Game Breaker / My Little Pony Collectible Card Game

Despite not being a Long Runner, My Little Pony Collectible Card Game has accumulated enough Game Breakers to gain its own page.

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• From Premiere:
  • "Cloudchaser, Flexible Flier", a Rare with 1 power and 2 cost. You can exhaust it to reduce the cost of the next friend you play this turn by 1. Doesn't sound great, but it can add up quickly. Plus, if you happen to have a 1 cost friend in your hand, you can use this card's effect to play it even if you have no Action Tokens left. And that's not getting into the shenanigans you can play when you have "Lead Pony Badge" in play...
  • "Rarity, Truly Outrageous" is an Ultra Rare with 2 power, 3 cost, and 2 White Requirement. Doesn't sound that great at first, but her ability is what's really great: When you confront her problem, you can move her home to get that problem's bonus. It has bridged gaps when her player was losing and almost always ensured victory if her play was leading. She's fallen out of favor with the advent of Absolute Discord, but she is still a staple in most white decks.
  • "Twilight Sparkle, Ursa Vanquisher" is a 4 power, 3 cost, and 3 Purple Requirement Ultra Rare. She has Studious, which gives you an Action Token if you win a faceoff involving her, but her real appeal is her effect: While she's at a problem, you can exhaust her and then put her back into your hand to send two opposing characters at problems home. What makes this devastating? It costs 3 to play her, and it takes 2 to move just one friend.
  • "Stand Still!" is a Rare event with no cost and 2 white requirement. When your opponent moves a character, this card moves it back. This card has forced players to waste Action Tokens just to ensure their setup got off and left the possibility that they can't react to an opponent's sudden surprise. The lack of a cost makes this trivial to play.
  • "Falcon, Fast & Furious" is a Rare with 1 power, 1 cost, and 1 Yellow Requirement. When it moves to a problem, it can drag ay Critter Friend (including another "Falcon") with it. Common targets are "Forest Owl, Novice Assistant", which has no power and 1 cost but gives +1 power to every one of your characters at its location.
  • "Rainbow Dash, Winged Wonder" is a 2 power, 3 cost, 2 Blue Requirement Ultra Rare that, when played, can move up to three of your Friends to its problem. This effect has enabled players to confront problems they would never have been able to deal with otherwise and has paved the way for double faceoffs.
  • "Spring Forward, Companionable Filly" is a Rare with 2 power, 3 cost, and 3 Purple requirement. Doesn't sound that great, until you see that she gain +2 power for each opposing character at her problem. Suddenly, she becomes quite cost effective, especially against Zerg Rushes. And if that wasn't strong enough, she has Studious, so you gain 1 Action Token if she ever wins a faceoff. She is often paired with "Lady Justice, Judge & Jury", which is 3 power, 4 cost, no requirement, and imposes a -1 penalty to each opposing character's power. Back in the days of Premiere and Canterlot Nights, these two side-by-side on the same problem were almost impossible to beat in a faceoff. This combo has fallen out of favor with the advent of Maud.dek, and it is largely ineffective against decks that don't use Zerg Rush tactics.
  • "Twilight Sparkle, All-Team-Organizer" is a Common with 2 power, 3 cost, and 2 Purple requirement. Her effect allows you to exhaust her to gain 1 Action Token that disappears at the end of the phase. Why is this practical? There's nothing in the rules saying you have to lose 1 Action Token if you spent the temporary one already, so she's been able to make otherwise impossible plays possible.
  • "Fluttershy, Guidance Counselor" is a Rare with 3 power, 3 cost, and 3 Yellow requirement. Not too bad, but then you get to her effect, which drains 1 Action Token from an opponent when they so much as gain one. Being set back by 1 Action Token can greatly hamper the opponent, so getting multiples of these out can quickly lock them out of their plays. There was a reason this card is banned in Harmony Format...
  • "Critter Cavalry" is a Rare event with 1 cost and 2 Yellow requirement. When you flip a card in a faceoff, this card adds +5 to that card's power. This card has turned many a faceoff around and given the lead to whomever played it.
  • "Big Macintosh, Immense Apple" is an Ultra Rare card with 4 power, 5 cost, and 2 Orange requirement. Not only does he have Stubborn (which leave exhaustion useless against him), he also flips an extra card during faceoffs. This makes him very useful for defeating previously-flipped villains and Troublemakers in general, most notably "Queen Chrysalis", as her effect that exhausts a random character at the start of a faceoff is useless against "Big Mac" thanks to his Stubborn. Sadly, as of Crystal Games, he has fallen out of favor thanks to an even stronger card.
  • "Ahuizotl", a Rare Epic Villain Troublemaker with 5 power and 2 reward for winning against him. Sure, he's not the rarest Troublemaker in Premiere, nor is he the only Villain, but his effect is the more annoying out of the two. At the end of the Troublemaker Phase, the turn player has to move one of their characters at his problem back home. This makes him hard to get characters over there to face him. With "Nightmare Moon", all you have to do is get your characters there and wait until you have enough power to confidently take her out despite having more power. That isn't there with "Ahuizotl"; you either confront him and hope you get lucky or move your characters home. If you lose, you will have to move two of your characters home; one for losing the faceoff and the other for "Ahuizotl's" effect.
• From Canterlot Nights, Rock'n'Rave, and Celestial Solstice:
  • "Fluttershy, Friend to Animals" is one of the easier Mane Characters to flip. You can pay 3 Action Tokens to flip her over, but that cost drops for every Critter Friend you have on the board. Her Boosted side has Caretaker, which gives her +1 if she's at a problem with a Critter, and you can pay 1 Action Token to move her to any problem that has on of your Critter Friends, creating a more limited version of Swift. This card was typically used as a lead in Yellow/White decks that went by the name "Ballroom Blitz", and those decks frequently made it to the top 8 in tournaments.
  • "Eagle, Soaring Raptor" is an Uncommon with 3 power, 3 cost, and 1 Yellow Requirement. It is Pumped, so it will need support and be engaged in faceoffs to get its power. When it does, you can spend a card from beneath it to move it at the start of any phase, even during your opponent's turn. It is a staple in "Ballroom Blitz", or any deck using "Fluttershy, Friend to Animals".
  • "Nurse Redheart, Cantankerous Caretaker" is a Rare with 3 power, 3 cost, and 4 Yellow Requirement. She is Pumped and thus needs support, but when she gets power, she can send any opposing friend back to its owner's hand at the start of any Score Phase. This can potentially lock out an opponent's moves and outright lock them down.
  • "I Just Can't Decide" is a Rare resource with 1 cost and 2 Purple requirement. It is played on a problem, and its controller can pay an Action Token and exhaust it to move any opposing character at its problem. It is a re-useable "Back Where You Began" that is cheaper and has a better flip power than "Trixie Hat".
  • "Vittles Stand" is a Common resource with 2 cost and 2 Orange requirement. You can exhaust it and a character to give another one its power until the end of the turn. Combined with Stubborn characters, and this card effectively doubles a Friend's power. It can also be used on characters at home to boost a character at a problem by a large amount.
  • "Varmint Barricade" is a Rare Resource with 1 cost and 1 Orange Requirement. Every time a Troublemaker is played, you banish the top card of your deck to beneath it similarly to Pumped characters. You can then spend such a card from beneath it to move characters to a problem with a Troublemaker without paying any more Action Tokens. One is powerful, two is excellent, and three gives you all the movement you need. It is a stable in Maud.dek.
  • "Princess Luna, Mare in the Moon" is an Ultra Rare with 2 power, 3 cost, and 3 Purple requirement. Normally, those stats aren't great, but her effect makes her completely worthwhile. At the start of any Phase, even during your opponent's turn, you can banish her. Then, at the start of your turn, you put her back into play at either problem or your home. It can be summed up as delayed yet free movement, plus she can avoid Villains.
  • "Pinny Lane, Bowl 'em Over" is a Rare with 2 power, 3 cost, and 2 Pink requirement. When she is played, you can retire another friend to gain Action Tokens equal to the retired card's cost. Doesn't sound that great, right? Then you start retiring high cost cards and get mountains of Action Tokens, or using her with friends that can be played for less than their printed cost to end up with more Action Tokens than you started with. The biggest case is when you combine this card with "Dr. Hooves, Unblinking". When the latter card hits the discard pile, he gets another "Dr. Hooves" card (any of them) to your home from your deck, albeit frightened. His cost is 5, so you would gain 5 Action Tokens and another "Dr. Hooves" from your deck that you can then use to repeat the process with a net gain of 2 Action Tokens. Pinny Lane formed the crux of an Action Token engine that could generate ludicrous amounts of Sequence Breaking, and she was subsequently banned to give other decks a fighting chance.
  • "Maud Pie, Rockin'" can be Boosted easily. All you need is a Friend and Resource and she will flip as soon as the score phase starts. Once flipped, she gains +1 power for each different kind of card in your discard pile. On paper, it sounds like a 9 power until you realize Mane Characters and Problems can't be sent to the discard pile. Still, 7 power is nothing to sneeze at, and there are plenty of ways to get it that high early. Typical "Maud" decks also run "Varmint Barricade" and lots of Troublemakers, including Nightmare Moon since her effect can power up Maud in short order.
  • "DJ Pon-3, Party Starter" Boosts simply from drawing 3 cards in one turn, though she shuffles your deck right before she does. Then, you can exhaust her to draw a card, and if she's with at least three friends, she readies automatically, which can allow some extra power in a faceoff or even just confront a problem.
  • "Ten Seconds Flat" is an Event that lets you move a character at the start of your opponent's Score Phase. On its own, it isn't that great, but it can force a faceoff when your opponent doesn't want one, or, when combined with "Twilight Sparkle, Gala Greeter", it can stop an opponent from confronting a problem altogether or force a necessary friend right into a Villain Bomb, albeit indirectly. It can also set off "Wild Fire, Speed Racer's" or "Holly Dash, Flighty Filly's" effect and let you move even more characters.
  • "Snips and Snails, Problem Solvers" is a Rare with 3 power, 2 cost, and 3 Pink requirement. You can exhaust and retire them at a problem to change it out. This has a lot of utility in that it can get rid of Troublemakers, give you a fresh problem, and force your opponents characters to go home. It has ensured wins for many people because of these things, and it is considered a staple in Pink decks. The high power and low cost have been used from time to time.
  • "Social Obligations" is an Uncommon Problem that requires 2 White and 2 non-white the confront on your end, and 5 power on the opponent's end. It is a Problem that benefits you (and only you) so long as you use your Mane Character. What sets this card apart from the others is its ability: When you win a faceoff involving your Mane, you can exhaust your Mane to score an extra point. None of the others do that, and it has caused many an early lead for players who consistently win faceoffs with their Manes. It is a staple in White decks, and it is what made Ballroom Blitz decks hard to deal with in the early game. What's more? It's a starting problem, so you can gain an advantage quite early if you control the board or defeat Troublemakers.
• From The Crystal Games:
  • "Bulk Biceps, Pumped Up" is a Rare with 2 power, 2 cost, and 4 requirement. He may start off weak and hard to play, and he is Pumped and thus needs support to get going, but when he gets power, he becomes a veritable monster. He gets +1 power for each card banished beneath him, and when he gets 4 power, he can move for free at the start of any Score Phase. Opponent going for a faceoff? Have him join the fray and get a free card. Opponent is only barely confronting a problem? Move him there and force a faceoff that they will most likely lose while giving "Bulk" another card. Many games have been in the bag when this card got boost enough.
  • "Yoink!", a Rare Event with no cost and 3 Pink requirement. During faceoffs, you can play it to dismiss any opposing friend with power greater than its cost. This typically includes cards like "Bulk Biceps, Pumped Up", "Applejack, Carbo-Loader", and lots of other problematic friends.
  • "Out of Action" is a Rare Resource with 1 cost and 2 Orange requirement. When equipped onto a Friend, that friend is exhausted and cannot ready during the Ready Phase. This card has left many otherwise powerful Friends down and out.
  • "Applejack, Carbo-Loader" is an Ultra Rare with 4 power, 3 cost, and 4 Orange requirement. Her effect lets you exhaust her and flip an extra card during any faceoff. Doesn't sound that bad, right? Then you see she has Teamwork, which gives her abilities to every Friend that shares a trait with her, so long as they're in the same place as she is (Home or a Problem). Suddenly, all of your Earth Pony Friends can exhaust themselves to grant extra flips to all but assure you winning faceoffs.
  • "Pony Charm" is a Rare Resource with 3 cost and 5 White requirement. It is hard to play, but when you do, you gain control over whatever opposing Friend you played it on. This can greatly disrupt the opponent since you're now using their Friend to your advantage.
  • "Destiny Drain" is downplayed compared to others here, but it has its place. It is an Ultra Rare with 3 cost and 3 Purple requirement. When you play this card, you target 1 card in your opponent' discard pile. It gets banished, along with every single copy of it in their hand, deck, and discard pile. Then, it banishes itself. The sheer disruption potential is limitless since it throws a wrench in your opponent's plans.
    
    Say your opponent played "Cutie Pox Scare" earlier and used it to stop you from confronting. You can play "Destiny Drain" to get rid of it and all future copies, including one (or both) that may be in their hand. Or you can play it on a "Applejack, Carbo-Loader" that happened to get dismissed. Suddenly, you don't have to worry as much about faceoffs. Really, it can be great when you hit the right card, but it can backfire if you hit the wrong one.
  • "A Hasty Retreat" is a Fixed Event with 2 cost and 4 Purple requirement. During a faceoff, it lets you put an opponent's friend on top of their deck. It can get rid of an opponent's friend and effectively reduce their total power. It can also get rid of a problematic friend such as "Cloudchaser", "Bulk Biceps", "Carbo-Loader", etc. And, if your opponent is foolish enough to have "Blank" involved, you can use this card to make them flip it and thus win you the game.
  • "Cutie Pox Scare" is a Rare Event with 3 cost and 2 Purple requirement. At the start of any Score Phase, it moves every character at a problem back home. It's expensive, but it can stop the opponent from confronting and possibly getting into a double faceoff that could lead to them winning. It can also stop them from getting a high bonus from a problem.
• From Absolute Discord:
  • "Princess Luna, Dream Guide" is an Orange Mane with no ability on her Boosted side. Why? The effect that makes her flip is quite powerful. When you discard a card, you can pay 1 to force your opponent to reveal their hand and make two piles out of the cards. You then banish one pile and flip her over.
  • "Truffle, Newsworthy" is a common with 2 power, 2 cost, and 1 Purple requirement. Whenever your opponent moves a card, you can exhaust him to gain 1 Action Token. It might not seem like much, but having Action Tokens makes plays possible, and the more you've got, the ore you can do. It can also discourage your opponent from moving, lest you get the Tokens needed to pull something.
  • "Cheerilee, Break it up!" is a Rare with 2 power, 2 cost, and 2 Purple requirement. When you flip her in any faceoff, you can end that faceoff immediately. If you have her out, you can retire her to end any faceoff. Go into a faceoff that suddenly goes south and you have no chance of winning? Denied! Want to protect your Troublemakers and Villains from overwhelming odds? Deny them victory. Really, this card has a lot of potential to be annoying, especially when combined with the right Troublemakers.
  • "Rarity, Discorded" is an Uncommon colorless card with 2 power, 3 cost, and 2 Orange requirement. When your opponent's turn ends, she forces them to discard a card. Put some of them together with a "Yellow Parasprite" and/or "Nightmare Moon, Deep Darkness" or her Villain self, and your opponent will be hard-pressed to keep their hands full, let alone get a real plays off.
  • "Ahuizotl, Oppressive" is a Rare with 3 power and 3 cost that lacks a color. He makes it to where neither player can score any more than 2 point per turn. If you're in the lead, and there happens to be large gap, you can use this card to greatly slow them down, since even a double faceoff won't give them many points. Alternatively, you can slow them down from the get go, but beware that he will penalize you, too.
  • "Popping Corn" is a Rare event with 1 cost and 2 Orange requirement. It can be played at the star of the Score Phase, and its power depends on whether the opponent's Mane is boosted or not. If Boosted, it exhausts everything at a problem with 3 or less power. If not, one those wither 2 or less are affected. It has been likened to being the "Cutie Pox Scare" for Orange decks.
  • "Plunderseed Vines" is an Uncommon Troublemaker with 4 power and 1 reward. Sure, it can be beaten easily, but if it is, you can pay 1 Action Token to play any Troublemaker from your hand to its problem. Face up. Since the opponent can confront Troublemakers at a particular problem only once per turn, this can ensure that they have to go through another one just to get to the problem (and possibly its bonus). Troublemakers that can have detrimental effects upon flipping (Villains while you have friends there, "Applejack, Liar", and "Spike, Excessive") won't have those effects trigger.
  • "Lord Tirek" is an Epic Villain Troublemaker with 5 power and 2 reward. Same as Ahuizotl, right? At the start of a faceoff involving this card, Lord Tirek dismisses one Friend involved with the lowest power and then gains +1 power. Opponents hoping to defeat it? They still lose a card. Opponents winning? Cheerilee can protect it and possibly force them to sacrifice another Friend while he gains another +1 power. You can also try fighting him yourself just to give him more power. He is the only troublemaker that cannot be solo'd by Friends who gain permanent power boosts like "Bulk Biceps, Pumped Up". His power comes from "+1 power counters", so negating his abilities won't drop him back to 5 power.
  • "Pinkie Pie, Grump" is an Uncommon Troublemaker with 3 power and 2 reward. Why play this when it may as well be an easy +2 points for your opponent? Every time a player draws a card, she gains +1 power. And this is for every card drawn. On your opponent's turn, she's already at 4 power AT LEAST. If you happened to draw after flipping her, her power will be even higher. It is very possible to get her to as high as the 30s in terms of raw strength. At that point, the only way to deal with her is to use an Epic Troublemaker, "Snips and Snails, Problem Solvers", or "Epic Win"; the latter at least gives you her reward. Cards that take away abilities from Troublemakers won't take away her power; her power comes from "+1 power counters".
  • "Epic Win" is a Rare Event with 3 cost and 4 Blue requirement. At the start of your Troublemaker Phase, you can play this card and automatically defeat an opponent's Troublemaker and score their bonus. If your opponent's troublemaker has gained a lot of power (Such as "Lord Tirek" or "Pinkie Pie, Grump"), this is one of the few ways to get rid of it. Alternatively, if you just use it to get rid of a Troublemaker without having to risk anything on a faceoff (especially against "Lord Tirek").
  • "Discord, Give or Take" is an Ultra Rare Mane character. When you play a friend, you can look at the top card of your deck; if both cards have the same printed power, he flips over. When he does, when he's at a problem, you can pay 2 Action Tokens to either give another Character there +3 power or penalize them for -3. This can ensure you confront or stop your opponent from confronting to either stop faceoffs, or force them.
  • "Queen Chrysalis, Commanding Queen" is an Ultra Rare Mane character. Sure, she has no Boosted side effect outside of increasing Home Limit, but the effect to Boost her is a powerful one-shot. You pay 3 Action Tokens to take control of an opposing Friend. Suddenly, your opponent is short one Friend and you can use their abilities to your benefit. It is considered to be one of the better White Manes in the game because of this.
  • "Queen Chrysalis, Identity Theft" is an Ultra Rare card that is colorless and has 3 power and 3 cost. When you summon her, she gains the printed effects of ANY non-Unique Friend on the board. All of them. She remains colorless, but effectively becoming a 3 power version of another Friend has limitless potential. Any of the other Gamebreakers in this CCG can be copied so long as they're not Unique. The only thing keeping her from being any more effective is because she is Unique; There Can Only Be One of her on the board.
  • "Trenderhoof, Trailblazer" is an Ultra Rare card with 2 power, 2 cost, and 4 White requirement. He is Unique, and effect makes everything on the board Unique, too. This can immediately force the opponent to retire cards that they now have two copies of on their side. Another powerful way to use this effect is Teamwork. Unique is a trait, and since Teamwork requires every friend to share a trait in order to work, cards like "Carbo-Loader" suddenly become that much more powerful, and that's just the tip of the iceberg...
  • "Discord, Spirit of Chaos" is an Ultra Rare card with 7 power, 3 cost, and 2 Pink requirement. No other friend has this high of a power (yet), but it's just fluff; his effect imposes a -3 penalty while he's on the board. His real appeal is his Chaos effect, which puts him into play immediately. If you're fighting off a Troublemaker or are in a Problem faceoff, it is effectively +11 to your power. He can be combined with cards the remove effects, such as "Dressed Up" to give him back his power; "Dressed Up" even gives him +1 power AND makes him White, so he'll be dual-colored AND an 8 power Friend.
  • "Sunset Shimmer, Clever Girl" is an Ultra Rare with 2 power, 2 cost, and 1 Purple requirement. When your opponent plays a card, you can discard a card of the same type (Friend for Friend, Resource for Resource, etc.) to gain 1 Action Token. And she can do this endlessly as long as you have cards to toss, which means you could potentially build up a lot of Action Tokens to pull stuff on your opponent. However, it is recommended that she be played in a deck that can quickly draw its cards back.
  • "Screwball, Topsy Turvy" is a Rare with 1 power, 3 cost, and 3 Pink requirement. By those stats alone, this isn't a great card. However, you play her to your opponent's field, where she forces them to retire friends until she's the only one left to retire. She contributes little, otherwise.
  • "Minuette, Fast Forward" is a Rare with 2 power, 2 cost, and 3 Purple requirement. For 2 Action Tokens, her effect lets you banish any of your other Friends and put it back into play at the start of your next turn anywhere. On its own, it's not that great, but when combined with "Tom, Rolling Rock" (Uncommon, has 1 power, 3 cost, and 4 Pink requirement; dismisses any opposing Friend upon entering play), she can eventually tear apart everything on the opponent's side of the board. It would seem Tom is a better match for Minuette than Rarity...
• From High Magic:
  • "Tantabus, Night Terror" is an Ultra Rare Troublemaker with 4 power and a Chaos effect that removes all Action Tokens when flipped during a faceoff, and also deducts 1 Action Token from the turn player at the end of each turn. What was meant to be a tool for punishing opponents that hoard Action Tokens ended up being one of the most powerful lockdown cards in the game, as players worked out a combo that would allow them to reliably use Tantabus's effect every single turn, basically preventing the opponent from even playing the game. The "Tantabuse" deck was considered degenerate enough that the card was banned starting August 31, 2016.
  • "Discord, Party Clasher" is a Rare with 2 power, 2 cost, and 3 Pink and 3 Purple requirement, who banishes a friend upon entering play until he leaves play, and can be retired to draw a card. While not too remarkable on his own, Party Clasher was downright busted in combination with "Fancy Pants, Respected Aristocrat", who could put a friend with 2 cost or less from your discard pile into play upon entering play himself. Basically, you could use Fancy Pants to cheat out Discord, banish Fancy Pants with Discord, then retire Discord to draw a card, which returns Fancy Pants to play, which brings Discord back to start the process all over again. This puts you back where you started... except your hand is now one card bigger. That's right, they accidentally printed a two-card infinite draw engine. Both cards were hastily given errata to only trigger when played, meaning that they can no longer loop between each other.
• From Equestrian Odysseys:
  • Bulk Biceps, Extra Strong Masseuse is an Uncommon with 3 cost, 2 power, and 1 White and 1 Pink requirement. Upon entering play, he dismisses any friend of your choice, and upon leaving play, he recovers a card from your discard pile. What bumps this card up from "good" to "broken" is its interaction with Interdimensional Portal, a 2-cost event that banishes a friend and immediately puts it back into play, thus triggering both of Bulk Biceps's effects at once. The most common target for his retrieval effect? Another copy of Interdimensional Portal, which can then be used to retrieve the first Portal, removing another friend in the process. The ability to nuke any number of opposing friends for 2 AT a pop was, naturally, neither fun nor interactive for the opponent; couple that with the existence of other blink-type effects that could abuse his abilities, and it was enough for Bulk Biceps to get the banhammer.