Friendship is Card Games: d20 Pony, Ch. 8, Pt. 1 · 11:35am Apr 24th, 2022
We return to Trailblazer’s adventures in Midgard for another round of excitement, adventure, and shameless flirtation. (Ah, the perils of crowdsourced characterization…)
In this portion of the story, our heroine makes it through the Mists, encountering the Midgard Serpent himself and enduring his judgement by flashing back to the day she got her cutie mark, which includes an intriguing hint about the grizzled unicorn who left her at the Foalshire orphanage. From there, the group encounters Ratatosk (who’s a bit larger than I expected,) who clearly has greater concerns weighing on his mind.
Within the roots of Yggdrassil lies the Pedestal of Worlds, which allows people to travel to any world with a sample of the magic native to that world. Using the Philosopher’s Stone takes the party to Svartalfheim, the world of Dark magic, and there they find Solar Flare. Preserved by Light or Darkness—even he’s not sure, and I haven’t played enough Kingdom Hearts games to tell—he is one of the original Knights of Dawn, said to have betrayed the king of Midgard in their initial quest to find the Stone.
But the way Flare tells it, it’s the other way around. And given the accusations of heresy and copious shadow monsters waiting for the party when they get back to check on those who couldn’t fit in the boat, that story has legs. Now the less blindly obedient parts of Midgard society are preparing for revolution… but it’s been an eventful day, and even earth pony stamina only goes so far. Especially after protecting a midnight convoy gathering anti-magic minerals to protect against the aforementioned shadow monsters.
As Trailblazer turns in for the night, we turn to the cards:
Sigil of Dawn 1W
Artifact
When Sigil of Dawn enters the battlefield, put a +1/+1 counter on target creature you control.
4W, Sacrifice Sigil of Dawn: Create a 2/2 white Unicorn Knight creature token with vigilance. For each kind of counter on permanents you control, put your choice of a +1/+1 counter or a counter of that kind on that token.
Diamagicite Chunk 2W
Artifact
Noncreature spells cost 1 more to cast.
W, T, Sacrifice Diamagicite Chunk: Destroy target artifact or enchantment.
Diamagicite repels magical energies. The Order of Dawn always needs more.
Inquisitor of Dawn 2W
Creature — Unicorn Cleric
Lifelink
Whenever an opponent casts their first noncreature spell each turn, Inquisitor of Dawn connives. (Draw a card, then discard a card. If you discarded a nonland card, put a +1/+1 counter on this creature.)
“The pious have nothing to fear.”
2/3
Midnight Escort 2W
Creature — Pony Soldier
Vigilance
Training (Whenever this creature attacks with another creature with greater power, put a +1/+1 counter on this creature.)
The Undercity can supply most of its needs, but some require a careful trip to the surface.
1/3
Solar Flare, the Rustbound 2WW
Legendary Creature — Unicorn Knight
Solar Flare, the Rustbound enters the battlefield with two rust counters on it.
Double strike, vigilance, lifelink
As long as Solar Flare has a rust counter on it, prevent all combat damage it would deal and it has defender.
W, Sacrifice an artifact or enchantment: Remove a rust counter from Solar Flare.
4/6
Rites of Balance 3WW
Sorcery
Each player chooses a number of nonland permanents they control equal to the number of nonland permanents controlled by the player who controls the fewest, then sacrifices the rest. If you control an artifact and an enchantment before sacrificing, you choose the permanents for each player instead.
Inescapable Logic 2UU
Sorcery
Investigate, then gain control of target creature if its mana value is less than or equal to the number of artifacts you control. (To investigate, create a colorless Clue artifact token with “2, Sacrifice this artifact: Draw a card.”)
“Good to see you’ll listen to reason.”
Motorized Mistcutter 3U
Artifact — Vehicle
Motorized Mistcutter has hexproof as long as it’s a creature.
Crew 3 (Tap any number of creatures you control with total power 3 or more: This Vehicle becomes an artifact creature until end of turn.)
5/5
Midgardsormr, Ur-Serpent 7UU
Legendary Creature — Serpent God
Trample
Whenever Midgardsormr, Ur-Serpent becomes the target of a spell or ability an opponent controls, tap all lands that player controls. They skip their next untap step.
If Midgardsormr would be put into your graveyard from anywhere, reveal it and shuffle it into your library instead.
8/8
Through the Mists XUU
Sorcery
Shuffle your hand and graveyard into your library, then draw X cards.
As Midgardsormr looked through the ponies’ souls, their minds relived pivotal moments in their lives.
Blessing of Svartalfheim 2B
Enchantment — Aura
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature gets +3/+3 and has “At the beginning of your upkeep, you lose 1 life.”
The realm of Darkness offers great power if you welcome its essence into your heart.
Vision of Doom 1BBB
Sorcery
Target player exiles a card from their hand face down. It becomes foretold. Its foretell cost is its mana cost reduced by 2. Then that player discards their hand. (On a later turn, that player may cast the exiled card for its foretell cost.)
One fate awaits those who gaze too far.
Dread Forerunner 3BB
Enchantment Creature — Horror
Haste, menace
Channel — 3B, Discard Dread Forerunner: Creatures you control get +1/+0 and gain menace until end of turn.
The assault on the convoy was less a pack of creatures than an endless tide of darkness.
5/3
Predatory Nightcrawler 6B
Enchantment Creature — Horror
This spell costs X less to cast, where X is your devotion to black. (Each B in the mana costs of permanents you control counts towards your devotion to black.)
Ward — Pay 3 life.
Nightcrawlers feed on anything that wanders into their territory.
5/5
Blazing Assault 2RR
Sorcery
Blazing Assault deals 3 damage to any target. If excess damage was dealt this way, copy this spell. You may choose new targets for the copy.
Dark malice can’t compete with draconic brutality.
Hero of Circumstance 3R
Creature — Pony Warrior
Spells you cast from anywhere other than your hand cost 1 less to cast.
Heroic — Whenever you cast a spell that targets Hero of Circumstance, exile the top card of your library. You may play that card until your next end step.
3/2
Search the Banished Lands 1G
Sorcery
Mill four cards. You may put a land card from your graveyard onto the battlefield tapped. If you don’t, draw a card.
Lost fragments of other realms litter Svartalfheim, their wonders slowly crumbling.
Foalshire Matron 2G
Creature — Pony Citizen
When Foalshire Matron enters the battlefield, search your library for a herd card, reveal it, put it into your hand, then shuffle. (A herd card is a Bat, Pony, Pegasus, or Unicorn.)
The Foalshire orphanage takes in all kinds.
1/1
Pedestal of Worlds 2
Artifact
As Pedestal of Worlds enters the battlefield, choose a color.
At the beginning of each player’s upkeep, that player gains control of Pedestal of Worlds, untaps it, and chooses a color.
T: Add one mana of the last chosen color.
Home is where you say it is.
Ratatosk, Divine Courier GWU
Legendary Creature — Squirrel God
Trample, indestructible
Ratatosk can’t attack or block unless a player has seven or more cards in hand.
At the beginning of each player’s draw step, each other player draws a card.
Every part of Yggdrasil stays informed of every other.
5/4
Superb Dispelling 1GU
Enchantment — Aura
Flash
Enchant creature
Whenever enchanted creature deals damage to a creature, destroy that creature if it’s an artifact or enchantment. Otherwise, return that creature to its owner’s hand. (Return it only if it survived the damage.)
The Grinning One 3UB
Legendary Creature — Shade Advisor
The Grinning One’s power and toughness are each equal to the number of different mana costs among cards in your graveyard.
If a player would draw a card, instead that player draws two cards, then mills two cards.
*/*
Interplanar Sanctum
Land
T: Add C.
T: Roll the planar die. Activate only as a sorcery.
The Mending disrupted every planar portal in the Multiverse, but the World Between Worlds is no mere portal.
Moonless Fields
Plane — Svartalfheim
All creatures have intimidate. (Each creature can’t be blocked except by artifact creatures and/or creatures that share a color with it.)
Whenever you roll chaos, creatures you control become colorless until end of turn.
Stupid Complicated Game Alert: Blazing Assault copies retain the ability to spawn more copies, and they'll ordinarily deal excess damage to face-down creatures (which are 2/2s). Per the flavor text, being able to wipe out an arbitrarily large horde of unidentifiable shadow beings is entirely intended.
Inside Baseball Alert: Remember that Yggdrasil is supposed to be the multiverse. Traveling the entire length of it on a regular basis, even for something as banal as mail delivery, marks Ratatosk as a cut above even your ordinary badass.
How does The Grinning One's effect stack? Is it multiplicative?
5653153
It is, which part of why she's legendary. But there are ways around that, and if you have two of them, you're going end up drawing a total of four cards and milling a total of six. (Each draw established by the first Grinning One's replacement effect gets replaced by the second.) And if someone has Bruvac on the field, folks are going to chew through libraries like a bored Twilight Sparkle...