Articles

Theory Behind Magic: Odyssey has Emptied My Life's Savings!

Anyone who knows me in real life would know that I'm a rather lazy person. In fact, to call me lazy is an understatement similar to saying that an Alpha Black Lotus is just a piece of cardboard :). Out of all the months in the year, December would have to be the time of the year that I feel the laziest because I have just finished my exams and have many parties to go to, which is probably why it took so long for me to write this article. Kudos to Dan Gow for editing 3 tournament reports in one day, I admire his motivation, I really really do.:)

Odyssey in General

It has been around 2 and half months since Odyssey has been released and although this set is "deeper" then what most people first thought, I still think that it is a rather dismal set. For starters, it is always a lost cause to purchase Odyssey packs because there are simply too many unplayable rares. Although Wizards of the Coast might be able to make the graveyard cards like Entomb and Buried Alive to work in Extended, but I would like to REALLY see any deck that would make the Shrines work.

It is in my modest opinion that there are way too much gag rare creatures in the set like Vampiric Dragon, Squirrel Mob, Atogatog and Kamhal, Pit Fighter which are all good in drafts but are rubbish in constructed. The thing that annoys me the most in this set is the imbalance of power between cards, you get 2 really great rares like Call of the Herd and Shadowmage Infiltrator at the top of the pyramid that is good for Limited, Extended and Type 2 while there are cards like Balancing Act, Delaying Shield and Chance Encounter that are literally good for nothing. It is as though the good rares have sucked the goodness out of every other rare in the set and it has made it very difficult for deck builders to not use any of these cards (presumably the good rares - editor) in their deck due to their sheer power. To me, this is just another one of those Wizards schemes to get the players to buy more packs because buying the card individually is worth buying 4 packs thanks to the law of supply and demand.

Other than the low quality rares, the card ideas for the set are mostly made up of crappy versions of cards from previous sets. After 23 expansions and 7 editions, I can understand why Wizards would have to repeat certain card ideas to fill the slots for a set. The thing I don't understand is why are they printing a crappier version of it instead of better ones? Take Persuasion for example, its previous version Treachery is great and its original Control Magic is only average, why did Wizards feel the need to make it even worse? So in order to play block constructed or type 2, we have to fork out the same amount of money for a lower quality card, that we would probably use to wipe our ass afterward the block is rotated out. Can someone tell me how this works?

Odyssey in Extended

The amount of knowledge I have for extended can probably be put into a rat's teacup since I don't play the format at all. Yet from what I have been able to see from the net, Entomb and Zombie Infestation has found a home in the Reanimator decks in Extended. Though the deck manages to win our PTQ Osaka last week, yet I still have some questions about its ability to deal with good old Phyrexian Furnace. TBS reckons that it isn't game over for Reanimator if the Furnace came out first turn on your opponent's side, but I think it at least equate to major mana screw. Therefore, you would excuse me if I don't dance with joy when I open an Entomb in my pack.

Odyssey in Type 2

Other then the elephant and Finkel, when the set first came out, people where all going crazy over Haunting Echoes and Traumatize claiming what a broken combo that was. However, after a bit of play testing, most of us have realized that it isn't the instant game winner as we first thought. Our realization came with the fact that this broken combo does nothing to the board situation, so if you are getting beaten down then you would continue to be smashed even if you managed to squeeze through 2 five to cast spells and remove all the spells in your opponent's library.

Most of the playable cards in Odyssey have the tendency to be creature spells or spells that produces creatures such as Spellbane Centaur, Devoted Caretaker, Pianna, Nomad Captain and Beast Attack. Since creatures are the most killable type of card in Magic, it is difficult to build a deck around it. Most of the name sake decks like Fires and Opposition are built upon the harder to kill enchantments and Odyssey probably have the worst enchantments in Magic history. The only one that I've played with is Divine Sacrament and that isn't great enough to build a deck around. So it is no surprise that most decks in Type 2 at the moment are still built around cards from Invasion Block.

Out of all the Odyssey cards, Tainted Pact would have to be my personal favorite as it is the closest thing we have for a tutor at the moment. The main set back of this card is the repetition of basic lands, but this shouldn't be a real problem with the Invasion Block still in since we have tons of non-basic lands to play with. Other cards in the set that deserves a mention are Divert, Holistic Wisdom and for some reason Miari, since they are going for $10 - $15 dollars in Sydney at the moment. You will have to ask a smarter person then I to know why it is going for so much.

The Novel

Though I know that many of you do not read the Magic novels, but I still feel the need to mention what a crappy book Odyssey was because I paid $16.00 for it. No one screws me without me telling the whole world about it :P. Though Odyssey is slightly better then his previous work Prophecy, yet Vance Moore's writing is still much below average. Once again he tried to carry too many characters in one book and ended up with merely describing them instead of providing the readers with an in depth understanding of the main characters.

Fortunatly, Scott McGough is writing Torment and he was once Magic's continuity writer, which means that he used to help write the whole MtG storyline for the card sets. I have seen some of Scott's short stories about the Keldons in "Dragons of Magic" and they are pretty entertaining so hopefully the next book in the Odyssey cycle would be better. If anyone is looking for something to read during the holidays, I highly recommend the Harry Potter series (don't dis it till you try it) and "Mad Merlin" by J. Robert King (the author of the invasion cycle).

Well, thats it for me this year, I'll be enjoying some major sunshine and partying at Mobile Home this year. Whoo hoo!

Merry X'mas and a Happy New Year to everyone!

Especially to Yaro and our gang of writers/editors in MtG paradise, we had a great run this year.

Special thanks goes to Foggo and the Games Paradise people, you guys made the week more endurable since I have something to look forward to on Thursday.

And of course the readers, these articles only exist because yous are there to read it.

Have a great holiday
Minga Wong