The Di-Light Zone

Female | She/Her | Pansexual | Pegasister | Pokemon Trainer

[diamond-song42]

Farewell to The Di-Light Zone: Diamond’s Corner is LIVE!

The time has come, my friends. After months of work, I am pleased to announce that Diamond’s Corner, my personal website, has gone live! On this site, you can find a detailed database with every Card Shark, some of my favorite Nonsense Things, and more to come in the future! Access the site right here: https://diamondsongscorner.weebly.com/

With the site going live, it means I will mostly become inactive on this page. Every future Card Shark, Nonsense Thing, and other projects I post will be on the new website. I’ve had so much fun bringing my writings to life here and I hope you will follow me on this next journey.

For the last time on Tumblr, my friends... Diamond out!

<3

Diamond Song

[diamond-song42]

Card Shark 122: Alicorn Amulet

Happy 2021 everycreature! I know it’s been a while since the last Holiday Dumpster Fire Shark - and my website still isn’t finished yet - so you may be asking yourself, “what in Equestria is happening?!”

Well, I’ll tell you what’s happening. University has, as usual, been hectic. Building a website with many multilayered tags for organization purposes is harder than it sounds. I’ve also been applying to internships as they are vital in the field of work I intend to enter - and got approved for one starting this June, which I am over the moon about! But add all that to some stressful family and social events - surgeries, layoffs, online feuds - and you have another extended Shark break!

So because of that, I have a new plan. I am going to finish the Holiday Dumpster Fire Card-a-Thon, even though we are well past the holidays. I also have a certain card I want to write about for my birthday, even though it will be long past my birthday. After that? I’ll see where my writings and the cards take me.

But with that comes an announcement. This will be the final Shark I post to The Di-Light Zone.

I have decided that since we are moving on to cards labelled as legal in the current Core format, it would be fitting to continue writing about them on the new site. I don’t know when everything will be finished, but I want everyone to know that Card Shark has never left my mind. During class sessions, showers, viewings of my favorite shows... I’ve thought about how I don’t just want to end Card Shark. I’ve fostered it for too long to let it go this easily. And because of that, I cannot wait to share with you all this archive of writings that I have been working long hours on!

Now to continue with business as usual one last time here in The Di-Light Zone. Today we’re covering Marks in Time with a Resource that seems like a prime farming tool... I’m surprised I haven’t seen more of it. Let’s pick apart the “Alicorn Amulet!”

Just put one of these on and you too can be a highest level unicorn! There aren’t a lot of Resources you can play on Troublemakers, and this one might be the most powerful of them all. This costs 1 AT, 1 Purple req, and 1 White req, which is... amazingly cheap for a Resource of this rarity. You play the Amulet on any of your Troublemakers. (No opposing Troublemakers will be sporting this thing!) There are two parts to this Amulet: first, it makes the host Troublemaker Epic and gives it +3 power. Epic Troublemakers can be challenged by either player and are usually associated with big villains like the Pony of Shadows or the Legion of Doom. By itself, that is pretty great. You can turn non-Epic Troublemakers into Epic Troublemakers to farm for your own gain. But then there’s the other part: during your Main Phase, you can pay 1 AT to move that Troublemaker. Moving a Troublemaker can be useful when your opponent sets themselves up to continually confront a Problem and avoid your Troublemaker. And just to recap, this can all be done for a minimum of 1-2 AT. THAT is scary. A smaller Troublemaker like Winterzilla can be boosted to 7 power while a higher Troublemaker like the Pony of Shadows (even if it is already Epic) can be boosted to 10. You can get rid of your own Troublemakers and get points when your opponent doesn’t want to. And you can play leapfrog with a Troublemaker, jumping from Problem to Problem. It’s a pretty ingenious farming technique, especially if you use Troublemakers that benefit you and you wouldn’t normally use for farming. There’s a reason this amulet is Unique.

So where has this thing been on the competitive scene? Frankly, besides the Resource removal, I don’t see many technicalities that could be wrong with it. It’s easy to play, it’s cheap, and it’s got a fun niche! Yet I think the biggest problem facing this card is that it is too niche. Besides already-Epic cards, most commonly seen, useful Troublemakers only have a maximum of 0-1 bonus points. I rarely see any farming technique use Troublemakers with less than a 2 point turnout. And the few non-Epic Troublemakers that have at least 2 bonus points don’t exactly have a lot going for them in what they do. The first Pony of Shadows can frighten a Friend at its Problem. Grumpie Pie is coming close to hitting a lot of banlists. The goal of The Smooze, Creeping Crud is to stick around and repeatedly flip off any opponents who try and defeat it. Timberwolf... well, we don’t talk about Timberwolf (at least until I write a formal Shark on it). Even if played on an already Epic Troublemaker, depending on the Troublemaker, the extra power can be easy to overcome. Regardless, if played on the right Troublemaker, I still think this could be a threat against certain decks.

Here’s a few more cards that may or may not be wearing one of Zecora’s doorstops:

*Scootaloo, Creature Catcher. Ok, so I frankly couldn’t find a lot of cards that I thought meshed well with this thing. Scoots here exhausts and lets you play a Troublemaker for free. That’s 1 AT (maybe more?) you can save to play an Amulet on the Troublemaker once it is revealed. Blue/Purple/White just became a more viable option for a tricorn deck with the inclusion of Legion of Doom, Frightful Foes and Being Big Is All It Takes in New Dawn... even if neither of those cards really heavily support Troublemakers. Time to reiterate my Card Shark catchphrase: “Every AT counts”. It’s just a nice little trick to help you keep some pocket change.

*Hoity Toity, Discerning Eye. If Princess Luna, Midnight is any indication, Orange/Purple/White might be an even more viable tricolor combo than Blue/Purple/White. Hoity Toity essentially allows you to recycle Friends and Resources in your discard pile once - if those Friends or Resources would leave play after that, they are banished. I don’t say this lightly: Hoity Toity is one of my all-time favorite MLP:CCG cards. Here, he will allow you to replay Amulets on your Troublemakers. Once one of your Troublemakers is defeated or dismissed, you can just replay your Amulet on the next Troublemaker you play, simple as that! As with any Hoity Toity strategy, I advise two things: one, you need to keep a close eye on your discard pile and make a plan in case your opponent is able to shut down access to your discard pile before you can get to it. Two, I’d run multiple copies of every card in your deck so you have as many opportunities as possible to replay things with Hoity Toity.

*Cozy Glow, Double Dealer/Fluttershy, Pony Pirate/Repulsor Blast/any card that allows you to bypass Troublemakers and confront Problems. The Alicorn Amulet does make a Troublemaker Epic - even if it’s your own Troublemaker, it prevents you from confronting your own Problems. At least it does... when you don’t have any cards like these at your disposal. If you still want to get points off your Problem while your Amuleted Troublemaker sits there, you have several options at your disposal. Depending on your overall deck strategy, you’ll have to pick the option(s) that’s right for you.

Thank you so, so much for reading this edition of Card Shark! It feels bittersweet to say goodbye to The Di-Light Zone... but the magic of friendship will always be strong here. The (not Holiday anymore) Dumpster Fire Card-a-Thon will continue on the new Diamond’s Corner with an Event from Defenders of Equestria that was frankly hard to pick because DoE has so many decent Events. As I’ve said previously, I’ll make a formal announcement here once the site goes live. But until I see you again, my friends, whether on this site or the new one... Diamond out!

[diamond-song42]

Card Shark 121: Flitter, Flutterer

Happy Christmas Eve and welcome back to Card Shark! I’ve been hard at work on my new site... which means the Holiday Dumpster Fire Card-a-Thon is going to continue into the new year! I can’t wait for you all to see the grand new site when it is complete. For now, as I await Santa’s arrival, I focus on a High Magic card that may, unfortunately, be on the naughty list this year. Let’s take a look at “Flitter, Flutterer!”

I know I’m definitely on a couple naughty lists since I’m featuring this card in the Holiday Dumpster Fire Card-a-Thon. 3 AT and 2 Pink req nets you this 2 power Pink Friend. High Magic has a series of Friends that you can Immediately banish from your hand to temporarily reduce the play requirements of your cards by 2 of a certain color - this card is Pink’s version. But you can play her, too: in fact, when she enters play, you dismiss each opposing Friend in her area with 1 printed power or less. If you’re unaware, printed power is the raw power on the card - for example, this Flitter card has 2 printed power. At first glance, this may not seem like a very useful ability. While there are a lot of decks with at least one Friend with 1 printed power, paying 3 AT to dismiss 1-3 power may be too expensive. But you may be thinking about the wrong type of Friend. Back when I used to heavily play Blue/Pink, I realized the novelty of this card when I dropped it at a Problem with a handful of Token Friends. Arguably the most popular Token Friends in the game (at least right now) all have 1 printed power (Unicorns, Critters, and Earth Ponies). And Flitter can absolutely annihilate them. Thanks to the specification of printed power, Flitter can bypass cards like Conductor’s Baton that boost the power of certain cheap, low-power Friends and Holder’s Boulder, Key Stone that try and protect Token Friends from potentially more common ailments such as frightening. And what’s worse for your opponent is that unlike other dismissed Friends, they can’t get back their Token Friends unless they generate more. Token Friends may be able to be dismissed, but they won’t be going into the discard pile! And that’s not to say this is truly only applicable to Token Friends - if they’re at a Problem, Friends like Pillar of Strength, Tymbal, Guard Geese, Brian, Tri-Horned Bunyip, Delivery Mare, Shoeshine, Living to Laugh, Cover to Cover, any of the Cutie Mark-able or Breeziefied Mane 6, and many more can be scared away by Flits. That’s a frightening pink bow right there.

This is the part where I really get condemned to the naughty list. Let’s start with the first part, which is the ability to be banished to reduce color play requirement. It has... not aged great. Banishing any of these Friends only reduces play requirements until the end of the turn they are banished - temporary reductions that require banishing seem a bit... lackluster when cards like The Fire of Friendship, Rainbow Generator, and Motivational Speech now exist. As for the second half of the card? Sweet Celestia, this is so niche it isn’t funny. Seriously. When I ran Flutterer in my Blue/Pink deck, I did it just for the banishing aspect (this was before The Fire of Friendship existed). Other than one or two chance occasions, the ability to dismiss opposing Friends with 1 printed power or less was virtually useless to me. And in today’s metagame, it is unbelievably easy to generate and regenerate Token Friends. Just look at some of the decks that like to flex Bodyguard, Equine Escort or Critter Choir, Cheerful Chirpers. I can’t count the number of Unicorn Tokens I’ve seen Bodyguard generate in a single match. Unless you managed to block access to any discard piles, retrieving any non-Token Friends with 1 or less printed power is easier than it sounds. There’s this new card called Mrs. Cake, Pastry Panic that allows you to effectively replace certain Pink Friends... it’s not pretty when you’re on the receiving end of it. I appreciate you, Flits, but you’re being featured in the Holiday Dumpster Fire Card-a-Thon for a reason.

Here’s a few more cards looking for just the right flap:

*Party Hat. It’s the “Oops! All Resources” edition of my suggestion list! Party Hat was one of my staples when I used to run dismissal decks. You attach it to a Friend, and when any other opposing Friend is dismissed, the Party Hatted Friend is also dismissed! With this, Flitter can both wipe out a 1 or less printed power Friend and a Friend with any power as long as that Friend has a Party Hat. Of course, it isn’t just good for Flitter dismissing - it works with more traditional dismissers such as Pinkie Pie, Party Cannoneer and Belly Flop as well. Like with all Resources (and this is true for the other Resources on this list), beware of the Resource removal that may squash the fun.

*Somnambula’s Blindfold. If you’re using Flutterer, then chances are she’s not your only dismissal trick. For those other dismissal tricks, the dreaded Blindfold comes in handy. The Blindfold blocks players from searching or peeking at the top card in decks and stops cards from leaving discard piles. That means when you dismiss a non-Token Friend with the Blindfold in play, your opponent can’t use anything like Discord Pile or Redeeming Qualities to get that Friend back into play. Keep in mind that the Blindfold does go both ways - if you want to search your deck for anything or use a Discord Pile of your own, you’ll have to do away with your Blindfold first.

*Friendship Express. The obligatory New Dawn card of the Shark isn’t the most popular new Resource, but I think it could hit hard when circumstances are perfect. Hitching a ride on the Friendship Express gives any and all Friends in your hand Hasty, allowing you to play them Immediately... as long as you spend one additional AT. And I know some decks that can save up to 12-15 AT before making their move! Using this with Flits is probably the most obscure, crazed idea on this list, namely because I can already picture the look of devastation in your opponents’ eyes as they set up a bunch of Tokens to confront a Problem or challenge a Troublemaker or whatever and then Flitter comes in for 4 AT and all hell breaks loose.

Thanks for reading another Dumpster Fire edition of Card Shark! I may have another Shark out tomorrow (it remains to be seen depending on the Christmas Day activities I decide to indulge myself in), but whenever the next one comes out, I promise it will feature a Marks in Time Resource that may have been more threatening in the show than it is in the game. Come back next time to see what Resource it is! Diamond out!

[diamond-song42]

Card Shark 120: The Cutie Map

How do you do, fellow CCG players? Hope you’re ready for an Ultra Rare Holiday Dumpster Fire Card-a-Thon Card Shark! This was, frankly, a difficult choice to make because I think so many Equestrian Odysseys Ultra Rares could be useful... but I settled on this one because I have a physical copy of one of these and it just looks so cool. Let’s take a look at “The Cutie Map!”

It is new and I like it as well. This 7 power beast costs 3 AT and 4 Blue req to play... a bit of a hefty cost for a Blue Resource. Like with many Blue cards, this one allows you to move characters at a speedy rate. When a Problem enters play, any Problem (I believe that also includes Dilemmas), you can exhaust and retire the Map (the first part of which I feel is slightly unnecessary as retiring negates the need to exhaust and opposing strategies that exhaust Resources are rare and kinda dumb when you can just dismiss or banish them). If you do, you can move some characters situated at your home to that Problem. Not one character. Not two characters. You can move up to SIX. It obviously goes with the whole “Mane 6 heading out to solve a friendship problem” theme, and dang! That can not only move enough characters to a Problem to prepare a confrontation, but it can easily solve and/or delay any home limit issues you might face. And it says “characters”, so you can use it on your Mane, too! It’s even better when you move characters to a Problem at the end of an opponent’s turn, so you can instantly set up to confront that Problem and not use any AT to move and prepare things in the first place. Not to mention how you can more or less freely choose the Problem - I used to play a deck that ran one copy of this and I would usually wait until a Problem showed up that I felt confident confronting with however many characters I had in play. If you can’t quite reach the Blue req, that’s fine too - this card is also a pretty decent flip, intentional or not. Plus, as I mentioned earlier, it’s SUPER shiny! I love super shiny cards. No wonder this thing is Unique (though I frankly can’t think of any scenario where you’d want to move twelve or more characters at home at one time).

If Trixie can displace the Map that easily, there must be something wrong with it. Let’s address the elephant in the room right away: this ain’t cheap. Blue Resources are known to typically cost 1-2 AT and 1-3 Blue req, and the only other Blue Resource I could find exactly matching the Map’s cost was Rage Face (which is... kinda trashy, let’s be real). There are plenty of cheaper moving options, though you might not be able to move up to six characters with them. A mono-color deck might easily be able to pay for this, but therein lies the next issue: there are so many Blue moving options now that one of these used once might not be necessary. Just to name a few examples: ScootaMane can move two of your characters at the end of all your turns if you exhaust the moved characters. Swinging Wonders is Hasty, can move up to two characters, and provides extra power itself. In the non-Blue realm, Friends like Delivery Mare, Wrong Address and Joe, Sticky Glaze aren’t sent home by Problem replacements, and are either sent to other Problems or remain where the replaced Problem once was. If you think your opponent will do a lot of moving, there’s even a new Event called Faster Flier that has you move one of your characters whenever your opponent moves one of their characters. And there are Blue Problems such as To Griffonstone!, Guilty Until Proven Innocent, and Tarnished Reputation that allow you to move certain characters free of charge! So... yeah. This thing promises a massive payout, but can only pull off that payout once. It’s easier to obtain similar outcomes with cheaper cards.

Here’s a few more cards that have observed that the Map is new and they like it:

*Flash Magnus, Pillar of Bravery. First we have a Friend that can activate an additional effect when he is moved. Swift and Agile are pretty cool, yes, but we’re here for that ability to pay 1 AT to frighten a Friend whenever he is moved. He doesn’t even need to be exhausted! When you activate the Map, he can zip right up to a Problem and you can spook an opposing Friend. He is more expensive than the Map - 4 AT and 4 Blue req over 3 AT and 4 Blue req - but I can safely say I’ve seen this guy get more use than the Map.

*Night Glider, Ambitious Aerobat. Now for a Friend that benefits more when you have a plethora of Friends. This Night Glider not only has Swift, but she gains Competitive 1 for each of your other characters in her area (this can be at home or at a Problem). If she’s among the six characters you move to a Problem with the Map, that’s an extra Competitive 5 right there! Sure, it’s no Daybreaker, but I still think this card has some validity to it.

*Hoity Toity, Discerning Eye. Then there’s the Friend that allows you to play Friends and Resources from your discard pile as if they were in your hand! There’s no Blue/Orange/White tricorn yet, but if you used the Map once and it is sitting in your discard pile, you can replay it as long as Hoity Toity is involved in the fray. You would have to banish the Map the second time you use it, but I believe that’s a fair price to pay for two cards with such standing power.

*Crown of Grover. I couldn’t leave this Shark without touching on at least one New Dawn card! This is one of my favorite Resources in the new set. I suggest this one here for the first ability: when you move one of your characters (which, hypothetically, could be done with the Map), you can pay 1 AT less for the next Friend you play that turn, to a minimum of 1 AT. Even if there aren’t many Friends that cost 5 or more AT that are frequently seen competitively, that’s still a pretty discount (which you could even lower more with other Blue cards). I believe this could ideally be paired with the playing of a Dilemma - there aren’t a lot of Hasty Friends that cost more than 3 AT that are really good in competitive play, no matter what format. The other effect on the Crown gives one of your characters Swift whenever you play a Friend until the end of the turn, but since you’ll already be moving boatloads with the Map I think you’re safe not worrying about that until the Map is out of play.

Thanks for reading this Ultra Rare Holiday Dumpster Fire Card-a-Thon Card Shark! I’m moving into High Magic next with a Friend that has hilariously come in handy for me on one or two occasions... though my inclusion of it in the Holiday Dumpster Fire Card-a-Thon might land me on some hitlists (if I wasn’t on those hitlists before). Make sure you tune back in to see what it is! Diamond out!

[diamond-song42]

Card Shark 119: Applejack, Discorded

Welcome back to Card Shark and the continuation of the Holiday Dumpster Fire Card-a-Thon! As the name implies, Absolute Discord was a set of... chaos. A lot of cards that don’t quite hit their mark. This Friend is one of them... but it’s also one of my favorite Friends in the set! Let’s take a look at “Applejack, Discorded!”

Sharing is caring? Absolute Discord did this thing with a few of its colorless Friends where they require a certain color req to play despite not possessing that color themselves. So Applejack, of course, costs 3 AT and... 2 White req! Because Applejack is normally Orange and chaos is fun! She only has 2 colorless power (an expected ratio for a pre-EO Friend), which... sure. She can confront Problems alright. Same goes for participating in Problem Faceoffs, though she won’t be winning any by herself. But do you want to? Let’s say AJ is at a Problem Faceoff and your opponent wins. Normally, your opponent would win that Problem’s bonus points. Not with AJ around: even if your opponent wins the Faceoff, you gain AJ’s Problem’s bonus points. And that is hilarious to me. Oh, you won the Problem Faceoff? Cool, here’s your bonus points! Oh, your opponent won the Problem Faceoff? AJ will just be taking those points, thanks. The real asshole move would be to play one of these at each Problem - even if your opponent pulls off a double confront, you get a set of bonus points! You don’t even have to pay any extra AT or pull off any other weird shit! I’d even argue that this thing is easier to run now since Problems are much easier to confront (X color + X any color over X color + not X color) and we gain bonus points differently than when this card was introduced (gained after a Problem Faceoff is won over gained on the first confrontation of a Problem). I look at the other five Discorded Friends that go with this one and gawk at how they made this one so much crazier. Thievery is magic, y’all!

That’s no diamond. I won’t be shy to admit that out of all the cards in the Holiday Dumpster Fire Card-a-Thon, if I had to put them on a scale of “most usable” to “least usable”, this would be at the top (the least usable is coming a little later). But I just can’t see her being feasible. It’s not her cost that I struggle with the most - the popularity of cards like Old Money, Particular Socialite have shown me that more expensive cards with smaller power payout can be heavy hitters. It’s that it isn’t exactly easy to build a strategy around this. I’m sure you’re now asking, “What strategy? You just have her in play and that’s all there is to it!”. Well... there are a couple factors to keep in mind here. For one, this thing is supposed to benefit White, as evidenced by the White color req. White has a... weird relationship with some Problems. Most of the White Problems with two or more bonus points you either don’t want to use competitively (Ponynapped!, A Stitch in Time, Dark Dank Dungeon, etc.) or are Problems you don’t want to replace quickly (Fashion Blindness, Cramped Caravan, etc). And when you do get this card on the field, your opponent will likely want to get rid of it ASAP. Even one of these can disrupt the flow of points - not something an opponent would likely want to see unless they have an AJ of their own. I’m not gonna lie, this was the hardest Shark I’ve written in a long time - how do you find both strategies for a very clear-cut card and cards that pair with something that really doesn’t need help from others? This thing is good... as long as you can keep at least two copies of it in play at all times.

Here’s a few more cards that absolutely do NOT want to share that diamond (Appleliar face intensifies):

*Spike, High Stakes Lavaball. This might be the card you can combine with Appleliar. One Lavaball player increases the bonus points of a problem by one (so, for example, if you put him at a 1 bonus Problem, the bonus would become 2). Even one extra bonus point can make a nice dent in your score card. One extra point can become two, two can become three. And an Appleliar at each Problem can guarantee you get however many points Spike can generate. He can even be moved to a Problem at the last minute with Agile! Like Appleliar, he’s just as vulnerable to any frightening, dismissal, or banishment your opponent may carry up their sleeve - make sure you have options to counter that.

*Queen Novo, Benevolent Ruler. Okay, I know whoever wins a potential Problem Faceoff with Appleliar involved doesn’t necessarily matter for the wielder of Appleliar. BUT there are still other effects that can activate when a Faceoff of any kind is won. The ever popular Daybreaker, for one, scores a player an additional point when a Faceoff is won, so there are ways one can increase point gain while kinda avoiding Appleliar. That’s where Queen Novo comes in, flipping Faceoffs in the favor of the player with the lowest power total. No matter what, if you’ve got your AJs set up, you’ll be scoring bonus points for any Problem Faceoffs... Novo is just there to halt anything that might be ready to barge in.

*Scootaloo, Practice Makes Perfect. Now this one is a last resort for when you can’t get your Appleliars anywhere. This Scootaloo halts both players from scoring points during Faceoffs involving her - and only your opponent from scoring points when she is flipped during a Faceoff! (She also has Stubborn, but she doesn’t have to be exhausted to activate anything, so it’s just... there.) There’s a couple options you have with this: you can either station one at each Problem so she’ll be involved in any Problem Faceoffs and score nobody any points OR you could use any number of tactics to put her on top of your deck for extra Faceoff coverage. There may be winning, but there certainly won’t be any sharing.

Thanks for reading this edition of Card Shark AND the latest edition of the Holiday Dumpster Fire Card-a-Thon! Since the next edition will be a multiple of 10, and therefore an Ultra Rare Shark, I will pull an Ultra Rare card from the next set that I think is a little lackluster to continue the dumpster fire! Tune in next time to see what card I pick! Diamond out!

[diamond-song42]

Card Shark 118: Ice Archery

Welcome back to the Card Shark Holiday Dumpster Fire Card-a-Thon! December is here and the weather in my area is getting chillier. Luckily, today’s Dumpster Fire Shark features one of my favorite Equestrian winter sports! Bundle up - it’s time to take a look at the Crystal Games’ “Ice Archery!”

It’s all about precision! Okay, maybe not in this case. Even considering pre-Equestrian Odysseys cards, this one is a bit of an oddball with what it does for 1 AT and no color req-wait, no color req?! It’s pretty rare to find an Event like this that doesn’t give characters power and colors (Apples and Oranges, Rock Solid Fashion, Spread Your Wings, etc.) or allows you to flip additional cards during Faceoffs if you have certain characters (Straighten Up and Fly Right, The Big Guns, The Brave and the Bold, etc). You play this thing during your Main Phase. When you do, your opponent chooses a card in their hand, any card. You also choose a card type (that’s Friend, Event, Resource, or Troublemaker - I suppose you could name Mane Character or Problem, but you won’t be finding those in any player’s hand). Now let’s say the card your opponent chose matches the card type you named (e.g., they chose a Friend and you named Friend). In that case, you look at your opponent’s hand and choose a card there to banish! It doesn’t have to be the card they initially chose. It’s a cute little trick, to say the least. If you think you know how your opponent’s deck operates, you might have a pretty good chance of deducing what your opponent will pick. And on the chance you’re correct (how often that chance occurs varies depending on what deck you face), it can be super inconvenient for your opponent. Heck, depending on what you use yourself, it can come completely out of left field. One minute you’re happily trucking along with your Party Cannoneer or your ScootaMane when all of a sudden BOOM ICE ARCHERY OUT OF NOWHERE. Surprise is a powerful tool (and I don’t mean any of the Surprise Friend cards)! And even if you’re not right in the end, you’ll still get a peek at one card in your opponent’s hand, and that could be more helpful than you realize.

Wasn’t it one of those ice arrows that nearly brought the Equestria Games to a horrifying end?! Yes, yes it was. Look, this is obviously nothing to build a deck around. If you want to whittle down your opponent’s hand, this should not be your only option. (Granted, it’s the only solid colorless option I know of, but sometimes that’s just how it is.) Rarity, Soprano, Dreamseized, Charred Chapters, and Grubber, Minion all allow you to look at an opponent’s hand and discard something without a guessing game involved (but only for the latter if you have a Tempest Shadow in play). You could even tempt fate with Smolder, Culture Shock, Hoity Toity, Discerning Eye and/or the new Burnt Oak, Long Stories and force the opponent to do the discarding and/or banishing themselves if they tend to play multiple cards per turn. Other than that... there aren’t a lot of options. Most of the time, when you’re forcibly changing how many cards are in a player’s hand, it’s your hand and you’re increasing the number, not decreasing. In terms of choice, Sea Poppy, Guessing Game also doesn’t work here since the choice isn’t random. And I’d have all these same problems if this card was Immediate, as well. Even if that chance of a match is there, it is surprisingly much smaller than you think. I guess my point here is that this thing is cute... just don’t expect to get anywhere with it. If you do, it’s a pleasant surprise.

Here’s a few more cards eyeing that ice in the sky:

*Somnambula, Pillar of Hope/Balloonoculars. You know what makes this card really asshole-y? When you know the contents of your opponent’s hand throughout the entire process. Going with my notions earlier, if you know what your opponent have to choose from, it might be easier for you to guess their choice. I’m not saying this is flawless, though: your opponent can always choose a card in their head and not explicitly make it clear what their choice is (i.e., maybe they don’t put it aside or something). Back when we could play cards in person, when players had to pick cards for something like this, they would put it aside to keep everycreature humble. But I’m not here to argue about the ethics of a card game starring pastel-colored horses.

*Princess Celestia, Restricted Section. This evil, long-nosed Sunbutt loves it when you banish Events. Not only can she banish Events herself with a simple exhaustion, but she can hit both sides and does not merely gain power from the Events she banishes herself. So if your Ice Archery works and you choose an opponent’s Event to banish, Celestia gains +1 power off that! And as a bonus, you can then exhaust her to banish the Ice Archery and give her another +1! All the hard work isn’t necessary to give Celestia +1... but it’s kinda like a nice cherry on top when your Ice Archery works.

*Mind Palace. My favorite New Dawn card might be one of the most dickish cards I know in the current metagame. As an opponent plays a card (any card) while you have 1 AT and the Palace in play, you can pay that 1 AT and banish the Palace to search the contents of your opponent’s deck, hand, and discard pile for any other copies of that card and banish them. The original played card does not count here, but sweet Celestia I freaking love this thing. I pair this with Ice Archery as something you can activate before Ice Archery to give you a glimpse at your opponent’s hand. Got a decent memory? You’ll need it if you want a good chance at naming the card type your opponent chooses. Besides all the banishing the Palace provides, having that sneak peek and potentially doing nothing with it not only sets up an unpleasant surprise, but may advise you on when you ready your bow. Don’t hit the door on your way into Tartarus!

Thanks for reading the third installment of the Card Shark Holiday Dumpster Fire Card-a-Thon! Next time, I’m looking at one of my least favorite Friends from Absolute Discord... actually, I lied. Diamond out!

[diamond-song42]

2021: The End of an Era

You read that correctly. 2021 will mark a new era for this blog of mine. That being... the end of its presence on Tumblr.

But no need to fret! I’m not exactly going away. I’m just moving... to Weebly!

Starting in January (exact date TBD since all the importing will take hours), The Di-Light Zone is moving to its own website and becoming Diamond Song’s Corner! Much of the content I love to post here - Card Sharks, Nonsense Things, maybe even Pone Reviews - will be migrated to this domain, and new content will be posted there.

Why am I doing this? Well, to be frank... I haven’t quite gotten the audience I wanted on Tumblr, namely for the things I like to write. It may sound a bit selfish, but I’d like a place where my posts won’t be buried and hidden by major Tumblr floods.

I’ve also wanted a place I can easily access all my Sharks in chronological order without rifling through the Tumblr tags. I’d like to create an archive with all my Sharks, maybe even sorted pre- and post-Weebly, so I can see what I have and have not done. Seeing a bunch of names would be a lot easier than going through my picture gallery of Shark-covered cards!

For those that have stuck with me for these past few years, I say THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart and I hope you’ll follow me as I take this next step. I’ll share a link to that new site here with an option to register for email notifications whenever new posts come out.

On to 2021!

-Diamond

[diamond-song42]

Card Shark 117: Bed Rest

Happy Black Friday and welcome to the second installment of the Card Shark Holiday Dumpster Fire Card-a-Thon! If you’re in the US and ate too much turkey yesterday, this Resource might be the thing for you. Let’s go back to Canterlot Nights and take a look at “Bed Rest!”

Dashie got a boo-boo. :( The name of this card, admittedly, is almost counterintuitive to the card itself. You play this 1 AT cost, 2 Yellow req Resource on an opposing ready Friend (the part about them being ready is important here). After that, the Bed Rest-ed Friend can’t be exhausted. Back in the early days of the CCG, this card might not have meant much. Not a lot of useful cards you could or would want to exhaust to do things. In the current metagame, though? WHOA, THIS CAN STOP A LOT. Just to name a few: Limestone Pies can’t remove any abilities on your Friends or Mane Character. Cloudchasers and Filly Racers can’t reduce the cost of Friends. Guidance Counselors, Factory Organizers, and Cover to Covers can’t gain 1 AT. Changed Changelings can’t cancel Events. (Say that three times fast.) Salina Blues can’t draw all those cards. Midnights can’t Stubbornly frighten Friends. Magic Instructor can’t copy Events. Pastry Panics can’t pull off weird Friend replacements! Sweet Celestia, this thing might be crazy! And what if your opponent wants to get rid of your Bed Rest? That’s still Resource removal they have to spend that they may have wanted to sick on your Staffs of Sacanas or Pinkie Senses. As I like to say, every AT matters. Something like Bed Rest, especially when played just at the right moment (timing, people!), could be greatly disruptive and hard to efficiently counter. Not to mention it’s super cheap. I might not consider it a first turn play (even though it is possible with a Yellow Mane and a Buckball Strategy), but it certainly would slow an opponent down.

You should probably tuck yourself back in before I explain what’s wrong with this thing. Sure, stopping exhaust effects is pretty great. But it’s not the best, and that’s for one big reason: it doesn’t block the Friends’ use of power for confronting Problems and participating in Faceoffs (unless the text on the card specifies otherwise like Prim Hemline, Runway Judge or Marble Pie, Quiet as a Stone). Actually exhausting them, unless they have Stubborn, prohibits their power from being productive in ways that don’t provide color req. And there are currently a handful of ways for you to get the most out of your exhausting: Fume, Breathtaking can force an opponent to only ready one character per Ready Step, while Grubber, Royal Announcer can exhaust every opposing character and force them not to ready during the next Ready Phase. Heck, there are Resources like Out of Action and Under Arrest that can perma-exhaust! Granted, your opponent would still need to go through the Resource removal process to get rid of those perma-exhausters, but they’d likely have more of a motive to go through the process since they’d actually be robbed of power. Bed  Rest just robs Friends of any exhaustion abilities - at present, there aren’t any Friends who can only contribute their power to something if they’re exhausted (Canterlot Citizens, Pony Populace can be exhausted to contribute its power to confronting a Problem, but they can use that power to confront Problems without being exhausted as well). I wish I could give Bed Rest the benefit of the doubt here, but there’s a reason why it’s featured in the Holiday Dumpster Fire Card-a-Thon.

Here’s a few more cards that have things they need to do:

*Stygian, Falsely Accused. It might be a tad pricier than just playing multiple Bed Rests, but Stygian can create a token copy of a Resource when he enters play. If you don’t have a Bed Rest available (or just have no other options for decent Resources to xerox), Stygian can make another Bed Rest and leave another opposing Friend always... ready to go. (Pun intended and I am sorry)

*Octavia, Harsh Judge. This suggestion takes a slightly different approach to the question of “to exhaust or not to exhaust”. Let’s say you Bed Rest an opposing Friend and your opponent happens to have another one ready in their hand, effectively making up the ability they lost to your Bed Rest. Miss Harsh Judge here can stop that from happening. If you name the exhaustable opposing Friend, your opponent won’t be able to play any more copies of that Friend and they’ll be stuck dealing with the one you Bed Rest-ed. Mind Palace (aka my favorite card in New Dawn) is a similar option that searches the deck, hand, and discard pile for a certain named card and banishes all the copies of that card, but I don’t think it would necessarily be more effective as it doesn’t banish the Friend already on the field. Thus Harsh Judge is my choice here.

*Cloudchaser, Ready and Willing. Okay, now I’m just getting into stupid territory. When this Absolute Discord Cloudchaser is played, you may ready a character. Note I didn’t say one of your characters... Cici can ready either player’s characters. So hypothetically, you could ready an opposing Friend that was exhausted... and then sick your Bed Rest on that Friend before your opponent has the chance to reexhaust. It might be one of the dumbest strategy ideas I’ve ever had. If you genuinely try to do this, one major warning: don’t use this to ready a Friend that may have been exhausted with an Immediate effect. Your opponent could use that opportunity to reexhaust that Friend and activate the ability again before you Bed Rest it.

Thanks for reading the second edition of the Holiday Dumpster Fire Card-a-Thon! Currently, I’m thinking I’ll continue with my Friday releases and figure out how I make up the differences down the line. Whatever the case, I hope you’ll tune back in to read the next Card Shark! Diamond out!

[diamond-song42]

Card Shark 116: Silver Spanner, Nuts for Bolts

The holiday season in the United States has officially commenced, and with it comes the start of the Holiday Dumpster Fire Card-a-Thon here on Card Shark! To kick things off, I’ve picked a Premiere Friend that, competitively, is kinda lackluster, but she sure is thankful she got a tournament structure named after her! Let’s take a look at “Silver Spanner, Nuts for Bolts!”

Like Silver Spanner, I hope I get cider this Thanksgiving too. As is typical of many Premiere cards, the AT cost doesn’t exactly match the power you get for it - in this case, that’s 3 AT and 1 Orange req for 2 Orange power. So you could play it on your second turn if you have an Orange Mane, okay. She doesn’t do anything as long as she lingers in play... at least until your opponent goes to dismiss your Resources (arguably the most common form of Resource removal). Silver is ready to react when that Resource is dismissed, as you can immediately dismiss (or, more accurately, retire) her to replay that Resource from your discard pile... for free. You read that right. You don’t need to meet any other play requirements, including color req. You just get it back. Staffs of Sacanas can be rebuilt. Fires of Friendship and Motivational Speeches can be reinstated (maybe even reducing the req of a different color than before). Desert Roads can... still be winding. You might even be able to reattach Accessories! 3 AT might seem like a heftier cost for an effect like this, but imagine what that does in the long run. It can save your Resources and potentially dissuade any opponents from trying to dismiss your Resources in the first place since you can just get them back! And there’s so many awesome Resources you can save with this thing. Another thing I think makes this card nifty is that I rarely see players use more than one form of Resource removal per turn - that is, I’ll see them play one card like a Mage Meadowbrook or activate a Seabreeze’s Flower, but nothing else beyond that one. Silver here is just saying, “Don’t do it man... you’re gonna waste that dismissal of yours”. There might not be a radio Resource per se, but Silver is happy regardless.

So why is Silver part of the Holiday Dumpster Fire Card-a-Thon, besides her higher cost? Well, let me get one of the obvious factors out of the way: Silver doesn’t protect against banishment. Banishment is the other primary type of Resource removal... and is certainly more effective in the long run than dismissal. Banishment guarantees you will not get that Resource back for the rest of the match. And currently, I don’t believe there are any cards that benefit from having Resources in the Banished Zone. Silver also has the chance to be frightened - frightening her removes her Resource saving effect from the field (even if she is not exactly removed herself), leaving your Resources wide open to attacks from opposing Mage Meadowbrooks and Belly Flops. But above all, my biggest issue is that she must leave play to save a Resource. Once she leaves play, if you really want to use her again, you need to get her back into play somehow. And you might not be able to do that again before your opponent can hit your Resource again for good. Not much more I can add here... though if you’re playing Harmony and want something that can save your Resources from the dreaded discard pile, I’d at least consider Silver as a sideboard option, especially against a color like Pink or Yellow that won’t be doing a lot of banishing.

Here’s a few cards that also have some loose nuts and bolts:

*Rockhoof, Bulwark. How do you cover the banishing base that Silver doesn’t cover? Just bring in a Friend that can be exhausted for two turns to stop a Resource from leaving play in the first place! This is definitely the modern version of Silver Spanner - you don’t have to retire him or go through the entire replaying process not to mention he’s cheaper AT-wise - but I still think these two could go together to just say “screw you” to opposing Resources.

*Orchard Blossom, A Whole New You/Redeeming Qualities/anything that allows you to replay Friends from your discard pile. A card like this is easy to get back into play from your discard pile if it’s in a deck that can reanimate Friends. It might be a bit of a stretch in a full-blown Reanimator deck - you usually want to save those Orchard Blossoms for cards like tricorns. However, in something more niche where pumping out tricorns isn’t your big objective, reanimating a Friend like Silver can catch an opponent off guard, especially if they don’t have any Resource removal options prepared. It’s well-timed, unexpected plays like this that will leave your opponent stunned enough to hand you the win.

*Charred Chapters. If you’ve been playing the CCG for a while, you may have noticed a lot of the Resource removal options come in the form of Events. Luckily, if that card type is what you’re afraid will be scaring away your Resources, Orange happens to have a helpful Event that can fix that! Charred Chapters gives you a glimpse into a player’s hand (likely your opponent’s), where you pick an Event and discard it. If either player has eight or more points, you can avoid the Event limit and pick any type of card. No matter which way you choose, you can still screw with an opponent’s hand and block them from using whatever weapon they had to get rid of your Resources - as long as you can reach them before they do in the first place.

Thanks for reading this installment of Card Shark! And if you’re in the US, a happy Thanksgiving from me to you! Tomorrow I’ll continue this Holiday Dumpster Fire Card-a-Thon with a Canterlot Nights Resource that I just adore... even if the competitive scene is telling it to stay in bed. Diamond out!

[diamond-song42]

Card Shark 115: ROYAL CHEERING VOICE

Welcome back to Card Shark, friends! I’ve been excited to cover another New Dawn card, and this one is one of my favorites in terms of humor! Look out, ROYAL CANTERLOT VOICE - it’s time to make way for the “ROYAL CHEERING VOICE!”

GO, SCHOOL OF MAGIC! Compared to its sister the ROYAL CANTERLOT VOICE, the ROYAL CHEERING VOICE costs 2 AT, 4 Blue req, and 4 Yellow req to play as opposed to 1 AT and 4 Purple req. When you play this Event during your Main Phase, you put one of your Friends into its owner’s hand, essentially bouncing it. That means if you used a card like Pharynx, Hive Patrol or Sonata Dusk, Siren’s Call to gain control of an opposing Friend, making it “yours” in the sense of the game, you could bounce that stolen Friend back to your opponent’s hand. You probably won’t want to do that to your opponent’s Friends, though: once you bounce that Friend, you (not your opponent) may pay 2 less AT to play the next Friend with that card’s name that turn. That means you could have two copies of that Friend in your hand and you could play either of those copies with the discounted price. Sure, a 2 AT discount is pretty good for any card, especially with cards like Princess Luna, Midnight that make it harder to move played Friends. But what I really love about this is that it bypasses the “card enters play” versus “play this card” requirement. In case you’re unaware, there are certain Friends that only activate an effect when you play them (such as Mistmane, Pillar of Beauty) and cards that activate an effect whenever they enter play (such as Prince Rutherford, Quick to Judge), which means they could have been in any zone or even a discard pile and forced to reenter play through a card like Interdimensional Portal or Redeeming Qualities. (Confused yet?) Luckily, with this Event, you won’t have to worry about that. There’s so many things you could repeatedly boomerang with a discount that it’s not funny. Especially not for your opponent. Here comes my saying: every AT (including the ones saved) matters!

WHERE’S THAT TEAM SPIRIT?! It’s there, I promise. Frankly... I think this card is nicely balanced. If it was Immediate, I think it’d be a bit OP, and I don’t think this would work well with Sonic Rainboom as you’d have to bounce a Hasty Friend or slam down an Under the Wire to get the full benefit of it. The 2 AT cost for a 2 AT discount is also pretty excellent as the possibility of replaying a 2 cost Friend is there. If I had to pick one downside to this, I guess... the color requirement is a tad lofty? If you’re bouncing an opposing Friend, that’s 4 each of Blue and Yellow when cards like Unsatisfactory Work exist. And you’re only getting the discount if the opposing Friend exactly matches a Friend in your hand - so, for example, you can both have Fluttershy Friends, but if your opponent has a Kind Pony and you have a Backup Vocals, you don’t get that discount on Backup Vocals. Furthermore, if you’re hitting one of your Friends, you could be taking out some of the color requirement you needed to play that Event anyway. It certainly isn’t an impossible color req to reach, though, especially if you use the popular Blue/Yellow Pegasus Aggro deck archetype. (It just so happens that all my suggestions could fit into a Blue/Yellow Pegasus Aggro deck!) Other than those factors, though, I’d certainly make room for this in a Blue/Yellow deck, even if it might see some sideboarding sometimes. If you don’t use this card for the discount, use it for the fact that Celestia can apparently unhinge her jaw like a snake.

Here’s a few more cards ready to ROCK AND ROLL:

*Mage Meadowbrook, Pillar of Healing. In case you haven’t guessed yet, this is essentially going to be a list of excellent Friends to bounce with this thing. Since there’s so many, I’m gonna keep it to Yellow and Blue Friends for this Shark. Mage Meadowbrook is at the very top of this list because... look at her! She dismisses each opposing Resource and Troublemaker when she hits the field! Now imagine being able to do that for 1 AT. Not much more I can say here - this combo is that scary.

*Rainbow Dash, Fierce Loyalty. This card has two things going for it: first, when it is played, you get to search your deck for a Dilemma and immediately put it into play. There’s no other card that does something like that, and it could turn a game on its head depending on the Dilemma you retrieve. But if you meet that Blue Unity 15... well, then you get to move one of your characters to each Problem in play! (That means if you have, say, three Problems in play, two regular and one Dilemma, and you have three characters in play, you can move each of those characters to one Problem.) Ideally, boomeranging Dashie would allow you to search your deck for a free Dilemma twice at the minimum - if you can’t activate that Unity 15, I still think it’s worth using.

*Sanctuary Patients, Get Well Soon. Unlike the previous Friends on this list, this Friend does something when it leaves play instead of when it enters play or is played. When the Sanctuary Patients leave play, you get to put three 1-power Yellow Critter Friend Tokens into play. You’re essentially trading 4 power for at least 3 - of course, with a discount like this, you’ll get a minimum of 7 Yellow power back! A handful of Critters creates more opportunities for play strategies (including but not limited to Thorax Mane, Shoeshine, Critter Choir, Professor of Kindness, Attention Seeking Behavior, and way more), and 4 AT for 7 power isn’t the worst tradeoff. If you go the Critter route, just make sure you have backup for that Blue color req - in the current Core format, I can only name one Blue Critter (Parasprite, Hungry For More).

*Fluttershy, Pony Pirate. This might be the most obscure suggestion on this list, but the strategy this card employs is something I have seen across the color spectrum, namely with the Lacking Lesson Plans Problem. With 2 AT and 2 Blue and Yellow req, this Pirate allows you to bypass opposing Troublemakers to confront Problems until the end of the turn. Combined with this Event, you can effectively replay this for free and keep brushing Troublemakers aside for as long as you like (or at least until you run out of VOICEs). Depending on your opponent’s deck strategy (farming, maybe), that can be really useful! If you want to keep Fluttershy around, she also has Swift, which is another discount-giving ability. She obviously won’t work against every deck under the sun, but I’d still consider keeping her on your sideboard.

Thanks for reading another installment of Card Shark! This Thursday, Thanksgiving Day in the United States, I’ll be starting the Dumpster Fire Card-a-Thon with a Premiere card that is... not good, but I like it! I’ll say this much as a teaser: it’s a Friend! Come back on Thursday to find out what Friend it is! I’d also encourage you to read my last post on the future of where my posts will be published! For now, Diamond out!

[diamond-song42]

The Nonsense Thing in Diamond’s Head Today 26: Time For Another Change?

(sorry, this isn’t a teaser for an upcoming Shark)

Hey all! Diamond here. I’ve been preparing the New Dawn Card Shark I promised before the Dumpster Fire Card-a-Thon begins on Thursday... but it has me reconsidering what I’ve done with this blog and I realize I need to decide what to do going further.

The blog isn’t going away! That’s the last thing I want to do. I need this outlet to write. However... I’m wondering if it should go away from Tumblr.

For a class assignment, I had to create a WordPress account. But the site I was granted when I created the account hasn’t actually been used - I edited a different one for the assignment. If I moved to WordPress, I wouldn’t have to leave my posts behind a Tumblr account “wall” or mix it with the more sporadic post style of Tumblr itself. Yet the distribution wouldn’t be as easy either - I don’t think you can search for tags on WordPress, so my Sharks and other pieces would be harder to find (even if I could easily import all of them over a few hours).

So I’d appreciate some feedback on this! How easy would a move be? And would any of my followers reading this now follow me to WordPress if I made the leap? Many thanks in advance!

[diamond-song42]

COMING SOON TO CARD SHARK: The Holiday Dumpster Fire Card-a-Thon!

So... I think I’m putting it lightly when I say THIS YEAR SUCKED.

An invisible enemy has ravaged our planet. Civil tensions have continued to rock the States. We’ve lost friends, family, and celebrities that felt like friends and family. And we likely won’t have a sense of normal for some time.

So this holiday season, I thought I should try to bring a little cheer with Card Shark. That’s why, starting Thanksgiving Day and going through New Year’s Eve, I will be celebrating what I call the Holiday Dumpster Fire Card-a-Thon!

Beginning with Shark #116 (because I promised another New Dawn Shark!), I’ll be going through all 12 primary MLP:CCG sets and writing about cards I really like. You could call this an excuse for me to gush about some of my favorite cards. But as this event’s name suggests, there’s a twist: NONE of the cards I feature are truly viable in a competitive setting. These cards have gimmicks that, frankly, are mostly pretty stupid! If I see one of these in a competitive deck that *works* in today’s metagame, Harmony or Core, it might be a miracle. But those gimmicky things are some of my all-time favorite cards. What better way to send off a dumpster fire of a year than looking at some dumpster fire cards?

Besides that, the typical Shark rules stand! I’ll alternate between card types every Shark and will feature an Ultra Rare in the 120th slot (which should be an Equestrian Odysseys card)! You won’t find any Problems here, though - I’ve got a new system in place to start covering those once 2021 begins. Also, at present, I don’t exactly have a set schedule for my planned Sharks. I intend to post Sharks on the major American holidays (Thanksgiving Day, Black Friday, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and New Year’s Eve), but the other seven Sharks may pop up anytime in between those dates. So keep your eyes peeled!

Hope you’re ready to mask up and dive into my dumpster fire of cards!

[diamond-song42]

Pinktober 2020 31: Cloud

Happy Halloween!

[diamond-song42]

Pinktober 2020 30: Trash

[diamond-song42]

Pinktober 2020 29: Shoes

My #NASAMoonKit: a blanket and socks to keep warm, a magnifying glass to look at moon rocks, a photo of Niblet, and Moon Shoes

[diamond-song42]

Pinktober 2020 28: Happy

[diamond-song42]

Pinktober 2020 27: Art