Introduction to MLP Trading Cards

After a year of MLPMerch.com we've decided that there is enough demand for MLP Trading Card news, meaning that from now on we'll post everything regarding to pre-orders and releases. Because we've not reported on the Trading Cards in the past year we've decided to first write an introduction about the cards and see what their current status is.
First things first: There are currently two types of My Little Pony Trading Cards:

• Trading Cards (TC)
• Collectible Card Game (CCG)

Both card games are created and maintained by EnterPLAY, a company that releases various licensed trading cards. The Trading Cards were released the earliest, in 2012, and the Collectible Card Game was released in 2013. The biggest difference between the two is that the TC are focused on trading and providing information, while the CCG is meant for playing the MLP CCG game.

Trading Cards (TC)

As we mentioned before, TC was released as the first actual card game for the MLP:FiM series. At the initial announcement there was a bit of doubt whether this will actually be a card game, or that this would be collectible cards. Even though the back of the cards might give you another idea, it's the latter. There are a few type of cards in the TC:

• Regular cards with an art front and information on the back
• Puzzle cards with art and information on the front, and one part of a larger art piece on the back
• Sweepstake cards with art on the front, and information and a unique code on the back
• Standee cards with pop-up art on the front and information about the available standee cards on the back

The cards can be based around ponies, characters, events or locations. There are also various rare and special foil cards that are either available through packs or special events. Gold cards are also included in the sets with a 1:24 pack ratio. Next to the cards, packs also contain stickers and/or tattoo sheets.
So far the Trading Cards have seen 3 series of releases:

• Series 1
• Series 2
• Series 3 "Episodes"

All of the 3 series have seen the same type of releases over the years with individual packs, boxes with 24 packs, multiple packs in collectible boxes or tins and by giveaways and special events, either online or at conventions. In later sets the collectible tins contained both TC and CCG packs.

Collectible Card Game (CCG)

The CCG was released about a year after the TC. EnterPLAY noticed the requests by fans for a proper TCG (Trading Card Game) of My Little Pony and decided to do various polls and tests to come up with what is now know as the My Little Pony CCG. Currently, the CCG is more popular than the TC due to the playability and more releases, even over the shorter lifespan of the CCG.
The CCG is a card game that can be played with 2 players and requires a deck and various tokens. For more information on the rules and deck requirements, check the official rulebook. The CCG knows a few types of cards, which can be used in decks:

• Mane characters with two sides
• Friend cards
• Event cards
• Resource cards
• Troublemaker cards
• Problem cards

With the combination of these cards each player is required to build a deck for competitive play. Besides the regular card each deck also contains a reference and turn card to keep score. Every card but the mane characters have the same background so opponents cannot see each others hand.
At the time of writing the CCG has a total of 8 sets, which include the base sets for decks, packs and boxes as well as foil parallel sets and special promo cards:

• GenCon (demo set)
• Primer Deck (online introduction set)
• Premiere (base set)
• Canterlot Nights
• Rock n Rave (small set)
• Celestial Solice (small set)
• The Crystal Games
• Absolute Discord (coming soon)

Just like the Trading Cards, the CCG as well has seen various releases. Mainly in the form of individual packs, but also with complete boxes, collectible tins (sometimes combined with TC) and special giveaways online or at conventions and championships. Besides the packs and cards there are also special pre-built decks available, either as theme decks or two-player starter kits.

Besides the cards themselves there is also a partnership with Ultra Pro, who released various card game supplies. Initial releases were sleeves for the TC, but later shifted to sleeves, deck boxes and play mats for the CCG. Both card games have the Standard CCG card dimensions and sleeves can be used for both type of cards. The deck boxes can store a single deck and optional tokens and extra cards, but are not big enough for 2 complete decks (such as the two-player starter kits).