New Worlds

Well everyone, I have news.  I have been accepted as a writer for Ponycard.net!  Unfortunately, that means I won't have as much time to write for this blog, but all hope is not lost, loyal readers.  One of the conditions for writing for them is that I'm not allowed to reference other games.  It seems rather unfortunate, given that My Little Pony makes a point of referencing everything, not to mention the painfully obvious Black Lotus reference in Heart's Desire.  They also restrict me on how many images I use.  I like to make'em pretty.  Since this is my blog and I only have to go by my rules, I'll definitely take advantage of the increased flexibility I have here.  I just probably won't be posting as much, since most of my creative energy will be focused there.  I also don't want to write exactly the same thing, since anything I submit to them becomes their property.
For right now though, I have the perfect thing to tide you over.  I play a lot of games.  Below the break, I list some games you can play to take a break from MLP while also exercising skills you'll need here.

High Command

High Command was one of the first things that came to my mind when I was learning this game.  High Command is a deck building game, which is actually a different concept from a customizable card game like this.  Players start with very small, functionally identical decks and use those cards to acquire new cards for their decks.  If you haven't tried it before, I recommend starting with Ascension or Legendary.  Anyway, in this game you play cards to locations, hoping to amass a strong enough force that you can withstand your opponent's attack and capture them.  It's kind of like how you sometimes fortify your cards at one problem so you can win the upcoming faceoff.  There's a very heavy emphasis on preparation, because there's almost nothing you can do in response to your opponent's actions on their turn.  You only capture a location at the beginning of your turn if your opponent couldn't overwhelm you.  Bursts of offense are easy enough to come by that this happens rarely, so even capturing just one location is a very big deal.

  Dominion

Continuing on the idea of deck building games, Dominion was the first one that started it all.  I really wanted to put Magic in this spot, but that requires a rather large time investment for the deck building exercise I want to drive home here.  Now, most other deck building games I've played feature a small lineup of cards that changes as players take a card from them, so you'll sometimes find yourself just settling for the best card available instead of a card you really want.  One major strength of Dominion for strategic gameplay is that aside from a few isolated incidents in certain expansions, the entirety of the game's cards are available to you right away.  The variety is that you don't know until the game begins what cards will be available.  Therefore, it is extremely important that from turn one, you make a plan for how you want your deck to be designed, what it wants to accomplish, and how it will play at various stages of the game.  One thing it teaches you very well is to consider the power of each card in their given environment.  "Card valuation" goes a long way when you're constructing your deck of MLP.  Most of the time, it is ideal to have a CCG deck at the minimum size to increase the chances of drawing the good cards you need most.  With this in mind, you have a limited amount of card slots, so you want to maximize how much value you can get out of each card.  My deck, which I think I'm officially calling the Bismark, takes this to the extreme with such heavy cards as Full Steam and Holly Dash, but smaller cards make up for this with their synergy when built right.

Chess

Just about every person reading this should be familiar with the game of Chess.  It's the height of European classic gaming.  It's taught in schools all over the country, and its players are subsequently the targets of bullies in all said schools for being a nerdy game.  Chess is actually one of the best things you can practice for strategic gaming overall.  Even as people have studied it for hundreds of years, the game is not definitively solved, unlike Connect 4.  The game has absolutely no element of luck to it whatsoever, so until some supergenius manages to solve the game, the outcome is going to depend entirely on your skill.  There is a good variety of pieces with different movement & attack capabilities, so you can try out strategies using different elements.  Now, as anyone who's played against a strong Chess player knows, you really have to think far in advance.  All of your moves should have at least your next 3 moves considered, and of course each of those are considering your opponent's most likely responses to your own moves.  It is just about the ideal skill-based game for one-on-one conflict.  The My Little Pony CCG does carry a significant factor of luck, but with proper planning skills, you can minimize the impact it has on you.

Go

While Chess enjoys a great popularity in European-style civilizations, Go enjoys more popularity among eastern Asian countries.  In my opinion, Go is a far superior game for the purpose of teaching you foresight.  The basic rules are simple.  You play on a grid, and your turn consists of playing a stone of your color on any intersecting point in the grid.  If placing this stone would mean an opposing stone (or group as such) has no open points adjacent to them, you remove them from the board and count them toward your points.  To the layman, this would mean you want to capture as many stones as possible, like Checkers.  It turns out that the threat of capture is far more important.  If I know it is impossible for me to play a stone in such a way that it would save my group, it's just a waste of time for me to play it with them.  It just gives my opponent another point and more territory to use.  Instead, I'm better off playing a stone somewhere else and establishing a territory of my own.  The MLP application should be rather apparent.  Unfortunately, finding players for Go is a lot harder than it is for Chess.  The Xbox 360 has the Path of Go for you to sharpen your teeth.  I also highly recommend the anime/manga Hikaru no Go for anyone who thinks about gaming competitively.

Destined to great new friends and leave them right away

I'm glad my writings have been helpful to you all, and I hope you continue to read as I transition to the world of Ponycard.net.  Keep a lookout here as I can connect the world of MLP to all other styles of games you play.