We're just days now before The Crystal Games, second expansion set of MLP: CCG, sees public play this prerelease weekend! Last week we looked at the Teamwork keyword, and this week we're going to look at the other new keyword in The Crystal Games: Prismatic!
Here's our head designer on MLP: CCG, Darrell, with a few words to share on the subject, just below the break...
A Pony of a Different Color
Darrell Hardy
When we decided that our next set was going to be The Crystal Games, we knew we'd need to include some crystalline characters. After all, what good is a trip to the Crystal Empire if you can't see some crystal ponies? And if we were going to include crystal ponies, I insisted that we find a way to touch on how they channel the Crystal Heart to refract love and joy all over Equestria. Because I'm a big softie like that.
To that end, we came up with a new trait, Crystal, and a new keyword, Prismatic. Your Prismatic characters also have the colors of all your other Crystal characters. For example, if you have a Prismatic character in play with two Crystal characters who are Blue and Pink, that Prismatic character is also Blue and Pink in addition to its normal color.
Prismatic is all about versatility. There are two obvious benefits of having multiple colors:
- Your Prismatic character is able to confront a wider range of Problems.
- Your Prismatic character helps fulfill color requirements for cards you might want to play.
What's new to The Crystal Games is game text that makes great use of having multiple colors.
For example, Rainbow Dash, Crystallized, has the Prismatic keyword, along with the game text, "Main Phase: Exhaust this card and pay 2 action tokens to move a Friend you control for each color this card has."
Obviously, Rainbow Dash starts with one color (unsurprisingly, it's Blue), so using her ability without another Crystal Friend in play is no more effective than using the standard "move for two action tokens" action you can do anyway. But as soon as you play a Crystal Friend of another color, you're able to move two Friends for two action tokens – which is the same as giving them Swift! And when you drop a second Crystal Friend of a third color, you're suddenly moving three Friends for the price of one!
One of the Friends you'll likely enjoy moving this way is Crystal Guard, who has the game text, "When you move this card to a Problem, you may exhaust this card and pay [1 action] to frighten an opponent's Friend there." When Rainbow Dash is sporting two or three colors, and you can move Friends around for cheap, you'll have action tokens left over to use this guy's text to frighten whatever opposing Friends are troubling you.
As you can see, Friends with Prismatic are more effective the more colors they have. That's where the Yellow Friend Bright Smile likes to come in. Bright Smile's game text says "Your Crystal Friends here also have the colors of each opposing character here." This means that your Prismatic Friends get bonus colors not only from your own Crystal Friends, but from your opponent's characters too! Without even trying much, your Prismatic Rainbow Dash could have up to four colors!
To see what else the crystal ponies have in store, check out The Crystal Games!
Thanks Darrell!
This is just a sneak peek into Prismatic. There are a lot of Crystal and Prismatic cards in The Crystal Games that make having lots of colors in play a whole new way to build a deck and play to win.
Be sure to tune in for the second Crystal Games TweetChat tomorrow evening by keeping tabs on #mlpccg and follow @MLP_CCG to keep up with the spoilers that keep dropping as we countdown the last few days until The Crystal Games Prerelease Weekend!
