Friendship is Card Games: 2021 Annual: The Canina Delegation · 11:40am May 2nd, 2021
Given how we’ve effectively come full circle with the IDW delays, I’m just going to put the Abyssinians off until the end of the month. For now, we’ve got a shiny new annual to discuss, along with a species nearly forgotten outside of the comics.
Even here, Diamond Dogs haven’t exactly gotten a lot of love. We’ve seen the caves of Ziggy Star-Ruby, the surface-level kingdom of Dimondia, and the king himself appearing at the Convocation of Creatures (middle far left,) but beyond that, Equestria’s canine kobolds can’t claim much. Let’s see what this does for them.
This is the in-book art premiere of another fan artist, Brianna (Cherry) Garcia, who previously provided the covers for the Cheesepie arc, and before that, these demonstrations of exquisite taste.
Ooh, an entire mountain carved in the image of the locals. That bodes. I can’t say if it’s well or ill quite yet, but it’s definitely boding.
Yeah, Big Mac’s probably been putting up with Rarity’s backseat pulling for most of the trip.
Also, between Mac on this mission and Applejack sailing to Farasi, I do have to wonder who’s tending the farm. This appears to be prime growing season, and while the Acres can theoretically be a two-pony job, those two ponies aren't Apple Bloom and Granny Smith.
Oh dear. Multiple invitations for multiple queens. The delegation’s walking headfirst into a political landmine. Also an actual mine in the land, but that’s a different matter.
Rarity is taking a trip to see Diamond Dogs well, all things considered. This group hasn’t abducted her and pressed her into slave labor yet, so that tracks. After all, second chances are part of Generosity.
Superhero landing! (Very hard on the hocks.)
Yeah, Maud’s definitely in her element. The physical one, anyway.
Ah. We may be facing something of a language barrier. Also minecart shenanigans that would make some redstone engineers blush.
… Wait, I’m confused. Are these rolling hills inside the dog-faced mountain, or just on the other side of it? Either way, I choose to interpret the castles and attendant cottages as the tip of Canina’s iceberg. Let the tunneling creatures live underground, guys.
That said, I do appreciate the canyon as a blunt visual metaphor for the emotional divide between the two queens. Likewise the two castles’ different architectural styles. one very clearly influenced by Canterlot’s fairy tale minarets, and the other a less ornamental manor house with crenelated towers. I’m already getting a sense of the monarchs we’ll be dealing with.
Hmm. Fireworks from a staff. For one, we’ve already got the dogs at least having magical items. For another, the tales of Queen Trixie may have reached this corner of the world.
Moonbeam Twinkletail and Ambrosia Muffinbuns. Even by pony standard, those names are a bit… much. Still, our first canonical female Diamond Dogs. (I can hardly call royalty bitches, even if it’s the technical term.) And we are on the side of the canyon with Little Canterlot. Makes sense that they’d emulate the naming conventions along with the architecture.
Ah, acknowledgement and subsequent dismissal of “A Dog and Pony Show.” And it works. It’s not like that warren was an official embassy.
And we have a monarch with Vague Fatigue Disease. Very common among locally important secondary characters; almost as bad as Ambiguous Coughing Disorder. Nice touch with the big crystals flanking the throne. And Jennino Lanternlight is a good name for the ruler of a mining-centric society.
Ah. We’re in a mountain valley… allegedly. Those rolling hills extending to the horizon don’t quite sync up with the towering peaks in the horizon of the first panel.
I really hope Meadowbrook takes the initiative on the multiple invitation issue sooner rather than later. This is a ticking time bomb otherwise.
I’m going to assume there’s a hyperspace pocket in that cape. In any case, Rarity found Tom II.
Dogs throwing a feast for ponies. This could be awkward…
That magic library definitely confirms spellcasting capability in Diamond Dogs. It’s probably true of any species given the proper focus. Unicorns just have theirs growing out of their foreheads.
I do appreciate Maud getting a hot stone massage.
Always nice to see a good education system in place. And adorable puppy students.
Uh, those aren’t the wish-granting kind of golden apples, are they? Or ones that grant immortality? Definitely a valuable trade good, but more than a little concerning.
And the apples transitioned from gold to red between pages. Whoops.
Yup, a kingdom split down the middle, and six sisters along with it. (Six of them. I’m sure that won’t be significant down the line.)
Hard labor as part of royal duties? Interesting cultural note.
Ah. It’s a split with tradition and safety on one side and ambition and personal expression on the other. Don’t mind me, just making notes for the color pie…
Fiona Floppyears and Indiana Embereyes. Okay, I guess that’s just how the local naming conventions work.
Yeah, separating twins can be nasty. Though in this case, “twins” appears to mean “actually the same breed of dog.” Different mothers, or are Diamond Dog genetics as variable as those of dragons? (And there is the question of how David Bowwow works into this family tree. As we'll see later, Canina operates on a matriarchy. Still, no one said there was a one-nation-per-species limit.)
“Proudpaws” is definitely a more worrisome surname for a ruler. Pride is important, yes, but potentially blinding.
You’ll have to excuse Rarity, Your Majesty. She’s a cat pony.
Katherina may be an overprotective hypocrite, but she has a point about Equestria. The place does seem to face world-shaking threats on an annual basis. (Of course, one could argue it’s far safer to be allied to a nation that overcomes such regular catastrophes than to stand against it, but that could be seen as a threat.)
I do appreciate Maud and Mac both calling out that hypocrisy. All but banishing half of the family she wants to protect for daring to break with tradition? Not a good look. And claims of quarantine don’t work when the sick dog is ruling over half your nation. I can understand Katherina trying to maintain continuity of rule, but this definitely feel more vindictive than anything.
That said, Rarity’s “what are you idiots doing?” expression as half of her diplomatic contingent chastises the local queen is amazing.
I’m honestly surprised Meadowbrook hadn’t offered to cure Jenn before now. I suppose she wanted to get all the facts first. Don’t want to accidentally offer to cure something congenital, advanced cancer, or other possibilities outside even the Pillar of Healing’s capabilities.
… Wearing masks in case of contracting an unknown illness. Well. This got uncomfortable real quick.
Let it go, Mac. Other ponies are allowed to say “Yup.”
Ooh, new entry for the bestiary. The carbunkappa, a mineralovorous tortoise. And unlike water kappa, it’s got crystals growing out of its head, so making it bow won’t do much. (It’s also completely quadrupedal, so that’d impede bowing as well.)
Galena usually isn’t bright green, but this is Equestria. The color may be caused by narrativium impurities. In any case, looks like Canina doesn’t have any OSHA requirements about proper breathing protection. You’d think they’d have gotten dogs with black lung before this, much less inhaled lead dust.
Oh dear. You know the infestation’s bad when Diamond Dogs are getting literally undermined.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s very noble of the local royals to come to the ponies’ aid, but don’t they have people for this? I’d think Diamond Dogs would have more than a few miners to spare. Heck, I’m amazed Jenn made it down along with the others given the lead poisoning.
“Now, if we can just keep anything else from going—“ I suppose someone had to say it. And Katherina does seem to be the least genre savvy creature present.
A buried Tree of Harmony. Of course. We’ve got six new characters present. And I do like the use of stylized portraits in place of cutie marks.
“Indy can always see the truth.” Bit of an informed attribute. Without a twin or a tour of Old Canina, Indiana’s had the least characterization among the royal sisters. (Not the pony ones.)
Yeah, this emotional revelation does feel rather rushed. Having an hour of animation—okay, forty-four minutes—to handle it probably would’ve worked better. Still, good to see Katherina apologize. And knowing Trees of Harmony, she may have been exposed to her worst fear before coming to. Heck, in nearly losing both her sisters and her kingdom, she already has.
… I’m not saying the Tree lured the carbunkappas here, but it certainly wouldn’t have been uncovered without them.
It’s also good to see a Bearer other than Magic be the unambiguous leader of the bunch.
… Hang on. Bearers of Generosity and Loyalty leading the other four. Shades of the Triptych Continuum. At least this didn’t end in Jenn getting banished to the Moon.
Also, Katherina demonstrates the distinction between white and red loyalty. White loyalty is devotion to concepts: nation, tradition, expectation, duty. Red loyalty is devotion to people, those you choose to love and support no matter what.
Heh. As I said, second chances are a key part of Generosity.
Interesting. Rather than a single Rainbow Beam of Fix Everything™, the sisters seem to recieve awakened or enhanced latent magical abilities. Similar to how it affected the humans, though the dogs don’t get any kind of artifacts. Tags for their collars seem like the obvious choice.
Also, I feel like the artist swapped Moon and Jenn in that "buttress the castle" montage, in terms of which one’s the digger and which can cast light spells.
Also also, laser vision from the husky. Anyone else remember Road Rovers?
And lo, Canina became an oligarchy. But still the same royal family. We can’t go too crazy here.
I appreciate Rarity noting the literal bridge-building, not least because I was going to if she didn’t. That said, using the exact same typeface for her letter to Twilight as Applejack’s feels very wrong indeed.
Ah. Harmony suppressed the lead poisoning rather than outright curing it. Odd, that. I suppose a crystalline tree doesn't see much wrong with extra metals in an organic body. Alternatively, this one's consciousness doesn't seem as well developed as the others we've seen, so that might have been outside its capabilities. That might also explain why it didn't offer any Elements; they're not ripe yet.
Poor Big Mac. He really is a sweetheart. You’d think he’d miss his wife as well, but it’s not like the six sisters would remind him of Sugar Belle.
So, I like a happy ending as much as the next guy, but how are they going to resolve the carbunkappa issue? They never stopped being a thing.
And one more look at the Harmony monitoring station. Where the “Knights of Harmony” will soon meet. Very curious…
In all, a well-told if somewhat rushed branch of the Season 10 story, but I’m not sure why it needed to be an annual. Definitely suffering from the Friendship Games issue of trying to introduce too many characters in too little time. Still, nice to get some further data on an underdeveloped species… which we can modify or ignore as we see fit. 
(No word on how Canina meshes with Dimondia, but again, there's no one-nation-per-species limit.)
Now, there are no bad cards, only bad players. Let's see if we can find these good homes:
Bound by Tradition 1W
Enchantment — Aura
Enchanted creature can’t attack or block unless its controller pays X, where X is the number of cards in that player’s graveyard.
“Without history, we are nothing.”
—Queen Katherina Proudpaws
Ambrosia, Queen of Hospitality 2W
Legendary Creature — Dog Noble
At the beginning of each opponent’s upkeep, that player may draw a card. If they do, you may draw a card.
“If we’ve learned anything from Equestria, it’s the value of friendship.”
3/3
< Noble 3R
Fiona, Queen of Morale 3R
Legendary Creature — Dog Noble
At the beginning of your upkeep, exile the top X cards of your library, where X is one plus the number of opponents who have more cards in hand than you. You may play cards exiled this way this turn.
3/3
< Noble 2W
Ambrosia’s Masseur 2W
Creature — Dog Citizen
W, T: Choose one —
• Tap target non-Dog creature.
• Untap target Dog.
Not all muscle groups are created equal.
2/2
Canina War Pug 2W
Creature — Dog Soldier
Canina War Pug has first strike as long as it’s attacking the monarch.
The royal family’s squabbles are one thing. Tolerating would-be usurpers is quite another.
3/2
Moonbeam, Queen of Study 1U
Legendary Creature — Dog Noble
Prowess (Whenever you cast a noncreature spell, this creature gets +1/+1 until end of turn.)
Whenever you cast a noncreature spell, scry 1.
“There is magic in all of us. We just have to seek it out.”
1/2
< Noble 3G
Indiana, Queen of Intuition 3G
Legendary Creature — Dog Noble
Trample
2G: Reveal the top card of your library. Indiana gets +X/+X until end of turn, where X is that card’s mana value. You may put that card into your graveyard. Activate only once each turn.
3/3
< Noble 1U
Magus of the Chance 2U
Creature — Unicorn Wizard
Fateful hour — At the beginning of your upkeep, if you have 5 or less life, sacrifice Magus of the Chance. If you do, take an extra turn after this one.
“I offer you the greatest gift I can.”
2/3
Backseat Drover 3U
Creature — Unicorn Wizard
Instant and sorcery spells you cast with mana value 6 or greater cost 2 less to cast.
“That seems to be an awful lot of effort. Surely you don’t need to do all of it.”
2/2
Jennino, Queen of Expansion 3B
Legendary Creature — Dog Noble
When Jennino, Queen of Expansion enters the battlefield, you become the monarch.
Whenever another player becomes the monarch, create a 2/2 white and black Dog Soldier creature token with menace.
2/4
< Noble 4W
Katherina, Queen of Tradition 4W
Legendary Creature — Dog Noble
When Katherina, Queen of Tradition enters the battlefield, you become the monarch.
Other Dogs you control get +1/+1. As long as you’re the monarch, those Dogs have first strike and vigilance.
Five queens’ wisdom, five sisters’ love.
3/5
< Noble 3B
Lanternlight Academy 4B
Enchantment
B, Pay 2 life: Draw a card.
Whenever you lose life for the first time each turn, create a 1/1 black Dog creature token with lifelink.
“How greedy can I be if I want the best for all of us?”
—Queen Jennino Lanternlight
Ancestral Miner 1R
Creature — Dog Spirit
T, Exile a card from your graveyard: Add R. Spend this mana only to cast an instant, sorcery, or Dog spell.
Dogs who die in cave-ins are trusted to find their way back out.
2/1
Geological Breakthrough 1R
Instant
As an additional cost to cast this spell, sacrifice a land.
Draw two cards.
Twilight reached out to Canina to foster ties between nations. Maud went along to study the local strata.
Go Car Operator 2R
Creature — Dog Pilot
3R, T, Tap any number of other untapped creatures you control: Create an X/X colorless Vehicle artifact creature token with flying and haste, where X is the total power of other creatures tapped this way. Exile that token at the beginning of the next end step.
3/2
Cavern Collapse 2RR
Sorcery
Cavern Collapse deals damage to each creature and planeswalker equal to the number of land cards in your graveyard.
Cycling — Sacrifice a land. (Sacrifice a land, Discard this card: Draw a card.)
“Never ask how it can get worse.”
—Canina miners’ superstition
Carbunkappa 3R
Creature — Elemental Turtle
Mutate 3R (if you cast this spell for its mutate cost, put it over or under target non-Human creature you own. They mutate into the creature on top plus all abilities from under it.)
This creature can’t be blocked by creatures with flying.
Whenever this creature mutates, each player sacrifices a land.
3/4
Piercing Insight 1G
Instant
Target attacking creature’s controller may assign its combat damage as though it weren’t blocked this turn.
Indiana’s gaze had always seen through deception. Tearing through stone wasn’t that different for her.
Gilded Grove 3G
Enchantment — Aura
Enchant land
Whenever enchanted land is tapped for mana, its controller adds an additional amount of G equal to their devotion to green. (Each G in the mana costs of permanents that player controls counts towards their devotion to green.)
Mox Galena 0
Artifact
T, Put a lead counter on Mox Galena: Add one mana of any color. You get a poison counter for each lead counter on Mox Galena. (A player with ten or more poison counters loses the game.)
Power at a plumbous price.
Unearth the Forgotten UB
Legendary Enchantment
At the beginning of your upkeep, mill a card. Then if there are four or more card types among cards in your graveyard, transform Unearth the Forgotten. (To mill a card, put the top card of your library into your graveyard.)
Time hides and reveals in turn.
Cavern Temple of Harmony
Legendary Land
T: Add one mana of any color.
1UB, T: Target player mills X cards, where X is the number of card types among cards in your graveyard.
“To rebuild, one must first be broken down.”
—The Everfree Tree of Harmony
Meadowbrook’s Treatment 1(gw)
Instant
You gain 3 life.
1(gw): Return Meadowbrook’s Treatment from your graveyard to your hand. Activate only if your life total is less than your starting life total.
“Make sure you take every dose. I don’t prescribe extra.”
Textile Trader GWU
Creature — Unicorn Artificer Advisor
When Textile Trader enters the battlefield, each other player may put an artifact card from their hand onto the battlefield. Each of those players who didn’t draws a card.
“I have something for everycreature.”
5/5
Twinkletail Staff 1UR
Artifact — Equipment
Equipped creature has “T: The next instant or sorcery spell you cast this turn costs X less to cast, where X is this creature’s power as this ability resolves.”
Equip 2
Unicorn horns are but one way to catalyze arcane power.
A Nation Divided 3BR
Sorcery
Target player separates all permanents they control into two piles. They sacrifice all permanents in the pile of your choice.
”This cannot stand.”
—Rarity, Bearer of Generosity
Memorial to Monumentality
Land
Memorial to Monumentality enters the battlefield tapped.
T: Add R.
3R, T, Sacrifice Memorial to Monumentality and an artifact: Return target artifact card from your graveyard to the battlefield.
At least not without getting to know them first. *gestures towards Chrysalis*
Inside Baseball Alert: Another day, another Magus I have to explain.
Stupid Complicated Game Alert: Yes, paying life causes you to lose life. The game isn't that complicated. EDIT: Also, your opponent's turns are separate from your turns. Letting an attacker through doesn't give you the token in time to have it as a blocker, though.
Stupid Complicated Game Alert: Go Car Operator's token is a creature with no creature types, like any other crewed Vehicle. It also enters the battlefield permanently a creature, so if you can find a way to keep it it'll never need to be crewed. (Hilariously, The World from last week will work despite the scene it's referencing involving the destruction of a vehicle)
So, yet another tree of harmony. I'm starting to get concerned that these trees are going to become less meaningful with them popping up everywhere. Over use of a narrative device can make it less impactful.
I would assume they'd just start wearing respirators. Rarity and the group wore masks and they were fine.
Man, I was really looking forward to this issue. I've been desperate to get more insight into Diamond Dogs, especially since they never appeared in the show after D&PS. I mean shit, they didn't even get a background appearance in the big "On your left" moment from Ending of the End! And while I agree this was a rushed yet enjoyable comic, I can't help but feel disappointed at the lack of real development. I think it would have been much more interesting if they had somehow used the canon Dogs. Like, Moonbeam just casually mentions them as cousins. Why not make the story about trying to get them back into the kingdom? Maybe Rover is actually the sisters' little brother who left for some reason. Maybe he left because he wanted to stick with tradition and just mine gems?
Beyond that, I agree that the names were a bit too... busy. I think they did that just so Katherina could make a point about tradition by only using their full names. Also, the powers granted by the Tree were kinda silly. Jennio is a flashlight, Moonbeam can dig, Fiona's ears got stonks, Ambrosia is Tails, and Indy has SPECIAL EYES. And like you said, the characters barely got any development, or even establishment, I think. Moonbeam and Indy both just came off as samey and bland, and Jennio was just Generic Stoic Leader No. 27. By contrast, we got to know and care for Zecora's friends over those three issues, and it's looking like Capper and his friends are gonna get the same treatment. So I agree, why was this an annual? Also also, I hate to be the one to say it, but... why was Big Mac even here? The only contribution he made was pulling the cart at the beginning. In the other parties so far, every member has had a moment of importance. So while I love my boy Mac, he seemed kind of... useless.
Despite my wingeing, this was a decent, simple arc. Really wish they had revealed more about Diamond Dogs, but still enjoyable
*grumblegrumble* doing it before it was cool *grumblegrumble* in fact, forget the blackjack *grumblegrumble*
Kidding aside (or am I?
) Carbunkappas, from the description, kind of remind me of the Impaler suite of Elementals in Legend of Keepers. Probably quite different, but still... interesting visual there. They're probably more like that one boss in Bofuri, though, the one that gets stuck on its back fighting Izu.
5510932
*grumblegrumble* feel your pain *grumblegrumble* My Diamond Dog had magic in 2013 *grumblegrumble*
Can't believe nobody I've seen discussing this comic has mentioned the obvious "We named the DOG Indiana!" reference. Maybe it's to obvious to mention...
The password is... languishing.
Not gonna lie, some of these cards are pretty broken.
5511034
Yeah, Play Design Alert: Aggro decks do not exist in any format where Meadowbrook's Treatment is legal. What other cards were you thinking of?
5511071
The Mox, for obvious reasons, and the Magus, which will let you take infinite turns with any sort of repeatable reanimation/recursion once your life total is low enough. And you're likely in black; that's not a problem.
5511126
Heck, Second Chance had people doing that and reanimating enchantments is a lot less common.
That said, under normal conditions the Mox is only activating 3 times and that's assuming there's no proliferate and no other source of poison (probably the dumbest assumption anyone has ever made).
5511131
If Mox Opal AND Simian Spirit Guide are banworthy, then this Mox, usable in any deck, certainly is.
I'm not sure that "4 mana: gain 3 life" is a particularly effective antidote to most aggro decks I've seen. It's possible it might buy you enough time to Wrath that you wouldn't otherwise have had, but it looks like a pretty minor factor.
The Mox and Magus, though, yeah, I wouldn't want to try to develop those. Neither of them can have their costs changed (because of the rules of the Magus cycle and the convention with Moxen), so they'd probably just get cut.
As for the rest of the cards, though, delightful. I went back and forth a few times on whether the Queens should be MDFCs or not, but it certainly does help play up the conflicts. And it's particularly amusing to have them in the same batch as a TDFC.
5511553
Infinitely repeatable lifegain with most interaction ruled out by the nature of being an instant that won't stay in the graveyard, though? I almost don't even care about power level at that point, there's simply no universe where its existence leads to good gameplay.
Sorry for the delay on these responses. One thing kept leading to another this week.
5510909
They seem to be setting up a fractal arrangement, with five Trees to unlock a sixth.
5510912
That resolves the lead dust, but the carbunkappa are still eating the kingdom out from under them.
And yeah, this definitely could've gone into greater detail. On the other hand, this leaves plenty of room to expand Canina as we see fit. (And not as much to ignore, if necessary.)
5510932
Basically, imagine if Tank had a shell made of rock and small crystals growing out of his cranium and you're there.
5510969
Indiana doesn't do anything especially archeological, so it never occurred to me.
5511034 5511071 5511553
Though I'll note that at least the Magus actually checks to see if you sacrificed it. Second Chance gave you the extra turn even if you bounced it in response to its trigger.
Yeah, there were some... questionable decisions in this batch.
That could explain why Skystar is the only hippogriff to use magic under her own power. Also, I'm imagining an AU where Zecora goes to Canina's magic school to learn magic instead of Equestria.
Say what now
5547891
Imagine if Twilight were a purple, bipedal Scottish terrier and you wouldn't be far off.
No relation.