High Magic is out today! It's the new expansion for My Little Pony CCG, with all sorts of magical hijinks, tricksy Trixie tricks, and fun new game mechanics like Token cards. It'll be easiest to find in hobby shops this weekend, and will hit more stores over the next week.
To celebrate the release, let's continue an article tradition here on EQD: sharing which cards in High Magic are the personal faves of folks on the CCG development team. Head below the break to see which magical cards they picked and why!
Let's start with Trevor, since his choice is just as straightforward as the card he picked: Rainbow Dash, Back in Black. He says, "This card feeds directly into what blue wants to do in a game: confront Problems with an overwhelming force. This card rewards blue for such an overwhelming force with extra points."
Plus, we'll give this card extra credit for how well Rainbow Dash goes with the awesome Night Glider card from Equestrian Odysseys. Explosive point gain is fun!
Darrell is the design lead, and he has good things to say about his choice, Dr. Hooves, All In Due Time. "I'm a sucker for game text that can be used multiple ways, and this card is a great example of this. 'At the start of your Troublemaker Phase, you may turn over an opposing Troublemaker here.' can mean two different things, depending on your deck and the board state. If your deck emphasizes defeating Troublemakers, the text means 'Pick a fight with a Troublemaker so I can kick its butt!' But if your deck swings more toward Problem-solving, then the text means 'Send a Troublemaker away for a turn so I can confront without worrying about it.'"
I'm with Darrell, I love cards that can be used in multiple ways, and you'll see below that Adam totally agrees with us.
Adam's pick is Braeburn, Good Seed. Why? He says, "I actually like this whole cycle of 'banish this card from your hand' cards - they have a lot going on, but they're excellent deckbuilding tools. They help ensure you'll be able to play your cards without filling your deck up with cards you don't particularly want to play, and their modal nature [Note: modal means 'two or more "modes" to pick from'] can make it easier to run some narrow effects like Braeburn's unfrighten or Flitter's weenie removal. Since their requirement reduction has Immediate timing, you can even use them to surprise an opponent with an off-turn trick you didn't seem to have the requirements for, which can be particularly fun with the new Hasty friends in blue and pink."
Dalton is actually in sales and marketing, not CCG development, but he's a good friend of mine and had a big part in making the High Magic prerelease weekend such a hit. So, when I asked him what his favorite card in the set was, he said, "There's a Minuette one, right? Yeah, that one." Why? Because it's the one with Minuette, and that's all the excuse Dalton needs.
And since my job on the team is mostly card flavor, titles, images, theming, etc. (aka Ponifying All the Things), my two favorites are probably the amazing Sonata Dusk card that Pixelkitties created our art for, and the very magical fact that we now have a card called "Orange, You Glad." My sense of humor is famously atrocious sometimes (aka All the Time), and Orange, You Glad is right up my alley of painfulness.
For Sonata it's a combination of getting to have more pony Sunset Shimmer on official products, also seeing more of Sonata, plus her fun and effective card effect on such a well-priced card. I love quick card combos, the one-two punches that pull off more than your opponent expected, and stealing an opponent's Friend for a turn is the perfect setup to retiring it with another card for a benefit thus preventing your opponent from getting their card back.
Now that many of you have had a chance to play with new cards at the prerelease, plus you can look through the awesome fan wiki listing of all High Magic cards, which are your favorites? Let us know in the comments, plus if you want to share some fun deck ideas go right ahead!
