• MLP: CCG Canterlot Nights: Pumped Friends!

    See below the break for a new card spoiler!
    This week I'm pleased to bring you all a guest article from CCG lead designer Darrell Hardy! Canterlot Nights includes a number of new card mechanics that are easy to learn yet add new strategies to the game, and Darrell has provided a lovely write-up on the one I'm personally most excited about: Pumped! Take a peek below the break...


    The first expansion for the My Little Pony CCG, Canterlot Nights, is coming this spring. Here's a sneak peek at one of the new features you'll find inside!

    One of the new keywords we're introducing is “Pumped.” Normally, when you flip a card for a faceoff, that card goes to the bottom of your deck after the faceoff. But if you have a Friend with Pumped in that faceoff, you can put the flipped card beneath the Pumped Friend instead.

    Pumped Friends get special benefits from having cards beneath them. There are several ways they can benefit:
    • A simple on/off toggle, such as, “During faceoffs involving this card, if this card has at least 1 card beneath it, flip an additional card.”
    • Counting cards beneath, such as, “Get +2 power for each card beneath this card.”
    • Spending cards. “Spend” is a special word that means taking a card from beneath a Pumped Friend and putting it into your discard pile. Cards are usually spent to pay for one-off effects, such as, “Spend a card to move this card,” or, “Spend a card to score a point.”


    One of our favorite Pumped Friends during playtesting was Chief Thunderhooves. His text says, “Reaction: After an opponent plays a Friend to this card's Problem, you may spend a card from beneath this card to frighten that Friend.”

    Once the Chief is pumped up, he serves as both a great defense and a great deterrent. “Sure, you can play Octavia here. But the moment you do, she's going face-down and you'll have to pay 2 action tokens to un-frighten her!”

    What's particularly exciting about Pumped in general – and Chief Thunderhooves in particular – is that the more faceoffs you're in, the more “pumped up” these Friends can get. After being in three faceoffs, for example, the Chief can use his text three times before having to reload!

    Pumped adds a fun new twist to the My Little Pony CCG. For players whose strategy includes getting into a lot of faceoffs, it rewards them with new options for doing what they want to do anyway. For those whose strategy leans on avoiding faceoffs, Pumped gives them incentive to try out a more confrontational approach. And for those who haven't given a lot of thought to their faceoff strategies, Pumped gives them a reason to do so.



    Cups here; thanks, Darrell! As you can see, Pumped Friends definitely add a new dynamic to the game. You don't even need to WIN faceoffs to put cards beneath Pumped Friends, just get them involved and watch them grow! Next week we'll have another article detailing an all new twist on faceoffs, which synergizes quite well with pumping up your Friends. See you then!