Neopets TCG: Mystery Island

Today, we will look at what the Mystery Island expansion has to offer you and your deck.

On the actual Neopets site, codestones allow you to train your Neopet to boost a stat. In the Neopets TCG, codestones serve a similar purpose. At first glance, you'll notice that codestones are items. A codestone's effect is as follows: "If you win this contest, you may attach this card to one of your Neopets or Heroes in the contest instead of discarding it." This means that if you are successful in carrying out a codestone's effect, the cards will turn from item cards into equipment cards. All the codestones are the same except for varying stat boosts.

- Zed Codestone: +2 in Strength, +2 in Agility, +2 in Magic,+2 in Intelligence

- Har Codestone: +4 in Strength

- Mau Codestone: +4 in Agility

- Bri Codestone: +4 in Magic

- Lu Codestone: +4 in Intelligence

The reason for using codestones in your deck is quite obvious. With equipment, you usually have to tap a Neopet in order to attach it, so you can't start a contest with that Neopet for that turn. To use codestones, it requires no tapping since it is an Item card. You could even play it on your opponent's turn when he starts a contest. Being this much faster can lead you to victory. The only downside, however, is that you must win those contests so the codestone cards can turn into an Equipment card. There is almost never a guarantee that you'll win any given contest. If you lose the contest, the codestone loses its chance to turn into an Equipment card and is placed into your discard pile. Codestones can serve to be a useful card in almost any deck, but I wouldn't throw all my Equipment out and fill my deck with all codestones. It's still good to rely on some other Equipment cards as well.

The next new exciting feature from this expansion is totems. Totems are bank "2" items. If they are in your bank, you may discard them at a certain time to carry out a special effect. Let's take a look at which totems can be found in this Mystery Island expansion.

- Snarling Totem: Before your turn, if this card is in your bank, you may discard it to choose one of your opponent's Neopets in play and discard it.

- Shell Acara Totem: Before your turn, if this card is in you bank, you may discard it to have each player discard his or her hand.

- Wooden Kougra Totem: After the dice are rolled for a contest on your turn, if this card is in your bank, you may discard it to win the contest even if your opponent rolled a 6.

- Wooden Nimmo Totem: If this card is in your bank, you may discard it to untap each of your Neopets and give them +3 to all stats until the end of the turn.

Snarling Totem is my favourite totem. Having this card in your bank gives you the option before your turn of whether or not to discard any of your opponent's Neopets. So if you are overpowered in an arena, you can choose that rival and discard it after discarding the totem from your bank. This will lead to a free win, and your opponent has to use part of his next turn to bring in a new Neopet. It's possible he could not draw the correct pet he needs for that certain arena so he may have to waste another turn later on bringing in a new pet. If nothing else, you can have this totem in your bank just to intimidate your opponent. You control if you use the totem's ability and when to use it. Your opponent will keep worrying when and if this will happen.

Shell Acara Totem can prove just as useful. If you have the type of deck where you use most of your cards early and don't need a large hand, you may find this totem helpful. This will especially hurt your opponent if he has built a large card advantage. For the Wooden Kougra and Nimmo Totems, they could be helpful in certain situations. It will be up to you whether or not using the effects of any of these totems is worth losing two bank points.

In the Return of Dr. Sloth expansion, we found exciting effects which allowed you to discard Neopets, cards, and banked points. There are a couple more of these continued on in this Mystery Island expansion.

- Volcano: This is a Location in which you need a Fire Neopet. Before each player's turn, roll a die. If it is a 6, discard all Neopets, Heroes, Villains, and Locations here. This card will be helpful if your opponent is unopposed in an arena. Though most of your opponents will end up putting a Neopet back in the arena after being discarded, this will buy you some time in coming up with a strategy for victory. I wouldn't expect multiples of this card in a lot of decks, just because its own effect discards the location as well.

- Volcano Eruption: This is an interesting Something Has Happened card that requires you to tap 3 Fire Neopets. When you do, you basically discard everything on the board (but not banked cards). I also wouldn't expect this in many decks mainly because really the only time you would use this is if your opponent had an advantage over you in every arena. When building a deck, I would like to expect that I have the advantage, not my opponent. I also find it hard to build an all Fire Neopet deck, which this requires you to have in order for you to play it. It's not impossible, but I've never seen a good one. This is a very interesting card, but you'll see this one in collection binders instead of people's decks.

- Banishment: This is a Something Has Happened card that requires you to tap a light Neopet. Choose a Villain in play and discard it. Look at your opponent's hand and discard all Villains there with that name. Then search your opponent's deck and discard all Villains there with that name. This is similar to Intimidate from the Return of Dr. Sloth expansion, except this one is specifically for Villains. This card is great to get rid of pesky Villains, not only on the board, but from the game. You will also get the advantage of looking at your opponent's hand and searching their whole deck so you can be more prepared for any surprises coming your way.

- Island Angelpuss: When you win a contest this Petpet's Neopet or Hero is in on your turn that isn't against a Villain, by rolling a 6, you may choose an Equipment in your opponent's bank and return it to his or her hand.

- Island Kadoatie: When you win a contest this Petpet's Neopet or Hero is in on your turn that isn't against a Villain, by rolling a 6, you may choose an Item in your opponent's bank and return it to his or her hand.

Petpet decks are still getting stronger with each new expansion. These Kadoaties will be a bit more helpful than Angelpii because most people will bank Items rather than Equipment, but I would definitely save room for multiples of both in any Petpet deck. Your opponent will get very annoyed if you roll a 6 and have more than one of these Petpets attached!

Now let's take a look at some of my favourite Experienced Neopets from this expansion.

- Pirate Krawk: When this Neopet wins a contest against a Neopet on your turn, your opponent chooses a card from his hand and discards it. This Krawk has decent stats of 11 and 9 in the Strength and Agility arenas, respectively, and also has an advantage of being both a Dark and a Water Neopet. His effect is what makes him special. If you can manage some wins with this Pirate, it can really start to hurt your opponent. Those discarded cards will build up. Think of the possibilities if you used two Pirate Krawks in an arena!

- Rainbow Pteri: This Neopet has a stat of 13 in Magic and 10 in Agility. However, that's not what makes this Experienced Neopet special. This Pteri has every single faerie type. Originally an Air-type, when you get the Rainbow Pteri in play, not only is he an Air-type, but he is also Dark, Earth, Fire, Light, and Water. No longer will you have to attach Faerie Dust or play Grey Faerie just to play a single faerie type you need. If you put the Rainbow Pteri in play, you can play any card you want, regardless of faerie type.

- Techo Adept: Before you roll for contest this Neopet is in, you may have it use the stat of one of its rival instead of its own. This Techo only has a stat of 9 across the board, but it's effect allows it to have the stat of its rival. That means this Techo will have the stat of one of its rival + any Equipment attached to that rival + any Equipment attached to itself. This is before any items are played or any dice are rolled. His effect has been questioned on the message boards because he seems over-powered, but it is confirmed that this is how you play it. He is very powerful because if you attach an Equipment to this Techo, he will always be stronger than his opponent (if there is only one) before items and die rolls. This Techo will also usually always beat any Villain unless there is a special effect that denotes otherwise.

I hope you enjoyed the Mystery Island expansion as much as I did. Keep building those decks and having fun! Next time, I'll be reviewing my favourite expansion so far, Hannah and the Ice Caves!