Hey everypony! I’m here today to explain faceoffs, talk about how to win them, and share a deck-building strategy centered around the Twilight Sparkle Mane Character card that can help you win the game through faceoffs and Event cards. But first, here’s a break:
So what is a faceoff? A faceoff is how you to determine which player was earns bonus points at a solved Problem, and is also how you defeat Troublemakers!
To resolve a faceoff, add up the power values of all your cards involved in the faceoff, then flip the top card of your draw deck and add its power value (the number in the top right corner). Compare this total to your opponent's faceoff total. The player with the highest total wins the faceoff.
Three things can trigger faceoffs:
- When both you and your opponent have confronted the same Problem. Your combined efforts at the Problem have set everything right, that Problem is officially solved, and the faceoff represents the players competing for who was the most helpful. The winner of the faceoff scores the bonus point printed on the Problem.
- When a player confronts BOTH Problems at the same time. You’ve calmed things down so much all on your own that you solve both Problems. The faceoff winner scores the higher of the two bonus points on the Problems.
- When challenging a Troublemaker. You can challenge a Troublemaker to a faceoff to defeat it and send it away. If you win the faceoff you earn the points printed on the Troublemaker card and the Troublemaker is discarded. If you lose then you have to choose one of your characters in the faceoff to be sent home!
So let’s take a look at an example of a Problem faceoff.
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In this example you are playing a Purple/Blue deck, and on your turn you played Emerald Green to help out Twilight Sparkle at the Problem. During your Score Phase you see that you meet the 2 Purple + 2 Not-Purple requirements on your side of the Problem, and:
1) Score 1 point. You score 1 point every turn you “confront” (meet the requirements of) a Problem.
2) Check to see if the opponent can ALSO confront the Problem. We see here that they can, because they have 5 power on their side of the Problem. (Why do they have 5 power? Because Amethyst Star has “Caretaker” on her card, giving her +1 power while at a Problem with a Critter. And Blue Jays are definitely Critters!) Since both you AND the opponent can confront the Problem, we go to step 3...
3) Faceoff!
- First, each player flips the top card of their draw deck and adds its power value to their characters’ power at the Problem. Let’s say you flipped a card with a power of 4; you would have 3 (from Twilight Sparkle) + 2 (from Emerald Green) + 4 (the power of the flipped card) and have a total of 9. If your opponent has 8 or less power after their card flip... you win!
- Next, put any cards you flipped at the bottom of your draw deck.
- The winner of the faceoff would receive 2 points, because of the “Bonus 2” printed on this Problem card.
- Lastly, send all characters at this Problem home and reveal a new Problem.
With that in mind, here is the deck-building strategy I mentioned, using Twilight Sparkle’s Mane Character card and Event cards for some good synergy.
And why does THAT matter? Well, take another look at your Mane Character: Twilight Sparkle, Faithful Student.
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| aka Big McLargebrain |
After a faceoff involving Twilight here, you put any Event cards you flipped right into your hand! And as an added bonus, Twilight has Studious: when you win a faceoff involving her you gain a bonus action token.
So in the example above, you’d flip Watch in Awe, win the faceoff, put Watch in Awe into your hand instead of at the bottom of your deck, get 2 victory points for the faceoff, AND earn a free action token! All because you made a deck with cards that play well with each other and your Mane Character.
Now that the game has been out a little while, I’m sure some of you have already been building decks and pulling off great combos. Share your strats in the comments below!
