Friendship is Magic: The Gathering

June 14, 2012 8:41 AM

Friendship is Magic: The Gathering
A bunch of people asked me if I was serious about a single, one like joke comment I made in a MeFi thread six months ago. I decided to be serious. Shards of Equestria is a complete, 270-card custom M:TG set based on My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. It uses no custom attributes or abilities making it playable as both a self-contained set or with friends in casual play alongside real cards. And at the end of this month, the set will be free for download so that it can be printed and played.

Among the main reasons the project has taken so long is because I knew from the getgo I wanted to offer it as something people can actually play; and so I went into it with the mindset that it should be designed the way Hasbro would theoretically design it for real: using canonical names and references, conforming to the style and play attributes of real MTG formats, and proper game balance.

A feature in the design has been encouraging multi-color deck builds. This was done through making each of the main six characters a hybrid, functioning as one of the core creatures for a 2-color deck. In addition, a 10-card cycle of Legendary creatures, each require 2 or the 5 colors, was created, in sort of a modified version of Champions from the Alara/Ravnica era. Approximately 10-15% of the cards are reskins of existing cards, some of which use original names and some of which were renamed; in both cases, whichever was funnier.

Balance has been modified over the last few months through actual playtesting with friends of various experience in MTG. Ultimately, the hope of the set is that it can get Bronies to learn about how fun MTG is, and create a way for MTG fans to have a catch for new players that may otherwise not have been interested. If I can get Magic fans to watch the show, or little girls playing Magic because they like Ponies, or anything like that, I'll consider the set a success.

I'm posting the set now instead of two weeks from now when the printables go up because, keeping in line with designing the set as best and realistic as I can, I'm soliciting public comment about the card set. Comments are being taken about game balance questions, concerns about "game breaking" issues, even spotting grammar mistakes. Once I make the files printable and release them to the world, there's no "revisions" allowed. A mailing list is available so you can be notified the moment the files are ready.

Pony-themed Magic cards have certainly been done before, both as memes and larger projects on Reddit, DeviantArt, etc. However the ultimate goal for Shards of Equestria is/was to go that final step and actually produce something as close to "professional" as a fan project could get. Whether or not I succeeded is in your hands now.

....Ponies.

Role: Creator, Designer, Webmaster

posted by XQUZYPHYR (10 comments total)

This project was posted to MetaFilter by JHarris on June 16, 2012: Pony Gaming Roundup

(Preface: I know jack shit about My Little Pony)

The language on Fancypants is a bit vague regarding whether that, specifically returned card can't be cast, or whether that card can't be cast even if the player already had one in their hand.

Also, I feel the artwork on the last two is a little busy.
posted by griphus at 10:08 AM on June 14, 2012

I actually wondered that too, griphus; I'm trying to figure out if the more correct wording would be "cards with that name cannot be cast."
posted by XQUZYPHYR at 2:29 PM on June 14, 2012

I'm working on a pony gaming megapost right now, this is definitely going in.
posted by JHarris at 4:31 PM on June 14, 2012

*sigh* M:TG sure has changed a lot. I used to play it pretty seriously, but that was over 15 years ago. I'm seeing terms on these cards like "flash," "vigilance," "haste," "reach," "double strike," "hexproof" and "deathtouch," and they literally mean nothing to me. I have absolutely no idea what's going on with this Celestia card.

XQUZYPHYR, I applaud your efforts, but I think I'll be leaving this to the young'uns.
posted by Faint of Butt at 8:43 AM on June 15, 2012

FoB: some of those abilities have the explanation written on them, but they're mostly shorthand keywords for pre-existing abilities shared by multiple cards. For example, Vigilance is the shorthand for "Attacking does not require the creature to tap" originated by Serra Angel, etc. Celestia is a Planeswalker, which is a new card concept introduced a few years back.

There are actually a lot of other, unique special cards and concepts that were made for certain sets (a recent set actually had cards that flip over and transform, etc.) but I purposefully avoided those knowing that I would be getting Pony fans who are not MTG players to take a look at the set.

If you've played MTG in the past, and are a fan of the show, my hope for the set is that this will actually get you interested again. I can't really think of a friendlier and more constructive way of relearning the fun of the game than having magical ponies in it.
posted by XQUZYPHYR at 8:59 AM on June 15, 2012 [2 favorites]

Yeah, "cards with that name cannot be cast" would be good. Initially, I assumed that it only keeps that one card from being played.
posted by griphus at 9:18 AM on June 15, 2012

I'm not a big fan of either of these products/concepts, but I reeeeeealy enjoyed looking through your FiM:tG cards. I think this is completely awesome.
posted by Poppa Bear at 2:04 PM on June 15, 2012

woooooooo!

I am a fan of neither My Little Pony nor Magic The Gathering, but gawd dammit, theses rock.

I tweeted it TWICE!
posted by Faintdreams at 3:12 PM on June 19, 2012

This project has been Cease And Desisted by Hasbro. Damn them to hell.
posted by JHarris at 1:22 AM on September 15, 2012

I am SO sad about this. And that I was apparently dumb enough to only grab the JPEGs.
posted by snuffleupagus at 8:34 PM on October 13, 2012