How To Play/Other Examples (Villains and Frightened Friends)

Troublemakers can be a confusing topic for first-time players, and Villain Troublemakers (any Troublemaker with the Villain keyword) can be an especially confusing topic for anyone! In this article, we'll be covering three important concepts involving Villains: what happens when a Villain is revealed (flipped face-up) at a Problem, how the Villain can affect other Troublemakers played to the Problem, and how a player can defeat the Villain. We'll then take a look at one of a Villain's most terrifying abilities: frightening Friends!

Revealing Villains

Here's a game already in progress between Bianca (on the top) and Polly (on the bottom). Let's examine the |Mean Meanie Pants Problem: Bianca already has her Rainbow Dash Mane Character boosted, a strong Friend in Holly Dash, Flighty Filly, and a Wild Manticore Troublemaker that is preventing Polly from being able to confront the Problem. Meanwhile, Bianca has Flitter, Ribbon Wielder and a face-down Troublemaker that she played last turn. It's the start of her turn right now; after drawing a card and gaining her action tokens, she enters her Troublemaker Phase and reveals her Troublemaker...

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However, this isn't just any run-of-the-mill Troublemaker; it's the Villain, Nightmare Moon! When a Villain is revealed, two things immediately happen:

• If a face-up Troublemaker is already at the Villain's Problem, that other Troublemaker is dismissed. In this case, Bianca would dismiss her Wild Manticore.
• If there are any Friends at the Problem, they become frightened and are flipped face-down. In this case, both Flitter and Holly Dash would be flipped face-down. Rainbow Dash is a Mane Character, not a Friend, so she cannot ever be frightened. Nothing happens to Friends at the other Problem, such as Ol' Salt.

Unlike a regular Troublemaker that prevents a single player from confronting the Problem, a Villain Troublemaker prevents both players from confronting the Problem! This is why Nightmare Moon is covering up Mean Meanie Pants so that both of the Problem's requirements are hidden. In addition to being a Villain, Nightmare Moon has her own game text like every other Troublemaker that must be taken into account (each player has to discard their entire hand and draw three new cards).

Playing Other Troublemakers

As we've just seen, when the Villain Troublemaker was flipped face-up the current Troublemaker at its Problem (Bianca's Wild Manticore) was dismissed. Because Nightmare Moon belongs to Polly, and each player can only have one of their Troublemakers at a single Problem, Polly wouldn't be able to play another Troublemaker to Mean Meanie Pants. Bianca could still play a face-down Troublemaker to Mean Meanie Pants on one of her turns; however, that Troublemaker wouldn't be allowed to be flipped face-up until the Villain has been defeated in a faceoff. Either player could still play Troublemakers to Bianca's 795 Wing Power Problem.

Defeating Villains

Both players are allowed to challenge the Villain to a Troublemaker faceoff on their turn, including the one who played it. Whoever isn't challenging the Villain will be the person who would flip the top card of their deck for the Villain in that faceoff. For example, if it was Bianca's Troublemaker faceoff then Polly would flip for Nightmare Moon; if it was Polly's Troublemaker faceoff then Bianca would flip for Nightmare Moon. Besides this, the faceoff is exactly the same as a regular Troublemaker faceoff; cards are flipped, power totals are compared and a winner is determined.

Frightened Cards

Villains, in addition to other cards, have the ability to frighten Friends. When a Friend becomes frightened, it is flipped face-down, and considered a Frightened Card.

• The most important thing about frightened Friends is that they are no longer counted as Friends; in addition to not being able to provide their power towards playing cards and faceoffs, they can't be targeted by any cards that target Friends and/or characters.
• When a Friend is frightened, any Resources attached to that Friend are dismissed.
• Frightened Friends cannot be exhausted.
• Frightened Friends do not count towards a player's Home Limit.
• Even though they aren't counted as Friends, any frightened Friends at a Problem will still be sent home once that Problem has been solved.

There are a couple of ways to fix a frightened Friend:

• During their Main Phase, a player can pay 2 action tokens to ready a frightened Friend, flipping them back face-up.
• Any card that can be used to ready another card (such as Rainbow Dash, Weather Leader) can be used to ready a frightened Friend. However, cards that only ready characters and/or Friends (such as Rainbowshine, Cloud Wrangler) couldn't be used since the frightened Friend isn't counted as a Friend any more.

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