Friendship is Card Games: The Magic Apple and EXTREME BINGO! · 11:10am Jul 21st, 2019
Would you look at that. We’re actually getting some comics in this hiatus. Only one blog’s worth, since there’s an EqG special airing next week, but we still have time to look into Pinkie and Rainbow Dash wreaking havoc in their own particular ways, along with Toni “Pencils” Kuusito’s premiere as an official comic artist.
The Magic Apple
Seriously, after following Anon’s Pie Adventures on Derpibooru, it is surreal seeing Pencil’s Pinkie in an actual IDW issue. So few other artists include that posterior divot in pony hooves.
I’m not even remotely surprised that Pinkie doesn’t regret the last time she had total control over the local time-space continuum. If she hadn’t gone mad with the power of chaos, she probably would’ve implemented a plan like this. The fact that her reaction to her plans with “Someday…” rather than “IF only…” says a lot about her plans for the future. A horn and wings would certainly be a step in the right direction…
Nice touch with the golden branch making the whole tree tilt. Apple wood has an average density of 0.75 g/cm3. Gold? About 19.3 g/cm3, more than twenty-five times denser. Given that, it’s probably only the bark that’s transmuted; otherwise, it probably would torn itself off the tree completely. (Either way, I wonder how it will impact the Apples’ finances. Though gold seems to be a lot more plentiful and thus less valuable in Equestria than here.)
And Pinkie’s already turned the town into something out of Discord’s daydreams. It’s times like this where I understand why Celestia had Fluttershy befriend him first. Trying Pinkie would’ve just turned her to the chaotic side. (Really, a personal cotton candy cloud probably would’ve done it.)
Ah, I see the comic art has a standing see invisibility effect for our benefit. Same filter as the one for Sue Storm.
I have to be amused by a pony wearing glasses with arms that actual work for horse ears right next to one where the things appear completely ornamental.
Also, between the spherical style and the knitting needles, that mare has thoroughly commendable commitment to her brand identity.
I suppose we should count ourselves lucky that Pinkie didn’t wish for any logical paradoxes. With this kind of power, she could probably unmake the universe just by sincerely saying “I wish this statement was false.”
Also, how does Celestia feel about that sudden solar boost?
Wow. How sharp are Dash’s hooves?
The big issue with this issue is that it’s hard for me to accept that Pinkie is quite this oblivious. She’s seen the weather team set up rainstorms before. She has some understanding of how the world works, to say nothing of understanding what actually makes most of the ponies in Ponyville happy. I suppose she could’ve wished herself into this state, but it still feels forced.
That said, the “I’m over here!” bit was funny.
Funny artifact of viewing the comics as a PDF: Until I looked at the two-page splash panel as a whole, I didn’t realize why Derpy had crashed into a flagpole. She’s on one page while the flying muffin is on the next.
“Happiness is mandatory!” 
I feel uncomfortably called out.
And, of course, Pinkie wishes away the wishes just in time for everything to fall apart.
Also, that seems like frighteningly flammable chocolate.
I suppose something unfortunate happened to the Ponyville water tower earlier. Probably full of gelatin.
Heh. Dash’s hatred of balloons will last for some time yet.
And yeah, even with her expected level of awareness, I definitely wouldn’t trust Pinkie with any degree of major reality manipulation. Some ponies just want to make the world smile, and don’t think much about the consequences.
EXTREME BINGO!
I felt that was necessary. Now, on to the actual comic.
Best Pony’s two for two on crashing in these comics. Poor thing.
Ah yes, wet blanket Applejack putting the damper on the Gold Horseshoe Gals’ fun. Yes, it’s for their health, but still.
“It’s not the most boring thing Applejack has made me sit through.” Well, that invites some questions. To say nothing of Apple Rose’s tale of the Bingo dance battle.
Inviting Dash specifically for her tactlessness was a stroke of genius. Seriously love it.
Dare I ask for details about Eternapples?
This is how to do an episode continuation right. Yes, once again it’s a matter of Applejack’s concerns making Dash hover over the GHGs, but the circumstances are a lot different. For one, Dash is legitimately concerned for the old mares’ safety rather than just worrying that they’ll have to go home before she gets to ride a roller coaster. Bit of a difference there.
I do wonder where the griffon got the Bük of Hoers. I imagine it isn’t an Equestrian publication.
Also, this clearly isn’t Gabby, which raises some questions about which students she befriended. There’s a story there.
(Also also, I can finally tell Pencils that, as he requested, I’ve finally gotten the comic to find out why that griffon was there in the first place.)
Pinkie sweeping the pastries off the counter is fantastic for the sheer unnecessity. To say nothing of her sounding like an RPG shopkeep.
I do hope Apple Rose paid for all those cakes. Of course, I’m half-convinced that Pinkie just stopped into Sugarcube Corner the day she came to Ponyville, offered to wash dishes to cover her order, and hasn’t been able to pay off her debt yet.
Twilight will not tolerate the idea of losing something in her meticulously organized library. Kudos to Dash for finding a way to weave pranks into the Extreme Bingo.
Also, I’m going to assume that in Equestria, Twilight is a biography covering the Princess of Friendship’s early years. Or possibly the events of her distant ancestor’s life.
Spike laid a B-52 egg? This is why you don’t go to love shacks.
So… why isn’t Bulk flying? Just for the joke? That said, I do appreciate how Great-Auntie Applesauce really does still have the kind of charisma that winds stallions around her hooftip.
Ah, Goldie called in help from another character voiced by Peter New. Clever.
The montage is great in general, from the cameos—I’m pretty sure this is the first time Steven Magnet’s ever been in the comics—to little things like the bag of bits actually having a stylized B rather than a dollar sign. Also, apparently Dash hid a Bingo ball in Zephyr Breeze’s manbun and he never even realized she’d been there, which thoroughly amuses me.
Even if Dash hid all the O balls in the Castle of the Two Sisters, that doesn’t preclude vertical Bingos. Just saying.
I’m not in the least bit surprised that Granny Smith is still bullheading her way through this competition. Applejack had to get it from somewhere.
Time and space got a little slippery there for one panel…
The other reason this works as an episode continuation? “Grannies Gone Wild” never addressed the elephant in the room, Applejack’s overprotectiveness. This does so fantastically, teaching the most needed lesson to the one who most needed it… while also moderating what Dash learned in the episode proper. You’re never to old to have or be fun, but it is possible to go too far in the other direction. All told, an excellent message.
Also, poor Apple Bloom never even got a chance to say anything. She just got adorably swept up in all the furor.
A somewhat dubious spectacle and an all-around great issue. I could ask for far worse comics for this brief foray into sequential art before we truly begin the end. Let’s see what I can make of them:
Travel Hazards 1W
Instant
Domain — Travel Hazards deals X damage to target attacking or blocking creature, where X is the number of basic land types among lands you control.
Wander for long enough and something’s bound to happen.
Aurous Limbs 2W
Enchantment — Aura
Flash
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature gets +3/+3 and has defender.
“Gold is like a full-grown dragon: beautiful, eternal, and very, very heavy.”
—Dragonlord Ember
Interplanar Wish 2W
Sorcery
You may choose a planeswalker card you own from outside the game, reveal that card, and put it into your hand. Exile Interplanar Wish.
She wished for friends, but not for the charm to retain them.
Cotton Candy Oak 4W
Creature — Treefolk Warrior
When Cotton Candy Oak enters the battlefield, if you control a Pinkie planeswalker, you gain 5 life.
Pinkie makes sure to leave an impression on every plane she visits.
4/5
Schoolroost Griffin 2U
Creature — Griffin
Flying
When Schoolroost Griffin enters the battlefield, if you’ve drawn two or more cards this turn, you may return another target creature to its owner’s hand.
A griffin nesting atop a schoolhouse is said to be good luck for the foals by way of being bad luck for everything else.
2/2
Fire Brigade Airraft 2UU
Creature — Pony Citizen
Flash
Flying
When Fire Brigade Airraft enters the battlefield, choose one —
• Counter target spell unless its controller pays 2.
• Counter target red spell.
2/2
Intricate Wish 2UU
Sorcery
You may choose a colorless nonland card you own from outside the game, reveal that card, and put it into your hand. Exile Intricate Wish.
He wished for the future, but not for the power to shape it.
Background Pegasus 3U
Creature — Pegasus Illusion
Shroud (This creature can’t be the target of spells or abilities.)
Flying
Background Pegasus can’t block and can’t be blocked.
If a cloud drifts in the sky and nopony’s there to see it, does it cast a shadow?
2/1
Morbid Wish B
Sorcery
You may choose a card you own from outside the game and put in into your graveyard. Exile Morbid Wish.
She wished for everything, but not for when she would receive it.
Chocolate Morass 1B
Instant
Any number of target players each gain 1 life. Target creature gets -X/-X until end of turn, where X is the total amount of life players have gained this turn.
Making Pinkie’s dreams reality quickly turned them into nightmares.
Orchard Swarm 1B
Creature — Bat
If an opponent controls a Forest and you control a Swamp, you may cast this spell without paying its mana cost.
Flying, lifelink
1/1
Impulsive Wish RR
Sorcery
You may choose a nonland card you own from outside the game and exile it. You may cast that card from exile this turn. Exile Impulsive Wish.
He wished for more wishes, but not for a way to keep them.
Deafening Violinist 2R
Creature — Pony Band
Finale — Whenever you sacrifice a Song, target creature can’t block this turn.
Every performance is an explosion of elegance.
3/1
Good Intentions 2RR
Sorcery
Good Intentions deals 3 damage to each creature.
Hellbent — If you have no cards in hand, this spell can’t be countered and the damage can’t be prevented.
“Oops.”
—Pinkie Pie, Bearer of Laughter
Timeless Conflict 2RR
Instant
Cast this spell only during combat before blockers are declared.
You may exert any number of attacking creatures you control. For each creature exerted this way, create a token that’s a copy of that creature and that’s tapped and attacking. Exile the tokens at end of combat. (An exerted creature won’t untap during your next untap step.)
Lifecrafter’s Wish G
Sorcery
You may choose a permanent card you own from outside the game and reveal it. You get EE (two energy counters), then you may pay an amount of E equal to that card’s converted mana cost. If you do, put it into your hand. Exile Lifecrafter’s Wish.
She wished for inspiration, but not for the means to realize it.
Quest for Bingo 1G
Enchantment
Quest for Bingo enters the battlefield with a quest counter on it.
Whenever you cast a spell with converted mana cost equal to the number of quest counters on Quest for Bingo, put a quest counter on Quest for Bingo.
Remove six quest counters from Quest for Bingo and sacrifice it: Target creature gets +9/+9 and gains trample until end of turn.
Truffle Hound 2G
Creature — Hound
At the beginning of your upkeep or whenever a Saproling enters the battlefield under your control, put a spore counter on Truffle Hound.
T, Remove three spore counters from Truffle Hound: Search your library for a Fungus card, reveal it, put it into your hand, then shuffle your library.
2/3
Explosive Yield 3G
Enchantment — Aura
Enchant land
When Explosive Yield enters the battlefield, put a growth counter on it, then proliferate. (Choose any number of permanents and/or players, then give each another counter of each kind already there.)
Whenever enchanted land is tapped for mana, its controller adds an additional G for each growth counter on Explosive Yield.
Blinding Necklace 1
Artifact — Equipment
Fabulosity 2 (2: If this artifact isn’t fabulous, put a gem counter on it and it becomes fabulous.)
Whenever a creature blocks or becomes blocked by equipped creature, that creature gets -1/-0 until end of turn. If Blinding Necklace is fabulous, that creature gets -2/-0 until end of turn instead.
Equip 2
Concussive Delivery 1(ub)(br)
Sorcery
Target player draws two cards. Concussive Delivery deals 2 damage to that player.
“In my defense, you’re a lot less fragile than the package.”
—Ditzy Doo
Pinkie the Apple-Gilded 1RWB
Legendary Planeswalker — Pinkie
+1: Add two mana of different colors.
-3: You may choose a multicolored card you own from outside the game, reveal that card, and put it into your hand.
-7: You may cast any number of multicolored cards from your graveyard without paying their mana costs.
4
Rubberbane Fanatic 2BR
Creature — Pegasus Warrior
Flying
When Rubberbane Fanatic enters the battlefield, destroy target artifact.
Rubberbane Fanatic gets +1/+0 for each artifact card in each graveyard.
Frenzied popping echoed across Ponyville.
1/2
The Perfect Party 4BR
Sorcery
If you control a Pinkie planeswalker, search your library for three nonland cards and exile them. Otherwise, shuffle your library, then exile the cards from the top of it until you exile three nonland cards. You may cast any number of nonland cards exiled this way and not named The Perfect Party without paying their mana costs. Put the exiled cards not cast this way on the bottom of your library in a random order.
Apparently I've fallen way behind. I have every issue up to #75, but I haven't read either of these
And of course you have a whole cycle of new Wishes, including one that fits into the original cycle but couldn't have been printed at the time. Also, let's not forget the wider context of B-I-N-G-O being part of MaRo's continuing crusade against the Hound creature type.
Can a second or forked Timeless Conflict re-exert your creatures (and single-exert your tokens, not that it matters)?
I actually don't remember if "doesn't untap next untap" stacks with itself like extra turns.
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#69 and #70 if you want to double-check. They're fun reads but not necessarily memorable.
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I started with just Interplanar Wish, but one of the few things Pinkie didn't wish for was a friend from another universe, so I wanted to better justify its existence with a full cycle. Also, it's not an area of design space I have a reason to explore very often.
And yes, Zodiac Dog did nothing wrong.
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You can perform multiple exertions with muliple Conflicts, and they won't stack. A single untap step is enough to recover no matter how much the creature pushed itself last turn. (I suppose you're borrowing the creatures from multiple distinct alternate futures.) This can be relevant in actual Magic thanks to additional combat phase effects, especially Combat Celebrant.
5092100
It didn't help that at some point comixology stopped working properly for me and stopped showing MLP in its catalog.
Yeah, it looks like the last one I actually read was #68 (not nice). The rest... I downloaded them, I even put them in the collection with edited file names for clarity, and then apparently I forgot all about them
5092078
5092100
Oh, also, you can't exert the tokens spawned unless you can get them to stick around somehow, because they weren't declared as attackers and therefore don't triggerNever mind, it's an instant that "targets" creatures currently attacking (without technically targeting them, which is relevant if they have protection from red or something), that's a totally different case.That reminds me of Witch Week by Diana Wynn Jones. One of the magical kids is cursed to have everything he says come true. Later, a wizard chastises the boy who cast the curse by pointing out that the cursed student could have said "Two plus two equals five" and unmade the universe.
Wow, is Orchard Swarm a reference to the Mercadian Masques Legate cycle? That's seriously oldschool.
Yiyikes. Timeless Conflict is terrifying, in a way reminiscent of "super haste". Should it have "Cast ~ only before blockers are declared", or are you going all-in on the Predatory Focus use case?
The first couple of Wishes seemed very natural extensions of the cycle. Then they got more obscure as we progressed around the colour wheel. Energy seems a particularly random direction to go in, though I haven't read the comic this was based on so it's possible I'm missing a reference.
As I read Quest for Bingo I was thoroughly expecting something along the lines of the +9/+9 and trample. I still remember my deck build around that creepy hound. Krakilin and morphs. Good times.
Concussive Delivery is an entertaining generalisation of Sign in Blood. It also makes me want to dig out my old Cerebral Vortex deck.
...Sorry, I appear to be in "nostalgic old codger" mode today. Lucky you?