Post by hawkjohenson on Jan 7, 2014 3:00:53 GMT
While work is slowly killing me and destroying my will to develop stories, I've taken a shine to the new MLP Collectible Card Game. It's a really cool little system, easy to learn and quick to set up. I plan on making some videos detailing strategies and play styles with the game soon, but for now, I'm going to relieve a ton of thoughts from my mind by posting my ramblings on the card game here, as well as updating the list of combos and strategies everyone comes up with on here.
So, let's get started!
For the uninitiated, there are six colors in the CCG, similar to Magic: The Gathering. They are Purple, Blue, Orange, Pink, White, and Yellow. Each one represents one of the Mane Six, and there is a Mane Character card for each color. Every single deck, no matter what, has a primary color with one Mane character card. It can then have two or more secondary colors that assist that color.
So, let's get started!
For the uninitiated, there are six colors in the CCG, similar to Magic: The Gathering. They are Purple, Blue, Orange, Pink, White, and Yellow. Each one represents one of the Mane Six, and there is a Mane Character card for each color. Every single deck, no matter what, has a primary color with one Mane character card. It can then have two or more secondary colors that assist that color.
Purple - Friendship (Twilight Sparkle)
Purple, my personal favorite, is the color of friendship and magic, study and practice, and the key color of Twilight Sparkle and her kin. These cards seem to focus highly on creating action points to use later on during play, and using that advantage to solve problems, crush troublemakers, and in typical Twilight fashion, being ready to fix ANY problem whenever you have to. The main strength of all these cards is the ability Studious. This ability gives the owner of the card using it an extra action point when the card with it wins in a faceoff, be it against a troublemaker or opponent. While Studious doesn't stack with itself on one problem, meaning you can't churn out action points, it does give you a sudden boost if you need it later on!
Now, a good chunk of Purple characters don't have studious... so what do they do? Mostly, nothing. They're just filler cards. Some of them, such as Professor Neigh, have really neat powers that build off the rest of the deck, but overall, they seem to have a very broad range of things they do... and this makes them a little thin. By this, I mean that they do a lot of things, but don't do any of them especially well. For example, Mayor Mare can spend three action points to move an enemy card... but there are others in different colors that do that for much cheaper. Heck, there's a couple event cards that are non-purple that can do it pretty much for free! So, what do the Purple Event cards have?
A lot, actually! Purple event cards, when they aren't "Pick character, character gets +2 purple and +2 BLAH" cards, tend to focus on power and control. One of the key cards, and one that comes with the Theme deck, is "Double-Check the Checklist". This one lets you look at the three top cards of your deck and rearrange them in an order of your liking. This gives you a GREAT advantage, and one that can't be taken away... except by White cards, but we'll get to them. Another great one for the deck is "Spike, Take a Letter". This card, played when you beat a troublemaker, grants you an extra THREE action points! If you beat it with Studious characters... oh, man. That's a TON of power at your disposal! To make things better, the friend card Gyro lets you search out an event card when you play it, meaning that you can instantly have enough power to take on a baddie AND earn a ton of power at the same time.
But what makes this even better are the resource cards, which take the general focus of the color and kick it past 11. A good portion of Purple cards make it easy to win faceoffs and gain more action points from Studious, and a couple of the characters gain boosts from having Report Resources in play at their problems. The rest of them are accessories and assets that make it simple to manipulate the playing field, solidifying the concept of Purple using control and overwhelming power to defeat the opponent.
So, where does Purple fall flat, and how can you beat them when you face them? It's... actually pretty simple. Don't fight, just avoid. Blue decks, using their speed, can easily solve problems faster than the Purple decks, making it difficult for them to gain a powerful advantage. Pink decks can use their natural silliness and random nature to mess up the faceoff flips for Purple, meaning that they can either turn the deck against Purple, or screw themselves over by giving the opponent a BETTER card. But more than both of those, a true White deck has the ability Insight, which lets them look at the top of Purple's deck, see what's coming, and say either "I'll put that back, I know how to counter it" or "THAT'S going to the bottom of the pile!" This can create a nasty twist in the game, one that Purple might not be able to contend with properly. In addition, a lot of purple cards are fairly expensive, so a chunk of your deck is gonna be filler Purple friends to afford the higher level cards.
But as any player will tell you, you need two colors at least to play properly. Which ones work best with purple? The answer to that one is obvious: ALL OF THEM. Purple, while it mainly focuses on control and power generation, can use these skills to benefit ANY other color. Orange, in particular, is very good for this deck, as it can provide the raw strength needed to win faceoffs. Blue can be a good benefit, although they may be a little too fast for Purple. The Blue cards that drag friends with them when they move might be of help, though, and it's worth looking into if you like Dash and Sparkle. White cards can give them naturally dominating Purple cards an even more sinister control angle, and a well-built Purple/White deck could simply reign over the entire play area like a dark queen... which, actually, is a cool theme idea: the Nightmare Rarity deck. Just make sure you have Nightmare Moon in there, just for giggles. Pink is not a good match for Purple, at least not at first glance. The random nature of the Pink cards makes it difficult to predict things for Purple, but can be of great benefit if you can manage to mesh them together. But the key one that you should consider is Yellow, the color of critters, animals, and most importantly, Princess Celestia. That's right, the Princess of the Sun is a Yellow card. There are a few cards that specifically take Purple/Yellow into account, such as the trouble card Parasprite Infestation. This combo can be deadly, with the critters swarming the field while the studious friends make their way to the problems to gather power from them, only to focus that power into swarming the place EVEN MORE, making more power and paving the way for Celestia to arrive and end the game.
Pink cards, as I've come to find in my studies of these cards, do very little on their own. They might give you a free draw, or let you flip a new card when you get into a faceoff... but alone, they don't do much. It's only once they're all together that one realizes that they can be absolutely lethal, combining into a perfectly powerful concoction of chaos. Pink cards are all about being ready for action, having lots of options available to them, and completely screwing over the opponent's plans... just like Pinkie Pie herself. The key ability for Pink cards is Random, which allows you to flip a new card during a faceoff if the first one you flipped was power 1. The sad part is that you can't flip again after the first time, so there's really not much reason to have more than one Random character at any problem.
Characters of the Pink element tend to be just as random as Pinkie herself, but not in the way you might think. Instead, they're all over the game, doing pretty much everything. The catch is that everything they do is directed at a single goal: manipulating the decks, friends, and fields towards your benefit. Whether they mess with Troublemakers, draw you free cards, or move things around, they're designed to screw with the field and make it harder for your opponent to do anything. A couple great examples of these strange powers are Lyra Heartstrings and Snips 'n' Snails. Lyra, a fan favorite, has a nifty ability that allows you to exhaust her and draw two free cards whenever your opponent draws a card. There are other Pink ponies that have similar abilities, if a little less powerful, including some that can rearrange parts of Problem decks. Others, such as Snips 'n' Snails, force your opponent to have +1 Power to solve their problems. These can stack on each other as well, giving you a great wall against them for a while... and combined with some other characters with the power to dismiss enemy friends, this can be a deadly combo. Another great advantage they have is the power to control Troublemakers, such as flipping them face-down so you can solve the problems, flipping your own troublemakers face-up early so your foe will have to contend with them, and other such effects.
As you can tell, Pink characters can control the field easily. The few resources they have all aid them in one way: making them better during face-offs. As one might expect, facing off against a chaotic pony is random, confusing, and risky. Their power extends to controlling face-offs as well, flipping new cards if the first is too low, gaining power or weakening foes during a conflict, or even setting up pranks to use against enemies. There aren't many resource cards for Pink, but the ones that do exist are still quite powerful and useful, and you'd better have at least two or three of each in your deck.
(more to come soon!)
Now, a good chunk of Purple characters don't have studious... so what do they do? Mostly, nothing. They're just filler cards. Some of them, such as Professor Neigh, have really neat powers that build off the rest of the deck, but overall, they seem to have a very broad range of things they do... and this makes them a little thin. By this, I mean that they do a lot of things, but don't do any of them especially well. For example, Mayor Mare can spend three action points to move an enemy card... but there are others in different colors that do that for much cheaper. Heck, there's a couple event cards that are non-purple that can do it pretty much for free! So, what do the Purple Event cards have?
A lot, actually! Purple event cards, when they aren't "Pick character, character gets +2 purple and +2 BLAH" cards, tend to focus on power and control. One of the key cards, and one that comes with the Theme deck, is "Double-Check the Checklist". This one lets you look at the three top cards of your deck and rearrange them in an order of your liking. This gives you a GREAT advantage, and one that can't be taken away... except by White cards, but we'll get to them. Another great one for the deck is "Spike, Take a Letter". This card, played when you beat a troublemaker, grants you an extra THREE action points! If you beat it with Studious characters... oh, man. That's a TON of power at your disposal! To make things better, the friend card Gyro lets you search out an event card when you play it, meaning that you can instantly have enough power to take on a baddie AND earn a ton of power at the same time.
But what makes this even better are the resource cards, which take the general focus of the color and kick it past 11. A good portion of Purple cards make it easy to win faceoffs and gain more action points from Studious, and a couple of the characters gain boosts from having Report Resources in play at their problems. The rest of them are accessories and assets that make it simple to manipulate the playing field, solidifying the concept of Purple using control and overwhelming power to defeat the opponent.
So, where does Purple fall flat, and how can you beat them when you face them? It's... actually pretty simple. Don't fight, just avoid. Blue decks, using their speed, can easily solve problems faster than the Purple decks, making it difficult for them to gain a powerful advantage. Pink decks can use their natural silliness and random nature to mess up the faceoff flips for Purple, meaning that they can either turn the deck against Purple, or screw themselves over by giving the opponent a BETTER card. But more than both of those, a true White deck has the ability Insight, which lets them look at the top of Purple's deck, see what's coming, and say either "I'll put that back, I know how to counter it" or "THAT'S going to the bottom of the pile!" This can create a nasty twist in the game, one that Purple might not be able to contend with properly. In addition, a lot of purple cards are fairly expensive, so a chunk of your deck is gonna be filler Purple friends to afford the higher level cards.
But as any player will tell you, you need two colors at least to play properly. Which ones work best with purple? The answer to that one is obvious: ALL OF THEM. Purple, while it mainly focuses on control and power generation, can use these skills to benefit ANY other color. Orange, in particular, is very good for this deck, as it can provide the raw strength needed to win faceoffs. Blue can be a good benefit, although they may be a little too fast for Purple. The Blue cards that drag friends with them when they move might be of help, though, and it's worth looking into if you like Dash and Sparkle. White cards can give them naturally dominating Purple cards an even more sinister control angle, and a well-built Purple/White deck could simply reign over the entire play area like a dark queen... which, actually, is a cool theme idea: the Nightmare Rarity deck. Just make sure you have Nightmare Moon in there, just for giggles. Pink is not a good match for Purple, at least not at first glance. The random nature of the Pink cards makes it difficult to predict things for Purple, but can be of great benefit if you can manage to mesh them together. But the key one that you should consider is Yellow, the color of critters, animals, and most importantly, Princess Celestia. That's right, the Princess of the Sun is a Yellow card. There are a few cards that specifically take Purple/Yellow into account, such as the trouble card Parasprite Infestation. This combo can be deadly, with the critters swarming the field while the studious friends make their way to the problems to gather power from them, only to focus that power into swarming the place EVEN MORE, making more power and paving the way for Celestia to arrive and end the game.
Pink - Laughter (Pinkie Pie)
Pink is the color of silliness, random actions, parties, and certain balloons. But in this game, Pink is the color of DEATH.Pink cards, as I've come to find in my studies of these cards, do very little on their own. They might give you a free draw, or let you flip a new card when you get into a faceoff... but alone, they don't do much. It's only once they're all together that one realizes that they can be absolutely lethal, combining into a perfectly powerful concoction of chaos. Pink cards are all about being ready for action, having lots of options available to them, and completely screwing over the opponent's plans... just like Pinkie Pie herself. The key ability for Pink cards is Random, which allows you to flip a new card during a faceoff if the first one you flipped was power 1. The sad part is that you can't flip again after the first time, so there's really not much reason to have more than one Random character at any problem.
Characters of the Pink element tend to be just as random as Pinkie herself, but not in the way you might think. Instead, they're all over the game, doing pretty much everything. The catch is that everything they do is directed at a single goal: manipulating the decks, friends, and fields towards your benefit. Whether they mess with Troublemakers, draw you free cards, or move things around, they're designed to screw with the field and make it harder for your opponent to do anything. A couple great examples of these strange powers are Lyra Heartstrings and Snips 'n' Snails. Lyra, a fan favorite, has a nifty ability that allows you to exhaust her and draw two free cards whenever your opponent draws a card. There are other Pink ponies that have similar abilities, if a little less powerful, including some that can rearrange parts of Problem decks. Others, such as Snips 'n' Snails, force your opponent to have +1 Power to solve their problems. These can stack on each other as well, giving you a great wall against them for a while... and combined with some other characters with the power to dismiss enemy friends, this can be a deadly combo. Another great advantage they have is the power to control Troublemakers, such as flipping them face-down so you can solve the problems, flipping your own troublemakers face-up early so your foe will have to contend with them, and other such effects.
As you can tell, Pink characters can control the field easily. The few resources they have all aid them in one way: making them better during face-offs. As one might expect, facing off against a chaotic pony is random, confusing, and risky. Their power extends to controlling face-offs as well, flipping new cards if the first is too low, gaining power or weakening foes during a conflict, or even setting up pranks to use against enemies. There aren't many resource cards for Pink, but the ones that do exist are still quite powerful and useful, and you'd better have at least two or three of each in your deck.
(more to come soon!)
i was kinda excited to feel like im back in 2015