Curse of Maraqua Set Review

Locations

There are plenty of new locations out, all of which are extremely exciting.

Faerie Circle: This gives all Neopets there all 6 faerie types, a card which a lot of people will be dying to get their hands on. It is especially good when comboed with Rainbow Pearl, which is worth 5 points when you control Neopets of all 6 faerie types.

The Black Pawkeet: A fearsome ship. This says that if a Neopet loses a contest here on its turn, discard it.

And now we come to the main locations of our story: New Maraqua and Old Maraqua. When you tap to move out of Old Maraqua, you get to search your deck for an item or equipment worth two points or less and put it on top of your deck. When you tap to move to New Maraqua, you reveal the top card of your deck. If it is an item worth two points or less, you draw it. These two cards work well together, keep them in mind when building a water deck.

Scurvy Island: Each Neopet uses its lowest stat when in a contest. What a scary effect! This does, however, give a lot of power to decks that use rounded Neopets like Poogles. The lowest stat Red Shoyru has, for example, in any arena is 4, which is not that shabby.

Heroes

There are several heroes in this expansion for your deck.

Isca: Isca lets you search for a Quest from your deck and put it into your hand when she comes into play. If you play with a quest deck, you will want several copies of her.

Goregas: He is a Hero with awesome stats, but a huge cost: you have to tap three water Neopets to put him into play. That isn’t all he’s good for, though. When you play him, you discard all cards in the arena he is played in, a very good effect if your opponent had locked down an arena.

King Kelpbeard: This Hero lets you search for another hero and put it into your hand when he comes into play. In fact, you could have three of him in your deck and play him for three consecutive turns! That’s like three automatic contest wins!

Nereid the Water Faerie: She has good stats, and she helps all of your water Neopets out: While she is in play, Water Neopets gets +5 to all stats.

Villains

We have some vicious villains in this set!

Caylis: The opposite of her sister Isca, she lets you search for a curse and put it into your hand when she comes into play. Again, this is good for a curse-favoring deck

Captain Scarblade: His or her opponent chooses an item in either player’s discard pile for the Cap’n to get the stat bonuses from. This can make him nearly unbeatable, and will stall your opponent for many turns

Petpetpet Swarm: This annoying bugs move to the arena with the most Neopets at the end of each turn, discarding any villains already there. Just hope that it doesn’t move to Intelligence, it has a 0 there!

Jhudora’s Bodyguards: When they come into play, each player chooses and discards a card from their hand. This effect fits in well with a dark deck built around making your opponent discard cards. Consider the Bodyguards with Jhudora’s Evil Eye, Pant Devil Attacks and Jhudora herself.

Something Has Happened!

No, not literally! In this expansion, many new Something Has Happeneds have been released.

Walk the Plank: You choose one of your opponent’s Neopets and discard it, but at a tremendous cost. You have to tap three Dark Neopets! This is good in a mono-dark deck, or a stall deck.

Tournament Arena: With this card, you name an Arena, then each players flips the top card of their Neopet stack. If your Neopet had the higher stat in the Arena you named, you may bank or draw a card. This works very, very well with the Red, Yellow, Green and Blue Paintbrushes. Simply use them to place your Grarrl at the top of your Neopet stack, name Strength as the arena you want to compete in, and watch your opponent get really, really mad when all they flip is a wimpy little Mynci.

Angry Giants: This card replaces every single experienced Neopet with a basic Neopet one at a time. This is very good if your opponent has three experienced Neopets out or if you have all of your experienced waiting Neopets in your hand. Simply play Angry Giants, your opponent’s experienced Neopets are discarded, and then you can bring out all of your experienced pets.

Experienced Neopets

There are many different experienced Neopets in this set

Maraquan Chomby: When this Neopet taps to move, you may draw a card. All Maraquan pets have similar effects. When you tap to move any Maraquan pet, you will get a special reward. In this Chomby’s case it is drawing a card, but Maraquan Krawk forces your opponent to discard a card from their hand, and when Maraquan Scorchio taps to move you may attach equipment from your hand to him.

Krawk Braggart: With an awesome stat of 16 in strength, this Neopet comes with a drawback. If he loses a contest on your turn, you discard him. This is a very scary effect, and I would only suggest it if you can’t get your hands on a Grarrl Gladiator.

Scorchio Avenger: When a Neopet loses a contest on your turn, there is no cause to fear! Simply move Scorchio Avenger there (you don’t have to tap) and you may start an extra contest there! Imaging three Scorchio Avengers on the same board. If one loses a contest, another can always jump in and save the day, and then you can keep doing this your entire turn!

Quests

Now there are three more quests for you to use!

Garin’s Redemption: When this Neopet wins a contest that isn’t on its turn, you get to discard a card in your opponents back! This is a fire card, and stays with the fire theme of discarding cards from your opponent’s bank. I would suggest three of these in a fire deck.

Underwater Discovery: When this Neopet taps to move to an arena, you get to search your deck for a Location and put it there. Unfortunately, you have to wait until next turn to complete your quest, because on the turn that this quest is played you can’t start a contest.

Against the Odds: When this Neopet wins a contest alongside a Hero, good news! That hero stays in play until the end of the turn! But just like Underwater Discovery you have to wait a turn to use it: you cannot start any more contests on the turn that this is played. I would suggest playing all of your quests at the end of the turn.

Curses

Tears of Caylis: At the end of this Neopet’s controller’s turn, discard this Neopet unless the controller chooses and discards a card from his or her hand. This is a fearsome curse. After a few turns, the cost of this curse will limit your opponent’s options. But what if you played three of these? Your opponent would have to choose between discarding their Neopet or having nearly no cards in their hand. This is certainly a fearsome curse, and I would suggest three copies for a dark deck.

Confusion: On this Neopet’s controller’s turn, they roll a die. If they roll a 1, it moves to Strength, if they roll a 2, it moves to Agility, on a 3, Magic, and a 4, Intelligence. 5 and 6 don’t move it. This can cause many complications in your opponent’s game plan. They will have to spend a lot of their time tapping to move Neopets back to their old arenas, or wishing for a 5 or 6.

Petrification: While this curse is on a Neopet, it cannot tap to start contests. Wow! Selfishness, move aside! But it does come at a cost: unlike all the other fates, you have to tap to play this. Is it worth it? I think so, but that’s for you to decide.

Equipment

Maractite Sword: When another one of your Neopets taps to move to the arena that the pet attached with the sword is, the pet with the sword gains +4 to all stats until the end of the turn. This expansion has four other Maractite equipments, all of them with similar effects. They make a great combo with the Maraquan Neopets. Now, when you tap to move, not only do you get the effect the Maraquan pet gives you, but you also get the bonus from the Maractite equipment.

Lightning Conductor: This gives +8 to Magic and Agility, but when you roll a 1 with the Neopet this is attached to, you discard that Neopet. This is a very dangerous effect. I would eliminate it by using Maintenance Tunnels (players don’t roll die here unless there is a tie). With a +8 you are sure to win, and there is no danger of having to discard the Neopet that this is attached to.

Apprentice Wand: When this Neopet starts a contest, reveal the top card of your Neopet stack. If it is the same Neopet as the one this is attached to, you get +15 to all stats until the end of the turn. This does not work well on its own, but if you combo it with a Red, Yellow, Green or Blue Paintbrush, you can set up your Neopet stack so that the top card is the same as the one in play.

Items

This expansion comes with a whole host of items for all decks to use. Take a look!

Rainbow Pearl: If you control Neopets of all 6 faerie types, this card is worth 5 points. This works well with Rainbow Pteri and Faerie Circle (Neopets here have all 6 faerie types).

Rotten Negg: When you bank this card, each player chooses a card in his or her bank and discards it. This is a good card for targeting Negg decks. If you bank this and your opponent has a Negg in their bank but you don’t, they have to discard a Negg but you don’t! It also banks for a solid 4 points.

Chocolate Cybunnies: When you bank this choose one of your Neopets. It gets +5 to all stats until the end of the turn. It also banks for 3 points. This is a good, solid, multi-purpose, well-rounded card, and fits well into many decks.

This is a very exciting expansion, and I urge all of you to go explore the rest of the cards today!