[MLP/CCG] Card Games are Magic

Recently I've taken in interest in the MLP card game. For the longest time, card games were my "thing", I was heavily invested in Yu-Gi-Oh and dabbled in Magic the Gathering, Pokemon, and Card Fight Vanguard. Needles to say, I was intrigued at the thought of a pony card game since all of the above, and basically every card trading game in existence, is about beating your opponent to a pulp in one way or another. This goes against everything MLP stands for, so I wondered how they could design a competitive card game without it boiling down to crushing your opponent in battle. Well, here's how.

First off, there is no direct combat. rather it's more of a friendly competition, though for all practical purposes, face offs can be considered the combat of this game. there are also trouble maker cards which must be defeated on your way to victory, so that adds more of a combat element to the game as well. it's all kept very clean though and you never feel like you're in a war.

the majority of your time is spent playing cards to strategic locations to prepare for the all important face offs. what's more is this game uses a mana system that, while simple, is quite intuitive. basically, you get action tokens that you spend to do different things. the closer the lead player is to winning, the more tokens you get each turn. they also do not expire, so smart players will not over invest and will make sure they always have a few spare tokens for an emergency or for a big play to push for game.

there are also problem cards. these cards represent the conflict at hand and show what is needed to solve them. you ear points by solving conflicts, and once both players have solved them, a face off happens, the winner getting a nice bonus.

finally there are mane friend cards. these are just like friends (friends being ordinary units) except you start with them for free, and they're double sided. when you meet the requirements, you can flip it over to its "boosted" side and it become that much more powerful.

so the question then is, do these elements make for a good game? I think they do. it's a unique game for sure, and that's a plus in of itself. it still retains a competitive feel without straying from the spirit of MLP. unfortunately it might be hard to find someone to play with, unless you rope a few of your friends into it. I will say this though: for such a simple game, the rule book makes very little sense. I highly recommend keeping it handy for your first few games since you'll need to go over it a few times and get some real experience before it really makes any sense.