Friendship in Card Games: School Raze · 12:19pm Oct 14th, 2018
And so, at last, we come to the finale the long way. Let us begin.
Huh. Given the last time Best Pony delivered a letter during a season finale, I find myself wondering if Chrysalis will show up for the second time this season.
So how’d Cozy Glow wrangle the friendship assistant position? I wonder how Spike feels about her muscling in on his territory. He’s grown a lot since “Owl’s Well That Ends Well,” but still.
Changelings don’t normally have cloudwalking? I wouldn’t have guessed; it’s kind of a crapshoot when it comes to fliers.
Yaks and cloudwalking spells don’t mix. Makes sense to me.
… or unexplained phlebotinum failure. Huh.
The magic issues are interfering with potions? Making, drinking, or both?
Oh my. This… this is actually one of those rare plotlines I can’t stand to read in fan fiction. Unstoppable progressive degeneration of any kind is… Well, I have some personal issues with it. To see it on the show… This is distressing on a number of levels.
Wait, if creatures lose their magical abilities on the second day, how will the sun set on the third?
Oh hey, Tirek canonically got called a centaur. Nice.
“I finally learned that it’s okay to count on your friends for help.” THANK GOD. Though I’m holding Twilight to that come Season 9.
So… when did Tartarus get new occupants? Presumably Luna’s referring to when Twilight took Cerberus back in “It’s About Time.” I guess the princesses and the guard have actually been doing something in the background. Wonder of wonders.
Wow, those cupcakes went bad fast. Refrigeration spells in the saddlebags or alchemical preservatives?
So much for Dash clearing the clouds in ten seconds flat. Though it’s not clear how much area she’d need to cover.
Okay, that is a very cool design for the gates of Tartarus. Quite suitable.
Girls, you might have wanted to include a doorstop. This seems like the kind of door that locks once it’s shut.
Let’s look over the inmates… We’ve got a manticore, a chimera, a yeti, a bugbear, a member of the inventory of the rancor trainer from “Trade Ya,” some of the denizens of the creepiest cave in Equestria from “Pinkie Apple Pie,” and a few natives of Discord’s dimension. Quite the eclectic collection.
Oh hi, Neighsay. Are you authorized to do anything to a school that’s using a different accreditation organization?
Wait, wait, wait, there are cells between Cerberus and the gates of Tartarus? That just seems like poor prison design.
Tirek channeling Hannibal Lecter is strangely hilarious.
I would love to hear Neighsay’s explanation for precisely how a bunch of adolescent creatures of assorted species were causing the worldwide death of magic… except it turns out he doesn’t have one. He’s just lashing out at the ones he wants to blame, and I can actually understand that. He’s afraid and channeling that fear into anger so he doesn’t feel as powerless as he might otherwise.
“From now on this school is pony only… as nature intended.” Wow. There’s a statement that says volumes about the one who said it.
Obvious ploy by Sandbar is obvious.
Don’t you think Apple Bloom’s a little young for you, Sandbar? 
I get the feeling that Dash realized they were trapped in Tartarus the whole time and just assumed that Twilight had a plan for that. (She did. Unfortunately, it was “Get Tirek to stop whatever he’s doing and cast my way out.”) Also, as far as ways to write the Mane Six out of the conflict go, this one works quite well for the most part. This was a reasonable line of inquiry to pursue, and Twilight does still have a bad habit of jumping to conclusions.
Hold up. How exactly does Tirek send mail? How does he get mail? Is there a postpony walking by Cerberus on a regular basis? Probably the guy who drifted through Discord’s dimension. After that, Tartarus probably pales in comparison.
And so we see the depths of Cozy’s plotting. She’s not just a villain. She’s the anti-Scorpan, someone who was already malevolent to begin with, but who Tirek turned to his side in full with the power of friendship. He’s right; the irony is exquisite, especially given Neighsay’s bigoted paranoia.
It’s also a neat echo of the comics. Like his mentor before him, Tirek is teaching the next generation of magic thieves. Unlike Sendak, he’s greatly refined the process, and Cozy is in no position to make his cave collapse on him.
Hmm. Frustrating as it is, part of me can’t help but feel Starlight getting captured without explanation is a bit of narrative karma for “To Where and Back and Again.” Don’t get me wrong, it’s lazy writing, but the tables turning tickles me a bit.
Dash flattening herself against the gates of Tartarus was a much-needed moment of levity.
Cozy actually addresses something I was wondering: Neighsay’s the head of the EEA. Kind of hypocritical for him to come down on Twilight for running off on friendship quests when he’s abandoning his own responsibilities to infringe on her turf. He doesn’t even address the question; there are a lot of other schools out there, buster.
A locked door. A locked door? You have a yak.
Also, Ocellus loses changeling points for taking Sandbar’s statement at face value. Though I suppose some part of her still expects betrayal from every angle.
Sandbar, I admire your optimism, but your faith in Neighsay seems… questionable.
Cozy Glow would be amazing at Cinemare Sins. I know she’s doing this to further her own agenda, but it’s still incredibly satisfying to see Neighsay get dissected by those not cowed by his authority. That’s the nice thing about antagonist vs. antagonist fights; no matter who loses, we win. The angry mob’s a bit much, though.
Ah, that look on Neighsay’s face. That look when he realizes that it’s a pony who’s done the exact thing he feared from this school and seeks to weaponize friendship. That look when he sees the extent to which he was so close to the truth, and yet so far.
That there is some exquisite schadenfreude.
I don’t think I ever expected to see a yak succeed at a Disable Device check.
Ah. That explains why Neighsay was using portals in “School Daze.” He can’t bend space; his medallion can. And that look when he walked through. That is the look of a stallion who is fully aware that he may end up trapped in the space between spaces for all time.
Wait, the goat head breathes fire!? Entirely nonmagical fire? (Seriously, the whole “all magical abilities lost” thing’s been pretty darn inconsistent when compared to Tirek draining ponies. Cutie marks are still present, pegasi can fly, Pinkie’s pinking all over the place…)
See, this is why Tirek took more than a millennium to escape the first time. He’s a bit like Celestia; he needs at least a generation to think through his plans, or he rushes through them to disastrous effect.
Also, brilliant use of the Warner Sibling threat by Twilight. “You’ll be stuck here. For eternity. With Pinkie Pie.” Pinkie’s follow-through makes it all the better.
Huh. Huh. You know that one bit of headcanon where Discord is responsible for all of the chimeric species in the world? I think it just got confirmed.
A bit late to try to argue with Cozy, Sandbar. You generally want to do that before she sets the mob on you.
Heh. The Elements of Multiculturalism. Can’t say I’m surprised by the deus ex arbor; the Tree has a propensity for last-minute turnarounds. When your perspective exists outside of time, you can indulge in dramatic timing.
Tirek getting smacked by his magic was fantastic. “Yes, fine, here’s yours. Be satisfied with it for once.”
I half-expected Starlight to get wings as a side effect of being at ground zero of the magic explosion.
Oh, thank goodness, they’re not just letting the villain get away this time. And it’s nice to see the guard actually do something. Also, canonical female guard. Pretty sure that’s a first for the show.
Yeesh. How many diplomas does Spike have stored up?
Sorry, kids. Saving Equestria is basically your freshman friendship midterm.
Given that last Pennywise smile, the Season 9 premiere may follow up on this. I suppose we’ll see.
In all… Honestly? This finale managed to meet my hopes and fears simultaneously.
Please allow me to explain before you put those to use.
Given the buildup, it was clear that Cozy was the primary antagonist. The Student Six would likely save the day; same logic as Season 6. Intervention from the Tree was probable, as was Neighsay’s return. My biggest concern was that, as in Season 6, the Mane Six would get thrown under the proverbial bus without explanation. Instead, the conflict justifiably took the big players out of the picture (except Starlight.) Neighsay’s turnaround wasn’t something I was going to put money on, but it definitely worked; the flaws in his position kind of got shoved in his muzzle.
And yes, there were flaws. The Tartaran postal service is absurd. The consequences of Cozy’s plan are clearly disastrous for Equestrian civilization, but the story can’t settle on their full scope. The pacing and flow of time are uneven. (It apparently took more than a day for Twilight to MacGuyver her way out of Tartarus, for one, though I suppose a fair amount of that was wearing down Tirek.) Tartarus’s layout is questionable, there are a number of plot threads brought in that don’t really go anywhere, and Cozy’s competence strains credulity at time. Though when your cutie mark is a rook, chess mastery is to be expected.
In all, I’m willing to say the good outweighs the bad here, especially from my perspective. I look at the show as a toolbox as much as a narrative. Equestria is a lot of fun to play with, and the elements this finale introduces have a lot of potential when it comes to toying with it. The show has drawn a baseline, a point of reference we can look down on when we write stories better than this one. Even the doorstop issue makes for easy mocking-the-episode fodder.
In all, these episodes might be frustrating at times, but it’s a productive sort of frustrating. Let’s see what I produced from them:
Friendship Assistant 2W
Creature — Pegasus Advisor
Flying
Whenever a creature token enters the battlefield under your control, you may pay 2. If you do, draw a card.
”Hi there! Let me help you settle in.”
1/2
Sealed in Tartarus 2WW
Enchantment
When Sealed in Tartarus enters the battlefield, exile target nonland permanent an opponent controls until Sealed in Tartarus leaves the battlefield.
Activated abilities of permanents with the same name as the exiled card can’t be activated unless they’re mana abiltiies.
The Death of Magic 3WW
Enchantment — Saga
(As this saga enters and after your draw step, add a lore counter. Sacrifice after III.)
I — Activated abilities of creatures can’t be activated until The Death of Magic leaves the battlefield.
II — Destroy all artifacts and all other enchantments.
III — Until end of turn, creatures you don’t control lose all abilities and have base power and toughness 1/1.
Harmonious Intervention 4WW
Instant
Choose one or both —
• Permanents target player controls gain indestructible until end of turn.
• Exile target permanent.
”That’s quite enough.”
—The Tree of Harmony
Pinkie’s Yammering 2U
Sorcery
Put the top five cards of target player’s library into their graveyard.
Retrace (You may cast this spell from your graveyard by discarding a land card in addition to paying its other costs.)
On some level, Tirek was impressed by the ponies’ ruthlessness.
Study Club 2U
Enchantment
2U, Tap an untapped creature you control: Draw a card.
”Hey, we’ve got to hit the books anyway. Might as well make it interesting.”
—Gallus, friendship student
Neighsay’s Authority 4UU
Enchantment — Aura
Enchant permanent
You control enchanted permanent.
You may spend mana as though it were mana of any type to activate enchanted permanent’s activated abilities.
”Your long nightmare of anarchy is over.”
Gates of Tartarus 2B
Creature — Wall
Defender
If a card would be put into a graveyard from anywhere, exile it instead.
”It’s actually a nice area if you ignore all the things on the other side.”
—Princess Twilight Sparkle
0/5
Tartaran Corpseflies 2B
Creature — Insect
Flying
1B, Exile a creature card from your graveyard: Put a +1/+1 counter on Tartaran Corpseflies.
Scavengers and parasites flock near the Gates, anticipating the day they fly open.
1/1
Unfathomable Horror 3BB
Creature — Horror
Whenever Unfathomable Horror becomes the target of a spell or ability, that spell or ability’s controller discards a card.
The Bearers tried not to look at any Tartaran inmates they didn’t already recognize.
4/3
Rally the Crowd 2R
Sorcery
Creatures you control get +2/+0 and gain menace until end of turn.
”Herd instinct is a wonderful thing. Make ponies a little scared or angry and they do the rest for you.”
—Cozy Glow
Cozy’s Mob 3RR
Creature — Pony Berserker
Trample
At the beginning of combat on your turn, you may gain control of target Pony, Pegasus, or Unicorn you don’t control until end of turn. If you do, untap that creature, it gains haste until end of turn, and it and Cozy’s Mob attack this combat if able.
4/4
Fungal Cupcakes 1G
Enchantment — Cake
2G, Sacrifice Fungal Cupcakes: Create three 1/1 green Saproling creature tokens.
"Oh. I thought rhizomes were a kind of berry."
—Pinkie Pie, Bearer of Laughter
Caged Yeti 2G
Creature — Yeti
Defender
When an artifact is put into a graveyard from the battlefield, transform Caged Yeti.
Tartarus is by no means a pleasant prison.
2/4
Bar Breaker
(G) Creature — Yeti
Trample
Whenever Bar Breaker deals combat damage to a player, destroy target artifact that player controls.
Those who escape will never tolerate confinement again.
4/4
Fissile Chimera 4GG
Creature — Chimera
When Fissile Chimera dies, create a 1/1 green Snake creature token, a 2/2 green Goat creature token, and a 3/3 green Cat creature token.
The sisters welcomed the chance for some alone time.
6/6
Key of Unfettered Entrance 3
Legendary Artifact
4, T, Sacrifice Key of Unfettered Entrance: Creatures you control can’t be blocked this turn.
Whenever a creature with defender enters the battlefield, you may put Key of Unfettered Entrance from your graveyard on top of your library.
Pizza Pony (wb)U
Creature — Pony Citizen
Lifelink
Pizza Pony can’t be blocked.
Rare is the will that can say no to a free deep dish.
1/1
Unravel 1WU
Instant
Choose one or both —
• Destroy target enchantment.
• Counter target spell.
The collapse of unicorn magic was the first sign of Cozy’s plan.
Cozy Glow, Chessmistress 1UB
Legendary Creature — Pegasus Rogue
Flying
Cozy Glow, Chessmistress has hexproof as long as you control another commander.
3UB, Discard a card: Gain control of target creature for as long as you control Cozy Glow.
Partner (You can have two commanders if both have partner.)
2/2
Unstable Gate 1RW
Instant
Exile target creature. That creature’s controller flips a coin. If that player wins the flip, return that creature to the battlefield at the beginning of the next end step.
Neighsay quickly found a new appreciation for the Bearers’ heroism.
Fissile Cockatrice 2BG
Creature — Cockatrice
Deathtouch
When Fissile Cockatrice dies, create a 1/1 black Snake creature token with deathtouch and a 0/2 green Bird creature token.
”Who’s been undoing my hard work?”
—Discord
1/3
Tirek, Tartaran Mentor 3BR
Legendary Creature — Centaur Demon
Tirek, Tartaran Mentor has lifelink as long as you control another commander.
BR, T, Discard a card: Draw two cards. Tirek deals 2 damage to you.
Partner
”No one can cage an idea.”
3/3
Genesis Burst 3GU
Instant
Destroy target noncreature permanent. Each player may cast a spell from their hand without paying its mana cost.
With the arcane siphon gone, magic surged through the world, eager to return to its proper place.
Fissile Manticore 4BR
Creature — Manticore
Menace
Wither (This deals combat damage to creatures in the form of -1/-1 counters.)
When Fissile Manticore dies, create a 1/1 black Scorpion creature token with wither and a 3/3 red Cat creature token with menace.
4/4
Fissile Bugbear 4BG
Creature — Insect Bear
Flying, deathtouch
When Fissile Bugbear dies, create a 1/1 green Insect creature token with flying and deathtouch and a 2/2 green Bear creature token.
Bonbon twitched. Somewhere, something very strange had just happened.
3/3
Cerberus Everlasting 5BRG
Legendary Creature — Hound
Triple strike, vigilance
Cerberus Everlasting can block an additional two creatures each combat.
When Cerberus Everlasting dies, create three 3/3 black, red, and green Hound creature tokens.
BRG, Sacrifice three Hounds: Return Cerberus Everlasting from your graveyard to your hand.
3/9
Sweeping Decay XBG
Sorcery
Kicker BG (You may pay an additional BG as you cast this spell.)
Destroy each nonland permanent with converted mana cost X. If this spell was kicked, destroy each nonland permanent with converted mana cost less than X.
Equestria’s food stores were the first casualties of magic loss.
Pomp 2W//Circumstance 2U
Instant//Instant
Pomp: Creatures you control get +1/+2 until end of turn.
Circumstance: Counter target noncreature spell.
Behold Your True Foe
Scheme
When you set this scheme in motion, target opponent leaves their team until your next turn. Creatures you don’t control attack that player during their controllers’ next combat if able. (That player becomes everyone else’s opponent.)
“Such treachery. Clearly worse than anything I have done.”
Friendship is Power
Ongoing Scheme
(An ongoing scheme remains face up until its abandoned)
You can’t lose the game and your opponents can’t win the game.
When you control no creatures, abandon Friendship is Power.
”All shall befriend me and despair.”
Yes thank you please
Interesting breakdown of the finale. I've been looking forward to reading some opinions about it to help myself work through some conflicted feelings of my own. I thought there was a ton of good in general, but the last ~10 minutes bugged the crap out of me, because everything that anybody did was ultimately pretty irrelevant--the tree just rolled in and said "lol jk XD" and saved the day more-or-less by itself.
The way that Starlight's imprisonment (and ultimately the M6's as well) was handled ended up really bugging me like crazy. First of all, it's clear that the tree could've just said "nope" at any point and set Starlight free. But also, in the S6 finale it gets the prisoners out of the way so it can focus on the drama and tension of the rescue mission, whereas the S8 finale tries to have it both ways, ultimately giving us a lot of appearances of our usual heroines doing meaningless things while in captivity.
I can live with the M6 being sidelined by other characters if the story just zooms in on those characters and lets them breathe. Again: S6 finale was friggin' gold. But as with the end of the S5 premiere, I felt like a lot of the buildup that seemed to point to the M6 saving the day just got arbitrarily swept aside.
I agree with you on the toolbox analogy. Though, I think I've grown tired of it simply because I'm happy to analyze minor inconsistencies and tiny background details and make them fit and make sense in the larger world. But when it's major plot issues, there's more a sense of "I'm not doing your job for you". If I wanted to rewrite whole episodes, I'd just do that!
My personal head canon is that Cozy Glow deliberately excluded the types of magic that she relied on from the worldwide magic draining spell, insuring that flight magic and cutie mark magic would not be drained.
Presumably, Pegasus magic she did not rely on was probably not excluded from the magic draining spell.
Maybe there's a Tartarus pen-pal program to try and get the inmates to learn friendship while still being safely contained till they do so? Or Best Mailmare simply can NOT allow ANY letter to go undelivered.
4953006
Or it's a case of the spell she's using not being exact and just, taking time to fully work on all things, maybe with pockets of magic holding out longer then others.
One detail I'm surprised no one has mentioned is that when magic is returned we're shown magic returned to both Twilight and Rarity's horns, but if you pay attention a bit of magic also returns to pinkie but none of the others. What was up with that?
4953024
Could be.
The part that left me with some odd questions was how they knew in which order magic would stop working and that it would specifically take three days for the world to lose its magic.
I mean, do the Princesses just have an oracle on tap?
Is that where they got that prophesy about Nightmare Moon’s return and/or the warning about an attack on the wedding?
Or worse yet, has this happened before?
Did the Equestria Girls universe have magic at some point in the past and it was stolen?
Was there a threat out there in the multiverse stealing magic from entire worlds at a time?
Did Equestria steal it to power its local god tier reality warpers? (like Discord, the Tree of Harmony, and so on)
Is Discord’s private dimension where he keeps his reality worth of stolen magic when he is not using it?
Or was it created by someone throwing a reality worth of magic into the void between worlds, and Discord just tapped into it and/or was born in there?
4953055
Star Swirl Just Knows Things.
Speaking of the Canterlot scene, what was up with Princess Celestia? The melodramatic, damsel-ish voice and poses are quite unlike her presentation in crisis premieres and finale's up to Twilight's Kingdom.
4953055
Maybe once they knew it was a generalized weakening of all magic, they know just how much magic different things would take, so knew what would fail in about what order based on that, and the 'three days' was based on how fast the magic levels were dropping.
I'm reasonably certain that the show simply reused the same six monster designs for the last three sets -- "background monsters", if you will.
On a related note, I spotted a maulwurf among the inmates as well. Quite the continuity cavalcade.
The impression I got is that Cerberus roams freely around Tartarus rather than having a set position, and he just happened to be deeper in when the mane seven arrived.
See, I'm a bit torn over this bit. On the one hand, it's nice to see the show treat personal moral inclinations as a little less... fluid... than usual, but on the other I'm not sure how I feel about the ponies just shipping off a prepubescent child to Hell and wiping their hooves of the whole matter.
What bugged me, mostly, was the inconstancy between its appearance here and in "Twilight's Kingdom", for the most part.
The bit with the Crusaders did seem like a bit of a damp squib.
One thing that still irrationally bothers me is that there should have been a bat created when the manticore disassembled, too.
You know what I think might be an interesting idea to explore? A situation or alternate scenario where the main characters need a bit more magical juice than what the collection of chimeras offers, so Twilight volunteers to donate her own innate magic and temporarily splits into a unicorn, a pegasus and an earth pony.
4953055
I think the official explanation -- and there have been a couple of scenes supporting it -- is that Celestia has very mild oracular powers. Not necessarily on Delphic levels, but she still gets portentous dreams and the occasional really strong hunch that should really do a certain thing soon,
I'm shocked that you didn't notice the ball of magic entering Pinkie Pie
Starlight getting sucker-thwarted by Cozy is the last thing I was wondering about. It's like how you don't really wonder how Chucky is able to kill people, even though he's only 29 inches tall, and can't weigh more than 20 pounds. Even if the victim sees the attack coming, they'll spend a split second going "What the hell...?!?"
4952981
The Tree needs a set of avatars demonstrating certain virtues in sync to exert any of it's power. That's why whenever something evil or unpleasant wanders into Equestria, it doesn't just automatically blast it with rainbows like an giant colorful Aperture turret. (Although both would sound unsettlingly nice about doing so).
derpicdn.net/img/view/2018/8/26/1816902.png
I don't blame you.
It must be following the same logic as all the deities in settings like Warcraft, Dungeons and Dragons, or other RPGs. All have deities that are called literal gods, even by the creators of the setting, but they don't have omnipotence. Instead they only act as a source of magic for followers that meet the right conditions.
Are... are you saying angels are powered by friendship?
Excellent point. Personally, I was distracted by the relatively large, easily openable/breakable window prominent in the background.
When all of the creatures in Tartarus divided into their respective species, it really would have been something if Tirek had split into a pony and a human.
One point I haven't seen anybody make (although I admit that I tuned out pretty quickly as I skimmed the first couple of pages of the official Fimfiction discussion thread) is that I think one of the primary lessons the writers wanted the viewers to take from the episode was that Neighsay finally learned the value of friendship between ponies and the other species. After all, it was a significant part of the season opener.
However, the writers' ambition led to them biting off more than they could chew, as in order to get Neighsay to believe in the power of teaching friendship, there had to be some great force of evil for him to be subjected to. And setting that up required the writers to introduce too many plot elements, with not enough time to get the story told over two 22-minute episodes. As a result, the intended lesson of "Neighsay learns that friendship is for everybody" was lost to viewer questions such as "Wait, so is Cozy Glow nothing more than a child bent on world domination?" and "Wasn't Tirek's whole deal that he wanted Equestrian magic for himself? I understand that the desire for revenge can screw a guy up, but isn't it a little early for him to be resorting to 'If I can't have it, no one can'?"
(And what happened to Chrysalis? Weren't they setting her up to have some sort of impact on this season, too?)
Overall, it was a good try, but if I read this as a story on this site, I'd be disappointed in the way it lost focus and allowed too many events to occur without justification.
4953096
Honestly, the timeline he gives just seem too exact to be something Star Swirl could have math-ed up without prior data on similar phenomena.
I don’t think a rough timeline based only on what was going on right then would be able to predict the exact time of day that the magic would have dried-up.
but yeah, that’s probably what we are supposed to think.
4953098
A lot of Celestia’s actions would make a lot more sense if she had access to some kind of oracle, but Celestia herself being the oracle would make just as much sense.
Friendship Assistant: Mentor of the Meek, but for tokens. Neat.
Sealed in Tartarus: It's like Ixalan's Binding and Suppression Bonds had a baby. Not as useful as Ixalan's Binding as activated abilites generally happen on the field, so it'll only matter if they have a second copy already in play.
The Death of Magic: Cute, but it's listed as a 1/1 for some reason.
Harmonious intervention: Seeing the last time we had a card that straight-up read "Exile target permanent" was Scour from Existence, 4WW is cheap. I could argue that "Permanents are indestructible TEOT" is apparently more of green's trick nowadays, but it's quibbling at best. Really neat design, Totally tournament playable.
Study Club: Treasure Trove for 1 less, but you have to tap a creature to use it. This feels like it'll be best in a deck which blue is there as a support color. Also, I was thinking too much Magic and not enough pony, and for a second thought it was a weapon; you know, a rounded stick you hit people with to make them study.
Neighsay's Authority: This feels EDH to me.
Gate of Tartarus: Black hasn't had a "When it hits the graveyard, exile it" spell since Urza's Saga. Well, Anafenza had something like that, but it was 3 colors.
Rally the Crowds: Arguably strictly superior Trumpet Blast. You can't boost an ally's team with it, but menace is amazing with the go wide strategies that want Trumpet Blast anyway.
Cozy's Mob: Way weaker outside a FiMtG game, but it has potential.
Fungal Cupcakes: I might have missed it, but are there anything that cares about the Cake subtype (that apparently exists)? Also, this is Slimefoot's birthday cake and you can't convince me otherwise.
Caged Yeti: The first half of the transform card is italicized. Not that that matters, just FYI
Fissile Chimera: Probably too expensive to put in an aristocratic deck, but fun nonetheless.
Key of Unfettered Entrance: Nice "build around me" rare. You need enough defenders to reliably resurrect the Key, but too many and you've got nothing to attack with.
Unravel: I want one in pretty much every UBx commander deck I will ever make until the end of time.
Cozy Glow, Chessmistress: This question applies to Tirek as well. Why not Partner with? Seems like the best way to link these two villains.
Fissile Cockatrice: You just got back from a prerelease where you picked Selesnya, didn't you?
Tirek, Tartaran Mentor: Again, why not Partner with? Also, I like the lifelink negating the damage if he has a partner. Cute.
Genesis Burst Another EDH card. This will be nuts there, especially in a group hug deck.
Cerberus Everlasting: This ought to be a EDH card, but Zacama costed 9 and still was Standard playable, so who knows?
Sweeping Decay: Why not word it "Kicker BG. Destroy each nonland permanent with converted mana cost X. If this spell was kicked, destroy each nonland permanent with CMC X or less instead."? Just feels more correct.
Behold your True Foe: If you can find a group that plays with Archenemy, this will be amazing there.
Friendship is Power: Love the flavor text if nothing else. Also, in an archenemy game, there's going to be less boardsweepers than usual, so this might just win you the game by itself.
Neighsay makes a lot more sense when you remember that we're dealing with a talking horse. The others are more human than he is and don't have his atavistic fight-or-flight response to creatures impinging on his territory.
4953310
I don’t know how much agency the Tree/Table of Harmony actually has when it comes to the use of its power.
I mean, the elements have been used against their bearers before, and it isn't even the first time it is sort of implied that the Table of Harmony was used to power some spell capable of devastating the world.
The thing might just be powerless to act without someone pulling the trigger in the right direction.
But then again, the Tree/Table of Harmony has been acting a bit more sinister lately. Killing the Mean-Six and trapping the Young Six to test their friendships.
So I just don’t know, maybe i'm wrong and the Table of Harmony is gonna be the villain of season nine?
Holy Celestia - Behold Your True Foe may now be at the top of the list of your cards I wish actually existed. And it's not even food related!
Yeah, I thought the justification for getting the Mane Six out of the main plot worked pretty well, and set up a reasonably fun B-plot to boot.
And I also was annoyed at Starlight getting captured with no explanation, but I could hear the legions of Starlight-haters rejoicing around me.
It took me a while to work out that "creatures will lose their magical abilities" was not including things like pegasus flight (or anything ponies do). I took Fluttershy's whimper at that bit of Star Swirl's letter as indicating she was worried about her wings not working, but of course in fact she was just worried about the creatures she takes care of.
Huh, I thought Sealed in Tartarus had already been printed, but it turns out I was conflating Gideon's Intervention (doesn't actually exile the card) with Ixalan's Binding (prohibits casting duplicates, not activating them). There's room for many variations on the 4-mana Banishing Light, especially since Wizards seem to want one every set.
Aren't the chapters II and III the wrong way around on The Death Of Magic?
"Exile target permanent" on Harmonious Intervention seems somewhat out of pie for me. Scour from Existence can do it in colourless, but it's not very white to exile something without it either attacking you or your stuff or providing a way to get it back. (By contrast, Unstable Gate is a delightful take on this principle, and seems perfectly within the colour pie: white can call on red to make it random whether the target comes back or not.)
Neighsay's Authority is a superb design, one of those "I fully expect to see this printed before too long". (Though sadly I suspect Wizards will change the name.)
The flavour text on Fungal Cupcakes is magnificent.
I love the Fissile creatures. Reminds me of the Penumbra and Symbiotic cycles. Presumably it's deliberate they're all 6 mana? It seems a little odd that the mono-green one gives you 6 total P/T, where the gold ones give you 3 or 4.
Bwahaha, that first Scheme (Behold Your True Foe) is awesome. I fear the second one is a bit too swingy though.
4953390
That's certainly not the impression I got. I reacted to 8.13 The Mean Six with "Okay, cool, I guess Chrysalis isn't going to be the end-of-season villain but they just wanted to remind us she's still out there and still mad, so we got a mid-season semi-finale with her. Cool."
4953460
Leyline of the Void was pretty similar. This seemed fine to me - a Samurai of the Pale Curtain with defender.
I assume FoME (like everyone else in the world) just wants more "Partner" creatures. Flavour-wise, I don't think Cozy was particularly attached to Tirek in particular; she'd happily
exploitteam up with anyone if it furthers her agenda.A thought that just occurred to me regarding the Tartaran Corpseflies: I don't know how much this does or does not matter to you, but I'm fairly certain they were flyders in the episode, or at least used the flyder model. Which I think might technically make them insect spiders insofar as creature types are concerned? I'm... not entirely familiar with how these things work, but I though I should at least mention it.
(Apologies for linking to a clip in Swedish, but I couldn't find an English version)
4953424
I have been rewatching Season 4, as it happens, and just got to the finale -- Celestia is explicitly shown to be aware of Tirek's return because she had a vision in her sleep about it, so it's canon that she Dreams of Things to Come, if nothing else.
You know, even if I could ignore all this finale's other faults, I still don't think I'd ever be able to get over the fact that Celestia sent a small child to the pony equivalent of Hell (or supermax, depending on your view), and then laughed about it.
4952981
It's an interesting question of focus versus giving characters their due. Having to fit everything into 44 minutes only complicates matters. That said, I do agree with 4953310; the Tree likely needed those six teenagers with attitude to effect its will on something that wasn't directly attacking its physical form.
4952982
Fair enough. To be honest, I take smug satisfaction in doing their job better than they do.
4953003
Freakin' ninjas, man. Or we go with 4953024's hypothesis and Best Pony makes sure that neither rain, nor sleet, nor hell dimensions will not stay her from her daily rounds. (Do not ask about fog, hail, eternal night and/or chaos, big green things with teeth, or Mrs. Cake.)
4953006
I suspect that the spell might have been opt-in rather than opt-out, which would explain why magics that Cozy never considered were working just fine.
4953027 4953200
I did see that, but I'd assumed that the same had happened to the rest of the Mane Six and I'd just missed it. And it's not like Pinkie needed that magic to produce Tirek-head cakes and monkey suits out of nowhere. Perhaps, going by my hypothesis above, Cozy specifically tried to remove Pinkie from the equation and failed.
Or perhaps Pinkie Pie is the closest out of the rest of the Bearers to ascending to alicornhood.
4953311
Are you saying they aren't?
4953055
All excellent questions! (Well, other than the oracle thing, which has been answered, but others have already mentioned that.) If you don't explore them in stories, I may.
4953083
Celestia does not deal well with surprises. See, for example, the last incident with Tirek and Operation Four Eggs, One Basket. Either she feels comfortable enough to let the mask slip a little with Twilight or she's just worried about how oh me, oh me, the sun has maybe a few days of momentum and then we're all going to die.
4953098
I actually have a hypothesis there: Tartarus is presumably bigger on the inside, but that pocket dimension might have collapsed as magic drained from the world. This may in turn explain the piles of cages near the door; those inmates used to be a lot more spaced out before Cozy enacted her plan.
And on the subject of imprisoning Cozy Glow...
4953604
Consider the following: For the better part of a year, Cozy has been in the most positive, friendly, redemption-conducive environment imaginable. She's been learning according to a curriculum that cut its teeth on Starlight Glimmer. She's done well enough in her studies for the Bearers to consider her a trusted aide.
And in the end, all she got from that was "I can use this to manipulate the masses."
I would argue that we should be grateful that she got put away this early. Her body may be that of a child, but her mind is anything but innocent. Remember, she was the one who reached out to Tirek.
4953390
Granted, if this were a story on this site, the author would have all the space they'd need to flesh out every plot point. (Whether they'd take that opportunity is another matter...)
4953465
"Damnit, Neighsay, are you a stallion or a mouse?"
"Is that a trick question?"
4953472
I don't know, all those creatures are going to try to take a bite out of the unlucky victim...
4953498
I had to fudge on The Death of Magic a little. The mass-Turn to Frog felt like a much more dramatic finisher.
White can exile stuff without justification. It just takes more mana.
The multicolored Fissile creatures put a lot of value into the keywords. Deathtouchers that can spawn more deathtouchers? Kind of good.
4953460
The Death of Magic: Look again. That's part of an ability, not P/T stats for the Saga itself.
Study Club: Don't be ridiculous. The other kind of Study Club would clearly be an Equipment, or at least an Aura.
Gate of Tartarus: As has been noted, Leyline of the Void says hi.
Fungal Cupcakes: These aren't Slimefoot's birthday cake. These are the guests.
Also, see here for a few "Cake matters" cards. And yes, I created the Cake enchantment type.
Caged Yeti: Fixed. Never got around to writing the flavor text for Fungal Cupcakes until you pointed that out.
Cozy & Tirek: As stated previously, these two are willing to work with anyone who will help the further their goals. They are by no means a dedicated team with one another.
Sweeping Decay: Eh, six of one, half-dozen of the other.
Friendship is Power: Or you might set it into motion on turn 1. Given my experience, that's going to happen a lot more often
4953599
)
Rarity explicitly calls them flies, and a cloud of insects doesn't give a lot to go on. (Also, flyders are treated solely as Spiders on the basis of because I said so.
4953743
Why would she be comfortable letting the mask slip around Twilight? That mask is the only thing keeping Twilight barely sane. It's not like she trusts Twilight or anything.
Pish tosh. Starlight learned practically nothing in her ostensible tutalage under Twilight, and indeed did most of the teaching in that relationship. It was only played straight once, in A Hearth's Warming Tale. Every other time it came up, it was subverted. Likewise here; every time we saw the Mane Six teaching (so, in Non-Compete Clause and The End in Friend), the students learned the negative lesson of how not to behave. TSSF has a half-baked curriculum and poor teachers. Is it any wonder that they failed to see anything amiss with Cozy?
Also, using friendship lessons to manipulate the masses is precisely what Twilight tried to do in Fame and Misfortune. Cozy was just better at it.
4953749
What, and Equestria doesn't have asylums? Juvenile detention? Or even just a regular prison? Celestia really had to put the small disturbed child with no special powers in a dark cave alongside literal, actual monsters and sealed ancient evils? And again, remember, she laughs about this, which is the most perverse part of this whole scenario to me. Even if you could argue that this decision was justifiable, which I really don't believe it is, that is a very damning reflection upon her character. It's the closest thing to canon Tyrantlestia I've ever seen.
4953763
RE: Friendship is Magic: I was about to say "That's why you always put Elvish Spirit Guide and Sprout in your deck you you can respond to the scheme being set in motion", but it turns out setting a scheme in motion doesn't use the stack, so I guess you're just boned if it's your first scheme. You need a creature out to be your friend in order to start things off, I suppose.
4953743
How had I never noticed that Discworld and MLP both have Mrs. Cake? It is now irrefutable crack headcanon that these two are in fact the same person/pony inhabiting different bodies in different dimensions.
4953763
Ugh. You're right, I'd forgotten about Iona's Judgment, Trostani's Verdict, Angelic Edict and friends. To be fair, MaRo considers them to be colour pie breaks, and so do I. But there certainly is precedent, even if it's loathsome.
True enough. I did dial back the vehemence of my comment when I considered each of the Fissiles in real gameplay. None of them are happening in constructed, but all of them are very solid in limited even as a 3/3 for 6 mana. (Also, I forgot to mention earlier but I love the flavour text on Fissile Bugbear too.)
4953767
So you're saying it's definitely the "panicking over imminent global extinction" thing, then.
4953775
Looking back, the laughter was in regards to the Crusaders coming out of the closet. Celestia showed no additional mirth when it came to sealing a child in pony Hell. And going by the show... you know, I don't know if we ever have seen any other correctional facilities. Asylums, yes, but Equestria seems to treat megalomania as a punishable offense rather than a mental illness. Ponies seem to have two attitudes towards vanquished foes: reform or lock away as permanently as possible. (Explosions happen on occasion, but they're more incidental than anything.) No wonder Twilight worried about being imprisoned in the place Celestia banished her to.
4953887
Nah, I'm gonna call this "bad writing." Verging on out of character.
Cozy Glow has nothing against Cutie Marks and certainly uses her talent to achieve her goals, plus she's a pegasus herself... so, I'm guessing if she could set it up so the magic drain would not affect those she would do that. (Certain magical frequencies blocked, a modification in the spell matrix to allow certain loopholes, one of the six artifacts partly wrapped in aluminum foil to purposely weaken parts of the spell...) No point in crippling herself, is there? But she all incentive to level the playing field when it comes to unicorns and those pesky alicorn princesses.
As for Pinkie Pie... she isn't using any magic.
Incidentally, she'd be one of the most powerful ponies left after the world got magic-drained. Cozy, your plan would not have worked either way.
This scene raises so many questions.
For starters: Why is there Everfree wildlife in Tartarus to begin with? Are these the worst offenders that actively hunted down ponies? Or did they just grab all the manticores and cockatrices and relocate them to Tartarus? Certainly would explain why the Everfree Forest is suddenly so much safer...
Second: Fluttershy, are you sure you're okay with seeing them locked up in tiny cages like that? Those are downright horrible prison conditions. Also, horrible zoo conditions too. I get this is Tartarus, but GEEEZ! O_o;;
Second and a halfth: Come to think of it, I suppose I can sort-of see one possible explanation for mixing prisoners in with random animals... and that's Equestria's very wildly sliding scale of sapience. Don't forget: That chimera is a wild predator who kills ponies for breakfast --- but she can talk perfect Equestrian. All three of her heads can. Which means... well, let's just say, I remember hearing a Doctor Whooves radioplay where one of the lieutenants onboard a spaceship was a three-headed tiger/goat/snake chimera.
In a sense, Twilight's friendship school represents six nations coming together. I'm still wondering why we've never heard anything of Diamond Dogs in the show again since season 1...
Third: Cue the parallel universe where Discord was never born, and the world ended up a much less interesting place because of it. Subsequently followed by Discord showing up to mess with his "What if I was never born?"-vision. "It's a Wonderful Life With(out) Discord"
Fourth: Uh... Hello Mister Scorpion, what's it like being the tail of a manticore? Oh, what's that, you usually don't have eyes or a mouth of your own? Oh dear. #bodyhorror #fusiongonewrong
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)
(Can you find Spike in this picture?
Uh. No, not at all actually.
As someone who followed the Australian releases (and stayed away from Youtube's 'related videos' section for the two weeks between the airing of the Norwegian and the first available English dub), I can clearly say...
No, this came as a complete surprise to me.
Oh, sure, I knew Cozy Glow was up to something bad, and I could guess Chancellor Neighsayer would be involved there.
But the way I expected it to go down was something more like this:
After visiting Twilight's Friendship School earlier in the season, Chrysalis has decided to seed distrust between the different nations - shapeshifter 101, duh. Chancelor Neighsayer unknowingly becomes her accomplice in getting everyone riled up against each other.
Cozy Glow is his plant in Twilight's friendship school to report anything she finds he can use against Princess Twilight.
In the end, Cozy Glow realizes her mistake of working for Neighsayer when Chrysalis' involvement is revealed, she spills Neighsayer's plans to the Student 6, who in turn end up stepping in at the last moment to stop an all-our war between the six nations involved, Chrysalis somehow gets reformed in the process (probably involving a speech about forgiveness and reaching out to those who are different, and a song. Optionally, Chrysalis' motivation for sowing distrust is revealed earlier on to be related to some traumatic event in her childhood of not being accepted for who she was, again with a song and dance number, or something of the sort to tie it in with an overarching theme).
There, that's what I expected to happen. Or something along those lines, anyway.
Instead, while Chancelor Neighsayer does indeed play second fiddle to the main antagonist, Chrysalis is surprisingly nowhere to be seen, and turns out Cozy Glow of all the possible suspects is the primary bad guy.
No, no I can't see I saw this coming at all.
Also, I can't be the only one who noticed the aura around each of the Student 6 was a different color of the "rainbow" when the Tree of Harmony rescued them?
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wink wink, nudge nudge, #nextelementsofharmony
By the way - I'm surprised I didn't see your thoughts on "a filly the age of the CMC is imprisoned in Tartarus". Kinda the big controversy of the episode.
I mean, sure, I get it - Cozy Glow attended Twilight's Friendship School for quite some time. She had every opportunity to realize the true meaning of friendship before she ever executed her plan - yet not only did she twist Twilight's teachings into something antithetical to their intent, she also didn't learn her lesson after her defeat.
She almost destroyed their entire society for petty lust for power. It's almost ironic she actually understood that getting rid of all the magic wouldn't instantly allow her to take over the world, no, she was planning to play a long game. Better foresight than most villains, I'll give her that ...... wait no, I don't give her that, she was going to destroy all (or most) magic in the world (or just Equestria?), causing unimeasurable havoc and destruction, sending their society back to the stone age, if not outright dooming it to a slow death from lack of a properly maintained orbital cycle!
Imagine the consequences of her EQG-human world analog deciding that, in order to become the most popular girl in school (and to ensure her later presidency), she must first detonate a world-spanning EMP to destroy all electronic devices on the planet so no one can badmouth her on Twitter.
But........ she's still a filly. She's the age of the Cutie Mark Crusaders, the episode even confirmed that! Locking her up in a cage in Tartarus is just....... whaaaaaa...?
Okay, a number of things I'd imagine could happen here:
4953887
I also looked back, and you were right about the laughter part, but Celestia was still smiling when she talked about it:
vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/mlp/images/e/ee/Princess_Celestia_%22I_can_assure_you%22_S8E26.png/revision/latest?cb=20181017214014
Regardless of whether she takes any particular pleasure in it, that is not the face of a mare who has any regrets or qualms about sealing a child in pony Hell. At best, she just doesn't care.
4953749
Go ahead, I haven't gotten around to write an actual story yet and you would probably do a better job at it.
Here is what I have so far for the idea that Discord stole their magic.
Funnily enough, Discord was shown taking away the Main Six’s ability to use magic after he escaped his imprisonment, and everything you need for the story is canonically contemporary with each other. – the invention of the magic stealing spell, Star Swirl’s portal to the Equestria Girls universe, and Discord were all active players during the same time frame.
The Equestria Girls universe being a previously high magic world that had nearly all its magic removed could also explain all the weird stuff that came out of the woodwork once someone reintroduced magic to it.
As for the timeline.
The magic stealing spell was invented by Tirek’s mentor, Sendak the elder. They were living in some unnamed infernal land inhabited by chimerical creatures. Such as the centaurs like Tirek, the gargoyles like Scorpan, and apparently…
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Everyone’s favorite draconequus, Discord! now, this Discord probably doesn’t have his god like powers at this point, since he is being all serious and not doing anything weird.
But Discord was right there in the throne room when they were talking about cleaning up after the guy who invented techniques to steal magic.
Discord could easily have learned how to do it by talking to Sendak to learn his secrets, or by following Tirek to Equestria to study Tirek in action. – you could also turn it around, where Sendak could have learned how to steal magic from the tutelage of Discord, which is why it is so crude compared to Discord’s ability to just remove whatever specific magical talent he wants from a pony.
Tirek’s trip to Equestria is where they ran into Star Swirl the Bearded, well known for throwing his problems into other dimensions.
Discord could also have followed them to steal some Equestrian magic on the side that could be blamed on Tirek. ending up banished by Star Swirl as a result.
Forced to search for a way back home and not being a one trick centaur like Tirek, Discord could have pulled off something like what Cozy Glow did, just in the Equestria Girls universe.
Discord could have used all that power to go through some form of ascension/apotheosis, explaining his tentative relationship with things like physical laws of biology and reality.
And to add some more continuity, Discord might have used the magical geodes from Camp Everfree as the focusing artifacts for his ritual.
By the time Discord returned with the magical power of an entire world, Star Swirl and the other Pillars have sealed themselves away to stop the Pony of Shadows, and the Tree of Harmony has matured.
Discord with his new godlike power wouldn't see any point in stealing magic anymore. Believing himself invincible at this point, Discord would just be playing around with his new power to see what he can do. Ending up stoned once the princesses find the Elements.
Also, a funny thing about the timeline.
Normally, people put the defeat of Discord near the beginning of the princesses’ co-rulership, since that was when they discovered the Tree of Harmony, and because apparently strange trees lying in ponds distributing artifacts of supreme power to overthrow mad tyrannical god-kings is a satisfactory basis for a system of government.
But while thinking about timelines I realized Discord was probably one of the last opponents the princesses defeated as a team. the princesses would have to have defended Equestria with their own power between the time the Pillars sealed themselves away and the time Discord was defeated. And to my knowledge, before the Main-Six the Elements where only used against Discord and Nightmare Moon, while the princesses defeated all the other threats by other means.
The only creatures located before Cerberus were Everfree wildlife, so that might be the "Minimum security" section of the prison. That or Cerberus walks a patrol rather than standing watch at the gate.
Also looking forward to the Malevolent Mailmare's appearance as the one helping facilitate Tirek's outside communications.