Fic or Faction · 2:54pm Jun 2nd, 2019
This is something of an FiCG supplement, though there is something at the end for those not into the "Card Games" part. Read on for details (or just skip to the line of ponemojis at the end if you fall into the aforementioned camp.)
In today's Friendship is Card Games, not for the first time, I included a Contraption. Specifically this one:
Farmland Security
Artifact — Contraption
Whenever you crank Farmland Security, until your next turn, creatures can’t attack you or planeswalkers you control unless their controller pays 2 for each of those creatures.
(Note to hawthornbunny: Don't catalogue this one; there's no need with the other already there. Also, thanks again for maintaining PonyMTG.)
Now, you may wondering about that smug little Applejack at the end. Well, each Contraption has a watermark indicating the faction that built it, such as the forked flask of Crossbreed Labs seen on Arms Depot. Since Unstable is a silver-bordered set, that can even be relevant in gameplay. (For example, you can exile a Division Table to activate "Rumors of My Death...")
I use pony emojis to stand in for the watermarks I'd use if these Contraptions were to see actual print. (Said watermark would, of course, be the respective pony's cutie mark.) However, I've never actually identified the factions those watermarks represent, which makes designing "watermark-matters" cards tricky. Let's fix that. Henceforth, each of the following represents the listed faction, in no particular order:
- Northstar R&D
- Carousel Innovations
- Cloudsdale Awesomatics
- Sweetfeather Biotech
- Apple Company
- P.O.N.K. (Party Operations Neo-Korp)
Feel free to imagine the Equestria where these firms vie for dominance. I suspect it's something like Fallout: Equestria before the bombs fell, only with the Mane Six going corporate instead of taking government positions.
Thinking about it, the bombs may still fall. And they may have balloons on them.
I can't decide if I should laugh or be angry.
Cloudsdale Awesomatics is an amazing name. It's perfect.
Also, P.O.N.K. (Though I would also have accepted Agents of P.I.N.K.)
"Awesomatics"
I just
I can't
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That's the desired reaction of most of my blog titles, so it works out.
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To-do list: Make a card named "The Mare from P.O.N.K."
Also, actually make some Awesomatics Contraptions. Dash actually hasn't gotten any love in that regard.
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You're welcome/I'm sorry. (Choose one or both.)
Whelp, time to dust off the custom watermarks instructions for MSE.
Just in case.
The pun title of this blog post was particularly awesome, yes.
I really want to read a fic featuring the wacky hijinks of those six factions against each other now
I can't find a way to search PonyMTG for your contraptions. I don't think the type line is indexed, and searching for "crank" only finds a few Cranky Doodle Donkeys. I'm sure I recall seeing one or two though, and I've certainly not read every FICG from the past couple of years. Did you have watermarks on the others?
You need to turn this into a story.
You need to turn this into a story, yesterday.
Neat! I probably should have asked about the factions sooner, but I'm rather behind on my MtG knowledge anyways. ^^
Fortunately when I copy FICG data from your blog, the Fimfiction emoticons that you use for watermarks get turned to text strings, which makes them convenient watermark placeholders. I've updated the parser so that it now correctly records the faction on contraption cards (although I haven't incorporated the symbol into the card yet).
There is one card that I had to special-case: Power Converter, which has a broken image on it. I think this was meant to be a League of Dastardly Doom contraption, so I've listed that as the watermark.
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I disabled the advanced search a while back, although I can't remember the reason why. I have now re-enabled it, so if you go to + Search options, there's a "Search by" filter. You can use this to search by subtype for Contraption cards.