Friendship is Card Games: My Little Pony: The Manga, Ch. 2-1 & 2-2 · 10:51am Jun 28th, 2020
My local game store’s legal maximum customer occupancy is currently twelve, but I was still able to get in a Core Set 2021 prerelease. (Traitorous Greed into Angelic Ascension is an incredibly rude flavor fail and I love it. Bribe your way into heaven!) On a largely unrelated note, let’s look at the next volume of the MLP manga.
Chapter 2-1
The chapter counts don’t roll over from volume to volume, so I’ll employ the Mario method to distinguish them.
Weirdly, this volume also abandons the right-to-left pagination of the first one. I guess we’re just going on art style from here on out.
“The bestest festival of the lunar cycle.” Wow, they’re really going out of their way to avoid month, huh? 
“Marshmallow Pie Jubilee” sounds like a Raripie shipping group.
I can definitely buy both Pinkie thinking all holidays are the best holidays and worrying that some will get jealous. She’s gunning for that harem ending.
Makes sense that the Apples would recuse themselves from competitive apple bobbing, especially with a prize on the line. Apple Bloom’s Plan B upon learning that she couldn’t compete also makes sense.
Sneaky Bloom amuses me, especially when she can “ain’t no rule” past Applejack.
Misfortune befalling the Doctor rather than Ditzy also amuses me.
Very wise of Rarity. pinkie Pie in a room full of dresses made to look like cakes cannot possibly end well.
Really, Twilight was doomed by “This is very delicate work.” The further elaboration on how much she needed to focus only sealed her fate.
Mesoponytamia. Between the two river ponies? 
I shouldn’t judge. Goodness knows I’ve made worse horse puns.
Oh, Twilight. You’d think by this point she wouldn’t put so much stock into making Celestia proud, but the sun’s been her blind spot for a long time. And apparently, so is her tail, at least when it comes to bumping into fragile antiquities. Why couldn’t it have been a puzzle cube and not a sphere? At least then it wouldn’t have rolled off the desk.
A three-winged race. The mind boggles, even before considering the team members. And based on the bindings keeping Dash and Fluttershy together, it’s still a two-winged race; each pegasus is expected to flap just one. Trying to move the others definitely wouldn’t end well, barring panic-induced adrenaline surges.
Huh. Davenport-provided pillows acting as a midway point between the Last Airbender cabbage cart and the Order of the Stick convenient flumphs. I like it!
Also, I feel like Davenport says the sentence “The point is to make customers think about quills and sofas” at least three times a day.
Oh. Oh my. Comic panels glitching like the camera feed went wonky is never a good sign.
Chapter 2-2
Oh. Oh. We have a time loop on our hands. This could get very interesting.
I do have to appreciate the logic Pinkie’s using to justify what’s going on. After all, time loops aren’t the first conclusion most beings will reach, so she has no choice but to assume that, as an example, Rarity ate all the dresses she made yesterday.
Remember, this is Pinkie logic.
“Spike, do I look like the pony that would disturb anypony?”
Well, she has a tendency to disturb everypony, so I guess technically not.
Huh. Interesting to see that Southern Equestria was close to Mesoponytamia in terms of artifact design. Work in Anugypt and we have a fascinating possible look at this world in bygone times.
Nice touch with the crash into the cushions providing a reason for Pinkie to suspect some concussions are at work.
Oof. There are few things more piteous than Pinkie Pie looking for a festival under a rock the size of her hoof.
“I can’t be going crazy, I’m the sanest pony I know!”
I mean, living in Ponyville and all things being relative, you could make that case.
Okay, Pinkie waiting for the surprise party until the middle of the night may even more sad than the looking under the rock thing.
Ah, it’s an automatic reset. No matter where Pinkie is, when the allotted time comes, she gets sent back to where she was when the loop began. In this case, her bedroom.
I’m caught in an awkward spot with this one. I normally try to do storylines in their entirety… but this storyline makes up the entire eight-chapter volume. I don’t have any comics in reserve after this, and Pony Life isn’t helping. As such, I’m going to stick to my usual two-chapter-a-week approach for the time being.
In any case, let’s get this loop a-turning:
Tandem Fliers 1W
Creature — Pegasus Citizen
Flying
Tandem Fliers can’t attack unless another creature with flying also attacks.
A three-winged race is a test of coordination, agility, and pain tolerance.
2/3
Omnicelebrant 2W
Creature — Pony Cleric
Whenever an enchantment enters or leaves the battlefield, you gain 1 life.
She lives every day like a holiday, even on the rare occasions when it isn’t one.
2/3
Time Stutter 1UU
Sorcery
Return target creature to its owner’s hand.
Rebound (If you cast this spell from your hand, exile it as it resolves. At the beginning of your next upkeep, you may cast this card from exile without paying its mana cost.)
Deflect Misfortune 2U
Instant
Target creature you control gains hexproof until end of turn and can’t be blocked this turn.
Rebound
Oblivious Timeskipper 2U
Creature — Pony Citizen
U, T, Return Oblivious Timeskipper to its owner’s hand: Each opponent returns a creature they control to its owner’s hand.
“Huh. Weird. Weren’t we here yesterday?”
2/2
Muse’s Grip 3U
Enchantment — Aura
Enchant creature
When Muse’s Grip enters the battlefield, draw two cards, then discard a card.
Enchanted creature doesn’t untap during its controller’s untap step.
Inspiration takes hold and doesn’t let go.
Archaeoanalyst 3UU
Creature — Unicorn Wizard
When Archaeoanalyst enters the battlefield, return target instant, sorcery, or artifact card from your graveyard to your hand.
“We’ve forgotten more than we know. I intend to fix that.”
2/2
Alone in the Dark 1B
Instant
Destroy target creature unless its controller sacrifices two other creatures.
Pinkie waited all night for the surprise. Nothing came to meet her.
Familiar Faces 1B
Sorcery
Return a creature card at random from your graveyard to your hand.
Rebound
Careless Handling 1R
Sorcery
Destroy target artifact.
Rebound
This side oops.
Eager Consumer 2R
Creature — Pony Rogue
Sacrifice an artifact: Eager Consumer gets +2/+2 until end of turn.
“Delicious” is a compliment for a baker and a nightmare for a seamstress.
2/2
Festival of Envy 4RRR
Sorcery
Gain control of all enchantments and enchanted creatures until end of turn. Untap all creatures you gain control of this way. Those creatures gain haste until end of turn. Put a lore counter on each Saga.
Brewing Suspicion 1G
Enchantment
Whenever an opponent casts a spell during your turn, investigate. (Create a colorless Clue artifact token with “2, T, Sacrifice this artifact: Draw a card.”)
“Where were you two hours from now yesterday?”
Soft Landing 2G
Enchantment
Return Soft Landing to its owner’s hand: Target creature you control gains indestructible until end of turn. Tap it.
Pegasi are magically and physically designed to withstand hard impacts, but even they appreciate a convenient cushion.
Apple Family Provisioner 2GG
Creature — Pony Druid
Whenever Apple Family Provisioner deals combat damage to a player, add an amount of G equal to your devotion to green. Until end of turn, you don’t lose this mana as steps and phases end. (Each G in the mana costs of permanents you control counts toward your devotion to green.)
4/3
Bobbing Tank 2
Artifact
1, T: Add one mana of any color.
T, Tap an untapped creature you control: Add one mana of any color. If the tapped creature’s power is 4 or greater, add three mana of that color instead.
Gateau Couture 3
Artifact — Food Equipment
Equipped creature gets +1/+1 for each Food you control.
2, T, Sacrifice Gateau Couture: You gain 3 life.
Equip 2
Red velvet in every sense.
Runaway Apple Cart 5
Artifact Creature — Juggernaut
Trample
Runaway Apple Cart attacks each combat if able.
Whenever Runaway Apple Cart attacks, defending player creates a Food token. (It’s an artifact with “2, T, Sacrifice this artifact: You gain 3 life.”)
7/5
Fickle Designer 1UR
Creature — Unicorn Artificer
Artifact spells you cast cost 1 less to cast.
T, Sacrifice an artifact: Draw a card.
“It came to me in a dream. Now I realize I should have left it there.”
1/2
Wait 1W//See 4U
Instant//Instant
Wait: Target player skips their next combat phase this turn.
See: Scry 2, then draw two cards.
Antiquity Museum
Land
T: Add C.
3, T: Look at the top card of your library. If it’s an artifact card, you may reveal it and put it into your hand. Otherwise, you may put it into your graveyard.
Of all the possible anime plots, why would they do Endless Eight?
Well, one of the explanations for the Joker is that he suffers from a form of hyper-sanity, so… she might be onto something? (for having a different form of sanity, not the homicidal tendencies)
Bobbiing tank and Apple Cart seem to have some synergy, but not sure if the combo justifies the 7 mana it would take to get them out.
Oh man, you're in for a treat. This volume of the Manga might be my favorite official piece of Friendship is Magic media. I adore it.
I wonder if Pinkie Pie and Sunset Shimmer having a conversation over tea comparing and contrasting their respective time loop adventures is a strong enough premise to produce a decent ficlet.
I've been playing MTG for so long, core set limited bores me. Some of these designs, though, are quite good. I especially like Alone in the Dark and Runaway Apple Cart, but Festival of Envy is my favorite. Right now, red only gets to damage people for playing enchantments, but stealing them for a turn is another very red way to deal with problematic ones.
For real? You're almost totally caught up on everything?
Oh wow! I did not know there was a second volume of this! I need to order it tout suite so that I can follow FICG!
I will point out (from the between-my-fingers-I-couldn't-help-myself skimming I did) that Loyal Pegasus suggests Tandem Fliers could perhaps have a third point of power.