Kayou “My Little Pony – Friendships Begin” Trading Card Game – Review

With Kayou releasing character-specific collectible cards for the My Little Pony IP, I have been looking forward to the English version debut of the My Little Pony Trading Card Game. I finally got to play it. And I’m ready to share my thoughts.

I was provided with the two My Little Pony TCG decks mentioned in this post for free to review. The opinions I have shared are my own.

As of writing this review, there are 6 character-specific Starter Decks available to help you jump into the My Little Pony TCG. The characters include Twilight Sparkle, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity. I was provided with the Applejack and Rainbow Dash Starter Deck Sets to give this card game a try. Each deck includes character-specific cards for players to collect and play with. Of course, certain cards can be played across decks to create a custom deck once you get a better understanding of the rules.

Each starter deck consists of 70 cards. You get a 50-card Main Deck, a 15-card Scene Deck, 1 Main Character card, and 4 Story Cards. The deck box also includes a play area sheet (with rules printed on the back) as well as three bonus packs to assist with custom deck building and completing your card collection.

The 1v1 card game is easy to get into. There are two ways to win. You either complete the 4-part story progress for your character or your opponent tries to draw a card from an exhausted Main Deck. The paper playmat gives you a very good idea of the setup required to begin the game.

The Scene Area on the playmat is for placing your Energy or Mana cards, which are called Scene Cards in the My Little Pony TCG. The Story Area is where the 4-part story cards are placed. The Retirement Area is basically the Discard Pile. And the Adventure Area is where you place up to three cards to battle the cards placed in your opponent’s Adventure Area.

Of course, the characters you want to play have a cost, or the ‘Cost of Force of Harmony’. The Attack or Life Points are the Inspiration Points. The winner of the battles is determined by the Inspiration Points. Having a character with higher Inspiration Points than your opponent’s character will secure you victory during the Contact or Battle Stage. Inspiration points can be boosted by resolving the Inspo Boost effects of certain cards.

For example, the Inspo Boost from Rainbow Dash’s ‘Cloudominium’ Scene Cards gives her +1 Inspiration until the end of a battle or the Contact Phase.

A draw of Inspiration Points will send both cards to the Retirement Area. Uhoh! But hey, there are ways to retrieve specific cards from the Retirement Area.

You can only engage with an opponent card right in front of your character card. If you have a character in your Adventure Area facing an empty space, there are two options for you to choose from, and that’s where the Plan Cards come into play. You can think of Plan Cards as the Prize Cards or Shield Cards that are seen in similar TCG mechanics.

So, talking about the two options, you can go ahead and reveal an opponent’s Plan Card (left to right), or you can progress your character’s story by one stage (left to right). Take note that you can only progress your character’s story if you have revealed your opponent’s Plan Card from the same Story Stage on their playmat. So, yeah, the focus is on revealing an opponent’s Plan Cards to progress in your own Story when the opportunity arises.

A fun thing about Plan Cards is that they are a random facedown draw of 4 cards. Depending on your luck, the revealed Plan Card could have the Pre-Plan Ability, which allows you to resolve said ability the moment it’s revealed.

The mechanic also involves Item Cards and Event Cards to try to turn the battle in your favor. Item Cards attach to characters, while Event Cards are to be played and then sent to the Retirement Area. For example, the ‘Prank Sneeze Powder’ Item Card (costing 3) gives the adorned character an Inspo Boost of +2 during your turn. The ‘Training Accident’ Event Card (cost of 2) lets you choose and Retire 1 character from your opponent’s Adventure Area that has an Inspiration of 3 or less. Nice!

It’s a very familiar TCG mechanic to get into if you are into card games. And yeah, it’s kind of fun imagining the artwork play out in your head, depending on the Event Cards or battles you opt for.

The art is definitely a highlight of Kayou‘s My Little Pony TCG ‘Friendships Begin’ Starter Decks. There are numerous cards with shiny details and cute artwork that fans will enjoy. Of course, collectors will be looking into getting their hands on the rarest of the card pulls.

I also liked how each deck is specific to the character it’s representing. Rainbow Dash’s 4-Part story is about overcoming her anxiety and winning the Best Young Flyer Grand Prize. Applejack’s story is about harvesting an apple field and learning an important lesson about friendship and teamwork along the way. The flavor text behind each Story Card helps provide context to players about what they want their Main Character to accomplish.

You can look at the unboxing videos I did for the Rainbow Dash and Applejack deck boxes to get a better idea about the adorable artwork, the contents of the deck box, and the rules.

Unboxing the My Little Pony “Applejack” Starter Deck via The Geekiary YouTube Channel

I have played a bunch of games solo (acting as the second player) as well as with a couple of friends to get a feel for the My Little Pony TCG. As far as my opinion goes, I will stick to what I have mentioned earlier. It’s one of the easier card games to get into. However, when it comes to designing a custom deck. Well, I have dabbled a bit, but I still need a bit more time for me to be confident enough to use my custom deck against an opponent. In a way, I think the Starter Decks are quite well-made and don’t necessarily require customization.

You can go ahead and purchase the My Little Pony TCG from the Kayou website. It’s also available on Amazon, GameStop, and other card shops.

Have you tried out the My Little Pony “Friendships Begin” Starter Decks TCG yet? What did you think of it?

Let us know.

Author: Farid-ul-Haq

Farid has a Double Masters in Psychology and Biotechnology as well as an M.Phil in Molecular Genetics. He is the author of numerous books including Missing in Somerville, and The Game Master of Somerville. He gives us insight into comics, books, TV shows, anime/manga, video games, and movies.

Twitter

Help support independent journalism. Subscribe to our Patreon.

Copyright © The Geekiary