Banned Cards List

[N.A. Larson]

Are there any cards you've played with, and had to remove from your deck, or fix by adding house rules? I've found that the one-activation-per-turn rule suggested by HPG solves a lot of problems (like Freedom Fighter Pinkie and Cheerilee). At first I was skeptical that it would be too restrictive, but then I remembered that "the specific overrides the general," so cards that say a card's power would activate (most notably Love Poisons) still work, which allows for some fun combos. Even still, I've found some cards to be too powerful or otherwise make the game less fun*.

Blazin’ Hot Wildfire (2014 Con Exclusive):
Some men just want to watch the world burn, and when one of them is in your playgroup, you can’t play with Wildfire. I’ve talked before about the importance of slicers**, but this card just makes it too easy to remove large portions of the grid. Pinkamena’s effect is at least limited to the ships touching the Pony card she caused to be discarded, but Wildfire can cause up to 3 Pony cards to be discarded, which could directly affect up to 10 ships, or affect ships in unrelated parts of the grid. Also, her power is single-purpose***, as opposed to Love Poisons, which can be used to activate Pony powers.

Breezies (2015 Con Exclusive):
There are a bunch of Goals that require playing a certain number of Ponies or making/breaking a certain number of ships, and this card makes them trivial to achieve, especially when you consider race/keyword/timeline-change ships. (I once playtested a card that counted as 3 Ponies, and it had the same problem. 2 Ponies seems to be the limit).

Cider Matron Apple Bloom (2014 Con Exclusive):
I once played a very long game where this card was used a lot. I suspect that activating this card’s power sapped the players of the resources they needed for the newly revealed Goals, but I need more data to confirm this. In the meantime, this card is sidelined.


*What constitutes a “fun” varies widely from player to player and group to group.
**cards that have powers which can cause Ship cards to be removed from the grid. The nickname comes from Aria’s power in the No-Holds-Barred expansion.
***Of course, slicers are pretty much the only way to get Ship cards into the discard pile so you can search for them

[Ithry]

The Chocolate Pony (Chocolate Pony Promo 1):
It's a general unwritten rule of card games that powers that skip player's turns are a no-no. The Chocolate Pony more or less reads "You, you, and...you don't have fun." Coupled with the fact that SOME players get to play their turn normally makes this one even more unfun. As written it technically reads "If you play a Pony with a food-based name, then you don't have to skip your turn and can play other cards normally." As intended I imagine it's supposed to be "You can only play cards with food-based names." but I'm not positive of this.

Party Prize (Chocolate Pony Horse Famous 2015 Promo):
As much as I adore the flavor-mechanics on this card, activating every power on the grid when it is played is more often than not completely overpowered. Players seem to have fun with it though, so I may add it back into my deck from time to time.

Ahcyknnt (Indiegogo):
Another unwritten rule of card games is that the cards are immediately readable (in the intended language). New players never know what it does and I can never remember. No one I have played with has ever been excited to decrypt a cipher, they just want to play the game.

Bunny Hare Rabbit (Gracious Givers 2):
If the grid is big enough to trigger this card, then it is likely that its resolution will take forever and bring the game to a halt as one player spends an unbearably long time trying to figure out the optimal board state.

I Was a Teenage Pinata, All Changes Are Permeant, You Made Eye Contact, Ties That Bind (Chocolate Pony Promo 3, Chocolate Pony BABSCon 2015, Everfree RAT promo, FoE Fanfic):
Ship cards are played under Pony cards, so they are illegible in this state and no one ever remembers that they are active. There's a reason official Ship powers only last until the end of the turn at most.

[Lord LunaEquie is me]

I'd kind of like to go off of Ithry's last statement there, about ship card powers. I just picked up Ties That Bind at Nightmare Nights and without even playing it I realized it would have the exact problem he mentions, unless it were played on top of the pony cards as a reminder.

In fact, I find other powers that are triggered when X happens rather than when played on the board have the same issues. Logic Gate, if I'm recalling correctly, I've seen have that problem as one game saw him played three separate times (because of Mahou Shoujo Derpy and board nuking) but not a one person remembering his ability triggering. Cards that are active until X is fulfilled, like Sappho, I feel are easier to work with because it demands everyone's attention until it's resolved, rather than needing to be remembered at all times.

As of yet I haven't played enough games or tweaked the sets I've been playing with enough to say what I like to include or exclude, but with as many cards as I now have I need to start thinking about what kind of environment is good for my friends and I.