My Little Pony: Adventures in Equestria Deck-Building Game – Collision Course Expansion
My Little Pony: Adventures in Equestria Deck-Building Game – Collision Course Expansion Rulebook
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
New Additions to the Supply
These new materials are used just like the ones in the core set, with a few exceptions, as outlined in this Rulebook.
- 77 Standard Cards (54 Adventure Deck Cards: 7 Starter, 11 Situation, 5 Reference)
- 22 Deluxe Oversized Cards (9 Hurdles, 5 Final Challenges, 7 Characters, 1 Location)
- 6 Location Cards
- 7 Character Standees
- 7 Plastic Standee Bases
- 3 Mini-Cassette Tokens, 3 Dinobot Tokens, 12 Battery Tokens, 1 Lasso Token, 1 Space Bridge Token
All-New Starting Characters
Each player needs to choose a Starting Character. With this Collision Course expansion, you can now play as Applejack Wildwheel, Fluttershy Soundwave, Pinkie Pie Gauge, Rainbow Dash Windblade, Rarity Arcee, Spike Grimlock, or Twilight Sparkle Optimus Prime. Of course, you can still choose one of the original Starting Characters from the core set or from any set you have.
The new Pony & Robot Characters use these unique cards to complete their starting decks:
- Applejack Wildwheel: Mighty Fine Shootin', Partner!
- Fluttershy Soundwave: Friendship is Superior
- Pinkie Pie Gauge: That's Showbiz, Baby!
- Rainbow Dash Windblade: Born Ready, Bolts!
- Rarity Arcee: Kindred Spirits
- Spike Grimlock: Honorary Dinobot!
- Twilight Sparkle Optimus Prime: A Powerful Bond
Take the matching Character card for your team and place it in front of you with the Starting Side face up. Insert the matching standee in the plastic base and place it next to the Central Location. Place three Battery tokens (1 of each color) next to each Character card, on its Energon/Sugar Cube side as demonstrated on the next page.
Example: Fluttershy Soundwave starts off with their Battery tokens as well as their Reference card and Mini-Cassette tokens. They're now ready to take on those Decepticons, but hopefully they're not alone (eep!).
If the following Characters are in the game, they also take their Reference card, and corresponding tokens for their personal supply:
- Applejack Wildwheel: 1 x Lasso Token
- Fluttershy Soundwave: 3 x Mini-Cassette Tokens
- Spike Grimlock: 3 x Dinobot Tokens
- Twilight Sparkle Optimus Prime: 1 x Space Bridge Token
New Situations, Hurdles, and Challenges
A standard game of My Little Pony: Adventures in Equestria will pit your team against 3 Hurdles and 1 Final Challenge. In this expansion, there are 9 new Hurdles and 5 new Final Challenges to add to the available pool of possibilities. Set up the Hurdles and Final Challenge as described in the core set rule book. Lord Megatron is our first Level 4 Final Challenge; an order we could not have refused!
To increase the difficulty, try adding an additional Hurdle or two to the Active Hurdle stack at the start of the game. This will give the Clouds more time to accumulate on the Final Challenge and you might also see the Adventure Deck run low, which could cause the game to end if it runs out!
New Locations
Collision Course adds 7 new Locations to your available Location options. You can now visit Cybertron: Autobot HQ, Cybertron: Metro City, Cybertron: The Ancient Titans, Cybertron: The Outskirts, Cybertron: The Wastelands, Las Pegasus, and Manehattan to perform all-new Tasks that can guide your team to victory.
Place Cybertron: Autobot HQ in the center of play as the Central Location. Then shuffle the rest of the Location cards together, and randomly create a Location deck with 10 cards (return the unused Locations to the box without looking at them). Finally, draw the top 3 cards and arrange them around the Central Location as in the core game. Do not shuffle any other Central Locations into this deck if you have multiple expansions.
Important Note: Do not use Ponyville: Town Square from the core set when you play with the materials from this set, or the team will miss out on Cybertron: Autobot HQ's upgraded Energon bonus and Tasks.
Preparing the Adventure Deck
Collision Course features a ton of new Allies, Actions, and Artifacts for you to buy. There are also new Situation cards that will want to make their presence felt.
To prepare the Adventure Deck with all these new cards, follow these procedures in order:
- Shuffle all of the available Ally cards, then create a stack of 30 random Ally cards.
- Shuffle all of the available Action cards, then create a stack of 24 random Action cards.
- Shuffle all of the available Artifact cards, then create a stack of 6 random Artifact cards.
- Shuffle all of these stacks together into an Adventure Deck of 60 cards, then draw the top 6 cards and place them face up to form the initial Adventure Row.
If this is your first few times playing with this expansion and you've yet to win a game, leave the Situations out until you win. When you're ready to add them in, shuffle all of the Situation cards together, then take the top 4, 6, or 8 cards from the stack (according to your desired difficulty level) and shuffle them into the Adventure Deck after placing the initial 6 cards into the Adventure Row.
If you're really feeling "Pinkie Keen," use only one copy of each Ally and Action card from the core set and expansions when creating these stacks of cards to shuffle into the Adventure Deck. Now you have a 60-card Adventure Deck where all of the cards are unique! However, the same should apply to the dastardly Situations! Insert 0, 4, 6, or 8 Situations into the Adventure Deck after you've formed the initial Adventure Row.
Place all unused cards back in the box, unseen. Now you're ready to roll out! See "Build the Adventure Deck and Row" in the core rulebook (page 3) if you need a refresher on how to get your Adventure Deck and Row ready.
New Mechanics
Excesses of Energon!
Many of the brand-new materials in this set feature a new symbol for you to generate and spend: Energon (as that's what Robots need in order to thrive)! Energon can come in 3 different colors: Green, Pink, and Blue, but if you see a Black Energon, that's a wild Energon that you can use as any color on your turn! And you might be thinking, those seem familiar....
Just like Help, Info, and Move, any Energon generated by a card is usable only during the turn it is generated and will be lost when the turn ends, so be efficient with your Energon!
Battery Tokens
You may spend 1 available Energon of any color (Green, Pink, or Blue) to flip over the corresponding Battery token, creating a "completed" Battery. Now it's ready to be used for Character card abilities!
If you require a completed Battery token of a particular color (Green, Pink, or Blue) and have no Energon available, you may discard a matching Sugar Cube instead. Those Robots really are resourceful!
When you need to spend completed Battery tokens for any purpose, you must flip them back to their Energon/Sugar Cube, or "incomplete" side. There is no limit to how many times a Battery token may flip in a turn.
Important Note: If any card effect requires you to spend available Energon, you may not spend completed Battery tokens.
Convert and Collaborate!
Each new Character card comes with 2 abilities that can help the team out in critical moments. Both abilities make use of the Battery token system, as Robots run on Energon (and definitely not cucumber sandwiches, Rarity!)
Starting Side abilities may help make purchasing cards much easier, or they may be quite useful when dealing with certain Situations and Chaos. In contrast, Flipped Side abilities are once-a-turn abilities that may change the momentum of the game for the better, so they're best used when the team is feeling under the pressure of the Final Challenge!
On a Character card's Starting Side: To use your Starting Side abilities, you'll need to store generated Energon into completed Battery tokens.
Example: By starting their turn at Cybertron: Autobot HQ, and by playing Friendship is Superior, Fluttershy Soundwave gains the required Energon to store into Battery tokens; now they can use their Starting Side ability!
To flip over your Character card to its more powerful Flipped side, you must spend the required completed Battery tokens.
Example: If they played An Optimal Alliance, they would also gain 1 Black Energon, which they could use to substitute for a Green Energon. They can proceed to store, then eventually spend the required completed Green and Blue Battery tokens to flip their Character card to their stronger Flipped side.
On a Character's Flipped Side: In the Start of Turn step, players generate the listed Energon on their Character card if they started their turn on the Flipped side. At any point in their turn, they spend all 3 complete Battery tokens to unleash their ultimate Flipped side ability!
Example: If they manage to complete all 3 Battery tokens again, they can spend these to unleash their ultimate ability: To deploy the Mini-Cassette tokens!
Important Note: You may only use your Flipped ability once per turn, but your Starting Side ability is not limited in this way. As long as you control the completed Battery tokens you need to activate it, your Starting Side ability remains active, and you can use it as many times as you like during your turn. If there are any card effects that allow you to flip your Character card over, do not flip over your Battery tokens.
If there are any cards that mention certain Mane Six characters, such as the Pet Ally cards like Angel and Gummy, these card effects will also work with these new tandem Characters.
Token-Toting Tandems!
Some of the new characters have brought over a few useful tokens with them. By activating their Flipped ability, they're able to immediately use these tokens from their personal supply. Each type of token has a different effect as described below. When these tokens are discarded, they return to that player's supply, and they can reuse them again later on.
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Applejack Wildwheel: Their ability allows you to place 1 purchasable card from the Adventure Row next to their Character card, with the Lasso token on it as a reminder, keeping it separate from your other cards in play. On any future turn, you may purchase this card for half the printed cost of the card (rounded down) and immediately add it to your hand.
If this ability is used while the Lasso is deployed, you may redeploy this token to a new card. Discard the previous card to the Adventure Row discard pile.
Example: Applejack Wildwheel's ability allows them to take Optimus Prime from the Adventure Row and mark it with the Lasso token. On a later turn, they may purchase Optimus Prime for a cost of 3 instead of 7 (half rounded down!).
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Fluttershy Soundwave: Their ability lets you deploy any available Mini-Cassette tokens on any non-Central Locations.
While a Mini-Cassette is deployed at a Location:
- Fluttershy Soundwave may perform a Task at that Location as if their Standee was there. After performing the Task, discard 1 Mini-Cassette from that Location.
- If a Mini-Cassette shares a Location with the Active player, Fluttershy Soundwave may contribute any Resource tokens they control to assist in performing any Task there.
If a Location is discarded, any Mini-Cassettes there are also discarded. If this ability is used while there are deployed Mini-Cassettes, you may redeploy those tokens.
Example: Fluttershy Soundwave can deploy all of their Mini-Cassette tokens to any number of non-Central Locations. They may perform any 1 Task as if they were there at those Locations, even though they're nice and safe at home at Cybertron: Autobot HQ, and they may also contribute their Resource tokens to help their teammates with paying for their Tasks at those Locations.
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Spike Grimlock: When this ability is used, you gain your Dinobot tokens, then you may distribute these tokens between all players. Dinobots act like Resource Tokens when used to generate resources, but are not considered Resource Tokens for any other purpose. Each Dinobot generates either 2 Help, 2 Info, or 2 Move, and they are discarded when used. When this ability is used while any players have Dinobot tokens, you may redeploy them between all players.
Hurdles and Situations Bring the Pain!
The players weren't the only ones to get an upgrade – So did the bad things! Bombshell, Kickback, and Shrapnel will inflict major damage by shuffling themselves into the active player's deck when they're revealed. If they are ever discarded, add 1 to the Final Challenge. These are certainly not cards to be trifled with!
Decepticon Attack!, Decepticon Battalion!, and Decepticon Crusade! will affect players as they move to Locations, by choice or otherwise. After any player moves to a new Location, the top card of the Hurdle Stack is revealed for its Chaos effect. If the player moving there (with the help of their teammates) can Overcome the Chaos, the Situation is resolved, and they'll gain 1 Sugar Cube. If they Fail, add 1 to the Final Challenge. If the Chaos deck runs out, shuffle the discarded Hurdles and make a new deck.
Example: Twilight Sparkle Optimus Prime pay 2 Move to move to Manehattan, because the team is in desperate need of some Sugar Cubes. Decepticon Crusade! forces them to draw the top Hurdle of the Chaos deck. Oh no, it's Mindwipe Skullcruncher! If the team cannot pay 1 Blue Sugar Cube or [unidentified icon], they have to add 1 Cloud to the Final Challenge.
The Decepticon Hurdles and some Situations in this set all feature a new Keyword: Intercept. When the team attempts to overcome the Active Hurdle, cards from the Adventure Row will be Intercepted. Each time card(s) are Intercepted, you must tuck the leftmost matching card(s) of the Adventure Row underneath the provided Reference card. If there are no legal targets, skip this step.
If the team has successfully overcome the Active Hurdle before the Setback has been suffered, the cards placed under the Reference card will all be shuffled back into the Adventure Deck. If the Setback has been suffered, remove all accumulated cards from the game after the Active Hurdle has been discarded.
Example: The team decides to Attempt to overcome Devastator, the Active Hurdle. Devastator requires the team to Intercept the 2 leftmost Ally cards from Adventure Row under the Reference card. If the team is able to Overcome the Hurdle before suffering the Setback, any cards that are accumulated here will be shuffled back into the Adventure Deck. Otherwise these Hurdles will be removing key cards from the game and decreasing the number of cards in the Adventure Deck. Remember, if the team cannot refill the Adventure Row to completion at the start of the next player's turn, the game ends in a loss.
"Discovering" a Trait or Keyword
To "Discover," you simply need to look for and count the named Traits or Keywords on any number of cards in your hand, cards under your control, in the hands of the other players, and cards under their control... all during your current turn. Seeing a Keyword or Trait on cards in the Adventure Row, discard piles, etc. does not count toward your "Discovered" total.
Ally cards in the core game and this expansion have a combination of Traits (Moon, Mountain, or Star), and the new Keywords Autobot and Decepticon. You may also encounter new cards that ask you to Discover a certain Trait or Keyword on cards. Look at each card carefully, as some Robot Ally cards have multiples of the same Trait!
Example: Twilight Sparkle Optimus Prime plays Ratchet on their turn, which names Autobot as a Keyword that the player needs to Discover to unlock the card's full potential. Well, it turns out that Pinkie Pie Gauge have Windblade in their hand, and Spike Grimlock have Gauge in their hand, so Twilight Sparkle Optimus Prime gains an extra 3 Help this turn, thanks to Ratchet's effect!
Solo Play Changes
With the Discover mechanic, when playing as a Solo Player, you may also Discover Keywords and Traits on cards in the Adventure Row. However, cards in discard piles still do not count towards your Discover total.
Quick Guide
- Twilight Sparkle Optimus Prime can store the Green Energon from Gauge and the Black Energon from Superion (as a Pink) to activate their ability.
- Once they play Windblade, they can store the Blue Energon as well, enabling them the power to flip their Character card!
- Ta-Da! Presenting their stronger selves! Don't forget to flip over your Battery tokens back to their Energon/Sugar Cube side.
- They can now start gearing up! At start of turn, they generate 1 Black Energon to store as a Green Battery, and by playing Grimlock and Knockout, they can flip their other 2 Battery tokens. You don't have to flip all of them on the same turn, but it's amazing if you do!
- They now spend all 3 Battery tokens to deploy their Space Bridge token, adding a new Location to their game. Don't forget to flip your Character card and Battery tokens once you activate this ability.