Friendship is Card Games: Nightmare Knights #1 & #2 · 12:50pm Feb 16th, 2020
With Ponyville Mysteries exhausted, we turn to… well, not quite the Equestrian Suicide Squad. That was the Season 6 finale. Perhaps their take on Justice League Dark (which I’m given to understand is like the Justice League but without milk chocolate, ergo, no Discord.)
Nightmare Knights #1
There’s something delightful in Luna using Twilight’s dreams of library sorting as a way to relax. Whether or not you ship it, it’s a touching show of how much Twilight means to her… though given the way she phrases the experience, it’s kind of hard not to ship it.
The tension between Apple Bloom’s destiny and her familial duty does make for a fascinating topic. A shame this only touches on it lightly; you could easily get a deep story out of it. (And I’m sure such a story exists somewhere on Fimfiction.)
Ooh. Stygian’s dreaming of the Legends of Magic annual.
Oh dear. This isn’t just a dream. It’s contact with another timeline, and an entity that transcends them. It’s an interesting gambit, wagering one corrupted alicorn to potentially triple the count.
Also, one wonders how much worse this corruption process is than the one we’re familiar with if Luna couldn’t even survive.
One of the diarchs travels through a mirror portal and tries to hide it from her sister. At least this time it’s a rescue mission and not a booty call. Still, Stygian’s right. This is a terrible idea.
As much as I like the alignment detection device throwing the horns—though it does raise the question of where that gesture originated in this world—shouldn’t the lower reading be “Goodie 4 Shoes”? Of course, unless it was designed by centaurs, I suppose hands preclude quadrupedalism.
I do appreciate the continuity with the dragon. There were in fact three ponies in front of him. And now there aren’t.
“Stop being so noble, Stygian! You’ll never make it through like that!” She’s not wrong.
I have to love how encouraging the guards are with Stygian. “You nearly sent your entire world spiraling into darkness and despair? Good for you, champ! You’ll get ‘em next time.”
And then there’s Luna. Fascinating to see her explicitly identify herself as Nightmare Moon. Not sure if she believes that or not, but either way, that it feels good to indulge that side of her says so much. Brilliant character moment.
Ah yes, the establishing shot of the Chaos Casino. There is a lot to take in here. Let’s do rundown, top to bottom, left to right:
• Gilda
• The cloud gremlins, because this is Tony Fleecs we’re talking about
• The Flimflam brothers
• An Anugyptian anthro-jackal from the Discord/CMC Friends Forever issue. Possibly Anubis himself, though he doesn’t have the distinctive headdress.
• The G1 Smooze
• A Diamond Dog
• Doctor Caballeron
• Garble
• Queen Chrysalis
• Tirek and Scorpan
• Pony Gloriosa Daisy
• Pony Maleficent from the bookworm storyline (which is to say an in-universe fictional character)
• A spider gangster from the very first comic storyline.
• Multiple changeling drones
• Babs and Sunflower Seed, meaning we may have to file them under humanized EqG antagonists
• A Shadowbolt
• Lightning Dust
• Pharaoh Phetlock, High Heel, and the Smudge from the Power Ponies annual
• Nightmare Rarity
• Formerly Good King Sombra (as indicated by the blue accents)
• Rarity von Doom, as per the Ponies of Dark Water storyline
• Sunset Shimmer
• Starlight Glimmer, with Ourtown-era hair and equal cutie mark
• Suri Polomare
And on the next page, we also have the G4 Smooze, Queen Cleopatrot from Shadow Lock’s arc, Bad Apple, a parasprite… and Angel Bunny. 
Very considerate of the staff to provide a stool for him.
So this really is a multiversal establishment, catering to evil from across time, space, and even layers of fictionality. I wouldn’t be surprised if it were affiliated with Blips and Chitz.
I do have to commend Stygian’s caution. Luna’s charging in blind because of the threat to Celestia, which exactly what the one dangling her sister in front of her wants.
Curious how two of the Diamond Dogs appear to be staff while the third seems to be a patron. Maybe it’s his day off.
Additional villain sightings: Well-To-Do, the Tantabus, a background dragon, pony Wallflower Blush, Withers (the Caballeron henchpony with sunglasses,) Svengallop, and the Mane-iac.
What? This is fun.
Situational awareness, Luna. It’s all I ask.
And then there’s Eris. Her largely avian composition brings to mind a Tzeenchian Lord of Change, which feels very appropriate. Cunning, manipulative, happy to employ pawns to further her schemes… And, of course, she’s a being of Chaos. This is what brought on yesterday’s FoME Thinks Too Much blog, for the record.
But yeah, Luna charging facefirst into getting her power sapped? Not exactly a good way to set up the conflict for this arc. High stakes, yes, but I can only hope Eris extracted the idiot ball from Luna along with her magic.
“And with my Goodie Two Shoes censor at the gate, none of your little hero friends will be able to get me.” Because it’s not like they can just fire the Elements of Harmony from outside the security checkpoint or anything. We know the gems have an artillery setting, especially when dealing with draconequi. And taking the Elements out of their home universe can have all kinds of fascinating side effects…
Oh wait, that could turn out very bad indeed.
Magnificent escape on Stygian’s part. Sometimes the brave and dumb maneuver is your best choice. (Though if he could have lifted the cage, maybe he should’ve done that while Eris was doing her dramatic entrance. Yes, Daybreaker probably would’ve blasted him anyway, but at least make the effort, my dude.)
Still, Luna has the best possible pony for the job. Stygian is the Pillar of Logistics, after all. If anypony can put together a team that can undo this debacle, it’s him.
Nightmare Knights #2
Luna: Gets all her power stolen.
Also Luna: Sets the moon the next night.
I suppose Eris wasn’t as thorough as she thought. Well, Twilight was able to fly after getting drained by the Staff of Sacanas… though the series has never been terribly consistent on what magic loss actually entails. Or, you know, it’s just a continuity error.
There is something delightful in Celestia teasing Luna about her love life… and something frustrating in Luna not explaining the situation. Still, I admit, I’ve been in this situation, and the only thing worse than admitting the problem is admitting the foolishness on your part that led to it.
Even the ancient Unicornian relic still threw the horns. This raises so many questions. That said, Eris’s version operating more on the law-chaos axis does make sense. And if it does care more about the “potential and history of doing harm and mischief,” the Mane Six might still be a viable choice. They’ve all had their moments.
Ah. It’s not just pride and shame. Luna also wants to avoid the tripling I mentioned earlier.
A creature who’s all about luck? No wonder Eris runs a casino. She’s delved into the more probabilistic corner of chaos magic. It may even explain most of the coincidences and poor decisions in the first issue; Eris was fudging the numbers on everything involved. Still, it would’ve been nice to see an explicit demonstration of those abilities; she just went on about how chaos is meant to be used for destruction.
I have to wonder how Stygian learned of Capper. Collector of heroic tales that he is, he probably wanted to hear all about the Storm King’s invasion of Canterlot.
Also, great way to demonstrate Capper’s fast talking skills. He literally explains the finer points of deception and still has the crowd eating out of his paw.
“I ship it! I so ship it!”
I don’t, but this still hits uncomfortably close to home.
Okay, but how did Capper hear about Stygian? Might have come up when the Mane 6 were telling him about their exploits.
Wait, what was that about the liberation of Abyssinia? The Storm King didn’t even leave an occupying force; he just pillaged, burned, and left. Unless one of Abyssinia’s neighbors took advantage of the situation, which is entirely possible. Or Capper’s just talking out of his rear. Kind of his thing.
Also, it is a delight to see the Flimflams get the run-around for once.
Luna and Stygian are both wise in wanting to avoid Starswirl. That would not end well.
I do love seeing Stygian and Sunburst interact positively. Nerd bros!
… Darn it, now I want to see Stygian join in the Imperial O&O sessions. (Which are absolutely a thing and no force on Earth can convince me otherwise. Flurry will probably join once she won’t try to swallow the dice.)
Lovely to see Tempest found peace and happiness with Glitter Drops. Well, definitely happiness. Tempest doesn’t know what to do with peace; that was the whole point of that arc. Also, I’m surprised to see timberwolves this far north.
I do like Tempest not being thrilled with the whole “Princess of Mental Privacy Invasion” thing. Air superiority or explosions she’d be fine with, but this? Though it is kind of sad she considers Glitter Drops her only friend.
It just feels wrong for Luna to use the term “bad guys.” I’d expect that more from Pinkie or Rainbow Dash.
“I thought about Sunset Shimmer, but the last thing we need to do is add a second mirror to this problem.”
Putting aside the question of how Stygian heard about her, I have to disagree. Adding more universes to this plan can only improve it. We’re already dealing with at least six by my count.
I’m not sure what Trixie’s spell did, but I suspect the yaks are just angry that it didn’t do it perfectly. Also, I do love the idea of Trixie as an Izzet-tier arcane experimenter.
“It doesn’t matter. No one ever thinks of Trixie for their little team missions!”
Again, there was that affair at the changeling hive… though I suppose that was more a matter of Trixie already being involved and Discord scooping up every creature in reach.
Also, Stygian, the unimpressive and underwhelming seventh member of the six Pillars of Equestria, can teleport three ponies while being chased by a heard of angry yaks.
Well, it was an era of heroes. Anyone who couldn’t reroute a river with their bare hooves was a pansy back in those days. (Not sure if Private Pansy could reroute one, mind you.)
“Well, can’t say as I’ve ever had a princess in my entourage before.”
Apparently the retaking of Canterlot doesn’t count. Maybe Capper considers that him being in Twilight’s entourage. Or he just doesn’t think of her a “real” princess. Ouch.
Again, “gonna” feels wrong coming out of both Luna and Stygian. Character voice is important, people.
I’m not sure what I like more, Trixie going for her human analogue’s band name, Capper making the same joke I did at the start of the blog, or Stygian abstaining because of what happened with the last team he named.
Wait, Tempest doesn’t know about Nightmare Night? Where did she grow up?
The disguises are amazing and I will brook no argument on that point. Especially the Great and Powerful Roxy refusing to acknowledge the very concept of villainy.
“I just decimated anyone who opposed me… or do you not remember?"
Again, lovely if more adversarial bit of character work.
I do appreciate how Capper immediately regrets tempting the fates.
Also, Suri and Svengallop conspiring on the second floor. I kind of ship it. (See what I mean about that close to home comment?)
In all, an engaging start to the story, though the continuity isn’t exactly spotless. Still has me engaged and looking forward to future installments. For now, let’s see what we’ve won.
Binding Circle Trap 2WW
Instant — Trap
If a legendary creature is attacking, you may pay 1W rather than pay this spell’s mana cost.
Create a colorless Cage artifact token with “When this artifact enters the battlefield, exile target creature an opponent controls until this artifact leaves the battlefield.”
Deception Seminar 1UU
Enchantment
All nonland cards that aren’t on the battlefield have flash.
“Never say everything, only the bits that will let the other guy think he has the upper paw.”
—Capper Dapperpaws
Stygian, the Brains 2U
Legendary Creature — Unicorn Advisor
Whenever one or more creatures you control deal combat damage to players and/or planeswalkers, scry X, where X is the number of those creatures, then draw a card.
“I know heroes can’t sit still for long. Just go gather intel.”
1/2
Emergency Exit XU
Instant
Each player returns X creatures they control to their owners’ hands.
Safety is far from a priority at the Chaos Casino, but Stygian still found a way to evacuate the area in quick order.
Capper, the Paws 3B
Legendary Creature — Cat Rogue
Whenever Capper, the Paws enters the battlefield or attacks, exile the top card of target opponent’s library. You may cast that card for as long as it remains exiled and may spend mana as though it were mana of any color to cast that spell.
3/1
Casino Guard 3B
Creature — Unicorn Soldier
Whenever a creature enters the battlefield under an opponent’s control, that player loses 1 life. If that creature is white, that player loses 2 life instead.
“Are you now or have you ever been a villain?”
2/2
Gremlin High-Roller 3B
Creature — Gremlin Rogue
Flying
When Gremlin High-Roller dies, flip a coin. If you win the flip, put it on top of its owner’s library.
Cloud gremlins are so irritating, even the afterlife doesn’t want them.
3/1
Indulge the Nightmare 3B
Instant
As an additional cost to cast this spell, sacrifice a creature.
You draw X cards and gain X life, where X is the sacrificed creature’s power.
“Perhaps just one gobble…”
Dark Consortium 4B
Creature — Unicorn Warlock
Lifelink
When Dark Consortium enters the battlefield, scry X and lose X life, where X is the number of Unicorns you control.
Their first edict after their bloody conquest? Fashionable capes for everypony.
4/4
Goodie Gulper Trap 6BB
Instant — Trap
This spell costs X less to cast, where X is its target’s devotion to green and white. (Each G and W in the mana costs of permanents that player controls counts towards their devotion to green and white.)
Target player sacrifices two creatures.
Eris, Maven of Misfortune 1RR
Legendary Planeswalker — Eris
If a player would flip a coin, that player instead flips two coins and ignores one of your choice.
+1: Each player flips a coin. Eris deals 2 damage to each player whose coin comes up tails.
-5: Flip a coin until you lose a flip or choose to stop flipping. If you win all the flips, Eris deals X damage to each opponent, where X is 1 doubled for each flip you won.
2
Khenra Gambler 2R
Creature — Jackal Warrior
Whenever Khenra Gambler blocks or becomes blocked, flip a coin. If you win the flip, Khenra Gambler gains first strike until end of turn. Otherwise, each creature blocking or blocked by Khenra Gambler gains first strike until end of turn.
3/3
Daybreaker, Luck’s Thrall 2RR
Legendary Creature — Minion
Alicorn (This card is also a Pony Pegasus Unicorn.)
Menace
At the beginning of combat on your turn, flip a coin. If you lose the flip, Daybreaker deals 4 damage to you and attacks this turn if able.
R: Daybreaker gets +1/+0 until end of turn.
4/4
Impatient Dragon 4RR
Creature — Dragon
As an additional cost to cast this spell, you may sacrifice any number of creatures. This spell costs 1 less for each creature sacrificed this way.
Flying, haste
Impatient Dragon enters the battlefield with a +1/+1 counter on it for each creature you’ve sacrificed this turn.
2/2
Incensed Yaks 5R
Creature — Ox Warrior
Whenever a creature you control with power 4 or greater attacks, target creature can’t block this turn.
“Trixie has been run out of many towns. Based on that experience, she has to agree. Yaks do do it best.”
—Trixie Lulamoon, traveling performer
5/4
Conifer Timberwolf 2G
Snow Creature — Elemental Wolf
1S: Conifer Timberwolf gains indestructible until end of turn. Tap it. (S can be paid with one mana from a snow source.)
There’s no bad climate for dogwood.
3/1
Rampaging Apple 3G
Creature — Plant Mutant
Trample
Rampaging Apple’s power and toughness are each equal to the number of Forests you control.
The Crusaders spent so much time trying to figure out if they could, they never stopped to ask if they should.
*/*
Unnoticed Operative 1UB
Creature — Pony Rogue
Whenever you surveil, you may put Unnoticed Operative from your graveyard on top of your library.
Transmute 1UB (1UB, Discard this card: Search your library for a card with the same converted mana cost as this card, reveal it, and put into your hand. Then shuffle your library. Transmute only as a sorcery.)
2/2
Luna, the Boss 1BGU
Legendary Creature — Noble
Alicorn
Each legendary creature card in your graveyard has escape. The escape cost is equal to the card’s mana cost plus exile three other cards from your graveyard. (You may cast cards from your graveyard for their escape cost.)
Whenever a creature you control escapes, draw a card.
2/3
Grotesque Experiment 2BR
Sorcery
Reveal cards from the top of your library until you reveal a nonland card. Cast that card without paying its mana cost if able. If you do, Grotesque Experiment deals damage to you equal to that card’s converted mana cost. Then shuffle your library.
Ancient Smooze 3BG
Creature — Elder Ooze
As Ancient Smooze enters the battlefield, sacrifice any number of other nonland permanents. Ancient Smooze enters the battlefield with X +1/+1 counters on it, where X is the total converted mana cost of permanents sacrificed this way.
Eternal. Implacable. Unstoppable.
0/0
Tempest, the Muscle 3BG
Legendary Creature — Unicorn Soldier
Menace
Whenever Tempest, the Muscle deals combat damage to a player, that player chooses a permanent type. Then destroy target permanent that player controls that isn’t the chosen type.
“Pick your favorite organ. I’ll try to avoid it.”
5/5
Trixie, the Face 3GU
Legendary Creature — Unicorn Wizard
All creatures able to block Trixie, the Face do so.
3GU: Exile Trixie, then return it to the battlefield under its owner’s control.
“Come one! Come all! Feast your eyes! You’ll never want to look away!”
2/3
Chaos Casino
Plane — Erisia
When you planeswalk to Chaos Casino or at the beginning of your upkeep, reveal a card from your hand at random. If it’s a land card, put it onto the battlefield. Otherwise, cast that card without paying its mana cost if able.
Whenever you roll chaos, each player discards their hand. You draw seven cards and each other player draw four cards.
Who Wants It Most?
Scheme
When you set this scheme in motion, each team may bid life for control of target nonland permanent. Your team starts the bidding with a bid of any number. In turn order, each team may top the high bid. The bidding ends if the high bid stands. Each high bidder loses life equal to the high bid and a player on that team of their choice gains control of the permanent.
I like the Pillars, but I of course want to know more about the time of the Founders in general. So the detail that the Goody-Two-Shoes artifact was used by King Bullion, aka Princess Platinum's dad, is just tantalizing to me and I'm vexed that we don't hear any more about that
Uh... context?
Or it might have been the fact that he's canonically a published author.
Protection From Editors Alert: Khenra Gambler was apparently named "Casino Khenra" at some point, and its text accidentally reflects that. This is why both official playtest stuff and dedicated card creator programs use "CARDNAME".
Stupid Complicated Game Alert: Unlike most such effects, Deception Seminar is symmetrical; your opponents get the same benefits. And unlike similar cards... wait, that's accidentally another Protection From Editors Alert instead of what I meant it to be; it turns out that real cards actually do work for casting from non-hand zones but the fact that they're supposed to be worded differently threw me off.
Stupid Complicated Game Alert: Stuff Capper steals stays available to you even if the opponent gets rid of him. And even if they get rid of him at instant speed in response to his trigger he'll still manage to steal something while already dead. This is why ETB effects are such a big deal, people.
Inside Baseball Alert: Unnoticed Operative is using two of the three different Dimir mechanics, and the one it didn't use can't go on creatures.
Stupid Complicated Game Alert: In a normal Archenemy game, Who Wants It Most is a lot less fair to everyone else than it looks. Given that the archenemy in question has a casino theme, this is completely unsurprising.
Maybe they work by Marvel Infinity Gem rules where they only function in their home universe. Of course, then there's Twilight's crown thingy from the first movie... who the hell knows.
Writer's Shortcut Rule #23: Everyone knows everyone else, skipping the exposition dump.
Sunset Shimmer may have also tattled on the group like they were afraid Starlight Glimmer would. Plus, they would have to take time to contact her and get her through the mirror (in Twilight's castle, no less). I'm just happy they consider Trixie a powerful unicorn.
I do overall enjoy this arc, but there's some serious "Wait, what?" moments sprinkled in.
I'm surprised you made Trixie GU instead of UR
It's also a reference to an earlier issue.
Grogar was also in there somewhere.
She's supposed to be based on the sarimanok.
I'm wondering if we'll ever hear about Spring Rain.
Oh, and another thing...
Stupid Complicated Game Alert: Yes, you can in fact use Trixie to render the rest of your board unblockable, then use her activated ability to nullify any danger to herself. You don't get to be a multicolored 5 mana 2/3 unless you're combining your colors' abilities in a really degenerate way.
Yay, another comic I've actually read! And I am completely unsurprised you went to town on that big establishing shot of the casino. Even I spent a good couple of minutes poring over the details there.
Cards are great fun as always. Is the Unnoticed Operative the pony version of Wallflower Blush? Taking the Dimir association from that story of yours and running with it, I see
I am delighted by the naming theme of the legends. But is it me, or is the flavour text on Stygian, the Brains missing a word? (Edit: If it was then it's been fixed.)
Nightmare Knights is another comic that caught my interest. It's pretty weird and stupid, and has some bizarre continuity, but I kinda like it just for how all-out they went on this premise. Ambitious concepts count for a lot with me, and I really like what they were going for with this one.
5204306
The Elements do work in other universes whenever they've been taken to one, just oddly. The key difference seems to be that if they're outside their native universe, it becomes possible (or easier) for outside entities to hijack them. Although it's no longer canon, Good King Sombra in Reflections took the Elements from the mane six and used them by himself at the climax of the arc, and Sunset Shimmer's plan in the first Equestria Girls movie actually revolved around this concept. My personal theory is that the Tree of Harmony normally keeps a tight grip on the Elements to prevent unworthy or corrupted bearers from wielding them, but alternate universes are out of her reach, so taking the Elements to another universe effectively disables their security.
Oh, and I should mention that there isn't necessarily a distinction between alternate universes and layers of fictionality, but I'm pretty sure GMBlackjack already explained that to you?
5204473
I'm not sure I'd call Agent of Masks or Kragma Warcaller "truly degenerate". Those are not exactly powerhouse cards. The other gold five-mana 2/3s are Prophet of Kruphix, Mercurial Chemister and Rubinia Soulsinger, who are definitely none of which a card I hope to see on the other side of the table. Overall, your point is pretty well made. Trixie, the Face would be a delightful commander for a deck full of saboteur effects. Especially with Sword of Feast and Famine to make up for the expensive mana each combat step.
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