealt combat damage since his or her last turn ended, he or she attacks with one or more creatures this combat if able.
The history of the three tribes was an unending series of retributive strikes, the original offense lost to the mists of time.
Puddinghead’s Brilliance 2R
Tribal Sorcery — Pony
As an additional cost to cast Puddinghead’s Brilliance, discard a card.
Draw two cards. If you discarded a Pony card to cast Puddinghead’s Brilliance, draw an additional card.
”She may be mad, but she’s still a genius.”
—Smart Cookie, Puddinghead’s secretary
Earlier than First 3R
Instant
Cast Earlier than First only during the declare blockers step.
After this step, there is an additional combat damage step. Only creatures you control assign combat damage during that step. Prevent all other combat damage those creatures would deal this combat.
Windigo Hate-Eater 5RR
Snow Creature — Elemental Horse
Flying, haste
Windigo Hate-Eater enters the battlefield with three +1/+1 counters on it.
Whenever a creature attacks, put a +1/+1 counter on Windigo Hate-Eater.
At the beginning of each end step, if no creatures attacked this turn, halve the number of +1/+1 counters on Windigo Hate-Eater, rounding down. (For example, if there are five +1/+1 counters on it, remove all but two.)
0/0
Level-Headed Aide 1G
Creature — Pony Advisor
Level-Headed Aide can't be countered.
Pony spells you cast can't be countered by spells or abilities.
She makes sure Chancellor Puddinghead's thinking inside the chimney doesn't become lying inside the coffin.
2/2
Shire Slinger 1G
Creature — Pony Warrior
Reach, protection from Pegasi
"They've never felt good solid stone beneath their hooves. I plan on fixing that."
2/1
Seek New Lands 2GG
Sorcery
As an additional cost to cast Seek New Lands, sacrifice a land.
Search your library for up to two land cards and put them onto the battlefield tapped. Then shuffle your library.
The mass exodus from the frozen Valley of Dreams marked the end of the Three Tribes Era.
Frozen Pole 3
Snow Artifact
Whenever a nonsnow creature deals combat damage to you, tap that creature. For as long as that creature remains tapped, it doesn’t untap during its controller’s untap step unless that player pays (2r).
”I double Diamond Dog dare you!”
—Scootaloo
Banner of Equestria United 5
Artifact
Whenever you cast a Pony, Pegasus, or Unicorn spell, put a charge counter on Banner of Equestria United.
Pony, Pegasus, and Unicorn creatures you control get +1/+1 for each charge counter on Banner of Equestria United.
Peek Through the Curtain (ur)(ur)
Sorcery
You may put a permanent card in your hand onto the battlefield. That permanent loses haste and can't have or gain haste. Return it to your hand at the beginning of the next end step. (Return it only if it’s still on the battlefield.)
"Time, narrative, fabric, all are barriers that you can briefly breach without harming them."
—Pinkie Pie, Bearer of Laughter
Narrator Dragon URG
Creature — Dragon
Whenever an opponent casts a spell, draw a card unless that player places a +1/+1 counter on Narrator Dragon.
2: Narrator Dragon gains flying and trample until end of turn. Activate this ability only if Narrator Dragon’s power is 5 or greater.
Let him tell his stories, or he’ll gladly conclude yours.
2/2
Chancellor Puddinghead 1RGW
Legendary Creature — Pony Advisor
The first Pony spell you cast each turn has cascade. (When you cast your first Pony spell, exile cards from the top of your library until you reveal a nonland card that costs less. You may cast it without paying its mana cost. Put the exiled cards on the bottom in a random order.)
"In the land of the sane, the half-mad mare is queen. Or chancellor, as the case may be."
2/2
Fire of Friendship 2RW
Enchantment
Prevent all damage that would be dealt to you and to permanents you control by sources you control.
1: The next time damage would be prevented by Fire of Friendship this turn, that damage is dealt to target creature or planeswalker you don't control instead.
Windigos' Banquet 3BRG
Sorcery
Whenever a creature dies this turn, put a +1/+1 counter on target creature. Target creature fights another target creature.
Windigos feed on hatred, seasoned with mistrust and spilled blood.
How is this possible?
2715555
How is what possible? The cost? The typing? The ability? Does the page cut off there for you?
2715561 No, just the thought of Chancellor Puddinghead being a Legendary anything is amusing to me. xD
This set kind of reminds me of the God Card sets from Yu-gi-oh, where you need all three to activate/summon a bigger, stronger monster.
Ave Bellepheron! Nos morituri te salutant!
While I don't share your headcanon about the Founders being ahistorical (mostly so I can slot them into Gen 2), I do love your take on Puddinhead.
I think Worsening Winter would be fine tapping nonsnow permanents instead of just lands. Maybe along the lines of "At the beginning of each player's upkeep, starting with lands he or she control, that player taps X nonsnow permanents he or she controls, where X is the number of age counters on Worsening Winter."
After all, The Founders started to freeze over as well.
With Student of the Bearded One the flavor text should read "knew how to work with" (sans bolding, it is just the missing word).
I had to read Earlier than First three times before I understood what it was doing. It gives all your creatures Firstest Strike. Throat Wolf go!
I am not sure how I feel about Seek New Lands. On one hand it isn't limited to only Basic lands but on the other they enter tapped where as with Harrow you get two untapped Basics for one less mana at Instant speed. But then you compare it to something like Scapeshift... .
I'm at a loss on this one.
Did you intended for Windigos' Banquet to have three separate targets? I can see why it would be like that, I just want to make sure that was the intention.
I see the princesses as the fulfillment of a prophecy to save them from discord, the ponies finding new land is them fleeing discords reign then celestia and luna fighting discord and uniting the ponies. This explains why the flag was there, the princesses are their rulers.
Sturdy Snowpony and Valor Made Real makes for a nice mix.
One of these days, I might just have to take a look through these blogs of yours to make a deck or three I wish I could have...
My preferred version of Firstest Strike has creatures dealing combat damage at the end of the declare blockers step, instead of during any combat damage step. However, that might give Matt Tabak nightmares. And not the ones with power and toughness equal to the number of Swamps you control.
2715575 Well, from how I understand it, in Magic, Legendary creatures are usually just people or animals with particular historical significance. To put it in simpler terms, if someone were to make Magic cards of real world history, people like Hitler, George Washington, and Gandhi would all be Legendary.
2715799 Eh, when I think Magic I think Planeswalkers and Land cards. Idk why...
2715648
How so?
2715699
That anachronism of centurions amid the feudal system is part of what spurred the idea. Granted, it could be seen as a result of pegasus isolationism, but I like the idea of Discord leaving a legacy of havoc and confusion long after his defeat
Still, I'm aware this is really out there. I'm not expecting to convince anyone else.
2715701
Worsening Winter is the effect on the original pony homeland. Coldhearted Spite is the effect on ponies. Both are insidious, creeping snow magic, but in different ways.
Student of the Bearded One has been fixed.
Windigos' Banquet actually has two to three targets, functioning similarly to Seeds of Strength.
2715791
Yeah, combat damage is best kept to combat damage steps. Kind of in the name and all.
2715903 Chancellor Puddinghead, Commander Hurricane, and Princess Platinum are all Legendary Creatures with subordinates or spells that reference them. It reminds me of the activation requirements for the GX Dark Gods series, how each one required special conditions and when they were all together they were boosted or fused to the 'King'.
Personally I'm in the camp that thinks the Hearthswarming story is probably just whatever propaganda the Sisters thought would be most useful to propagate, and has very limited bearing on reality. Also, they probably got a unicorn to do special effects for the windigos.
Card-wise, I like the feel of this set, how everything breaks down into tribal cards when almost all your previous cards tried to act like Pony, Pegasus and Unicorn were one tribe. Also how you gave the pegasi and unicorn tribes a distinct focus (white soldier creatures vs blue nonpermanents+counters), though ponies feel a bit undefined. My favorite of the tribal cards is Bad Blood.
Set the Stage... You DO realize that if anyone controls a legendary land this can be played as a 3 mana Armageddon in blue, right? Might want to revise it to "target nonlegendary land".
Tribal Tension seems goofy since a lot of creatures already have 2 or even 3 types; you could be struck down with one creature on the table! I think "2 for each creature he controls that doesn't share a type with the creature of his choice" would be fairer.
Puddinghead's Brilliance is too good to be monored draw. Red is supposed to get either discard-and-draw (ie Wild Guess) or highly conditional draw (Browbeat, Wheel of Fortune). This is just either Concentrate or Divination, plus a discard-and-draw effect, for the cost of Concentrate. Maybe if it was 2RB it'd work.
Peek Through the Curtain sounds incredibly broken. Just use any source of haste and you can swing with an Eldrazi on turn 2 or 3 (just imagine having to sacrifice 4 permanents on your third turn). Or just use a fatty with haste, like Hellkite Overlord, or a big ETB effect. Or Maelstrom Wanderer for both. Maybe you could put a cap on the casting cost of the permanent you cheat out? (Perhaps no bigger than the biggest permanent already out there?)
Narrator Dragon seems incredibly fragile and slow for a 3-color spell.
Fire of Friendship sounds like a great (and somewhat balanced) combo-item. Earthquake to win, or Shivan Meteor for style points.
2715903
Right. That is a very important distinction. Two to three instead of just three.
2716215
With Tribal Tension being a conditional counter spell I think it is just fine. Most constructed decks are only going to run maybe around four to five different creatures types, less if it is a tribal sort of deck. If every creature in your deck is only a "Human Solder" then you'll only eve have to pay 2 extra for a spell.
It would really shine in limited though where people have to run "filler creatures" to make up bodies.
I had a little trouble with Puddinghead’s Brilliance myself because of major red draw with minor red side effect but I let it slide. Have the discard be random, the base draw be two cards instead of three and keep the additional draw rider and it should be fine.
Sadly Fire of Friendship cannot target the opponent themselves. But that's what Stuffy Doll and Donate are for.
2716694
My thought is that if you're comparing it to Mana Leak (the obvious comparison), there should be some decks against which it does better and some against which it does worse. As it's currently written it will usually do as well as mana leak for any opponent with at least two creatures out, and much better for creature-heavy decks without a strong tribal theme (or general pony-unicorn-pegasus decks). With the alteration, it will be useless against strongly tribal deck, weak against decks with very few creatures but nearly a hard counter against decks without a tribe and a double-mana-leak against pony-unicorn-pegasus decks.
I still say red shouldn't get cards that leave them with more cards than they started. Wheel of Fortune (and its Time Spiral remake Wheel of Fate) is literally the only example I'm aware of, and "your opponent also gets 7 cards" is a pretty special case. And most any drawback you can name would look more appropriate in black than red.
I actually misread Fires of Friendship to say player or planeswalker. What he actually wrote is much more balanced.
2716215
I play a lot more Limited than Constructed, so the power level of my designs tend to reflect that. In any case, this is some of the most helpful card criticism I've received on this site! Now, let's break this down...
Set the Stage:
I completely missed the legendary issue. Fixed.
Tribal Tension: This is actually a very interesting spell. It's a counterspell that forces you to let spells resolve before it can work. I'm frankly unsure about this one, but I'm going to leave it as is for now.
Puddinghead's Brilliance: I meant to break the rules on monored draw here. Pinkie by another name is just as bizarre. Still, you do have a point. As you can see, I've tamped it down to a Wild Guess that can potentially be a backwards Sift for the cost of a Divination.
Peek Through the Curtain: I borrowed the Archetype technology from Born of the Gods. It is now literally impossible for the Peeking permanent to have haste. Still powerful, yes, but not quite "Mass Hysteria, Emrakul Peeks."
Also, note that since you aren't casting the permanent, cascade doesn't trigger, nor do similar effects like Emrakul's extra turn.
Narrator Dragon: Now a 2/2 that grows wings at 6 power.
Either that, or it's a cardboard cutout that you can't call 'chintzy' because it was donated by the foals from Princess Luna's Home For Orphaned Ponies.
2717612 re: Tribal Tension, I would play it in a deck with Donate and creatures with Changeling, so I could give my opponent one creature that made them pay almost 230 mana to force something through. Would "printed creature types" be a valid rules text? Because Changeling makes "count up creature types" kind of insane.
2718067
The interaction there was entirely intentional. Tribal Tension makes Lorwyn changelings take the form of an argument. (Imagine if all of Chameleon Colossus's heads were yelling at one another... and then it grew a few hundred more.)
2717612
It didn't occur to me that Tribal Tension requires you to let through some other spells first. Given that I'd say it's more than fair.
Puddinghead's Brilliance sounds more fair now. Personally I would have gone with "If you discard a pony, you may discard up to two cards and draw that many cards" after the initial draw, just to keep it as a beefed-up wild guess rather than a red compulsive research.
Peek Through the Curtain is at least less obviously game-ending now, but I still bet you could do some nasty stuff with it. I would add a "You may not sacrifice this card this turn" clause to avoid the most obvious remaining exploits (ie Momentous Fall, Fling-ing a Blightsteel Colossus for an instant win, Bloodfire Colossus, etc).
8 cards in, Pegasopolis Medic has non-italicized fl8vor text and Coldhearted Spite has no enchantment target.
EDIT: I think that Windigo H8te-Eater would read 8etter if its last line of text was "[...] this turn, remove half of the +1/+1 counters on ~, rounded up."
EDIT: Seek New Lands just seems like an all-around downgrade to Harrow. I can't think of any situation in which I would prefer this to that.
EDIT: As 2721228 has said, I am 8lind. I didn't notice the lack of the word 88sic in the text of Seek New Lands.
~Vriska Serket
2719927 You can't think of a situation where you would ever want to fetch nonbasic lands? Trust me, there are combo decks which need to do just that.
Should Sturdy Snowpony perhaps be a Snow Artifact Creature — Pony?
Should Earlier than First prevent assignment of combat damage, to get around damage prevention prevention?
Narrator Dragon fails to work because of layers. Will change to a beginning of combat trigger. The problem is similar to the one Stampeding Buffalo (Over a Barrel) had, but needs more work to fix.
For Windigoes' Banquet, does the creature that gets a +1/+1 counter need to be one of the ones that fight? I assume it does.
4339809
The card it's based on isn't, so I'm going to say no.
That's not a bug. That's a feature.
Drat. I've implemented a different solution.
Nope. Seeds of Strength[/irl] principle; each instance of "target" may to refer to a different creature as long as there aren't any restrictions that keep that from happening. The banqueter can watch two other creatures fight to death as part of the meal's entertainment.
4339873
Windigoes' Banquet: Ah. I thought maybe it was intended that way. For more clarity, why not ‘Whenever a creature dies this turn, put a +1/+1 counter on target creature. Then two target creatures fight.’?
Narrator Dragon: Fixed, but you typoed Narrator to NArrator once.