Magic: The Gathering’s new My Little Pony cards look wild in the mix

My Little Pony is a popular, positive franchise that shares the values of friendship, cooperation, compromise, and pursuing your passion. Colorful ponies like Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, and Twilight Sparkle go on adventures, deal with the trials and tribulations of growing up, and occasionally cross over into other media. My Little Pony is one of the franchises that has been added to the library of Magic: The Gathering cards over the years, and it’s genuinely very funny to see these prancing ponies portrayed next to dark and terrifying creatures like Massacre Wurm or Mandible Justiciar.

Ponies: The Galloping first released as a three-card set in 2019, including Rarity, Nightmare Moon, and Princess Twilight Sparkle. These ponies are a little more subdued and less saturated than the second set, Ponies: The Galloping 2.

Grid View

• Image: Wizards of the Coast
• Image: Wizards of the Coast
• Image: Wizards of the Coast
• Image: Wizards of the Coast

These cards are so sweet and friendly, it’s hard not to smile. If players manage to control the full herd of pony friends, there’s a special end game condition where everybody wins. What a lovely tribute to the cast of this beloved children’s show! Of course, when you start to combine the Pony: The Galloping cards with other beasts from the Magic menagerie, things get a little... odd.

It’s hard to imagine Pinkie Pie getting along with Massacre Wurm — I mean, one’s a party-loving pony, and the other is a giant fanged worm that crushes enemies and drains its foes life force. On the other hand, maybe the Massacre Wurm would like to party with friends. Has anyone asked it? Pinkie Pie synergizes with cards that have a smile in their art, so the Wurm qualifies — and so do other terrifying cards like the Abomination.

Here, one of the biggest bad guys in Warhammer: Age of Sigmar can team up with Rainbow Dash. I’m not entirely sure what happens if you expose Rainbow Dash to the corrupting force of Chaos, and whether she’d canonically be down to work with a guy festooned with skulls, but this is Magic: The Gathering, where the combination is not just possible, but a good tactical approach.

Ponies: The Galloping 2 is another Secret Lair drop for Magic: The Gathering, and it’s not tournament legal. However, 50% of every purchase of Ponies: The Galloping 2 will be donated to support the Seattle Children’s Autism Center. The set will be available starting at 9 a.m. PDT on Monday, Sept. 18.