Back to the Beach: Mystery Island TCG Expansion

The Island Experience

We’ve been told that some new species have arrived on the Island. We’ve spotted Peophins off the coast, and they’re ready to join the fun. The Island Peophin allows you to keep your Item from a contest if you lose! The Peophin Waverider is workhorse as well. With the ability to move to a new arena if he loses a contest, He’ll keep trying until he wins one! I think we’ll see these two around the Island quite a bit.

If you head over to the Training School, you might spot one of the Techos. The Techo Adept has been training hard, and he has ability like no other. With the ability to use it’s opponent’s stats instead of its own (everything but Items and die roll), this Techo will be cleaning up in any contest! Then there’s the Techo Fisherman, casting his line to the top of your deck! When you start a contest, name a card. If the card you named is the top card of your deck, you put it in your hand!

Then there are the cuddly Kougras. Well, normally cuddly. In the Mystery Island expansion, these Experienced Kougras are downright dangerous! If you head into the Jungle to the Lost City of Geraptiku, you might spot the Kougra Chieftain, who likes to fight against groups. He gets a +3 to all stats if he’s fighting more than one rival! Talk about power! Then again, you might spot the Kougra Archaeologist roaming the ruins, looking for treasure. This Kougra allows you to return a Totem from your discard pile to your hand! How handy!

You might spot a Pteri or two looking for a place to land. You’ll be stunned by the beauty and the ability of the rare Rainbow Pteri. With a 10 in agility and a 13 in magic, he’s an excellent competitor. Add to that the fact that he’s EVERY faerie type, and he’s a force to be reckoned with. The Pteri Lookout is a handful too. He allows you to look at the top card of your deck and put it back on the top or bottom! He’s keeping a close eye on things around the Island! And what’s this he sees?

Yarr! The Krawks have landed! What would yer third expansion be without a pirate or two? The dark Pirate Krawk is at home on the water as well as on land, and causing his captives to give up their booty to their discard pile; one card per win on his turn, to be exact! Back at Geraptiku, you might spot the Elusive Krawk Shaman. He whips up some magic, allowing you to look at the top card of your deck and, if it’s an Item, use it instead of an Item in your hand! What a great way to get a peek at the top of your deck! This will also make a great combination with the Techo Fisherman.

Still Waters Run. . .Rampant?

In the Mystery Island expansion, don’t expect a storm; expect a tidal wave! Water has gone from large to massive with the addition of some great options for its faerie type. Cards like Monsoon, which allows you to move all Neopets, Experienced Neopets, and Heroes to either the strength or intelligence arena, clears the way for Poogle Racers to speed in for a couple of easy banks, or for a Slorg Trails to freeze up the board on your opponent’s next turn! Or have Jhuidah whip something up for you in the Cooking Pot, which allows you to discard two cards from your hand to take any one card from your deck and put it in your hand!

Island Ablaze

Fire, sweet fire. Mystery Island’s power hitter in this expansion is heating up the game! The amount of pure board and bank destruction will guarantee an interesting time. Volcanic Eruption, which discards all Neopets, Heroes, Villains, and Locations from the board, will have your opponent’s temper on boil! The Villainous Moltenus will burn down the strength arena with his huge 22 stat! Then there’s the Volcano itself; be careful, because it’ll blow away everything in the arena if you or your opponent roll a one!

Fruit and Codestones and Totems, Oh My!

The island has always been known for its exotic fruit, some of which has already appeared in the game. With bank values of four, they’re a must for any deck, but the downside has always been their mediocre stats in all arenas. But the fruit that’s been picked for this expansion is an improvement on those of the past seasons; +3 in one arena instead of +1 over the board, and still a bank point value of 4! Now that’s something to make you crave some fruit for your deck!

Then of course is the appearance of Codestones in the game. Codestones have always been sought after items on Neopets, but they’re even more so in the trading card game! Items are always great with stat bonuses for contests and bank point values, but Items that, when you win a contest with that Item, equip to your Neopets and become Equipment? These are some extremely useful rocks!

Totems have been found around the Lost City of Geraptiku, and we’re putting them to work in decks! With abilities such as automatically winning a contest (even against Villains), discarding an opponent’s Neopet, and untapping each of your Neopets and giving them a +3 to all stats for the rest of your turn, Totems are being carried by everyone! To trigger the card effects, you must discard the Totem from your bank, but when you build a deck around Totems with a Kougra Archeologist to dig them back up, you’re opponent has a highly volatile situation to deal with!

The Mystery Island expansion of the Neopets Trading Card Game is filled with excellent new cards and characters. The art is incredible, and the flavour text is always great for a laugh or a glimpse into a future plot. This is one expansion that you don’t want to miss. So string together a grass skirt and get to your local card store!