TCG: As I Recall

 As I Recall: Friendship is Magic Download Instructions

AIR:FiM Wiki

The card games are multiplying! Just a few weeks ago, they were practically off my radar. 

As I Recall: Friendship is Magic is set in a universe where Equestria has been blasted out of existence. As a human, you must use your memories of characters and events within the show (represented by cards) to restore Equestria to the way it used to be. 

To play, each player must first build a deck (ideally, one affiliated with a certain Element of Harmony) from the 360+ cards provided. At the beginning of the game, players must build up their supplies of the Elements, which act as mana pools and enable them to play ponies and items. While hindering your opponents is a valid strategy, the game revolves around reaching the 30 harmony points needed for victory. Enjoy!

Ponified Magic the Gathering: The Complete* Round-up

I've seen plenty of ponified Magic the Gathering cards before, but I've never played the game myself. Today, I headed to DeviantArt to put together a post - and was absolutely blindsided by the scale of the game.

Below the break, I've rounded up a long list of galleries and tried to make sense of it all. I can't guarantee that every set's balanced, but I'm sure you can put together one heck of a game! Buckle up - this one's a doozy.

Large Galleries (100+ cards):

jrk08004

Cards: 250 ⋅ Organization: Categorized ⋅ Images: Show Snippets

Creatures and Artifacts ⋅ Spells and Lands ⋅ Legends are Magic ⋅ Unponied (Warning: a little strange)

The "Creatures and Artifacts" section of this gallery has one of the most complete sets of Equestrian creatures I've seen, from Ursas to Lake Turtles. The "Unponied" section contains a set of ponified anti-cards - introduce these into your game with extreme caution.

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ManaSparks

Cards: 220 ⋅ Organization: None ⋅ Images: Mostly Show, Some Fan Art

Gallery

This gallery mostly sticks to characters and plot devices directly from the show, although there are a fair number of OC pony cards thrown in. In this set, cards such as Denial, Acceptance, and Depression are treated as Creatures rather than Sorceries or Instants.

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rowcla

Cards: 400 ⋅ Organization: Faction/Categorized ⋅ Images: Mostly Fan Art, Some Show

The Solar Empire ⋅ The New Lunar Republic ⋅ Crisis Equestria ⋅ Other Stuff ⋅ Old Stuff Imbalanced

To be honest, this is probably the gem of the set. Boasting nearly four hundred cards split mainly between the Solar Empire and the New Lunar Republic, rowcla's galleries are nothing if not comprehensive. The sets focus mainly on character cards, many drawn in an endearing cartoonish style that seems to be original.

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pegasusBrohoof

Cards: 130 ⋅ Organization: Sets ⋅ Images: Show/Fan Art

Equestria ⋅ Harmony and Discord

In addition to the standard fare, this gallery includes the corrupted versions of each of the mane six - Rainbow Dash, the Betrayer; Applejack, the Unreliable; Fluttershy, Enemy of the Meek; Twilight Sparkle, Friendless; Pinkie Pie, Vicious and Suspicious; and Rarity, Posessor of All.

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Ponylude

Cards: 250 ⋅ Organization: Color ⋅ Images: Show

Mane Six ⋅ White ⋅ Blue ⋅ Black ⋅ Red ⋅ Green ⋅ Multicolored ⋅ Colorless ⋅ Lands ⋅ Basic Lands

The Ponylude set comes designed with balance and playability in mind, something which is noticeably hit or miss among even the larger card galleries. A very character-focused deck, it includes most ponies from seasons one and two - however, there are no cards related to season three, as the set was completed before the season aired.

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Shadic-X-Hedgehog

Cards: 180 ⋅ Organization: None ⋅ Images: Show

Elements of Harmony MTG

While most of the cards in this set are simple and utilitarian, it comes with a full set of the Elements of Harmony and a variety of background ponies. Plenty of Discord-related cards and land tiles for a healthy, balanced deck.

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Shards of Equestria

Cards: 260 ⋅ Organization: Color ⋅ Images: Show
White ⋅ Blue ⋅ Black ⋅ Red ⋅ Green ⋅ Hybrids & Multicolored ⋅ Artifacts & Lands

For a time, Shards of Equestria was the most promising ponified MtG set in existence, even going so far as to enable online play and have cards printed. Unfortunately, as they began efforts to distribute the set, the creators received a Cease and Desist notice that shut down the project. Fortunately, the entire library of cards still exists online!

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Shirlendra

Cards: 170 ⋅ Organization: Color/Type ⋅ Images: Show

White ⋅ Black ⋅ Red ⋅ Green ⋅ Blue ⋅ Multicolor ⋅ Planeswalkers ⋅ Artifacts ⋅ Lands ⋅ Tokens

If I had it my way, every large gallery would be as neatly organized as this one. Although this set is large and certainly impressive, it hasn't been edited quite as well as some of its peers.

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Sorden

Cards: 350 ⋅ Organization: Color/Type ⋅ Images: Show

Gallery

This expansive set is the most organized of any on this list - to such an extent that I couldn't link every gallery category. With dynamic text and art, and more lighthearted cards like That Fandom Is Fast and Animation Error, this gallery rivals rowcla's for supremacy and is my personal favorite. It even includes print sheets for those of you who want to play a ponified game but don't want to go to the trouble of printing them out yourself.

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Zhantora

Cards: 150 ⋅ Organization: Set ⋅ Images: Fan Art

Friendship the Gathering: Unseen Invasion ⋅ FtG: Finest Hour ⋅ Basic Land and Tokens

This set strikes me as one of the most MtG-esque in its titling and carefully selected fanart. It's a little darker and more serious than some of the other sets, but not without a little levity (see above.)

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Medium Galleries (30-100 cards):

ArixOrdragc:
Cards: 70
Organization: None
Images: Show/Fan Art
Gallery

Aurais:
Cards: 90
Organization: Sets
Images: Show/Fan Art
This set includes cards for many of the show's background ponies.
Set One - Equestria Disturbed

AznDemonLord:
Cards: 70
Organization: Season
Images: Show
This set includes plenty of cards relevant to individual episodes, many of which have complicated effects and paragraphs of text.
Season 1   Season 2

Grumpy-Moogle:
Cards: 30
Organization: None
Images: Show
Gallery

Kitonin:
Cards: 55
Organisation: None
Images: Show
Friendship is Magic the Gathering

Magicbronie24:
Cards: 45
Organization: None
Images: Fan Art
MTG Battle of the Gods

Nokamiso:
Cards: 70
Organization: Categorized
Images: Fan Art
This gallery's well-organized, full of pretty cards, and growing. I wouldn't be surprised to see it on the large gallery list soon.
MLP Planeswalkers   MLP Legends   Instants and Sorceries   Enchantments   Artifacts   Creatures   Lands

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Small Galleries (<30 Cards):

BlackWingStudio:
Cards: A handful
Organization: None
Images: Altered MtG
Ponified MtG cards are mixed in with card crossovers of just about every type. It's a mess, but if you're into altered cards you should check this gallery out for some ideas.
Gallery

BronyTom:
Cards: 19
Organization: Sets
Images: Show/Fan Art
Path of the Ponywalkers

EHeroFlareNeos:
Cards: ~20
Organization: None
Images: Show
This gallery's not limited to Magic the Gathering - there are Yu-Gi-Oh! and Pokemon cards as well.
Gallery

feather-chan:
Cards: 9
Organization: None
Images: Altered MtG
Gallery

Hurogmeten:
Cards: 16
Organization: None
Images: Show/Fan Art
Your basic season 1 starter set: The mane six, Princesses, CMC, and Nightmare Moon.
Gallery

Luesatora:
Cards: 24
Organization: None
Images: Show/Fan Art
This artist gets points for introducing the Bass Cannon card.
MTG Ponies

Mawbane:
Cards: 8
Organization: None
Images: Show
Equestria Set

MokasTayle:
Cards: 6
Organization: None
Images: Fan Art
Gallery

Pheldra:
Cards: 5
Organization: None
Images: Fan Art
Gallery

phyrexianrevoker:
Cards: 2
Organization: None
Images: Fan Art
Only a couple of cards here, but points for impressive original art!
Gallery

UlyssesGrant
Cards: 3
Organization: None
Images: Show
Gallery

vonBelfry
Cards: 24
Organization: None
Images: Show
Gallery

XXFoodtimeXX
Cards: 25
Organization: None
Images: Show
Handily grouped into printable sheets of 2-6.
Gallery

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Phew! That's all for today. If I've missed your favorite gallery, leave a note in the comments! I'll be updating this post over the next few days. 

Now, I can't possibly review every pony MtG set out there on my own. If you've tried one, do the rest of us a favor and put your thoughts in the comments!

Card Game: Twilight Sparkle's Secret Shipfic Folder

 

Twilight Sparkle's Secret Shipfic Folder

 This fandom has a lot of shipping. A ludicrous amount, actually. There are some problems with the shipping, however: it's not interactive, and has a tendency to take itself way too seriously. Fortunately, the shipping present here suffers neither of those problems. Instead, players are treated to a humorous card game with a surprisingly deep level of strategy

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 Developed by Horrible People Productions, Twilight Sparkle's Secret Shipfic Folder is a tongue-in-cheek card game about creating ludicrous pairings between different ponies, with options such as "Apocalyptic Future Spike x R63 Prince Blueblood" and "Anime Magical Girl Derpy x Literally Every Wonderbolt Except They're Unicorns Now" to satisfy your every fantasy. It's not all fun and games, though; Twilight has goals in mind, and the aim of the game is to fulfill as many of these as possible to earn points and reach the target score first. Effects such as changing races of characters in play and swapping ponies around the shipping grid add to the strategy. By the end of the game, the playing field is often a convoluted mess of ponies being shipped with ponies, and connecting the dots to figure out what would encourage these pairings to get to know one another is half the fun.

 The 1.0 release of the core card set was recently released on the game's Tumblr page as a free-to-download PDF, and the team also has an Indiegogo fundraiser going to help finance trips to various conventions. They've already met their base goal, but the fundraiser has enough incentives (including the possibility for your very own custom expansion, as well as professionaly-printed decks) to make donating worthwhile anyway. And for those of you who don't have the resources to print your own deck (or the meatspace friends to play it with), there's a Vassal module available for playing the game online.

 I haven't had the opportunity to play more than a couple games over the internet yet, but I definitely feel that the game will be a big hit at the local meetups. It's definitely a good way to pass the time with friends, and the time commitment for a game is short enough for players to jump in and out at any time. The various fandom references contained within the cards also make for a good laugh between players.

Harmony PCG

Harmony PCG

 Two Argentinian blokes who called themselves Silly Mare Games (creators of Stroll) were playing Tales of Eternia's "WHIS" minigame when one of them decided that it needed more ponies, and recreated it in Game Maker. It has a pretty main menu and nice music, but unfortunately I can't exactly review it since I'm not sure how one should grade a card game. Kind of a shame that it doesn't have multiplayer, but hopefully the developers decide to implement it fairly soon.

 Oh yeah, and it works well enough in Wine, if agonizingly slow. As with all Game Maker games you should install directmusic and dsound via Winetricks/PlayOnLinux in order to have working audio, but since it runs so slowly on Linux you might want to skip the game altogether. Then again, I did manage to complete the entire game of SuperTux on my old Linux box while running the game at about 5fps, so don't let extremely low framerates stop you!