My Little Pony Trading Cards: Which Ones Should You Actually Buy?

Walk down any card aisle this Christmas and you'll find two stacks of My Little Pony cards sitting side by side. Same ponies, same maker, near enough the same shimmery boxes. One of them is a proper two-player trading card game, with rules, strategy and a race to the finish. The other is a collect-only range with no rules whatsoever. They do not mix, and the packaging does an unhelpfully good job of hiding which is which.

So before anyone unwraps a very sparkly deck they can't actually play with, here's the whole lot explained: what Kayou's My Little Pony trading cards actually are, how the game plays, what the letters on the cards mean, what everything costs per card at our prices, and which box to buy for which pony fan, whether they're seven or forty-seven.

TCG: Friendships Begin starter deckTCG: Fantasy Wonderlands boosterCollect-only: Friendship Eternal

First, the important bit: there are two different things called My Little Pony cards

Both are made by Kayou, and both are officially licensed by Hasbro. That's where the similarity ends.

• The My Little Pony Trading Card Game: the playable one. Sold as Friendships Begin starter decks and numbered booster series: Fantasy Wonderlands, Discord, Nightmare Night and Hearth's Warming Eve. Look for "Trading Card Game" on the box.
• My Little Pony Friendship Eternal Cards: the collectable one. Moon, Rainbow, Star and Fun Moments editions. Gorgeous, foil-heavy and entirely rules-free. You open them, sort them, sleeve the good ones and argue about best pony.

Friendship Eternal cards cannot go in a TCG deck. Not one of them. They have no costs, no abilities and no stats, so there's nothing to play. If the child in question wants to play, the word you're looking for on the box is "Game".

And a third, for completeness. Search online and you'll turn up guides and ban lists for the old My Little Pony Collectible Card Game by Enterplay, which ran from 2013 to 2019. That game is finished, and none of it applies to the Kayou cards. Lovely for a nostalgia binder, useless for anything else.

Who Kayou are, and why pony cards are suddenly everywhere

Kayou is a Chinese card company, founded in 2011, and in China it's a very big deal indeed. It has only recently turned its attention west: the My Little Pony TCG was unveiled at New York Comic Con in October 2025 after launching in China first, and in early 2026 Kayou named the UK as one of its first European markets.

Hasbro's pitch for the game was refreshingly blunt: there's never been a properly successful trading card game aimed at girls, and they reckon this is the one. Pony fans come in rather more shapes and ages than that, but the intent is clear. This isn't a sticker book with delusions of grandeur. It's built to be played.

The English-language TCG arrives in the UK through Asmodee this November, with the Discord series following in December. We're taking pre-orders now.

How the My Little Pony TCG actually plays

It's a two-player race. Each of you picks one of the Mane Six (Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Applejack or Fluttershy) and tries to get your pony to the end of her four-part Story before your opponent finishes theirs. No life points, no bashing each other's face in. First to Stage IV wins.

A complete deck has four parts:

• Main Deck: exactly 50 cards, made up of Characters, Events and Items.
• Scene Deck: exactly 15 Scenes. These are your energy. You get a new one every turn and tap them to pay for cards.
• Story: four Story cards, Stage I to Stage IV, each retelling part of an episode and handing you a small reward when you reach it.
• Main Character: your pony, who moves along the Story track like a counter on a board game.

Ponies go into three lanes facing your opponent's. When two ponies face each other, they compare Inspiration and the lower one retires. A tie retires both, which is sometimes exactly what you want. When your pony has nobody opposite, she gets to act: either pushing your Story forward or meddling with your opponent's. The catch is that each of your opponent's Story stages starts with a hidden Plan card sitting on it, and you have to clear those out before you can advance, usually handing them a card in the process.

The clever bit is the Scenes. Any face-up Scene can be flipped face down mid-fight for a one-off boost to a specific pony, and once it's flipped, that boost is gone for good. Spend it now, or save it for the fight that matters? That's a genuine decision, and it's the moment a seven-year-old stops asking how to play and starts asking what they should play.

Shown: My Little Pony TCG - Friendships Begin - Fluttershy Starter Deck - Series 1

Kayou quotes 20 to 30 minutes a game. Your first will take longer, mostly because somebody will need to reread how lanes work. That's normal.

Our verdict: it's a proper game, not a colouring book with a rulebook stapled to it. Simpler than Magic, and closer in feel to Lorcana, with lanes, a race to the finish line and not much arithmetic. The story-per-pony structure means kids who love the show get to replay episodes on the table, which is a lovely touch. There's no UK organised play or official ban list yet, so for now it's a kitchen-table game. For most of the people buying it, that's exactly where it belongs.

The TCG range, in plain English

Prices below are Loaded Dice pre-order prices at the time of writing.

• Friendships Begin starter deck, £18.49: one complete, ready-to-play 70-card deck built around a single pony, plus three bonus 5-card packs and a paper play sheet with the rules printed on the back. Six to choose from, landing 13 November.
• Booster pack, £2.79: five cards from one series. Four series on pre-order: Fantasy Wonderlands (Series 1), Discord (Series 2), Nightmare Night (Series 3) and Hearth's Warming Eve (Series 4).
• Booster box, £54.99: twenty packs of one series, 100 cards. The way to build a deck properly, and the way to hunt the chase cards.

Discord (Series 2)Nightmare Night (Series 3)Hearth's Warming Eve (Series 4)

The thing people get wrong: a starter deck is one player's deck. It is not a set for two. If two children want to play each other, you need two boxes, ideally two different ponies, because mirror matches are dull and somebody will insist they were Rainbow Dash first.

Cost per card: why the starter deck is the bargain

• Starter deck: 85 cards (the 70-card deck plus three bonus packs) for £18.49, about 22p a card
• Booster box: 100 cards for £54.99, 55p a card
• Single booster pack: 5 cards for £2.79, about 56p a card

The starter works out at less than half the price per card of anything else in the TCG range, and the cards arrive already arranged into a working deck. Boosters are where the upgrades and the shiny chase cards live, but they're a second purchase, not a first one. Nobody needs a booster box to learn the game.

Shown: My Little Pony TCG - Fantasy Wonderlands - Foil Booster Box (20 Packs) - Series 1

Which starter deck? Pick the pony, honestly

Each deck leans into its pony's personality, and each one tells one of her stories from the show through its four Story cards.

• Twilight Sparkle: the planner. Card draw and clever set-ups, for the one who reads the rules first.
• Rainbow Dash: fast and bold. Gets stuck in early and doesn't hang about.
• Pinkie Pie: the party deck. Chaotic, cheerful, and great for younger players.
• Rarity: elegant, generous and very pretty. Rarity is also a pony and a card rarity, which will cause at least one argument per game night.
• Applejack: dependable and straightforward. A cracking deck for learning the ropes.
• Fluttershy: patient and gentle, and much tougher than she looks.

At this level, the differences between decks matter far less than whether the person holding it loves that pony. Buy their favourite. A deck that gets played every weekend beats a "better" deck that lives in a drawer.

Rainbow DashPinkie PieApplejack

TCG rarities: what the letters mean

Kayou prints the rarity as letters on the card rather than a little symbol. For the TCG, from the everyday end upwards:

• C and U: Common and Uncommon. The backbone of every deck.
• SPR and ER: Sapphire Rare and Emerald Rare. Despite the grand names, one of each turns up in most packs. ER is usually a Scene; SPR tends to be an Event or Item.
• SR: Silver Rare. Foiled-up characters, and often some of the strongest cards in a deck.
• RR, GR and CR: Ruby, Gold and Colourful Rare. The proper hits, with 3D foil stamping and raised textures you can feel with your fingertips.
• Shining ※ versions: alternate-art versions of RR, CR, GR, SPR and ER cards, redrawn in new styles. These are the real chase cards.

Fantasy Wonderlands runs to 191 different cards across 13 rarities, and 14 packs in every 20-pack box carry a rare slot. Going by the production ratios collectors have compiled, that's roughly two Gold Rares and two Colourful Rares per box, around one Shining Gold Rare per box, and a Shining Colourful Rare in about one pack in every 160. That's one in every eight boxes. Plan accordingly.

The bit that matters for players: a Shining card shares its card ID with the plain version, so it counts towards the same four-copy limit and plays identically. The ※CR is for the binder, not the deck. Don't let anyone tell you their deck "needs" one.

Friendship Eternal: the collect-only cards

This is the range that was filling collectors' binders before the game ever arrived. No rules, no decks, no winning. Just the Mane Six and friends in dozens of art styles, with a great deal of foil and special finishes, and a clear rarity ladder to climb. Each edition has its own personality:

• Rainbow Edition, £1.79 a pack or £34.99 a 20-pack box: five cards a pack, built around transparent cards. The pocket-money option, at about 36p a card.
• Star Edition, £6.99 a mini box or £94.99 for a display of 16: the premium one. Only three cards per mini box, but there are no plain rares in it at all: every card is SSR or better. The top chases (OR, BP and ◇AR) turn up in roughly one mini box in sixteen, so a full display can come without one. That's normal, not a short-changed box.
• Fun Moments Collector Box, £9.49: five eight-card packs celebrating the show's best scenes, from a 127-card set across seven rarities, with the top CR tier in about one pack in twelve. About 24p a card, which makes it the best value in the Friendship Eternal range, and it's already gift-boxed, which saves you a job in December.
• Moon Edition: the big one, with eight-card packs and sets of 186 cards and upwards. It sells out quickly, so check the collection for current stock.

Shown: My Little Pony-Friendship Eternal Cards-Star Edition Series 1 (Mini Box)

One warning before you start reading the letters: they don't mean the same thing in every edition. SSR sits around the middle of the Moon Edition ladder but is the very bottom rung of Star Edition. Every Kayou card carries a code showing its set, rarity and number, so check your pull against the ladder for the edition you actually opened, not one you read about online.

Rainbow Edition boxFun Moments Collector BoxMoon Edition pack

So which should you actually buy?

If they want to play

• Two starter decks, two different ponies. £36.98 and you've got a complete game night for two.
• Then a few Fantasy Wonderlands packs to upgrade. It's the set the starters are designed to grow into.
• A booster box only once you know they're hooked. It's a lot of commons and Scenes to buy on a hunch.

If they just love ponies and shiny things

• Friendship Eternal, not the TCG. Rainbow Edition packs for pocket money, the Fun Moments Collector Box as a present.
• A binder to go with it. Collect-only cards want looking at, and a binder turns a pile into a collection.

If you're the grown-up collector (and there are plenty of you)

• Star Edition for the art and the hit rate. Every card is a good card, and the 16-box display is the sensible way to go at it.
• Moon Edition when it's in, for the biggest ladder and the gold-framed SC chase cards.

If it's for Christmas

• A starter deck for the player, the Fun Moments Collector Box for the collector.
• Hearth's Warming Eve boosters for stockings: Equestria's own winter holiday, conveniently timed for ours.
• Pre-order rather than hope. The TCG lands through November and December, and pony stock has a habit of vanishing.

Hearth's Warming Eve boxStar Edition display (16)

The honest bit: what we'd swerve

Buying Friendship Eternal packs to upgrade a TCG deck. It's the single most likely mistake with this range, and an easy one to make because the boxes look so alike. None of those cards will go in a deck. If the box doesn't say "Trading Card Game", it isn't for playing.

One starter deck between two children. It's one deck. You will be refereeing a custody dispute by teatime.

Ripping booster boxes for Shining Colourful Rares to "improve" a deck. They play exactly like the plain version. At roughly one in eight boxes, you're looking at around £440 of booster boxes, on average, for a prettier picture. If you want one for the binder, buy the single once they start turning up.

Cheap loose "rare" Kayou cards from marketplace sellers. Kayou is huge in Asia, and popular cards get copied. Kayou's own anti-counterfeit sticker is a silver holographic square with a large K that shifts as you tilt it, and loose top-tier cards going for suspiciously little are the ones to be wary of. Buy sealed, from a shop you can shout at.

Buying as an investment. Kayou is new to the UK and none of this has any real sales history here yet. Collect the ponies you love. If one turns out to be worth something in ten years, lovely. Don't open boxes expecting them to pay for the next one.

Old CCG guides and ban lists. Anything online about the 2013 to 2019 Enterplay game is about a different game. It won't help you, and it will confuse you.

Look after them: foil, curl and sleeves

Kayou cards carry a lot of foil, and heavy foil has a side effect: the card stock takes on moisture while the foil layers expand at a different rate, so cards can curl. Kayou's own advice is sleeves, albums and somewhere dry. Not the windowsill, not the loft.

• Playing: sleeve the deck. A children's card game is going to meet a glass of squash at some point. Our trading card sleeves guide covers the options.
• Collecting: penny sleeve the hits and toploader anything from the top tiers, then a binder for the rest. If you're weighing up which one, our Vault X binder guide sorts it out.

Everything you need is in the card protection range. Buy it before you rip, not after.

SleevesToploaders9-pocket binder

The short version

• Want to play? The My Little Pony Trading Card Game. Two starter decks, one each.
• Want to collect? Friendship Eternal. Rainbow for pocket money, Star for the art, Fun Moments as a gift.
• Do they mix? No. Never. Check the box says "Trading Card Game".
• Best value per card: the starter deck, at about 22p a card.
• Best Christmas buys: a starter deck, the Fun Moments Collector Box, and Hearth's Warming Eve boosters for stockings.
• Rarest TCG pull: a Shining Colourful Rare, about one pack in 160.

The full range, starter decks, boosters and Friendship Eternal alike, is in our My Little Pony TCG collection, with the Fantasy Wonderlands booster box and all six starter decks on pre-order now.

Final thought: My Little Pony cards come in two flavours, and the whole trick is knowing which one is in your hand. If they want to play, it says "Game" on the box. If they want to collect, it says "Friendship Eternal". Get that right and the rest really is friendship and magic, plus a small argument about which pony is best. (It's Fluttershy. We're not taking questions.)

Further reading: new to card games altogether? The Best Trading Card Games to Play & Collect in 2026 puts the pony game in context, and if the Lorcana comparison has you curious, Disney Lorcana Rarities Explained gives the Disney side of the counter the same treatment.