Deck Community Post Doctor #163 - TYRO DECLARES WAR ON SCOOTALOO, In other news, Jewel makes themes

OK, I need to get something off my chest. I have been trying to write another 'My Little Headcannon' idea up but it's so weird, metatextual and hard to convincingly sell that I've been running in circles with it for days. So, I'm going to try doing something else while I try to figure out how to get this to work.

Instead, allow me to get indescribably angry over something that really only matters to me and anyone else that plays the My Little Pony Collectable Card Game.

Yes, I've been meaning to write Deck Doctor articles for a while but for this week, I'm letting my sad, over analyzing self create a special article for one colossal problem for any game, especially a physically printed card game that can't just be patched out with a simple tap of a keyboard like Hearthstone, the card game of the future. That problem is called Power Creep. And it has hit MLP CCG pretty damn hard.

Community Post #163

a Deck Doctor Special
WARonSCOOTALOO​

Power Creep is a game design concept where items or weapons or whatever grows steadily more and more powerful as the game develops and implements new equipment. Usually the new equipment has to do something new and exciting to entice people to go grab it. For something like an RPG, this would be the developer making new swords and gear that has slightly different but ultimately better stats to entice them to go seek them out. In a trading card game like Magic or Pokemon, these would be cards that have powerful or useful mechanics that only the set that they come from have introduced. The impact of potentially game changing cards like EX Pokemon or Planeswalkers from Magic undoubtedly sway the game in the favour of anyone that has them, especially in comparison to cards from previous sets without these cards to back them up, but there's still risk to using them.

Even the main Pokemon Games are doing this. Mega Evolution is the next new idea
to stretch this franchise rather than...I dunno, focus on making the story more impressive
or interact with the Pokemon we know already in new ways?​

Planeswalkers take time to power up their best abilities and can be damaged directly while EX Pokemon tend to be a little trickier to play and will double the prize forfeit when that Pokemon is defeated. They're powerful but still risky and take a little effort to defend as they become an obvious, glaring bullseye for any deck able to flick them off the table into the discard pile.

Enterplay, on the other hand, has single handedly made their game next to worthless by releasing some of the most powerful Mane Characters conceived in this game so far in response because Block 2 introduced some of the silliest, most bizarre design choices they've made so far. More so than Crystal and Chaos Effect Discord cards. More so than the Spike Ultra-Rare that has zero power and needs action tokens to be boosted up. Those looking to study, or even have an interest in game design, allow me to introduce the most egregious riddling of power creep I've ever seen in a game.

Luna, Dream Warrior

Oh god...this thing...
​

For those that don't play this game as religiously as I do, you need to know that your Mane Character is the core of your deck. The Mane Character is on the field the whole game, cannot be dismissed and will always be a source of power and colour for your side. Typically, you try to build your deck to revolve around your Mane Character and it's abilities. If you do, then your deck can function efficiently, using every trick it's got to ensure you can put up a good fight, even when your deck is cut down or being uncooperative by spitting out currently useless cards.

Overpowered card #1 is Princess Luna here, affectionately referred to as 'Bluna' as it's the only Blue Luna Mane we've got so far. This is an Aggro deck Mane through and through, meaning it's perfect for attempting to aggressively pursue a win. The flip condition (on the left) is easy to pull off. You simply need to move Bluna forwards to a problem then play any friend to the same place. There! Done. You now have a decent 3 Blue Power that can hop around the board almost whenever it pleases for doing something any player would be doing anyway: playing cards to the field.

The ability on the right side of the above card allows Bluna to move for free when and wherever you play cards to a spot on the board. So, of course, you find the cheapest cards you can muster and dogpile anything in your way till you have so much power on your side for a petty cost, that winning is inevitable through sheer numbers.

"Charge! Smite them while we still have the Action Tokens!"​

Add onto that the consideration of Hasty characters. For Magic players at home, 'Hasty' is our version of 'Flash', allowing Characters to be played to the field at almost any time rather than during a player's Main Phase. Even during your opponent's turn, if you wanted. This means that Bluna can even move when she shouldn't otherwise be able to because the ability doesn't restrict it. If you wanted, you could make Bluna move around to confront two Problems during the Score Phase, which is when you count up points. This shifting around counts as a 'Confront' which allows that player to hoover up extra points rather than just the one most decks have to settle for because Enterplay turned Luna into The Flash. Heck! Confronting more than one Problem in a turn starts a Double Face-Off, which leads to more points and a board reshuffle that Bluna could easily use to repeat the whole process over again, and again, and again till all points belong to Bluna.

And it gets worse!

On the left, not bad. On the right, the fastest method of disheartening any player ever known​

Admittedly, both of these abilities are hard to properly pull off. The Rainbow Dash on the left has a reasonable drawback of having to dismiss it for that point and only if you perform what most tabletop RPGs would call a 'Critical Success'. Winning by 5 Power is tricky.

Unless we're playing with Bluna, which just dogpiles everything with cards until victory is assured. Then you throw down a Night Glider (left) to not only lend a total of 4 power towards that 'Critical Victory' needed to trigger the ability, but you get two points for that. And you don't dismiss anything, or discard your hand or frighten anything or even have to give your opponent a fiver.

No cost what. so. EVER for scoring more points than almost any card is capable of giving you. The only other card that can bump you up two points is Rarity, Ambassador or Generosity, which is a Mane Character that only does that when you're falling behind on points to help you catch up.

It even has 'Overpower' in the name! For some reason, Enterplay keeps giving this random pegasus some strangely powerful abilities, culminating in what is now a strategy which practically plays itself. Certainly, a deck that looks to control the board could try and attack the Bluna player's hand or sweep Bluna back whenever it tries anything shifty, but Bluna can do this so readily and easily if the deck is built properly, that few other decks can keep up.

You were a random cult member that showed up and wasn't given any substantial lines or personality
so why do you warrent an Ultra-Rare card this utterly despicable?! Why do you deserve to be the
Blue 'Rarity, Truly Outrageous'?​

Oh! And Night Glider comes in Event form for some stupid reason.

​

But it gets worse...

Scootaloo, Cutie Mark Crusader

Pure Evil Comes in Adorable Packages​

This card made me want to quit this game and focus on playing literally anything else.

Movement is one of the mechanics that sets MLP CCG apart from the other card games as where your cards are is a vital thing to keep track of and think about. Entire deck are build around how effectively cards can be moved up to problems. A card is often useless to you if it's still sat at home, so you often have to think about the most efficient method of shifting stuff around. Most Aggro decks will be highly adept at moving things around to keep pressure up while most Control decks focus more on ensuring they never have to move a single thing by ensuring that everything their opponent does is a crippling nightmare. Before the recent rule change, speeding to the problem tout suite scored you bonus points for confronting a problem first. Now, the only reason to hightail it up there is to control the point before your opponent does.

That's where Scootaloo comes in. See that ability on the right, up there? That's catastrophically shifted the entire game and meta towards itself. That ability is supposedly balanced by a frankly laughable downside that any decent player could work around far, far, far too easily.

Moving two characters at the end of every turn, once Scootaloo has flipped, for basically no cost other than exhausting those characters opens a deck with this at the helm wide open to filling it up with some of the most infuriating thing possible in the game. Almost any colour you set it up makes this card an unrelenting storm.

Make a Mono-Blue deck and now you can dogpile faster. Heck! Throw some frighten in so your opponent gets tripped every turn. Oh! And there's plenty of Blue cards that drag other cards with them when they move, meaning that you can chain these effects to make two moved characters into three or four or eight. It depends on how you manage it all.

Team it with Pink and you have a deck that can not only dismiss cards, but also move up Eccentric in a mere trifle. One turn and all Problems' confront requirements have been inflated as much as your current hand and board state allows. Few more turns and your opponent has to either scale the incredible numbers you've created or start taking cards out one by one.

Team with Orange and snowball away! If you thought dogpiling was easy with just blue cards, get ready to do so with cards that have Diligent. Win a faceoff, then make everything more powerful. A couple turns of that and you have Characters the size and power of siege towers, trundling up to you with only one turn allowed before they catch their breath and pummel you again.

"Me? Eh, I'm just playing my Blue/Orange deck. I don't know why my opponent is crying though."​

Pair with White and now you've thrown 'Showy' all over the place, reducing player movement down to as much as you can, forcing a single character to take extra action tokens just to move. Get really good and bump movement up to 5 or 6 action tokens every time. Or, use the myriad of movement prevention abilities to stop the opponent moving where you don't want them to anyway.

Purple and Yellow arguably benefit the least. At least Purple is put into position and can power up Troublemakers but it's more situational than the others. Still, poor ol' Yellow. Not only is returning cards to their owner's hands becoming an increasingly weak strategy but Calming appears to have less impact on the game than even the strategy where you throw handfuls of feathers at your opponent in an effort to kill them. Yellow is mainly left with Critter Spam, which is usually play based anyway. Poor ol' Yellow.

Do you notice a pattern here? While Bluna was made for pure Aggro harrying where you never leave your opponent alone, Scootaloo lets players dominate the board by making passive abilities highly efficient. All these abilities need to do in order to change the board state in the player's favour is be at a problem. Before, you'd have to spend precious Action Tokens but now, Scootaloo just shoots them up there with the only penalty being a short nap while your opponent takes their turn. Scoots seems to be have been built for an Aggro mentality, where you keep your presence in play at all times, but instead ends up powering up mid-range and control decks by allowing them to get into position in exchange for a slap on the wrist. Once in position, the opponent has only one turn to deal with the sudden influx of Characters that turned up before the player that unleashed Scootaloo on the game can start tightening their grip on the game state.

"Oh my Celestia! Enterplay made me so awesome!"​

Oh! And Scootaloo makes any deck centered around it practically play itself. You will likely never not want to move cards up at the end of your turn. If you go down the routes I entailed above, then your deck requires minimal thought and care as you go through the motions of shoving cards up to the front line then wait for your entire turn to happen before doing it again. It's so easy to play and play well with this one, singular card that I can't help but feel personally insulted by it. Here I am straining my brain to think of ways around the deck when it's player calmly plods through the motions.

And why? The explanation I was always given was 'to combat Control decks and make Aggro more viable'. Well, yes, but that's the issue I have here. Everything, especially for Block 2, is severely out of balance!

Yellow has no purchase on almost any deck in the game right now. It's capable of countering play-based aggro a bit and heavy Troublemaker use but that's roughly it. Critter spamming doesn't seem to do nearly enough as it once did without the almighty 'Fluttershy, Friend to Animals' equivalent that it so rightfully needs that could then ride her fluffy warriors into glorious battle.

I guess Bluna would work for that but that still leaves Yellow with mostly
lackluster Mane Characters that don't do anything worth playing with.
Unless you seriously want Calming for some reason...​

As for Aggro decks, if you aren't using either Bluna or Scootaloo, you will be outclassed far too easily. Even a decent mid-range deck likely doesn't have the lockout ability or the speed to keep up with either deck when they come to knock your deck out of the way of their predictable, inevitable victory. After all, both cards appear to have been made to counter Control decks so something that does a little of both doesn't stand much of a chance.

You have more leeway colour wise with Control, sure, but your entire game is about restricting every single movement so that all games crawl along at a glacial pace. Every action is a slow, unending struggle where even minor victories are fought tooth and nail for. You have to work to keep that board state the way you want it. Even worse is a lockout deck versus another lockout deck. In essence, that is two players working to ensure the other player is prevented from doing anything to advance the game in the slightest while still trying to score points themselves. I know people still playing those games from the last Regionals tournament a few months ago!

And you're the only invitee. HAHAHAAA!
​

Bottom line? I fear this game is getting unfun. I am not one of the many, many people I've met that play just to win because they appear to only find it fun to win. I've met people like that in any game I play and get a little saddened by it because I just don't get it.

I want a game to challenge me. I want an opponent to present a challenge that I have to overcome using my knowledge, intelligence and cunning to win. I want my inventiveness rewarded with deck combinations that look like they shouldn't work but turn out to be triumphant machines of unending victory. I am the guy that likes to take cards that seem useless and make a use for them. I even tried to use Random to power up Pumped cards more effectively, and it worked. I actively bare my arse to the Meta and build the weird decks that are fun to use. I don't always care if they're powerful, I want a good time playing my game, dammit!

The more I look at the current meta, the more appalled I get because there's decks in there that simply squash any attempt that an opponent could present to put up a decent fight. I didn't even mention our latest broken mess; the Chaos Control deck, which manipulates it's draw deck in order to frighten everything consistently and seemingly whenever it feels like. What the bloody hell? How rushed are these cards?

So, I have to try and figure something out for the Regional tournament next week. A task I am feeling pessimistic and defeated by even before I turn up because I am expecting only Scootaloo decks, Bluna decks and Lockout Decks. Why?! Because the Meta seems like it won't let you use anything else and still have a decent chance. This is the challenge I have to try and crack. How can I make something that's Block 2, so cut off from potentially game levelling 'Utterly Drained' cards, and still competitive enough to play properly and efficiently. I have a week to make the most effective, consistent and powerful deck I can possibly conjure up, but without using either of the above despicable cards for my Mane character. I have an idea in mind but it looks like it'll be a bit of a struggle.

I am probably being elitist for thinking this but I just think
"You can follow a deck list. Clever you." whenever I see a 'Meta' deck.
I'm probably a swine for doing it.
​

One of the issues with the game right now is that Enterplay seem reluctant to ban any card unless it creates an unfun game or is used to create a 'Non-Interactive' game, which is where a player wins without the opponent ever being able to do anything to stop them.

But what to do about these cards? Well, I'd nerf them. Scootaloo should either move less characters, making her more like 'Rainbow Dash, Ambassador of Loyalty' but she can choose to move all characters and not just herself, or have a harsher penalty to balance the ability. I tend to think adding an Action Token cost might work. The same for Bluna up there. Just playing a friend isn't enough, an Action Token on top or even having to exhaust the card would make many issues I have with the card melt away because at least it doesn't seem so wildly unchecked. If those abilities have to be left untouched, then increase the flip condition on them. Maybe Bluna has to win multiple face offs or maybe win a face off by 5 power to flip. Maybe Scootaloo has to earn tokens through confronting problems and flips when she has enough?

Though these are only the tip of the iceburg and I don't know if I want to go on. I've ranted and raved for a while. What about how prevalent and even cost effective Diligent is, making any deck focused around it utterly unrelenting if you let but one victory slip from your grasp? But that's another, lesser rant.

I could even go on about Applejack and Sweetie Belle, both Mane Characters that deserve some flack for what they can do. Granted, both have counters but they're somewhat easier to manage than those two up there. 'Applejack, Ambassador of Honesty' can snowball power so well, it's possible to out aggro anything if left to win Faceoffs too often (and it's easy to do so with Orange) and 'Sweetie Belle, Cutie Mark Crusader' lets you fish for resources each turn from the discard pile. So, you can pull out highly powerful resources and use them over and over with only time being a penalty. What the hell?

Either recycle resources for free or power itself up and then share that power around.
Admittedly, Applejack is the more balanced card. You do have to work for those +1 Power Counters.​

These Manes are straight up broken. And now I got to figure out how to fight them. It feels like taking on giants with slingshots and pebbles. Let's cheer myself up with some news.

- Site News

Everyone enjoying these brand new colours and textures we've had for a while that just kinda popped up one day? Those are courtesy of @A Jewel of Rarity, our latest member of the team that'll be working on prettying up the site more so than I managed with nothing but my own knowhow and spare time. And doesn't it look lovely? Already, Jewel has made two seasonal themes which was an idea we've had and wanted to do for a long while. For that, I bestow a great and incredible honour:

aJewelofRarity > TyrotheFox
(at making Xenforo Themes)​

Jewel has been working overtime and appears to have many ideas and projects on the go so watch this space for more themes coming soon.

Remember when I said the chat was busted. Welp! We decided that hosting our own wasn't as good as getting someone else to do it. For free!

Introducing, the official Everypony Discord Chat! We're looking to get to grips with it and work on getting some streams and stuff booted back up, and getting details on that integrated with this so you can keep up to date whenever. Plus! It's got a desktop version you can download. Handy stuff! If you haven't tried it yet, please do!

- Recommended Reading

In a tradition that's continued for a while that makes us like a Pony themed Art Attack or SMart (it's a British 90's thing, go Google (I think SMart is still going...)), it's time to see what you guys have been drawing at home.

Oh! Play this while you read. It's like the 90's kids TV show version of Bob Ross. Seriously.

​

@Flying Colors, aged over 13 I think because we can't have anyone under that, has drawn a lovely picture of Rainbow Dash. I like the action pose and the use of pencils there.

@Rockout E. Stringer, aged 'old enough to play with whatever he wants to', has created more of his regular action-figure based comic strip 'Figuratively!'. Mainly a reminder that it's still a thing if you enjoyed his work on it in the past. Apparently, it has Harley Quinn in it now!

@NotWhatWeExpected, aged like a fine wine, did another doodle. This time it's Asmo's OC. Perhaps tell him what you think or maybe suggest something else to doodle?

@Lord Architect, aged in oak, has a thread too. I...like that he tried? Nope. No idea what I'm looking at. Thanks anyway?

I recently found a video that had a few thoughts on the recent movie Zootopiaopolisnessocity. Yes, I frequent those videos on YouTube that attempt to present some current topic or issue or philosophical aspect by applying it to something everyone will recognise. I like them! I like to learn random crap in the hopes it becomes useful crap! As you do! It's main thrust is that the message of the movie appears strangely muddled and confused because of how it's told and how it works. Watch it and let me know what you think!

Our resident reporter on things of interest, @Poisonous Nightmare, brings us all the news on YouTubes recent screw ups. The latest of course being the idiotic 'YouTube Heroes' scheme that attempts to con work out of normal users for no recompense other than an increasing number. Oh! And hand moderating an entire website to every single angry, confusingly confrontational schlub that can bash their keyboards hard enough to make YouTube comment sections the cesspools they normally are. There seems to be little to prevent people from just banning videos left right and centre to their whim and there's even powers a Hero could have that not even Creators have!

And the video has Nightmare Twilight on it. Appropriate!

Interestingly, Twitch has been brought by Amazon and wants to fill the void of 'YouTube's #1 Competator'. It's implementing an upload feature and now has Twitch Prime where your Amazon Prime will stream from Twitch as well. They're also coming up with badges and stuff for their more dedicated channels too. Right now, go Twitch! YouTube's been sitting pretty for too long.

Dumb things time! Play the SMart gallery music again. You'll need it.

Who wants a petition that accuses Hasbro toys of causing evil? @MorphinBrony delivers! It seems like it's a joke or a stunt but truth is often stranger than fiction. Still, the leaps of logic make olympians look like slinkies.

More world news now from @Prince of the night, as he reports on his disappointment at the Mexican marches against Same-Sex Marriages.

Hey Mexico! UK's had this for a while and all that happened was that sales for hire suits went up and little plastic bride and grooms come in separate boxes in a 'two for one' deal so you can get what you need. We haven't exploded or sank. And Brexit was because of horribly confusing political gambling that was going to happen anyway. Just relax!

Tech News from @MorphinBrony again. Apparently, NASA has thrown out some renderings of what an actual starship would look like if they could get a warp drive actually working. Most of it is either made up or hand waved away but the rest is supposed to be pretty much hard science. Currently, the only thing I agree on is that our first Starship as a species has to be called 'The Enterprise' or 'Spaceboat McSpaceFace' but it's interesting to see what they think it would look like. They're pitching us getting it built in about 100 years so no Captain Kirk-ing around the galaxy for the moment. Still, it's a neat picture!

Sure! Put the SMart music on that too and bask in it's probable accuracy.

Next up, Halloween thread! YAAAAAY!

And lastly, back to Everypony once more, Eluna wants your help in helping her decide on a new RP idea. She's got some options to vote for and she'll come up with and run the RP based on what you vote for. Make it a good one! I might even join in!

Anyway, thanks for reading my sad ramblings! It's got that off my chest at least and I hope it's interesting to someone out there. Before I go, I've still got a bit of nostalgia left to exploit so I leave you with the theme song of SMart. All UK 90's kids, this is for you.

Everyone else, it was cool, OK? Imagine a kids version of Bob Ross where you made cartoon characters and mostly useless knick knacks from rubbish. Maybe I should cover it a little more...hmmm...

​

 

It was? Damn it. Sorry! I clicked it and it took me to the same place.

 

Yeah, a card that gets around being exhausted by just being pumped is admittedly kinda useful. Heck! You don't need to win a Face-Off with it to power it up. Though, it's the only trick it's got. In a Scootaloo deck, this would be some solid power shifting around that would incidentally have aggressive Exhaust protection but it's not all that 'Flip the Table' bad. It's just a blob of blue that can gain a small counter to something.

 

For now. It's a long story.