Friendship is Forever Card Games: Cakes for the Memories · 11:23am Jun 7th, 2020
Heads up: Next week marks the premiere of Pony Life on Discovery Family… possibly. I’m getting contradictory signals from the TV listings.
As such, we could be discussing G4.5 or the manga in a week. And I make no guarantees about whether Pony Life will even be worth cardifying. I’ll give it a fair shake whenever it does air, but I’m not torturing myself for the sake of more content. This isn’t a YouTube channel. For now, let’s continue our look at the last bit of integral G4. This time it’s Pinkie’s portion.
Thank you for the recap, Pinkie. Most efficient.
That’s not what they mean by “muscle memory,” Pinkie. Also, coronation cupcakes? Not sure if we ever saw those.
I do appreciate the memory album’s simple user interface. And how it explicitly records memories rather than extracting them. Very important distinction, especially if, say, Sunset referred Starlight to the forbidden section of the Canterlot Library for spells to use when putting the album together.
Oh, there is no way Starlight would win a savory vs. sweet pie debate with Pinkie. Unless Pinkie were somehow arguing for savory, which I don’t see happening.
I know it’s been a while since Ourtown, but come on, Starlight. You aren’t this bad of an actress.
Those are some truly gorgeous cupcakes. And the blackboard holds exquisite gobbledygook on par with Twilight’s own friendship equations. And Pinkie really does have a good plan. Taste is mostly scent, scent is the sense most tied to memory, ergo food can spark positive recollections. Though she should probably keep confetti cannons out of the recipe
I’m astonished that anything vanilla-flavored can taste like the first time someone met Pinkie Pie. Though strictly speaking, this is the second time they met. I suppose the first gasp wouldn’t have made as effective a clip.
It is quite the shock to see Season 1 background ponies again. There are two Lyras virtually standing next to each other, to say nothing of underped Best Pony. (And also derped Best Pony, because this is where the original animation error came from.) Plus, we see the much horsier mannerisms of the time, with Twilight pouring the hot sauce with her mouth and using a straw to drink it rather than involving her hooves.
And I do adore how it’s still clear that she thought she was getting something alcoholic. That first Pinkie rant is a doozy.
It is a shame how they did the fire-maned Twilight bit twice in Season 1 and then never again. I’ve always liked the idea of unicorns expressing extreme emotion through elemental evocation. Rarity goes crystalline, Trixie crackles with lightning, Lyra resonates with destructive sonic energy... and the less said about Starlight "soul magic is my special talent" Glimmer, the better.
Ah. A hot sauce kicker in the cupcake. Now it makes sense.
Bittersweet dark chocolate for giggling at the ghosty. Makes sense to me.
I don’t think I’ve ever appreciated how, when Pinkie starts singing the aforementioned song, the lights turn up. She dispelled Nightmare Moon’s magical darkness for the sake of ambience.
“Tell me she’s not.”
“She is.”
This exchange gains a few layers in hindsight. It’s not just “tell me she’s not singing a song.” It’s “Tell me she’s not starting a musical number.” We know the things happen diegetically. (Heck, thanks to Wallflower Blush, we know they happen diegetically even in the human world!) It serves to further highlight the casual disregard Pinkie has for rules, whether it’s propriety or physics.
Huh. I’d never noticed how each laughing pony causes the creepy tree faces to vanish in a puff of smoke that matches her coat, causing the background to change to the same. And when they do it as a group, it’s pink. Neat touch.
“I’ll accept that.”
Wait, then what was she going for? I suppose any instance where Pinkie positivity prevailed over perfidious, pessimistic portents.
“I don’t need to eat the cupcake” is never the answer, Twilight.
Huh. When the rest of the Bearers first discovered Pinkie’s secret party-planning cave, who hit the lights? Or are they on a motion sensor?
I do love how much we’ve done with Twilight’s turophobia. And how she likes dancing at her parties, given what we’ve seen her do on (and to) the dance floor.
Given Granny Smith passing on by the time of the timeskip… Well, I’m actually not sure if Pinkie will ever get to celebrate her parents’ five hundredth anniversary. Rock farmers are weird, man.
Twilight! Don’t just spit half-chewed cake on the floor, especially not in a restaurant. Honestly, you’re about to take over the country.
Pinkie, a curtain won’t block sound. Twilight can definitely still hear you.
You told Pinkie to have fun, Starlight. Did you really expect her to follow any instructions after that?
You can tell the animators had fun with the second wave of cakes.
It’s nice to see that Pinkie can now look back on the Mirror Pool Incident and laugh (and also bake.) Though I do have to wonder what the clone who escaped to Manehattan is up to…
I’ve never had a problem with dispersing the mirror clones, especially when you consider that the ones with enough presence of mind to qualify as something more than a fun-obsessed philosophical zombie apparently fled town. And worst case scenario, if the real Pinkie got hit with the spell, she’d get sent back to the rock farm. Or wherever Cloudy Quartz was at the time.
I do have to love how the orange-frog hybrid is presented without any further context in this clip show. And given Equestria’s ecology, no one could blame those who’d think it’s a naturally occurring species.
Oh hey, the inflato-fingers. I wonder if they were intentionally meant to foreshadow Equestria Girls. Meanwhile, we can all be grateful that the G3 face didn’t foreshadow anything… with the possible exception of the Breezies being a thing in G4.
Hmm. I suppose there aren’t many heat or pain sensors in a horn if Twilight’s can glow red-hot without her so much as flinching.
Wait, what? Pinkie made a cake decorated with a bunch of her and it’s for the holidays she invented?
… Pinkie logic. Why am I even surprised? That or she’s deliberately calling up other memories to fill the album.
The Cake twins’ monthiversary party really highlights how they weren’t allowed to age. Ditto the sneeziversary.
Ah, the Pinkie Sense. Always a fun way to expedite a plot, so long as you use it in moderation. And speaking of Maud, it seems like the Pies as a whole have a psionically potent bloodline. It is fascinating to think about what other strange talents lurk in the rock fields.
The Cake twins’ reaction to the “oink, oink, oink” song is the correct one.
That was a good costume montage, though I don’t know if Nightmare Night costumes and the Filli-Second outfit really count.
I have several questions about the secret compartment behind the Sugarcube Corner display counter.
“Didn’t you just make that up?”
“But that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t work!”
Headcanons in a nutshell.
Pinkie Pie is watching you sleep. Yes, you.
Prince Rutherford cancelling his war declaration is even better without context. Now everyone can share Celestia’s concern. “What did you do, Twilight?”
Oh goodness, the hallucination/Discord flashback from “The One Where Pinkie Pie Knows” is even more disturbing than I remembered. I don’t know what’s worse, the demented calliope music or Spike’s dead, bug-eyed expression.
It feels weird to have a clip from “The Last Laugh” rather than “Pinkie Pride.” If you’re going to involve Cheese Sandwich, then actually involve Cheese Sandwich. Maybe there are some legal issues with using clips of Weird Al’s voice? Still, the central focus seems to be Pinkie realizing she’s already fulfilling her life’s purpose, which works.
And, of course, the Smile song. Any Pinkie Pie clip show that didn’t include it in its entirety would be fundamentally flawed. Even as early in the series as it is, it remains the essential summation of who, what, and why Pinkie is. Funny how that episode got Pinkie so right in the first few minutes and so wrong in her interactions with Cranky.
Ah. that would be why I didn’t remember the coronation cupcakes. They were just the first draft.
In hindsight, those exposition powers probably could’ve resolved this whole episode. But what fun would that have been?
All told, a very good dedication to Pinkie, showcasing not just her zaniness but also her near-Twilight levels of devotion to her friends and dedication to being the best her she can be. She just has different priorities than Her Royal Purpleness.
And now for the pinkest cards I can make without breaking out a sixth color, including some templating changes that will come in the 2021 Core Set:
Identity Reaffirmed 1W
Instant
Exile target creature you control, then return it to the battlefield under its owner’s control with a +1/+1 counter on it.
“Hey, if you had a few dozen other yous bouncing around, you’d have an identity crisis too.”
—Pinkie Pie, Bearer of Laughter
Invented Holiday 1W
Instant
Prevent all combat damage that would be dealt this turn. Each player on your team gains 2 life.
“You don’t need a reason to celebrate, but it helps.”
—Pinkie Pie, Bearer of Laughter
Spot Remover 1U
Instant
Return target nonland permanent to its owner’s hand. If that permanent is a Dog, Wolf, or Werewolf, you may put it on top of its owner’s library instead.
It was all fun and games until Winona went missing.
Duplicake 2U
Enchantment — Cake
1U, Sacrifice Duplicake: Create a token that’s a copy of target creature or enchantment.
There’s no telling what will jump out of this cake.
Mystic Unbinder 2U
Creature — Unicorn Wizard
U, T: Return target creature to its owner’s hand. If that creature wasn’t a token, return Mystic Unbinder to its owner’s hand.
“I’m not killing them. I’m just sending them home. It’s up to them if they want to come back.”
1/2
Keening Wail 2UU
Sorcery
Target player mills X cards, where X is the number of cards in that player’s graveyard. (They put the top X cards of their library into their graveyard.)
Split between keeping a secret and sharing joy, Pinkie’s tenuous sanity nearly tore itself in half.
Living Fondue 2BB
Creature — Elemental Horror
Menace
When Living Fondue dies, create two Food tokens. (They’re colorless artifacts with “2, T, Sacrifice this artifact: You gain 3 life.”)
“You must face it without me. I am powerless before it. Go!”
—Twilight Sparkle, to Luster Dawn
4/3
Mythos of Pinkie Pie 4B
Sorcery
Draw three cards. If UR was spent to cast this spell, Mythos of Pinkie Pie deals 3 damage to each opponent. Otherwise, it deals 3 damage to you.
“She happily shared truths ponies were never meant to know.”
—Tales of the Harmonolith
Pyremane Unicorn 1R
Creature — Elemental Unicorn
Mutate 2R (If you cast this spell for its mutate cost, put it over or under target non-Human creature you own. They mutate into the creature on top plus all abilities from under it.)
Trample
1R: This creature gets +X/+0 until end of turn, where X is the number of times it has mutated.
2/1
Prophetic Exuberant 1RR
Creature — Pony Shaman
First strike
Play with the top card of your library revealed.
Prophetic Exuberant gets +X/+0, where X is the converted mana cost of the top card of your library.
Every day brings a new delight.
0/3
The Mirror Herd 2RR
Enchantment — Saga
(As this Saga enters and after your draw step, add a lore counter. Sacrifice after III.)
I, II — Create a token that’s a copy of target creature, except it has haste. Exile that token when The Mirror Herd leaves the battlefield
III — Whenever a creature you control leaves the battlefield this turn, The Mirror Herd deals 2 damage to any target.
Pressurized Confetti 3R
Enchantment — Aura
Enchant permanent
Enchanted permanent has “T: This permanent deals 1 damage to any target.”
Pinkie can fit a cannon into anything imaginable, and a few that aren’t.
Leafcutter Grangers 1G
Creature — Insect Druid
At the beginning of your upkeep or whenever a land enters the battlefield under your control, put a spore counter on Leafcutter Grangers.
Remove three spore counters from Leafcutter Grangers: Create a 1/1 green Saproling token.
1/3
Memory Morsel 1G
Enchantment — Cake
2G, Sacrifice Memory Morsel: Return two other cards at random from your graveyard to your hand. Activate this ability only any time you could cast a sorcery.
“Perfect for birthday wishes!”
—Pinkie Pie, Bearer of Laughter
Citrachian Hybrid 2G
Creature — Plant Frog Mutant
Graft 2 (This creature enters the battlefield with two +1/+1 counters on it. Whenever another creature enters the battlefield, you may move a +1/+1 counter from this creature onto it.)
Each creature you control with a +1/+1 counter on it has “T: Add G.”
0/0
Frog Drop 2G
Instant
Kicker 1B (You may spend an additional 1B as you cast this spell.)
Create two 1/1 green Frog creature tokens. If this spell was kicked, those creatures gain deathtouch until end of turn.
One small leap for a frog, one giant loss for ponykind.
Remembered Strength 4GG
Sorcery
Return target card from your graveyard to your hand. When you do, distribute X +1/+1 counters among any number of target creatures, where X is that card’s converted mana cost. Exile Remembered Strength.
Moon-Maddened Lumberknot 8
Creature — Eldrazi Treefolk
Emerge 5GG (You may cast this spell by sacrificing a creature and paying the emerge cost reduced by that creature’s converted mana cost.)
When you cast this spell, lands you control become 2/2 Elemental Horror creatures with indestructible and haste until end of turn. They’re still lands.
4/5
Double Dutch Oven
Artifact — Contraption
Whenever you crank Double Dutch Oven, create two Food tokens.
Cupcake Optimizer 3(rw)
Creature — Pony Rigger
1(rw), Sacrifice an artifact or enchantment: Cupcake Optimizer assembles a Contraption. (Put the top card of your Contraption deck onto one of your sprockets.)
“It’s good, yes, but can we fit in jellybeans?”
2/3
Rapid Reviewer 3WU
Creature — Pony Advisor
Flash
When Rapid Reviewer enters the battlefield, if you cast it from your hand, return all cards in your graveyard that were put there from anywhere but your library this turn to your hand.
”… and then I came here and told you about it.”
2/3
I can't describe quite how badly I now want to see this episode.
Stupid Complicated Game Alert: Moon-Maddened Lumberknot doesn't untap the lands it's turning into creatures, so I hope you used its Emerge ability to cast it for GG... or cast it without paying its mana cost. And it needs to be something that actually casts it, rather than putting it directly onto the battlefield. Oh, and summoning sickness only cares how long something has been on the battlefield and whether it's currently a creature, not how long it's been a creature. Most of those lands would have been able to attack without haste, but official cards in this vein tend to grant it so that new players don't have to ask the question.
Stupid Complicated Game Alert: Clever color pieing for the Mythos: black can draw cards in exchange for life, blue can just straight-up draw cards, red can deal damage to things susceptible to damage. (The color pie is absolutely part of the game)
They're keywording mill? Neat. Hate to be the guy who has to do the gatherer update for that one.
Invented Holiday amuses the heck out of me, but is Spot Remover supposed to be noncreature?
Edit: I was wondering if there was some subtheme of dog totems that required a specific hate card. Much better.
See, Dog tribal is weird to me. With felines, all types, from lions and panthers to house cats, are all lumped together. But canines also have Wolf and Fox as types, diluting the viable options. At least you addressed that.
Hot sauce actually works pretty well as a "kicker" in sweet stuff!
Next time you have a milkshake, divide it into two glasses and add a single drop of Tobasco sauce to one of the glasses. Stir well. Switch the glasses around until you don't know which is which if you want a blind test, or do this with friends. The one with the hot sauce will taste sweeter and creamier!
Wait, does The Mirror Herd work the way it’s supposed to? Sagas are sacrificed after they receive their final lore counter, so wouldn’t the third step fail to do anything? Also, apropos to the potential change of schedule for next week, what are your thoughts on cardifying each of the following?:
- Chapter books
- Illustrated picture books
- Tails of Equestria
- Turnabout Storm
- The Equestrian Wind Mage
5279782
Part of me wants to play it super-serious. Part of me wants to make it a Spaceballs crossover, with Luster facing off against Pizza the Hutt.
5279866
Thanks for the catch. All those Werewolf lands can breathe a sigh of relief. Or let wind blow through the branches, I guess.
5279913
Magic taxonomy is a slippery thing, especially when it comes to lump and split. Lion and Tiger used to be separate creature types, but it still feels more right putting them under the Cat umbrella than declaring Wolves Dogs or vice versa. (Or establishing a "Canid" creature type, because that way lies madness.)
Or it's just because there's already a bunch of Wolf support because of Innistrad. It's not like I'm privy to the ongoing creature type debate.
5280088
Duly noted. Thanks for the tip!
5280230
You don't sacrifice a Saga until after its last chapter ability is off the stack, whether because it resolved, failed due to illegal targets, or was countered. The tokens will be exiled the instant after you set up the triggered ability.
And I'll run down the list:
• Chapter books: Possible. I'll need to actually look at some to decide.
• Illustrated picture books: Again, I'd need to look at them, but there may not be enough material to work with.
• Tails of Equestria: Converting an RPG setting to cards seems like it'd work a lot better the other way around. And when that setting is Equestria, I've already covered most of it. That said, I may want to talk to David Silver about doing something with Ponyfinder...
• Turnabout Storm: Again, possible, and probably moreso than the chapter books. Magic does already have a lot of Phoenix Wright-friendly mechanics, like clash and investigate.
• The Equestrian Wind Mage: Doubtful. I've never actually played a game with Vaati in it.
What I expect to see from Pony Life is what Teen Titans Go used to be before it devolved into the mess it is now: "What they're doing when they're not fighting the monster of the week."
Also, I want to see ponified versions of BER!
I still haven't:
Managed to see any of the clip shows. I assume there are illegally pirated versions floating around the dingier corners of the web, but my fear of spiders and lack of robust computational equipment shies me away from even doing a Google search. Any word on when the shows'll actually be released in the U.S.?
Mike
Oh, missed one:
Stupid Complicated Game Alert: Because enchantments can't normally be tapped, they lose nothing from having been tapped. This means that the best place to hide cannons using Pressurized Confetti is inside abstract concepts. It takes a moderate amount of shenanigans, but it's even possible to have two copies enchanting each other, which is both the best and most mind-breaking way to do it (creatures aren't allowed to be attached to other things the way Auras have to be in order to avoid being sent to the graveyard as a state-based action, so things that turn enchantments into creatures exclude them)