I've heard there are still people who don't know how the My Little Pony CCG is played and want to learn. I know there are plenty of tutorials out there, but here's my take to help them out. Since I know everyone learns different and I know I have a rather unorthodox teaching method, maybe this will be the thing that tips you toward understanding.
This is an example of your main character card. You start with one in play automatically, with the start side face-up. Don't focus too much on this. For the most part, it's just another character you will have in play, with a couple exceptions. This card can never leave play, and when you meet certain conditions, it will flip to its boosted side to become much more powerful. It also defines your home limit, which I'll explain later.
The goal of the game is to score 15 points, which are primarily achieved by solving problems, represented in your Problem deck. Problems are the horizontal cards, and are always kept separate from the main deck. The turns are divided into the 4 phases: Ready, Troublemaker, Main, and Score. The Ready phase is very simple. Anything that's exhausted is made ready (people familiar with other CCGs typically would turn it sideways like Magic's "tap" function to exhaust and normal for ready). You draw 1 card, as most card games have you do. You then gain some action tokens based on how many points the winning player has (see the score slider above). These action tokens are what you use to pay for things, and can be banked between turns. After that is the Troublemaker phase, which I'll explain in the section on Troublemakers themselves. Then it's the Main phase, where obviously most of what you do in the game will occur. That's where you'll actually be playing cards and making choices. In the Score phase, you check to see whether you have enough power of the right types to confront the problems in play and score points accordingly. Right now, I'll focus on the Main phase, since that's where you'll do the most thinking.
These are examples Friend cards. The number in the white circle on the left shows its cost in action tokens. On the upper-right is its power. Some of them will have a number underneath the action token cost that shows how much power you need in play before you can play that one. For example, Spring Forward requires 3 purple power to be played. In addition to Twilight Sparkle and Comet Tail, you'd need 1 more purple power before you're allowed to play Spring Forward. 3 is rather high for this game, and you'll usually see that on the most powerful cards. This means friends that
don't have a requirement will be very crucial to you, because you won't be able to play much without them.
Events exist in one form or another in basically any card game. They have one-time effects and are then gone forever. Like Friends, they cost some action tokens to play (Watch in Awe costs 1, represented by the 1 in the white circle on the left), and most will require power from one of the colors. Don't worry too much about the number in the upper-right corner yet. That is its power for faceoffs, which I'll explain later. They will all say when they can be played, as well. Watch in Awe can only be played in the Main phase. Some of them can be used as a reaction to something else happening. If it says "reaction," you can only play it when that specific thing happens.
Resources are more of your permanent support cards. They stay in play like Friends, but don't provide any power. Instead, they provide usually very strong effects. Some of them are constant, such as Fighting for Friendship. Others have to be activated, and they'll tell you exactly when you can do that.
Friends, Events, and Resources are all cards that can be played in the Main phase. Troublemakers are involved as well, but I'll go into that later (trust me, I have good reason to delay teaching about Troublemakers). The score slider you get with your starter decks also detail all the things you can do in your Main phase. You can:
* Pay 1 action token to draw an extra card (which may be necessary if you really need to dig for something).
* Pay 1 to play a Troublemaker card.
* Pay 2 to move one of your characters to a problem (I'll detail those in a bit).
* Pay 2 to ready one of your frightened characters. Some cards use the term "frighten," which means the character goes face-down and has no abilities or powers whatsoever. This corrects that issue.
Now it's time to talk about Problem cards. You will have 2 decks when you play this game: a main deck of 45 cards and a problem deck of 10 cards. These cards represent the problems your characters have to solve, and this is primarily how you win points. Whenever you play a Friend card, you can play it directly to a problem or to your home (where cards are simply "in play" without being anywhere). You can also pay 2 action tokens to move a character to a problem from home or the other problem.
At this point, we can go over what happens in the Score phase. It's all automatic. Once the Score phase hits, you can check to see if the characters you have at that problem meet its requirements. Monitor Everything requires you to have 4 purple power and 3 power of any combination of other colors. The number on the top represents what your opponent needs if they want to confront it. For this card, they need a total of 8 power in any combination of colors. Your opponent will have a problem deck of their own, so this will be how you can confront their problems and score off of them. If you meet the requirements, you score 1 point (remember, you need 15 to win). If you were the first person to confront that problem yet, you'll also score the bonus points listed on the card (3 in this case). Finally, if your opponent is also able to confront it (meaning they have enough power to do so and no Troublemaker is blocking them), then you have a problem faceoff.
Faceoffs are actually pretty simple, but there's a bit of math involved. You add together the total power you have on all ready characters at that problem. Exhausted characters are too tired to contribute anything. Then you flip the top card of your deck and add the power it had to your total. Remember that 5 in the corner of Watch in Awe? That's where it would apply here. If you flipped a character, you get its natural power for the faceoff (but just this; it doesn't go into play). Your opponent does the same: they add their total power + the power on the top card of their deck. If there is a tie, keep flipping the top cards of your decks until the tie is resolved. When a winner is found, that player scores the bonus points on that problem, and all cards flipped go on the bottom of your respective decks in whatever order you want. The problem is then put on the bottom of your problem deck, all characters at that problem go to their owner's home, and the top card of that problem deck is played.
There can be an extra complication to faceoffs. If you have enough power to confront
both problems, you score 1 point for each, and then have a Double Problem Faceoff (regardless of your opponent's condition). In that case, you add up the total power of all characters you have at both problems, ignoring anyone at home. Flips are still normal. Once this faceoff is finished, all characters go home, all face-up troublemakers are discarded (official term is "dismissed," put into the discard pile), and both problems get replaced.
Ok, it's finally time to show the ugly side of the game: Troublemakers. These are used to prevent your opponent to confront problems, usually the smaller ones. As I said earlier, you can play a Troublemaker card for 1 action point in the Main phase. It goes face-down to the problem, and you can only have 1 at each problem (per player, so the same problem can have 1 from each of you). During your Troublemaker phase, you uncover any Troublemakers you played during your last turn. As long as your Troublemaker is face-up, your opponent cannot confront the problem. They must instead deal with this thing first. Troublemakers are challenged during the Troublemaker phase, just before the Main phase. Essentially, if they can't deal with it at the start of the turn, they have to wait until the next one to try confronting the problem (unless they have a card effect to put it face-down). Confronting Troublemakers is done similarly to problem faceoffs. You add up your total power and flip the top card of your deck. Your opponent does the same, but they simply add the flip to the Troublemaker's own power. Their characters contribute nothing to it (although their card effects might still apply). If you win the faceoff, you score the points listed on the Troublemaker and it is dismissed. If you lose, you must move one of your characters involved in it home. Troublemaker faceoffs involve everyone that is at that problem, whether they had any power or not.
Let's go over all that one more time. You start your turn on the Ready phase, where you get action tokens based on how many points the winning player has (check the score slider), and you do not have to spend them right away. Any unspent tokens at the end of the turn are kept for future turns. You also ready all exhausted cards and draw a card (unless you are taking the first turn of the game). Then it's the Troublemaker phase, where you uncover your own Troublemakers and can challenge your opponent's. Then you're into the Main phase where you'll be able to actually play cards and make decisions. Finally it's the Score phase, where you check how much power you have on your cards at a problem, score points if you confront them, and have faceoffs if appropriate. There are plenty more rules to the game, but this should give you enough to get started. You should consult the official rule book for more details. You can find it in all starter decks and EQD has a handy
link available. I'll prepare a sample game in a future post to help out anyone still confused. I hope I was helpful!
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