Friendship is Card Games: Equestria Girls · 11:27am May 31st, 2015
I can’t say I was expecting this. Indeed, until glitchingClairvoyant voted for it, I didn’t even put it on the ballot. But six votes from five people made it clear: People want to see me tackle the first movie. You want it? You got it. Just be aware that this is going to be a long one. (Also, next week is “Keep Calm and Flutter On,” with five votes from four people.)
Ah, transforming Pinkie. If only Hasbro were as willing to reference some other properties. Also, Fluttershy being in a near-constant state of nervoucitement is kind of perfect.
Looking carefully, I’m pretty sure Twilight is just a smidgen taller than her friends here. I do love how they’ve been having her subtly, literally grow into her new power.
I'm not sure why Rarity is obsessing over Twilight’s crown, though. It’s the same Tiara of Magic as it’s always been. I suppose the added context of it being a royal crown makes it all the more precious to her.
So. The guards of Cadence’s demesne are welcoming Twilight with trumpets that have Celestia’s cutie mark on the hanging banners. I'm not sure if I want more consistency or a way to fit Luna in the proceedings.
Also, completely unobtrusive non-crystal pegasus who will surely not be at all significant.
“What if now that I’m a princess, Celestia expects me to lead a kingdom of my own?”
Don’t worry, Twilight. The plan is to have you start small, with the annual slave market swap meet.
I see Celestia brought the Canterlot Archive guards to the summit. Just as useless here as there. That guy probably knew Sunset. ("Hey, haven't seen you in a while. The new princess's room? Let me show you!")
Sunset Shimmer is able to teleport after more than two years without her magic. Either she's that good, or it’s like riding a bike. A bike that lets you fold space.
At some point, Twilight is going to need to confront Celestia about just how many sealed evils, former students, and other various menaces are still unaddressed.
The timing of the lunar alignment and the summit can’t be a coincidence. I have to think that this was a plot on Celestia’s part to use one student to tie up the loose ends of the other… though she probably didn’t anticipate the burglary.
(Also, wow, Luna’s reflection looks awkward. It's like they just stapled the flowing part of her mane to the back of her head.)
I dislike how the Element of Magic can apparently work independently of the others. It ruins the “all are needed” motif. Though I suspect that the same principle would apply if any of the other Elements were brought into the human world. Imagine if Sunset had tried to ascend with the Element of Laughter…
Havoc through cosmic imbalance is a much better reason for having Twilight go alone than it being potentially confusing. Point to the first movie there.
I admit, I was very pleased to see that parallel universes were canon.
And now, a pictorial interlude:
This concludes the pictorial interlude.
I like the hand-to-hoof effect when Twilight pokes her arm back through the portal… though I do wonder what it looked like back in Equestria.
Door doesn’t open when girl walks into it. Door does open when puppy pushes it. Okay then.
Also, completely unobtrusive human with speaking role who will surely—
Okay, okay. I don’t like Flash Sentry, but I don’t dislike him either. There’s really not a lot to go on with him. (And, as far as I can tell, his special talent is physically placing himself in the way of others. That’s why Twilight keeps walking into him. Well, pony him, at least. Possibly human him as well, depending on how magic works there.)
Crown enters the portal in the middle of the night, pops out in the morning. Well, good to know that the temporal relationship between the two worlds was screwy to begin with. (Except Granny Smith. Granny Smith being old is a universal constant.)
Anyone can run for princess of the Fall Formal, eh? Does that include the male students? Especially since there doesn't appear to be a prince.
Also, while this plan is very, very stupid, I can understand Twilight’s awkwardness. One, it’s a Celestia who doesn’t recognize her, which has to be all kinds of weird. Two, I am intimately familiar with this kind of tongue-tying. You will take any opportunity to break out of the stammer cycle.
Pinkie demonstrates that the human world does have magic within seconds of showing up. I like to think of the divide as Exalted versus World of Darkness, without the grimdark. In other words, Equestria is filled with magic that’s present everywhere you look, while the human world seems nonmagical, but there are all kinds of supernatural phenomena lurking just under the surface. And chromelanin.
Ah, the first hint of Science Twilight. I do look forward to seeing what comes of that.
I have to think that Sunset is blackmailing the janitorial staff to keep that dead-end hallway suitably ominous.
Poor Cheerilee. She wanted to teach elementary school, but nooo, there weren’t any openings there. She ended up a librarian in a cesspit of hormones and teen drama. Not that she’s bitter or anything.
The Internet Fame Crusaders raise the question of how cutie marks work in this world. They almost certainly don’t actually appear on people’s hips (though odds are we’ll never get direct confirmation of that,) but the perfect parallelism between pony and human analogues is suspicious. I have an idea for this, but I’m saving it for a story… that I’ve been planning since this movie first came out. 
I’ll get to The Eleuwhinnian Mysteries eventually.
I hate plots that can be ruined if the characters had actually communicated with one another, but I love it when that communication takes place.
The flame trail on that soccer ball might have been cartoonish embellishment, but I’m willing to call it native magic.
I’m blaming about seventy percent of the Flashlight romantic tension on Twilight’s current brain chemistry. Puberty is a hell of a drug.
I can’t help but think of a simple yet elegant rebuttal to the smear video: “Do you not like Sunset Shimmer? Vote for me. I’m not her.” Bam. Ten thousand hits, easily.
“I haven’t sold any in ages.” Okay, so Rarity does run her own business in this world. I have to wonder how that came about.
I do love how the musical number has to be ritualistically called into existence. Again, less magic, but still greater than zero.
Luna can’t tell when someone pasted one photo over another? Wow. That’s… that’s just incredibly lazy writing. The manufactured crisis is one thing, but the amount of gullibility needed there… 
Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad they gave human Luna something to do, but did it have to be that?
More importantly, how did Sunset evade punishment for this? Or the smear video? Or anything? What does she have on the principals to give her this Kevlar-Teflon blend plot armor? (Aside from more lazy writing, of course.)
Okay, I admit, I laughed when Flash walked into the door. Maybe those two do have some chemistry beyond the biological. Now, if they can just manage to avoid concussing one another…
It’s been said before, but the sledgehammer would just pass through the portal, wouldn’t it? Heck, the portal may not even be tied to the statue, just that particular point in space. Sunset’s threat is empty on so many levels, it’s almost collapsed in on itself.
“Equestria will find a way to survive without my Element of Harmony.”
No, no it wouldn’t have. At least Tirek would’ve probably been choked and/or punctured to death by plundervines.
Applejack always has rope on her person. No matter the Applejack, no matter the occasion, she has rope.
Okay, the streams of tears evaporating as Sunset begins her demonic ascendance? Very cool.
Huh. Wilhelm attends Canterlot High.
You know, in addition to the many, many flaws of Sunset’s plan, there’s one I never noticed until now: I think she’s too big to fit in the portal. At best, she'd need to crawl through, and that hardly seems like the triumphant entrance she wants.
No matter what the world, Celestia has a gift for making impressive speeches after Twilight has done all the heavy lifting. 
Whoa. Vinyl was lip synching to the song at the end there. More lines than she got in Rainbow Rocks, that’s for sure.
Also, photographic evidence of the girls in hybrid form canonically exists. How was this covered up, exactly?
And, of course, Derpy dancing with a muffin in the credits. Which was awesome. 
Told you this would be a long one. And we're only just getting to the cards:
Welcoming Fanfare W
Sorcery
Put a +1/+1 counter on each creature that entered the battlefield this turn.
”Never underestimate the power of a strong first impression.”
—Princess Celestia
Channel Harmony WW
Sorcery
As an additional cost to cast Channel Harmony, tap X untapped creatures you control.
Exile target creature with power X or less.
Those who exemplify the Elements have little need for the physical foci.
Smear Campaign 1W
Instant
All creatures gain protection from target creature’s name until end of turn. (They can’t be blocked, targeted, dealt damage, or enchanted by anything with that name.)
“If you don’t have respect, you don’t have anything.”
—Sunset Shimmer
“Time to Come Together” 1W
Enchantment — Song
At the beginning of your upkeep, put a verse counter on “Time to Come Together”.
1W, Exile “Time to Come Together”: Each player may return up to X noncreature permanent cards from his or her graveyard to his or her hand, where X is the number of verse counters on “Time to Come Together”
Dead Magic WWW
World Enchantment
Players can't spend mana.
At the beginning of each player's upkeep, that player may destroy Dead Magic. If that player does, he or she can't cast spells or activate abilities until his or her next turn.
Fashionista Clique 2W
Creature — Human Advisor
Advisors you control have "2W, T: Return target enchantment card from your graveyard to your hand."
"Everything's retro eventually."
—Rarity
1/2
Guitar Solo 2W
Instant
Distribute three verse counters among up to three target Songs.
Draw a card.
”If there’s a song that can’t be made more awesome with more guitar, I don’t want to hear it.”
—Rainbow Dash
“This is Our Big Night” 2W
Enchantment — Song
At the beginning of your upkeep, put a verse counter on “This is Our Big Night”
3WW, Sacrifice “This is Our Big Night”: You may put up to X Aura cards from your hand and/or graveyard onto the battlefield, where X is the number of verse counters on “This is Our Big Night”.
Flash Sentry, Interceptor 2WW
Legendary Creature — Pegasus Soldier
Flash
Flying, vigilance
Flash Sentry, Interceptor can block any number of creatures.
Whenever Flash blocks, it gets +0/+2 until end of turn for each creature it's blocking.
1/2
Lost in the Crowd 2WW
Enchantment
Creatures can't attack you or planeswalkers you control unless their controller pays X for each of those creatures, where X is the number of Humans you control.
”They’re apes. How can they be stampeding!?”
—Princess Twilight Sparkle
Culture Shock U
Instant
Target creature gets -4/-0 and becomes the creature type of your choice until end of turn.
"Nothing distracts quite like an unexpected transmutation."
—Ditzy Doo
Caninize 1U
Instant
Until end of turn, target creature loses all abilities and becomes a Hound with base power and toughness 1/1.
"I really wish I could say this was the worst thing that ever happened to me."
—Spike
"This Strange World" 1UU
Enchantment — Song
At the beginning of your upkeep, put a verse counter on "This Strange World".
U, Sacrifice "This Strange World": Until end of turn, each of up to X target creatures loses all abilities and becomes a Human with base power and toughness 1/1, where X is the number of verse counters on "This Strange World".
Innocent Facade 2U
Enchantment — Aura
Flash
Enchant creature you control
Enchanted creature has hexproof.
When enchanted creature attacks or blocks or an ability of enchanted creature is activated, sacrifice Innocent Facade.
Photomanipulation 2U
Instant
Choose one —
• Attach target Aura to target permanent it can enchant.
• Change the target of target spell with a single target.
Seeing is believing. That's the problem.
Princess Summit 2U
Sorcery
Draw a card for each legendary creature you control.
Cycling 2 (2, Discard this card: Draw a card.)
“Auntie Celestia just can’t visit me without making a huge production of it.”
—Cadence, Princess of Serenity
Techie Clique 2U
Creature — Human Artificer
Artificers you control have "T: Add 1 to your mana pool. Spend this mana only to cast an artifact spell or activate an ability of an artifact."
"Maybe this world really does have magic."
—Princess Twilight Sparkle
1/3
Steal from the Slumbering 2UU
Sorcery
Gain control of target nonland permanent unless that permanent's controller taps an untapped creature he or she controls.
Forecast — 1U, Reveal Steal from the Slumbering from your hand: Tap target creature. (Activate this ability only during your upkeep and only once each turn.)
Anthropomorphic Analogue 3U
Creature — Human
You may have Anthropomorphic Analogue enter the battlefield as a copy of any creature on the battlefield, except it's still a Human.
Some parallel timelines are nearly indistinguishable from one another. Some.
0/0
Hostage Situation 3UU
Enchantment — Aura
Enchant creature you don't own
You have hexproof.
You control enchanted creature.
Enchanted creature can't attack and its activated abilities can't be activated.
When you're dealt combat damage, sacrifice Hostage Situation.
Luna's Interrogation BB
Sorcery
Target player pays any amount of life, then reveals X cards from his or her hand, where X is the number of cards in that hand minus the life paid this way. Choose one of them. That player discards that card.
"We can do this the easy way, or the way that got me suspended for a few years."
—Vice Principal Luna
Bully’s Mien 2B
Enchantment — Aura
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature gets +2/+0 and has intimidate.
Sunset ruled Canterlot High as a petty tyrant, keeping the masses too afraid to strike back.
Freshman Flunkies 2B
Creature — Human Minion
T: Each player who lost life this turn loses 1 life.
B: Transform Freshman Flunkies. Activate this ability only if you control a Demon.
Born followers outnumber born leaders ten to one.
2/2
Fiendish Flunkies
(B) Creature — Imp Minion
Flying
4BB, T: Each player loses life equal to the life he or she already lost this turn.
Sadly, no amount of unholy power can give the gift of competence.
3/2
Rocker Clique 2B
Creature — Human Rogue
Rogues you control have lifelink.
"Live fast, rock hard, and put off dying until you've gone from cool to sad."
—Vinyl Scratch
1/3
Malicious Gossip 2BBB
Sorcery
Each creature target player controls gets -1/-1 until end of turn for each other creature that player controls.
"Divide and conquer hasn't failed me yet."
—Sunset Shimmer
Comet Kick R
Instant
As an additional cost to cast Comet Kick, tap an untapped creature you control.
The tapped creature deals damage equal to its power to target creature.
Goalies speak of Rainbow Dash in hushed whispers, partially because of the bruised ribs.
Athlete Clique 2R
Creature — Human Warrior
Warrior creatures you control have haste.
"I'm not just the captain. I'm also a member."
—Rainbow Dash
2/2
"Equestria Girls" 3R
Enchantment — Song
At the beginning of your upkeep, put a verse counter on "Equestria Girls".
2RR, Sacrifice "Equestria Girls": Untap up to X target creatures, where X is the number of verse counters on "Equestria Girls". Gain control of those creatures until end of turn. They gain haste until end of turn.
Eco-Kid Clique 2G
Creature — Human Druid
Druids you control have "T: Untap target land."
"Take care of the planet; it's the only one we have. Other than the one full of tiny magical horses."
—Fluttershy
1/4
Technical Difficulties 2G
Instant
Target player can't cast artifact spells or activate abilities of artifacts this turn.
Draw a card.
"It's just a few centuries' worth of technological progress. How hard can it be?"
—Princess Twilight Sparkle
Vending Machine 4
Artifact
When Vending Machine enters the battlefield, put a +1/+1 counter on target creature.
2, T: Choose a counter on target permanent. Put another of those counters on it.
”Only fools underestimate the mystic potential of peanut butter.”
—Trixie Lulamoon
Mirror Portal 6
Artifact
6, T: You may put a permanent card you own from outside the game onto the battlefield. It gains haste. Exile it at the beginning of the next end step. If that permanent would leave the battlefield, exile it instead of putting it anywhere else.
Streamer Barrage R(wu)
Instant
Tap up to two target creatures. Streamer Barrage deals 1 damage to each of those creatures.
”And that’s just by hand!”
—Pinkie Pie
Reconciliation (rw)(rw)
Enchantment
(rw), Tap an untapped creature you control and own: Gain control of target creature you own.
Sunset Shimmer's machinations were easily undone by the magic of friendship, also known as "talking to one another."
Sunset Shimmer 1WB
Legendary Creature — Human Rogue
Whenever a creature enters the battlefield under an opponent's control, that player loses 2 life if he or she controls more creatures than you.
Sacrifice another creature: Sunset Shimmer gains protection from the color of your choice until end of turn.
1WB: Transform Sunset. Activate this ability only if a legendary Equipment is attached to Sunset.
1/1
Sunset, Demonic Despot
(BR) Legendary Creature — Demon
Flying, trample
Whenever Sunset, Demonic Despot attacks, gain control of target creature defending player controls until end of turn. Tap that creature. It is now attacking that player.
X, Sacrifice another creature with power X: Sunset deals X damage to target creature or planeswalker.
6/6
Flash, Handsome Rogue 1RW
Legendary Creature — Human Rogue
Flash
Haste
W, T: Regenerate another target creature.
He watches out for others, which explains his tendency to walk into things.
2/2
Pinkie's Hunch 2(ub)
Sorcery
Name a nonland card. Target opponent reveals his or her hand. If the named card is revealed this way, search your library for a card, put that card into your hand, and shuffle your library.
Forecast — 1(ub), Reveal Pinkie's Hunch from your hand: Look at target player's hand.
Crystal Platoon 2(wu)(wu)
Creature — Pony Soldier
WU: Choose one —
• You gain hexproof until end of turn.
• Target legendary creature you control gains hexproof until end of turn.
3/3
Sunset, Arrogant Expert 2UB
Legendary Creature — Unicorn Wizard
2, Pay 1 life for each other creature you control: Copy target instant or sorcery spell. You may choose new targets for the copy.
”If that usurping foal thinks she’s better than me just because she got wings first, she has another thing coming.”
1/3
Critter Smuggling 2GW
Instant
You may put any number of creature cards with total converted mana cost 3 or less from your hand onto the battlefield.
"I suppose it's technically against the rules, but Sunset Shimmer gets away with much worse."
—Fluttershy
Speaking as someone who hasn't seen the movie: Is it actually canon that Sunset *can't* use magic in the human world? Even if Twilight can't, Sunset has had years to practice and learn the rules of her new body.
Celestia's approach to running the kingdom is to slap a bandaid on everything. Evil overlord? Banish him! Chaos god? Stick him in a statue! Magic-eating ram? Stick him in jail! Sister goes evil? Banish her! It's like she's spent her whole reign trying to pass things off as "someone else's problem" and is only now realizing that she's still going to be around to be the "someone else".
I think maybe Sunset can use the Element of Magic separately because she's not really using it at all--it's just a power source, and she's using techniques that can leech power from any generic powerful artifact. It just happens to be a very powerful artifact. As I said, it's the kind of technique an expert mage would learn if they were gonna willingly spend a lot of time cut off from their usual source of magic.
“I haven’t sold any in ages.”-- Wait, Rarity the high school student sells dresses? And has been doing so long enough that she can say she had better success in the past? Talk about ambition.
Maybe Sunset can switch back and forth betweeen her human and demon sizes? I dunno, being too big for a portal sounds like a frankly hilarious reason for a giant demon to be thwarted and I want to see some stories use it.
---
Cards now.
Smear Campaign: I so want to come up with the name of a creature that does something spectacular (besides nuke the board) but damages itself or your other creatures as a side effect. I'm not sure such a card exists. Oh well, it's still removal of sorts.
Time to Come Together: Noncreature permanents? Like, the power of friendship lets you reuse old techniques but not gather friends?
Dead Magic: Interesting. Reminds me of Hesitation, except most of the obvious ways around not casting spells still use mana. If you have some way to recur it from your graveyard (or multiple copies), this should be quite aggravating for your opponent; every turn you can't cast anything probably has a bigger opportunity cost than the last.
This is Our Big Night: If the opponent doesn't lose or concede the game the turn you sacrifice this, you've built your deck wrong. Of course it's just as fragile as any other song, and somewhat vulerable to instant-speed kill spells to boot.
Flash Sentry, Interceptor: Made me grin. Especially the flash part.
Lost in the Crowd: That's ok, it's not like human tribal is very good at producing hordes of weak creatures. Right? (Yeah, this card is scary, but they already have equally scary cards).
Caninize: You missed a huge opportunity not naming this "Turn to Dog".
This Strange World: What's that, I can't hear you over the sound of me wiping out X of your strongest creatures with a Tremor.
Steal from the Slumbering: Oh, neat! It's kind of like if Mind Control was a trap spell. And not disenchantable.
Innocent Facade: Slap it on someone with vital passive abilities, like a lord. Then again, Alexi's Cloak works in the same situations but cheaper and without leaving the creature sidelined (and blue has even cheaper non-flash versions if you don't mind losing the counterspell aspect).
Photomanipulation: Speaking of stealing stuff for cheap (well, two cards ago anyways).
Princess Summit: I definitely remember a card that makes all nonbasic permanents legendary. I can't remember if it's a real card or something you wrote.
Hostage Situation: Wow, so let's see. It's non-damage creature removal (without going to the graveyard or giving them "on death" effects), it gives you temporary hexproof and it gives you temporary access to all its passive abilities and any "on death" effects. Yeah, that sounds pretty good. Kinda sad that killing the hostage is a forgone conclusion though.
Luna's Interrogation: Almost a completely dead card after turn 4 or so. Potentially really powerful on turn 2 though.
Freshman Flunkies: I'm sorry, but their demon form looks pretty darn competant to me. For a three drop--yikes!
Malicious Gossip: 2BBB: Target player loses all creatures, probably. Laugh at them. (Unless they just sacrificed a bunch of eldrazi spawn to summon a fatty)
Comet Kick: It's like Soul's Fire except you want to cast it the same turn you play the dragon, and you can probably afford to actually do so. (Also: Comet Kick + Fling for maximum fun)
Pep Rally: In most matchups this is like a timer, counting down the turns until you win the game. That timer may only need to reach one or two turns. (Also, Act of Treason, sacrifice engine, etc)
Eco-Kid Clique: I like the flavor text. If we ruin this planet, though, I don't think the tiny magical horses are going to give us theirs.
Mirror Portal: So I can cast a hasted Eldrazi every turn for 6? I don't care if I lose the hardcast bonuses, attacking with Emrakul on turn 4-5 in a ramp deck is silly.
Sunset Shimmer: The combination of those abilities on the demon form is so ridiculously powerful. I guess it's time to stock up on legendary equipments. Too bad none of those are cheap or have good abilites on their own... oh wait.
Flash, Handsome Rogue: Yay, more Flash for Flash. Also pretty useful.
Crystal Platoon: It's like a partial flagbearer. Actually, judged against the real flagbearers it looks slightly underpowered, but it's not like the flagbearers were weaklings to start with.
Sunset, Arrogant Expert: So if you don't have a lot of creatures, this looks pretty killer. Even if you just attach it to cantrips that's pretty good.
Critter Smuggling: Lets you sneak out creatures for colors you don't have land for. I would not suggest fixing that loophole.
---
Wow, you were right. That was a LOT of cards.
All of the cliques should be legendary according to vendilion clique, still don't get that. My theory is that Granny Smith is a dryad who has tied her life to Sweet Apple Acres, so long as the orchard lives so does she.
3111596
The Vendillion Clique was a specific set of faerie triplets, Veesa, Endry, and Illiona. They figured largely in the Lorwyn/Shadowmoor block storyline. The cliques at Canterlot High are not nearly so distinguished.
3111587
Twilight explicitly couldn't use her magic, and there's no evidence of Sunset using any of hers. No horns apparently means no unicorn magic.
Celestia is unwilling to kill. She is merciful, which is hardly an objectionable trait in a ruler. Plus, her most powerful means of defense, the Elements, seem restricted to nonlethal solutions. When your best option is canning the evil, you end up with a lot of cans.
Sunset drops a very interesting line in this movie: "Pop quiz: what happens when you bring an Element of Harmony into an alternate world?" She doesn't answer that question, but it seems that she knew something was going to happen once she donned the Tiara of Magic. I posit a theory in one of my stories.
"Time to Come Together:" The song plays during a "fix it up" montage.
Caninize: Eh. Went with a different pun.
Princess Summit: You're thinking of Leyline of Singularity, which is an actual card.
Freshman Flunkies: Your question got cut off there.
Sunset Shimmer: The mental image of Sunset wielding the Pointy Fork of Doom is fantastic. Thank you for it.
Critter Smuggling: That's not a loophole; that's a feature.
And of course the Flash cards had flash. How could I not give Flash flash? (Heh. Flash cards. I'm sure Twilight would love them.)
3111596 What about Puppeteer Clique, Mistbind Clique, Knacksaw Clique, and Fencer Clique they all deserve identification.
Now that I think about it, you know what would've made the cliques even cooler? If they were all targeting a creature type that they all share, so that having all five would give all of them all the abilities. (But not human since that's too easy; something like advisor). Given that it's a five-color cycle. Such a cycle would be safer if they'd all been tap abilities though.
3111861
The thing is, in-story, the cliques were keeping the student body separated into subcommunities that didn't interact with one another. Non-overlapping tribal effects seemed like a perfect way of reflecting that willing segregation.
On Dead Magic; Ahh, World Enchantments. So much potential there, sad thing they stopped doing them. At least we still have Planechase.
Also I feel that this would be more flavorful if it stopped mana production instead of mana spending. "If a spell or permanent would produce mana it instead produces no mana." I know it's more wordy but I'm an unashamed Vorthos at times and when I see a card named "Dead Magic" I want it to stop the magic being produced, not prevent magic from being cast.
Also also I can see some stalling White mage play this against a stalling Blue mage and the blue mage just letting it sit there. "I don't have to counter your spells if you never play any spells."
On Fashionista Clique; I like the idea of Advisors advising other Advisors on how to do things. Wonderfully meta.
On “This is Our Big Night”; Two uncountable Eldrazi Conscriptions turn five! Fun fact, Eldrazi Conscription is tied for the highest mana cost in creature auras, the other being Yavimaya's Embrace.
Turn one Slippery Bogle or Gladecover Scout, turn two Invisible Stalker, turn three song, turn four any other number of hexproof creatures, turn five double uncounterable Conscription for game. And yes I know the trigger on the song can be countered but honestly who runs that sort of thing most of the time? (*Raises hand* When I have it available, they don't really print that effect too often.)
I say keep the base cost the same and change the rules text to "1W, Sacrifice “This is Our Big Night”: You may put any number of Aura cards with total converted mana cost X or less from your hand and/or graveyard onto the battlefield, where X is the number of verse counters on “This is Our Big Night”.
Because circumventing CMC leads into things getting very broken.
I really feel that Steal from the Slumbering should be "non-creature permanent". I'm fine with it being able to gank a land but non-temporary creature stealing is normally limited in some way, be it an enchantment you can remove or based on CMC.
Oh, hey there Innocent Facade, another Aura for the card two above to get broken with. Though this one is actually very balanced by itself.
The phrasing on Photomanipulation's second option be "Change the target of target spell with a single target.", no 's' on the first 'target'.
On Techie Clique; again, Artificers telling other Artificers how to do something, great stuff. I see you're going for a cycle of these here so I'm not going to comment on the other three unless I feel their ability is worth commenting on.
I'm not sure how I feel about Hostage Situation. On the one hand enchantment creature gank is normally somewhat expensive in the first place, on the other hand being dealt combat damage is not that hard of a thing for people to do so it's easy to get rid of yet on the other, third, hand you gain hexproof which may or may not be all that worthwhile yet on the fourth hand the creature you've nabbed can only use passive stuff so might only be good for removing a Lord or a blocker. This is one of those cards that people would be debating the merit of for ages. And that's a good thing.
I love the fact that Comet Kick can have the creature deal damage to itself (lack of the word "another"). Was that intentional? It simulates missing with the kick I think.
On Pep Rally; No, bad FoME! Bad! *whacks with rolled up news paper.* You're breaking your naming convention on songs! They are all actual names/titles of songs and not just places where songs take place! Make it ""Pep Rally Chant"" or something, not just the event but the song that was sung at the event.
As for the ability itself this is pushing the limit power-wise but I think it should be fine.
On Vending Machine; I do love me some counter shenanigans. And the cost of 2 and tap seems about right, maybe a little high. I consider Proliferate to cost 3-4 and that's counting the fact that it is more than just one target (including players)! I think the Vending Machine would be fine at 1 and tap for a single extra counter on a single permanent.
Not that easy counters on things isn't broken in and of itself mind you.
Oh, hi there Mirror Portal. Time to fill up my sideboard with creatures with fun enters and slash or leaves the battlefield abilities. (But not Phage. unless you want a way of conceding that's more than than just saying "I concede.")
I was going to make some comment about how "Flash, Handsome Rogue" should be named "Brad, Handsome Rogue" but it seems that him being named "Brad" is fannon.
On Pinkie's Hunch; the Forecast ability makes it cheating. It is not a 'hunch' if you already know for a fact something is there. Doesn't mean you can't play it off as a hunch though.
Still cheating.
But if you're not cheating you're not trying to win so... .
Don't worry sir and or madam, the Crystal Platoon is here to protect you!
I love how Sunset, Arrogant Expert works best alone. Nice job there.
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For Smear Campaign funny times you can use it in combination with Goblin Kaboomist. But sadly there aren't many creatures with fun abilities other than just nuking the board that deal damage to them-self
On Hostage Situation; the hostage is fine, it's Hostage Situation itself that gets sacrificed not the creature it is on.
On Mirror Portal; The official ruling for sanctioned matches on any card with the wording "you own from outside the game" is that the card in question is restricted to pulling cards from your sideboard. Even exile is considered to be "in the game", so you'd only get to use each creature once.
Now when it comes to 'for fun' games players can totally ignore that and allow people to pull stuff from, say, a trade binder.
3112400 Oops, I misread Hostage Situation. That's a bit more fair.
As for Mirror Portal, if I'm casting hasted 10+ mana creatures for 6 mana I think the game's going to end before I run out of cards. But I guess it's still not quite the same as recasting the same Eldrazi every turn.
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Dead Magic: I suppose there's something to be said for stopping the mana at the source, but I like the simple, four word sentence that shuts down darn near everything. The elegance pleases me.
"This is Our Big Night": Anyone who lets this song sit around long enough gets what they deserve. Bruna's going to her senior prom and no one's going to stop her.
Steal from the Slumbering: Given that the card was inspired by Govern the Guildless, I'm going to disagree.
Photomanipulation: Fixed. Thanks.
Comet Kick: The ability to make the creature kick itself in the face was unintentional, but I like it enough to keep that way.
Pep Rally:
I didn't have a choice in the matter. The name of the song in question is "Helping Twilight Sparkle Win the Crown." It wouldn't have fit on the card!EDIT: Scratch that. Double-checking reveals that the song in question is actually entitled... "Equestria Girls." Go figure. Fixing now.
Pinkie's Hunch: Pinkie cheats. This should not come as a surprise.
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Dead Magic is very elegantly pleasing, but the stopping of mana production was what came to mind. It works either way really.
As for "This is Our Big Night" it really only needs to be around for the two turns, mayhaps even just one with some easy form of mana acceleration. Turn two Rampant into turn three song and Bogle into turn four eleven-eleven trample hexproof Annihilator 2 that is attacking right now. Still not the most broken thing in ever but still pretty broken.
Bruna is somewhat restricted by her casting cost and not having haste, and creature destruction being a bit more common than enchantment destruction. Though with all the songs going around I'm sure there would be a bit more enchantment hate in this hypothetical set than normal.
I still feel it's a little too over powered but I've said my piece about it.
Govern the Guildless costs six mana, not three, and has a restriction that while not overly restrictive normally was actually pretty restrictive for its block, hence having a way around said restriction when any other time it wouldn't.
The only Instant or Sorcery card with a CMC of three that permanently takes any sort of permanent is old school Debt of Loyalty or Dominate on a token slash other creature with CMC of 0.
Even going outside of creature gank to any permanent grab it's either restricted by having a higher casting cost, restricted by what CMC it can take or is some sort of permanent that can be removed to return ownership.
My main problem with Steal from the Slumbering rule-wise is that it's highly undercosted for its effect with a restriction that is very easy to work around.
Flavor-wise it really should only be restricted to legendary artifacts. I kid, I kid. Though really I think it shouldn't be able to steal creatures because of flavor reasons as well. "Because all the guards are sleeping I'm going to steal one of the guards! And force him to work for me when he wakes up! Though he has no sort of magical or mundane reason to do so!"
You still have "At the beginning of your upkeep, put a verse counter on Pep Rally." for the newly named "Equestria Girls". Also even if it wasn't named that you very well could have named it "Win The Crown" or some such (I like the idea of "Twilight For Queen" myself).
On Steal From the Slumbering: If 5U was a fair price for a target-restricted sorcery that steals a creature in Ravinca, mayhaps 1UU is a bit low for a timing-restricted sorcery that steals a permanent. I'm gonna echo the sentiment that it shouldn't affect creatures.
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Well, never let it be said that I can't take advice eventually. I've upped the cost. Do bear in mind that having an untapped creature effectively makes the spell cost two more, and having two untapped creatures shuts it down. Furthermore, forecasting it without casting it alerts the opponent to its existence.
I would totally run Dead Magic in my Omnath deck, but it's an EDH deck and it's off-color, so I can't.
Eco-Kid Clique's flavor text!
I never thought I would hear the phrase "the mystic potential of peanut butter," and I find myself oddly dreading the prospect of learning the context behind it.
There aren't enough cards that synergize with human Sunset's first ability.
Cast Critter Smuggling with a hand full of Memnites and Ornithopters. Or just cast them regularly. Whatever.
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There are a fair number of cards that force tokens on players. Acorn Catapult can hit a player for 3 when combined with Sunset. Forbidden Orchard can Shock as a mana ability. Alliance of Arms could very well end the game.
Also, peanut butter is one of the most potent magical catalysts known to man... or, at the very least, known to Trixie.
3114414 The problem with Alliance of Arms is that it also gives you tokens, so unless you have a sac outlet or just fewer creatures than everyone else, they don't lose the life, and if you do, no one else will put much mana into it, if any.
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Read carefully. Sunset is a sac outlet, and the ability only checks to see if your opponent has more creatures when it resolves.
(Of course, it may still be hard to get people to chip in...)
3115330 Oh. Woops.
Forgot about that part.
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Get people to chip in? When you have a card that reads "WX: All opponents lose 2*X life", you should be able to end the game using your own mana. Though if you're playing 2 Headed Giant, if you can communicate it to your partner so they leave their mana open you will crush everybody.
Also, Hunted Phantasm gives your opponent 5 tokens for 3 mana, and has an amazing body to boot. It costs 1UU though, so good luck with the colors. Hunted troll gives them 4 creatures for 2GG with an equally good body; hunted dragon gives three creatures for 3RR but the creatures are actually good.
That would require her to have something called 'personal initiative'; this is not something somepony who lets a magic map tell her what to do has.
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I never said she was going to do it, only that she needs to. Sadly, the two are not guaranteed to synch up.
3180537 No, they're not. The more obvious it is that they do, the less likely that a disorganized mind like Twilight's will see the need.
Pinkie's Hunch seems odd for a hybrid (ub) card, since blue doesn't have generalized tutoring, and hybrid mana is (per MaRo, anyhoo) generally supposed to do stuff available to either monocolor. I really love Hostage Situation and Malicious Gossip, they're really flavorful and feel powerful but balanced.