#candy fiend

Card Shark 46: Lyra, Candy Fiend

Hey there, y’all! Welcome to a brand new Card Shark! Today I’m looking at (in my opinion) one of the most unique Friends to come out of Marks in Time... and she doesn’t even have Unique! Let’s take a look at “Lyra, Candy Fiend!”

Even as a filly, Lyra loved her benches. There aren’t many cards in the game that allow you to actively search your deck for something, but Lyra grants that. During your Main Phase, you can exhaust her and yank a Bon Bon card out of your deck - any Bon Bon card! I’m going to ignore the fact that this card does not say you should shuffle your deck after pulling out the Bon Bon card, since I believe that’s a rule that would be enforced in a competitive setting regardless. That’s quite a niche this little filly has! You don’t need to do anything else besides play her and wait a turn for her to ready to activate her. She’s not expensive - 3 AT and 2 Pink req for a 3 power Rare Pink Friend is a cost I’d expect. There’s also an okay range of cards for her to fetch that could shake up the game in different ways - I’ve counted six cards that Lyra can seek out, ranging from the Crystal Games to Defenders of Equestria, with five possible color choices out of the six. You don’t even have to reveal the Bon Bon card you choose! Can a card have a niche and be rather versatile at the same time? I think Lyra proves the answer is yes!

But our little anthropological princess can’t be perfect. She has a niche, sure, but that’s also where she falls flat - her ability is so specific, it’s hard to use effectively. While she is somewhat versatile, cards like Pinkie Pie, Everypony’s PFF prove that there is a limit to her versatility. You also can’t really build a viably competitive deck around her and Bon Bon specifically - they can’t really do any hard-hitting things like farm or move a lot of characters around. They’re supporting cards at the most. There’s also one card that would be amazing to utilize with this card, but the wording stops it from doing so, and that is Sweetie Drops, Secret Agent. Yes, we’re all aware that Sweetie Drops is Bon Bon, but the card is not directly named Bon Bon, so she cannot be fetched. And that’s a bummer, because I think that would be the best Friend to use with Candy Fiend. Curse you, language! If you’re a player that likes to carve out niches in the game (such as myself), I say use this card carefully.

That being said, what are the best Bon Bon cards to use alongside this card? Here are my top 3 recommendations:

*Bon Bon, Minty Fresh. Here’s the filly Bon Bon to go alongside the filly Lyra! Her cost/power trade-off is a little less even than Lyra’s, but her printed ability isn’t bad, especially if you find her with Candy Fiend. When she enters play (meaning you can Interdimensional Portal her), if you have a Lyra in play (presumably Candy Fiend), you can pay 1 AT to ready a character at her Problem. She doesn’t have to be at Lyra’s Problem, nor does it have to exclusively be a Friend! I may have to spotlight her in a future Shark.

*Bon Bon, Caroller. If you’re not a fan of having lots of Friends you exhaust to activate, you might want to try doing trickier things like bouncing. The Yellow Caroller from Defenders of Equestria can potentially bounce an opposing Friend if you reveal a Friend from the top of your deck when you play her. The sequence of events is simple: Find Yellow Caroller with Candy Fiend, then play Caroller and make some thunder. Preferably, this would be done with the knowledge that a Friend is at the top of your deck, maybe after using a card like Scope Things Out. Otherwise, you may have wasted 3 AT you could have used on a more viable card.

*Lyra and Bon Bon, Better Halves. Bet you didn’t think of this card right off the bat, did you? As the text dictates, it counts as a Bon Bon in all zones! LyraBon CatDog here can act as a sort of Wild Fire, Speed Racer by moving another Friend when they are moved. What I like about this one besides the Eccentric 1 is that you can play multiple copies of these and get more Friends with Friendship counters, giving you more options for moving. It’s also just a fun-looking card. How can you not feel just a bit happy when you see these two smile? :D

wasnt the best idea after all.