Friendship is Card Games: Imposing Sovereigns III · 1:11pm Feb 6th, 2022
This week, it’s time to look back a bit and consider the third in the noble line of Imposing Sovereigns.
In hindsight, the prompt was a bit too clever for everyone’s own good. To be clear, that is a criticism of me and me alone. On a similar note, I certainly could have spread the word better. But we still got some great stories out of it. Now to see what I can get out of them in turn. See here for an easy guide to what corresponds to what.
Blinding Convergence 1W
Enchantment
Constellation — Whenever Blinding Convergence or another enchantment enters the battlefield, tap target creature an opponent controls.
Luna does the best she can to light the world in Celestia’s absence.
Control the Narrative 1W
Instant
When target creature dies this turn, return it to the battlefield under its owner’s control with a +1/+1 counter on it.
Haven’s expertise turned a fall from grace into soaring approval ratings.
Love Sickness 1W
Enchantment — Aura
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature can’t attack or block.
At the beginning of your upkeep, each player gains 1 life.
“Good work, Starlight Glimmer. You’ve consigned my children to extinction.”
—Queen Chrysalis
Hovering Guardian 2W
Creature — Pegasus Citizen
Flying
When Hovering Guardian enters the battlefield, choose target creature you don’t control.
The chosen creature is detained. (It can’t attack or block and its activated abilities can’t be activated.)
“I’m doing this for your sake, you know.”
2/1
Majesty Guards the Herd 3W
Enchantment — Saga
(As this Saga enters and after your draw step, add a lore counter.)
I — You become the monarch.
II — Exile target nonland permanent an opponent controls.
III — Exile this Saga, then return it to the battlefield transformed under your control.
First Queen’s Legacy
(W) Enchantment Creature — Unicorn Warrior
First Queen’s Legacy has protection from each mana value among cards your opponents own in exile.
Majesty carved a place for ponykind with an iron will and horrific spellsongs.
3/4
Seraph, Arbiter of Harmony 4WW
Legendary Enchantment Creature — Horror
Alicorn (This card is also a Pony Pegasus Unicorn.)
Flying, double strike, vigilance
Whenever a permanent you don’t control deals damage to you, exile that permanent until Seraph leaves the battlefield.
“Your judgement shall be swift.”
3/6
Stoic Resolve 1U
Instant
Counter target spell that targets you. You become the monarch.
“Nopony wants to see a queen’s tears. It’s my duty to be the wind beneath their wings.”
—Queen Haven
Growing Distrust 1UU
Sorcery
Each player chooses a creature type. Return all creatures that aren’t of a type chosen this way to their owners’ hands.
The hostility between the tribes built gradually but inexorably, unchecked by the absent alicorns.
Royal Redistributor 3U
Creature — Pegasus Noble
When Royal Redistributor enters the battlefield, exchange control of two target creatures with different controllers.
Before Sunny reunited them, the tribes’ only contact with one another was bringing out-of-place infants to their own people.
3/3
Reassurance from Beyond 4UU
Sorcery
Choose one —
• Draw a card for each card type among cards in your graveyard.
• Draw a card for each card type among cards you own in exile.
Friendship persists in strange ways and stranger places.
Pact of Eternal Night 0
(B) Enchantment — Aura
Flash
Enchant creature
Enchanted creature gets +4/+4 and has lifelink and indestructible.
When Pact of Eternal Night enters the battlefield, pay 4BB at the beginning of your next upkeep. If you don’t, you lose the game.
Grim Janitor 1B
Creature — Human Citizen
If an artifact or enchantment would be put into a graveyard from the battlefield, exile it instead.
T, Put a card exiled with Grim Janitor into its owner’s graveyard: Create a Treasure token. (It’s an artifact with “T, Sacrifice an artifact: Add one mana of any color.”)
1/3
Anxious Worker 2B
Creature — Pony Citizen
Lifelink
When Anxious Worker enters the battlefield, you gain 3 life.
At the beginning of your end step, sacrifice Anxious Worker unless you gained 3 or more life this turn.
Everypony has a quota to meet.
3/1
Dark Gambit 2B
Instant
As an additional cost to cast Dark Gambit, sacrifice X nontoken permanents.
Each opponent loses X life unless they sacrifice X permanents. You gain X life.
Sombra gladly sacrificed everything to survive long enough to reclaim it.
Dramatic Return 2B
Sorcery
Return target creature card from your graveyard to the battlefield. That creature deals damage to you equal to its power.
“Sorry. Had to take the scenic route.”
—Twilight Sparkle, to Luna
Hope’s Betrayal 2B
Sorcery
Choose one. If a creature died this turn, you may choose both.
• Target player sacrifices a creature.
• Target player sacrifices an enchantment.
Confronted with a corpse who could have been saved by flight, Phyllis came to the only conclusion she could.
Curse of Unbearable Burdens 3B
Enchantment — Aura Curse
Enchant player
Whenever a permanent is put into enchanted player’s graveyard, that player puts a -1/-1 counter on a creature they control.
The body is willing. The spirit is crushed.
Hypoglycemic Interlude 1R
Sorcery
Discard all the cards in your hand. Exile twice that many cards from the top of your library. You may play those cards this turn.
Celestia can handle any form of delayed gratification… as long as cake isn’t involved.
Gattai! 2R
Enchantment
Whenever one or more Vehicles you control crew another Vehicle, the crewed Vehicle gets +3/+3 and gains trample until end of turn.
Sunny wasn’t sure how the giant robots would help restore magic, but she wasn’t complaining.
Misplace 3R
Sorcery
Exile target land.
Even after Flurry Heart was finally deposed, Yakyakistan remained banished. The weekly Yearning of the Yaks marks the world’s vigil, hoping for the lost to return.
Teahouse Sharper 1G
Creature — Unicorn Rogue
T, Remove a counter from a creature you control: Flip a coin. When you win the flip, distribute two +1/+1 counters among up to two target creatures.
“Good game! Care for another?”
2/2
Grovesoul Kirin 2G
Enchantment Creature — Kirin Druid
Trample
Whenever you cast an enchantment spell, Grovesoul Kirin gets +X/+X until end of turn, where X is that spell’s mana value
Channel — 5GG, Discard Grovesoul Kirin: Creatures you control get +3/+3 and gain trample until end of turn.
2/2
Seductive Algorithm 2G
Artifact Creature — Equipment Siren
All creatures able to block Seductive Algorithm or equipped creature do so.
Reconfigure 3G (3G: Attach to target creature you control; or unattach from a creature. Reconfigure only as a sorcery. While attached, this isn’t a creature.)
1/1
Fungal Queen 4G
Creature — Pegasus Druid
Reach
When Fungal Queen enters the battlefield, you become the monarch. If you’re already the monarch, create a 1/1 green Saproling creature token for each nontoken creature you control.
Marrying Discord grants one many titles.
3/5
Trial of a Thousand Blades WB
Sorcery
Search your library for an Aura or Equipment card, reveal it, put it into your hand, then shuffle. If you control an artifact and an enchantment, instead search your library for a card, put it into your hand, then shuffle.
The swords were just how Luna found what she truly sought.
Conflicted Sociopath 1WB
Creature — Pegasus Assassin
Flying, menace
At the beginning of your upkeep, sacrifice a creature.
Spells and abilities your opponents control can’t cause you to sacrifice creatures.
The only thing Cozy couldn’t control was herself.
4/3
The Blizzard of Paradise 1GU
Legendary Snow Creature — Elemental Bird
Flying
You may spend mana from snow sources as though it were mana of any color.
T: Add C. When that mana is spent to cast a snow spell, copy that spell. You may choose new targets for the copy.
It only follows another heart of ice.
0/2
Mnemonic Seal 2(wb)
Sorcery
Target player reveals their hand, then exiles two nonland cards from it. For as long as each of those cards remain exiled, its owner may play it. A spell cast this way costs 2 more to cast.
Argyle only recalls the truth once a year.
Manufactured Drama 2BR
Enchantment
At the beginning of each upkeep, target player chosen at random sacrifices a creature. If that player can’t, sacrifice Manufactured Drama.
To preserve existence, Celestia became a slave to her own prompt generator.
Inscrutable Badalisc 2GWU
Creature — Beast
Vigilance
Players play with their hands revealed.
Players can cast spells only during their own turns.
The only thing it hates more than logic is deception.
6/6
Temporal Resonance 4BG
Sorcery
Choose target creature card in your graveyard. You may reveal a creature card in your hand that shares a creature type with that card. If you do, put both onto the battlefield.
Two princesses of love were bound across centuries, neither knowing why.
Magus of the Bell 5WB
Creature — Pony Wizard
Spells you cast cost 1 less to cast.
Spells your opponents cast cost 1 more to cast.
7, T: Destroy target nonland permanent.
Grogar’s legacy of unrelenting hatred has long outlived him.
4/4
Sunny: "Don't you mean if you win the flip?"
Alphabittle: "I said what I said."
Okay, good job, I'm laughing.
As it so happens, I'm literally watching the end credits of Inscryption right now, and the game gets my highest possible recommendation for anyone who likes card games:
Phyllis: "Everypony, take a look at our new karmic spell! Guaranteed to pay swift retribution for wrongdoing and losses caused by opposing tribes!"
And now I'm imagining Phyllis was part of the search party and they also found said corpse's remains at the bottom of the mountain, alongside the tracks that vanished up top. And a not-too-bloody depiction of her standing over said corpse, with sadness, despair and anger battling for control on her face – that as the art for this card. Sign of an imaginative person, able to make the author add to his story's lore.
Like a lot of people, I tend to gloss over the card game parts of these blogs – despite my heavy Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh! card game experience, my knowledge of Magic the Gathering is basic enough that I can only get a rough idea of these cards from plain text descriptions without the card layout, and possibly art. But I took the time to read all these, and for the fics in the contest I'd read, which was most of them, they struck me as well-chosen and well-designed allusions, converting narrative content/choices into gameplay mechanics. I mean, you have been doing this for the better part of a decade now, but still, it's mighty impressive, especially on a weekly schedule. I don't know how balanced any of these are, but that's another matter altogether, one I'll leave to the Magic experts.
And given Magic is teen-oriented in terms of content, over MLP's TV-Y rating, small wonder many cards, including my own, went darker than their source material.
I don't understand the mechanics involved, but it's still fun to see what you've come up with for my entries. Are these just conceptual, or do you actually add them to a game? For that matter, are these card posts in general conceptual or an actua game you've made?
Interesting; thank you.
5634198
Stupid Complicated Game Alert: This is actually part of Magic-ese. Worded this way, you don't have to choose targets (or whether to respond, if you're the opponent) until and unless it will actually do anything useful. This would not be the case if it had used "if".
5634198
While 5634411 is correct that Magic makes a big deal out of when vs. if, I was happy to make Alphabittle sound very confident about his abilities.
5634199
I've heard very good things about Inscryption. And yeah, with Neon Dynasty coming soon, combining mecha are very much in card-game vogue.
5634207
I have gotten rather good at top-down design with this blog. (That is, taking an idea and turning it into something that works in the system of the card game.) I also like to think most of my creations are fairly well-balanced, though I have made a few ludicrous standouts. Of course, so has Wizards of the Coast, and they're not putting them together over the course of one afternoon.
Yeah, I was surprised by how many partially or entirely black effects cropped up in this batch. And I left several more on the table; before I settled on the Blizzard of Paradise for The Tyrant Within, I tried to make the Sea of Self-Hatred work.
5634213
I'm not sure I understand that last question. Yes, there's an actual game system I'm using. It's called Magic: the Gathering and it's not mine.
As for whether I use the cards I create, no, but I know AlexTFish has assembled a set from my various Equestria Girls card blogs.
5634415
Yes, I figured it was based on MtG, but I didn't know whether these cards were purely conceptual or you'd actually used them in games.