Go CMCs Go!

The new set of the official My Little Pony CCG is called "Marks in Time" for two good reasons: the timey-wimey hijinks of magical ponies, and the cutie marks little foals earn as they grow. And who are the flag-bearers for cutie marks in MLP: CCG? The Cutie Mark Crusaders, that's who!Players have been craving Mane Character cards of Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle for a while now, and while this mash-up of all three helped to tide folks over, Marks in Time finally fulfills their destiny! Along with Manes, the CMCs also appear on plenty of other cards, so head on down below the break to see the EQD exclusive reveals of Super Rare Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle as a Mane Character, and more.We'll start with the Mane Characters, and here we have Scootaloo's, which debuted here on EQD last week. She's got an action-packed ability at her disposal, helping to send your characters out to solve Problems and defeat Troublemakers nice and fast.Apple Bloom was the first Mane announced in Marks in Time. She's got some tricks up her sleeves, exhausting your opponent's characters to help win faceoffs and keep your opponent from using their own exhaust-based abilities that can often slow you down.And finally, here's the debut of Sweetie Belle's Mane Character card! Whereas Scootaloo and Apple Bloom are a little more "straight forward" in their uses, Sweetie Belle is totally meant for building your deck around from the get-go.Do you have Resources that get their benefit on retire and being able to reuse them every turn would be huge? Do you rely on Accessories that you play on your opponent's characters to shut them down, but usually can't reuse them easily? Sweetie Belle digs those goodies out of Rarity's discount bin and recycles them into usefulness again and again!Speaking of getting use out of your cards multiple times, Redeeming Qualities is a CMC-focused Event that lets you snag Friend cards from your discard pile and put them right back into play; 3 action tokens ain't cheap, but if the Friend normally costs 4 or 5 then you're definitely going to see some benefit. Even better, if you used some shenanigans to get a card into your discard pile you normally can't play, Redeeming Qualities would let you put it into play anyway!And here's Apple Bloom and Orchard Blossom singing a lovely duet, showing off how not all CMC cards in Marks in Time feature just the CMCs. After all, they all have family and friends they interact with who deserve some exposure, too.Even so, the CMCs only get a few episodes a season, so they deserve some attention all on their own. Here's a Problem card featuring the trio at their lowest, worried they'll never get their cutie marks at the beginning of Crusaders of the Lost Mark. We all know howturned out, now don't we?I can hear the comments now: "But what about Babs Seed? She's a Cutie Mark Crusader! Where's her spotlight?" Hey, if she makes it back into the show again, we'll see what happens. In the meantime, she definitely wasn't forgotten: here's her new Friend card from Marks in Time! Here we see her bullying the bullies, because two wrongs clearly makes a right.And last, but certainly not least, here are two of the three Super Rare Cutie Mark Crusader Friend cards from the new set! They're focused on the new Cutie Mark gameplay mechanic debuting in this set, with Apple Bloom giving all Cutie Marked Friends more power to solve Problems and knock out Troublemakers, while Scootaloo synergizes with her Mane Character by sending your characters around on pony adventures.Where's Sweetie Belle? Hey, can't spoiltoday! Don't worry, she'll definitely see the light of day between now and the set's release in early June. Meanwhile, stay tuned because next week we'll show off Starlight Glimmer's new Mane Character card!