Pop Stars

## Overview

*Minions, get in formation! The Pop Stars have finally taken center stage—and they’re searching for the best Talent across all of Smash Up to join them live in concert. With just a Debut Album or a couple of artist collabs, one of you Rising Stars could even become the Queen of Pop! While these minions only use temporary power to make their audiences happier than ever, don’t fall for their poker face—these dangerous women won’t go easy on you. So what are you waiting for? Join the Pop Stars, and they’ll make your wildest dreams come true!*

Download this faction on Imgur: https://imgur.com/gallery/bw546bW

## Details

### General

* **Name:** Pop Stars
* **Author:** SirErrant
* **Complexity:** 2/5
* **Version:** 1.0
* **Last Updated:** May 13, 2023

### Special Details

If you get deja vu from some of these cards, don't worry! It's because this faction was created using the Hello World! prompt.

Note: *This faction contains AI art produced by Midjourney.*

## Cards

### Breakdown

Pop Stars have the standard set of 10 minions and 10 actions. They have a total minion power of 30, or an average of 3 per minion. Their actions feature:

* 3 play-on-base actions: Talent Search, Topping the Charts, Live in Concert
* 2 play-on-minion actions: Debut Album (2x)
* 5 standard actions (5 that directly affect one or more minions, in **bold**): **Artist Collaboration** (2x), **New Artist**, **Breakup Song**, **Singing Competition**
* 5 actions that directly increase a minion's power: Artist Collaboration (2x), New Artist, Breakup Song, Singing Competition

#### Minions

* **1x Queen of Pop (5) -** Your minions here gain +1 power until the end of the turn. Special: After this base scores, you may move one of your minions here with power greater than this minion's power to another base.
* **2x Singer-Songwriter (4) -** Talent: If the power of one of your minions here has increased this turn, give that minion +2 power until the end of the turn.
* **3x Teen Idol (3) -** Ongoing: After this minion loses power at the end of a turn, place +1 power counters on it equal to the power lost.
* **4x Rising Star (2) -** Talent: If this minion gained power this turn, shuffle it into your deck to search your deck for a differently-named minion of equal or lesser power and play it here as an extra minion. Transfer all attachments from this minion to the new minion. Only use one Rising Star's ability each turn.

#### Actions

* **2x Debut Album -** Play on a minion. Talent: This minion gains +2 power until the end of the turn.
* **2x Artist Collaboration -** Choose a base. Give one minion of each faction there +1 power until the end of the turn. Play an extra action.
* **1x Talent Search -** Play on a base. Talent: Shuffle one of your minions here into your deck. Search your deck for a differently-named minion of equal or lesser power and draw it. You may destroy this card to play it here as an extra minion.
* **1x New Artist -** Play an extra minion of power 3 or less. Give it +1 power until the end of the turn.
* **1x Topping the Charts -** Play on a base. Talent: If one of your minions here has power greater than its printed power, draw a card.
* **1x Breakup Song -** Choose one of your minions. Destroy a minion of power 3 or less at its base to give it +3 power until the end of the turn.
* **1x Live in Concert -** Play on a base. Ongoing: Once per turn, after a minion here gains power, you may give your minions here +2 power until the end of the turn.
* **1x Singing Competition -** Choose one of your minions to duel another player’s minion at its base. The winning minion gains power equal to the losing minion’s power. Destroy the losing minion.

#### Bases

* **Center Stage (24, 4 2 1) -** At the start of the turn, you may move one of your minions to this base and give it +1 power until the end of the turn.
* **Local Music Venue (17, 3 2 1) -** After this base scores, the winner may shuffle one of their minions here into their deck to search their deck for a minion with equal or lesser power, then play it on a different base as an extra minion.

## Clarifications

**Rising Star -** "Attachments" refer to any counters and/or modifiers on this minion.

**Debut Album -** This card's Talent can only be used once, even after it is transferred to another minion.

**Live in Concert -** This card's ability triggers after any minion at its base gains power.

**Local Music Venue -** The winner can shuffle a minion into their deck and then play that same minion at another base.

## Strategy

### General

Pop Stars primarily focus on using temporary power to transform Rising Stars into higher-power minions; as such, all their other minions either enable Rising Stars or make great targets for them. Queen of Pop is their most obvious target: not only does she become 6 power on the first turn she’s played, the Queen can also trigger many of their other abilities, like Topping the Charts and Live in Concert. Teen Idol is a great consolation prize, though: by turning temporary power into power counters, actions like Breakup Song and Singing Competition can be used non-terminally, and modifiers like Debut Album become persistent added power over time. Manage Teen Idol’s power carefully to avoid giving your opponents the win, though. To increase your Rising Star’s power, play actions like Debut Album and New Artist. If it needs a further boost, Singer-Songwriter and Live in Concert can help get your Rising Star to 5 or 6 power.

While Rising Stars make up the core of the Pop Star strategy, they do have other tricks up their sleeve to round out their gameplan. Note that Live in Concert reacts to *any* minion gaining power: because of this, it can trigger on other players’ turns. Combined with actions like Artist Collaboration, increasing other players’ power can be a viable strategy to quickly break a base. In addition, Pop Stars tend to overspend on resources; to remedy this, Queen of Pop can move a large minion (like Teen Idol) over after using it to score a base.

Because of their searching power, Pop Stars appreciate partners with strong high-powered minions, as well as cards that increase power to help supplement Rising Star’s capabilities.

### Partner Suggestions

#### Published

**Explorers -** TBD

**Rock Stars -** TBD

**Itty Critters -** TBD

## Author Notes

* This faction uses Kaufmann for its font.
* I had a lot of fun using Midjourney to reference as many pop stars as I could! My only regret is the distinct lack of Lady Gaga.
	+ Teen Idol's art comes from artists like Olivia Rodrigo, Billie Eilish, and Ariana Grande.
	+ Singer-Songwriter's art is a mix of Taylor Swift and Adele.
	+ Queen of Pop was created by mashing together Beyonce and Rihanna.
	+ Rising Star was inspired by a variety of indie and bedroom pop artists, including Laufey, mxmtoon, and Lyn Lapid.
	+ New Artist also references the same artists.
	+ Artist Collaboration is supposed to feature Mariah Carey and Alicia Keys (although the AI couldn't seem to get the latter right).
	+ Topping the Charts was inspired by Whitney Houston.
	+ Breakup Song is meant to look like Carrie Underwood.
	+ Singing Competition's art is based on Kelly Clarkson.

Pop Stars are probably the simplest and most elegant custom faction I've made so far - mostly thanks to the Hello World! template. I actually came up with Rising Star's core ability long before Hello World! came out (it's inspired by Itty Critters' Evolution), but Rising Star really shines in a temporary power context. Despite 10 cards being fixed, I really felt like I was able to make this faction my own, and they have a fun and unique identity without being incredibly crazy like some of the other custom factions out there (looking at you, Twilight Struggle). Hello World! was a really fun exercise and has definitely helped me learn how to better design cards, and I'd 100% recommend giving it a try if you're looking to get started with making custom factions.