FIENDship is Card Games: Tirek (Also Friends Forever #12) · 12:57pm Feb 26th, 2017
This week, it’s all about addiction and consumption. Whether it's power or pastry, enough is never enough. My next batch is almost ready; let’s look at the raw ingredients that went into it in the meantime.
FIENDship is Magic: Tirek
I have to say, out of all the potential stories that might be told about Tirek, I had never expected one set during his adolescence. Still, nice to see G4 Scorpan in some medium other than the storybook flashback style, to say nothing of getting a glimpse of their homeland. The little details are especially interesting, from Scorpan’s familiar necklace to the neck pouch that looks suspiciously like the Rainbow of Darkness. Also teenage Tirek’s little goatee, which is strangely hilarious to me. Likewise his petulance. He’s trying so very hard. 
So, do skull caves form naturally, or does someone carve them to make sure they nail the “evil lair” aesthetic?
Sendak’s staff clearly changes shape now and again. That bothers me more than it probably should.
Definitely getting Palpatine/Anakin vibes here, albeit with fewer weird aquatic operas.
Hmm. Interesting that Sendak says Tirek is gifted for having magic. Evidently not all centaurs are spellcasters. Tantalizing as this glimpse of this land is, I wish there were more. Of course, going by Tirek’s backstory in “Princess Twilight Sparkle,” I’m not sure if he left anything behind him to explore.
Unicorns apparently have the strongest magic in the world, at least according to Sendak. I suspect he means that it’s the strongest magic that is easily subdued and extracted. After all, we’ll see stronger later in the comic.
Also, interesting to see the myriad complexities of magic theft. Extracting it, controlling it… Sure, Tirek’s got it down pat by the time we see him on the show, but it makes sense that something so powerful would take a long time to master. After all, it’d probably come up a lot more often otherwise.
I have many questions about the biology of this royal family. I can only guess that there’s some gene that determines morphology. Perhaps an entire chromosome, given all the differences. (Perhaps K and N chromosomes, going by the naming conventions.)
Also, like the previous FIENDship comic, the subject’s start of darkness is precipitated by a short-sighted monarch. Vorak never tried to connect with Tirek. He seemed to assume his son’s ambition was destined to lead to betrayal, never trying to convince Tirek to channel it towards the good of the kingdom. (Or so I assume; I don’t know how they interacted during Tirek’s youth. That might make for an interesting story, actually…)
Hmm. The crown prince of this land sleeps on nothing but a pile of pillows. One could read a lot into that. Or maybe it’s just the most comfortable sleeping surface for a centaur.
Ah! Fireworks! Scream and run in circles, it’s our only chance!
I think Sombra would argue that hate can drive one to equal extremes as love and the pursuit of power, but I suppose that undercuts the “ambition” theme of this story.
Huh. So the explosion tore open the cage… but left the unicorn unscathed.
Well gee, Sendak. Maybe if you stopped yelling contradictory commands at the colt, he might make up his mind.
Uh oh. Not sure what the cloud gremlins were doing there and then, but they definitely saw that.
Subtlety is hard to find in the comics, but I really like Tirek saying he doesn’t care why his father summoned him even as we literally see him sweat. Excellent use of the medium.
Ah. Scorpan’s amulet is actually the royal crest. Nice touch.
Also, what in the name of Markov chains is Discord doing there!? I was aware of his presence—I actually nod to this comic in Time Enough for Friendship—but I still want to know the story there. A shame we never got a FIENDship issue for Discord… though maybe it’s best that we didn’t. If any backstory should be left undefined, it's that of the chaos spirit. A definite past is so limiting.
Hmm. No mention of Luna when discussing damage control. I suppose a desert nation would be more concerned with the sun mare.
… Wait, that’s it? This certainly works as a start of darkness and a fascinating world building exercise, but it doesn’t really come to a satisfying conclusion. This is the first issue of a storyline that was never continued beyond this point, and that’s a real shame. There’s much left to tell here. I’m surprised no one seems to have taken up IDW’s slack here.
Friends Forever #12: Twiilight Sparkle and Pinkie Pie
Okay, that is an amazing cover. Don’t get me wrong, I love the fine art parodies of the FIENDship series, but this is great. You can see Twilight thinking “What, Pinkie gets an ethereal mane before I do?”
Mmm, muffins. Also, Kill La Kill reference. Life Fibers clearly haven't made much headway in Equestria.
Wait, if this is the Annual Snack Cart Invasion, why is Twilight acting so surprised? She has her castle. Even in the most hastened chronology of the show, it’s been more than a year. To say nothing of Spike being the one to bring it to her attention.
I have to say, this is some top-notch Pinkie here. I might go so far as to call it rantacular. Also, neat to see her acknowledge her own hypermetabolic properties.
Huh. I have to wonder where Twilight got the crane. I can’t help but wonder if she’s delving into laughter magic. Careful, Twilight. That way lies madness.
Heh. Speaking of fourth-wall awareness…
Pinkie is like a gas molecule. Reducing the volume of the container just increases the number of collisions with the walls.
Aww. I feel genuinely bad for Pinkie at this point. Addiction is a terrible thing.
That said, awesome Rube Goldberg/Dr. Seuss setup… though this only seems to confirm that Twilight’s been dabbling with Pinkie powers. Still, she’s a long way from beating the master.
Oh no. The phenomnomenologists have ensnared an alicorn. Their conquest of Equestria is now only a matter of time.
Wow. Okay, so there’s this one panel of Pinkie in mid-phenomnomenon overload, and it looks amazingly horrible. Turns out Brenda Hickey drew it with her nondominant hand to pull off the effect. Very nice touch.
I do like how the Princess of Friendship briefly descends into despair when confronted with a friendship problem she just can’t solve.
Okay, the salesmares were a little creepy before. Now they’ve hit outright evil.
Pinkie’s hair doesn’t know what her emotions are doing.
The Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas reference really underscores the drug analogy, doesn’t it?
We had two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of baking chocolate, five sheets of high-grade confetti, a cocaineshaker half-full of salt, and a whole galaxy of multi-colored creamies, crunchies, sours, bitters… Also, a quart of syrup, a quart of punch, a keg of cider, a pint of raw æther, and two dozen pretzels. Not that we needed all that for the trip, but once you get locked into a serious snack collection, the tendency is to push it as far as you can. The only thing that really worried me was the æther. There is nothing in the world more helpless and unpredictable and bizarre than a unicorn in the depths of an æther binge, and I knew Twi’d get into that rotten stuff pretty soon.
Ahem. Getting back on track.
“No point trying to follow the logic.” Good, Twilight’s learning. Though she does try to figure out what happened to the joy buzzer, which is a question best left unasked.
Aww. And Spike got his pretzels after all. Good for him. 
In all, two very enjoyable stories. Pinkie was on point throughout, with even the straighthaired moments appropriate for her state of emotional vulnerability. Meanwhile, the Tirek story came to an abrupt end, but what was there worked quite well both on its own and with what we know about him in his later days.
Oh! That was the oven. Here you go. Just let them cool for a bit, especially the red ones.
Tempt with Treats 1W
Sorcery
Tempting offer — You gain 5 life. Each opponent may gain 5 life. For each player who does, you gain 5 life.
Some ponies have nothing but sweet teeth.
Vorak’s Guards 1WW
Creature — Gargoyle Soldier
Flying
W: Vorak’s Guards gets +0/+1 until end of turn.
Armor is more ornament than protection for a gargoyle.
2/2
Look Outward U
Sorcery
Look at each other player's hand.
Draw a card.
Awareness, the first step of transcendence: There is far more to existence than what a pony can sense.
Gremlin Elders 3UU
Creature — Gremlin Advisor
Flying
Whenever a creature you control with flying deals combat damage to a player, you may draw a card.
Wisdom comes slowly to cloud gremlins, but it does eventually come.
3/3
Kinetic Confusion Trap 4U
Instant — Trap
If four or more creatures are attacking, you may pay 1U rather than pay Kinetic Confusion Trap’s mana cost.
Return all attacking creatures to their owner’s hand.
”Which way is up again?”
Agony of Defeat 1B
Enchantment
Whenever a player clashes and loses, that player loses 2 life. (This ability triggers after the clash ends.)
2B: Clash with an opponent. (Each clashing player reveals the top card of his or her library, then puts that card on the top or bottom. A player wins if his or her card had a higher converted mana cost.)
Pain Elemental 1BB
Creature — Elemental
Pain Elemental’s power and toughness are each equal to your starting life total minus your life total.
”I call mine Beauregard.”
—Pinkie Pie, Bearer of Laughter
*/*
Thirst for Power 2B
Sorcery
Draw three cards. You lose 5 life unless you discard two cards.
”Those unwilling to use every opportunity doom themselves to mediocrity.”
—Prince Tirek
Souldrinker Mentor 3B
Creature — Centaur Shaman
Whenever an opponent loses life, you gain 2 life.
The art of tearing the magic out of a pony’s body took generations to unlock.
3/3
Sendak’s Test Subject 1R
Creature — Unicorn
Delirium — Sacrifice Sendak’s Test Subject: Add RRRR to your mana pool. Activate this ability only if there are four or more card types among cards in your graveyard.
”I am so close to ultimate power. My new disciple should provide the final key.”
—Sendak the Elder, journal
2/1
Struggle for Supremacy 1R
Instant
Choose target instant or sorcery spell, then clash with its controller. If you win, gain control of that spell and you may choose new targets for it. Otherwise, return Struggle for Supremacy to its owner’s hand.
Meandering Journey 2R
Sorcery
As an additional cost to cast Meandering Journey, discard X cards.
Draw X plus one cards.
2R, Exile Meandering Journey from your graveyard: Copy target activated ability of a Discord planeswalker. You may choose new targets for the copy.
Arcane Rupture 3R
Instant
Arcane Rupture deals 1 damage to each creature.
Storm (When you cast this spell, copy it for each spell cast before it this turn.)
The greater the struggle, the more devastating the explosion.
Break Loose G
Instant
Destroy all Auras attached to target creature. That creature gets +1/+1 for each Aura destroyed this way and gains trample until end of turn
Almost nothing can hold an earth pony against her will.
Sparkly Twilight Monkey 2G
Creature — Monkey
All creatures able to block Sparkly Twilight Monkey do so.
(bg)(bg): Sparkly Twilight Monkey gets +1/+1 until end of turn.
”Haven’t you always wanted a monkey?”
—Pinkie Pie, to Twilight Sparkle
2/1
Snack Cart 2
Artifact — Vehicle
1, T: You gain 2 life.
Crew 2 (Tap any number of creatures you control with total power 2 or more: This Vehicle becomes an artifact creature until end of turn.)
4/4
Satchel of Darkness 4
Artifact
Satchel of Darkness enters the battlefield with three charge counters on it.
BB, T: Put a charge counter on Satchel of Darkness.
2, T, Remove a charge counter from Satchel of Darkness: Target creature gets -2/-2 until end of turn.
Phenomnomenons 5
Artifact
T: You draw a card and lose 1 life. Target opponent gains control of Phenomnomenons and untaps it.
The mouth sings. The stomach groans.
Hypermetabolism BRG
Enchantment
Whenever you cast a creature spell, it gains devour 2. (As it enters the battlefield, you may sacrifice any number of creatures. It enters the battlefield with twice that many +1/+1 counters on it.)
Portion control is for unicorns.
Sweet Surrender 1BR
Sorcery
Untap target creature. You gain control of that creature until end of turn. It gains haste and lifelink until end of turn.
Delicious pastries and alicorn metabolism ganged up on Twilight’s rationality. The next thing she knew, she’d eaten several dozen phenomnomeons.
Tirek, Dark Dabbler 1BR
Legendary Creature — Centaur Shaman
Lifelink
BR, T: Tirek, Dark Dabbler fights target creature you don’t control.
Partner (You can have two commanders if both have partner.)
“Everyone thinks I’m a monster. Why disappoint them?”
2/3
Scorpan, Voice of Restraint 2GU
Legendary Creature — Gargoyle Advisor
Flying
1, T: Draw a card, then discard a card.
Whenever you discard a card, you may put a +1/+1 counter on another target creature you control.
Partner
1/4
Penal Mines
Land
As Penal Mines enters the battlefield, you may reveal a Mountain or Plains card from your hand. If you don’t, Penal Mines enters the battlefield tapped.
T: Add R or W to your mana pool.
Souldrinker Mentor would be absolutely devestating in a lifesteal deck. Getting Enduring Scalelord vibes, if it was ever paired with cards that make opponents lose life whenever you gain life.
I like this probably far more than I should >:D
Pretty much what everyone said, myself included. If you ask me, it's this story's only real, serious flaw. I loved Tirek's FIENDship, but the lack of a proper conclusion left me burned.
I'm sure somebody out there has tried. I've thought about it myself, but I've got nothing definite yet.
I found Tirek's comic disappointing. To little information given, felt rushed and incoherent at times.
For me it was the worst out of the Fiendship set.
Yeah, in the S4 finale, Tirek goes after the unicorns first, then the pegasi, then the earth ponies. The way Celestia talked made it sound like Tirek went after the “easiest” or “weakest” pony magic until he gained enough power to steal magic from the “strongest” ponies. Though she could have meant that the earth ponies' natural magic is the hardest to separate from them.
Of course, I still like my headcanon that in general, unicorns have the weakest magic but the most control over it, earth ponies have the strongest magic but the least control, and pegasi are somewhere in between, but closer to earth ponies on this scale.
Well, obviously she would. She already has capillurgy down pat.
I loved the Tirek comic. I particularly loved the focus on family relationships, and the interactions between the royal family. Plus the artwork was gorgeous. And apparently unlike majority opinion, I thought it was very interesting that they chose to set the story when they did. Lemme copy/paste a bit from my own review from back when the series came out:
"This is not the story of how Tirek tried to conquer Equestria the first time, which would have been the obvious and expected route. It's not even the story of how he rose to power before trying to conquer Equestria. It's something much subtler. It's a story of family relations, full of ominous significance, lingering and dwelling on the time before it all erupted. It never actually gets around to showing us what happens: we are left to fill in the blanks on our own.
Tirek here is a young man, full of ambition and disappointed with the prospect of following in his father's hoofsteps. Scorpan is a little boy, devoted to his big brother but afraid of the trouble his brother will create. Their father Vorak is the king of this barren wasteland, and his dual role as both king and father is reflected in all his actions. Vorak worries that his realm and his family life are unstable, and his son and heir is unruly and bound for trouble. The king is not stupid and he is not weak, but we know that he will fail to contain Tirek's ambitions.
Tirek is most like his father, and the resemblance clearly galls them both: both are figures of strength who need to push the other down, because they both know there can only be one king. Scorpan, conversely, is like his mother: figures of support to their nearest, trying to keep peace and resolve tensions between Tirek and Vorak. But while Vorak seems to value the advice of his queen, Tirek holds Scorpan in no esteem at all.
This, of course, is Tirek's fatal flaw: he has no gratitude to those who help him, but will abandon them even when they could have been his loyal allies. In turn, they will turn against him in sadness and see him undone to save everything else."
I always thought it funny that Tirek turned out to be the weakest thing in his own origin story. Not that that he was bad, mind, but that there was so much other interesting details that Tirek himself got outshined.
I really like Pain Elemental. It fits with versions of black aggro I've used in the past. In EDH, this thing is pretty much a massive Tarmogoyf. I can totally see this being played in a BU control, where you are likely to lose a fair amount of life before getting a lockdown and needing a finisher. This thing is what I wanted Dread Slag to be when it first came out– a cheap costing beater with massive power based on some "deteriment".
Thirst for Power seems quite fascinating. I feel the only thing keeping it in check is it being a sorcery. It digs deep for a draw spell. The life loss isn't too much of a detrimentearly game if you can set up some lifelink or life steal to keep yourself from dying late game. That discard isn't too much of a detriment, either. Reanimation shenanigans, anyone? And that's not thinking about Modern. Even if Grave Troll is banned, Dredge loves things like this. Hell, it might mean not having to splash some blue to get some self discard. Thirst for Power can fit in a few decks due to being so modal.
Yeah, really liking these card designs. Powerful abilities at the cost of other resources. Such is the way of the black mage.
4436837
In hindsight, maybe making it curve perfectly into Sanguine Bond was a bad idea...
4436842
Yeah, it's a pretty big gap to fill. And I feel like it'd involve more political drama than I'm personally comfortable with composing, at least in the earlier stages.
4436876
I'll be looking at my personal worst of the batch in two weeks. We can compare notes then.
4436892
Fine manipulation versus overwhelming force often makes for an interesting trade-off. The difference between picking a lock and breaking the door down.
I suppose Pinkie tries to keep the hair displays to minimum. Doesn't want anypony worshiping the Hidden Princess of Joy. Again.
4436913
You make an excellent point, but I'm still left unsatisfied. It's that most enviable of problems; I loved everything we got, but I want more.
4436959
Yup. Every color wins by doing something better than the opponent. Red is faster, green is bigger, white is better organized, and blue is smarter.
But black? Black just wants it more. Black will do anything as long as it's still breathing by the time it gets to the winner's circle.
The Chronicles of Prince Tirek...
Hmmm...