No matter if you choose your favorite cards because the game text wins you matches, or because the card has an awesome picture of Shining Armor throwing his wife, EVERYONE has favorite cards in the CCGs they play.
We brave few on the development team have favorites, too, and sometimes we pick those favorites even before the card is more than a row in a spreadsheet! (Personally, I wait for the pretty pictures.)
Check out the My Little Pony CCG dev team's favorite cards from the brand new The Crystal Games expansion below the break. And don't forget, booster packs are in stores on December 5th!
We'll start with Darrell, our lead designer. He says that one of his favorite cards in The Crystal Games is Unending Nightmare, "because it's such a simple card and yet such a boost to decks that try to leverage frightening Friends. Since it only costs one action token, all you have to do is hold back a token and one card to totally psych out your opponent. Should they unfrighten that Friend and risk having it go face-down again? Or should they accept its frightened fate and move on? Are you bluffing? There's only one way to find out."
Amanda, developer and one of the co-creators of the game, went with Poetry Slam as her fave! She says, "It extends the Showdown dynamic that we introduced with Canterlot Nights, and getting the chance to banish a Friend involved in the Showdown if you win is a great way to shake things up in the game. Not to mention, the new custom artwork done especially for this card includes Ms. Harshwhinny, one of my favorite recurring characters. MR. THE DRAGON!"
Dev team member and rules guru Victor says, "Study Session. It provides the player with A LOT of information as opposing Friends have to sit in play for a turn before they can be used to confront Problems. In this way, it really highlights the player interactions over Problem bonus points."
Trevor is the development lead, and he says, "I really like the "come into play" cycle, mainly Princess Luna, Good Night's Sleep. I like that cycle mainly because of how they were written, in a group chat over a few hours coming up with very color-specific cards. Cards that give you an immediate pay off is usually where I start when building decks. Also, a pet deck of mine is a Princess Luna, Princess of the Night deck centering on Events. Adding Raven, Event Organizer into the mix helps that deck move forward."
Adam couldn't pick just one or two. No, he had to pick SIX. "I like the rainbow key cycle - they facilitate limited play, especially draft, by providing flexible color spotting that still has utility if you end up not needing to spot with it, while also filling a constructed role by giving players a set of versatile deckbuilding tools that create space and options without being costed efficiently enough to eclipse other, more strongly color-locked tools. They're useful, flexible cards that are able to fill a lot of design roles at once."
And now, finally my own favorite card(s) in the set! I'm the theming guy, so I really find myself gravitating toward the cards that really feel "on-target" when it comes to theming. In this case, we have Claude, Pulling the Strings, who lets you take control of an opponent's Friend card... and then if that Friend was a unicorn you can then retire it to take control of ANOTHER Friend! Pony puppetry perfection, and really, really mean.
Yoink! is my favorite named card in the entire game. Plus, look how happy Pinkie is that she caught a Rainbow Dash!
Oh, and this Mane Character. If you knew what a "Fastball Special" is before going to Wikipedia then you'll understand...
Thanks for checking out OUR favorites, but what about yours? Between prerelease and online checklists, many of you have had time to look through the entire set. Share your favorites (or the ones you're looking forward to trying out the most) below!
