Crossovers in MTG have become more and more abundant over the past several years. Not only do they provide a unique incentive for fans of specific franchises beyond Magic the Gathering to become involved, but they also showcase stories and worlds beyond those associated with Magic in a fun way. In some cases, such as with the Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth set, these crossovers can be wildly successful. There have already been multiple Universes Beyond crossovers announced for the rest of this year and upcoming year, such as the Jurassic World and Assassin’s Creed crossovers.
The Jurassic World crossover is specifically being featured with the release of two upcoming Secret Lairs. Interestingly, though, it appears that this is actually not the only Secret Lair crossover for players to get excited about this year. In a surprise announcement, Ponies: The Galloping 2 is officially live, with products on sale now. Ponies: the Galloping 2 Secret Lairs with non-foil cards currently go for $39.99, while versions with foil cards go for $49.99. While it is certainly surprising to see these new cards go live today, a new My Little Pony crossover seemed rather inevitable. Let’s take a brief look back at the original Ponies: The Galloping crossover and how the two crossovers overlap.
A Brief History
Back in 2019, Wizards of the Coast released a three-card silver-bordered crossover set. Each of the three cards showcased artwork reminiscent of characters from the My Little Pony franchise. The card set was originally sold for $50.00. While this may sound like a decent chunk of money for just three cards, the set held a specific purpose. It was designed as a charity set. For each card set, a donation of $30 was made to Extra Life to be given to the Seattle Children’s Hospital.
Each of the cards in the charity set functioned quite similarly to other silver-bordered cards from sets like Unstable. These cards were not tournament-legal and featured some pretty whacky abilities. One of the cards in particular, however, referenced other specific card names that had not been created yet. This card was none other than Princess Twilight Sparkle, shown above. In Princess Twilight Sparkle’s five-mana activated ability, the card names Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity are all mentioned. Rarity is another one of the three cards from the original Ponies: The Galloping, but none of the other cards existed yet. Well, that is until now.
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The New Cards
Ponies: the Galloping Two is being released as a Secret Lair this go-around, showcasing four new cards. The four new cards have names that match those mentioned in Princess Twilight Sparkle’s textbox. Every one of these new cards is a Legendary Creature, so despite the fact that they are not tournament legal, they may be interesting inclusions in your casual Commander playgroup.
Much like was the case with the first iteration of Ponies: The Galloping, a portion of each purchase will be given as a donation to Extra Life and the Seattle Children’s Hospital. In this case, 50% of each purchase will be donated specifically to benefit the Seattle Children’s Hospital Autism Center. If you enjoy collecting intriguing cards with gorgeous artwork, this is a decent opportunity.
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Commander Potential?
While some of the cards like Applejack aren’t necessarily the most realistic inclusions in a traditional game of MTG, a couple cards in particular actually provide interesting build-around Commander options. The first of these cards is Pinkie Pie. Pinkie Pie specifically lets you generate Treasure tokens whenever you cast a spell with a smile in its art. It’s unclear how many cards you can find that fit the bill, but that’s part of the fun, and at only two mana, getting to make Treasure tokens is a nice payoff.
Beyond the Treasure creation, Pinkie Pie also has a unique ability centered around Party. While there aren’t a ton of cards that utilize the Party mechanic, playing cards like Archpriest of Iona could provide a decent starting point.
Last up, we have Rainbow Dash. Rainbow Dash pays you off for having lots of Creatures in your deck that have either Flying or Haste. Every time you attack with a Flier or Hasty Creature, you get 20% cooler. Then, when you get to at least 100% coolness, you can tap Rainbow Dash to generate one mana of each color, draw a card, and reset your coolness. Adding five mana and drawing a card is a decent boost, and some players have already found a way to abuse this ability.
Rainbow Dash isn’t too over the top compared to some other silver-bordered cards, and in conjunction with a card like Najeela, the Blade-Blossom and a way to give Rainbow Dash Vigilance, you can completely go off. With a Vigilant Rainbow Dash and Najeela in play, if you attack with Rainbow Dash and four other Creatures with Flying or Haste, you can immediately get to 100% coolness. This will allow you to activate Rainbow Dash, generating five mana and drawing you a card. You can then use that five mana to activate Najeela’s ability, giving you an extra combat step and untapping your attacking Creatures.
Attacking with these Creatures again will let you activate Rainbow Dash’s ability again and continue this process. So long as you have enough cards in your deck, this is a really cool combo to maximize. In the end, these cards are simply fun designs meant to support a good cause. Being able to use them in a casual setting is a nice bonus, and it’s cool to see a sequel to the original Ponies: The Galloping from almost four years ago.
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