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Theory Behind Magic: Odyssey, an MtG Flashback

Before any of you accuse me of missing my article last month (that means you Yaro :P), I just wanted to clarify that I DID write an article about IBC and sent it though the usual channels. Seeing that it hasn't been posted, I presume that it was lost due to a crappy Internet connection, which is very common within our university. Unfortunately, out of all of the articles that I wrote, this was the one I didn't make a back up for, thus once it was lost, it was lost forever. I'm way too lazy to write the same article twice. (Nope, it made it through to us, just had a slow transfer through the editing process. Apologies to Minga and his fans for the delay. You can find the article in question here - http://www.mtgparadise.com/articles/september2001/0409theory_behind.shtml - Webmaster).

With Wizards of the Coast putting up their web site about the new Magic expansion Odyssey, I thought I might make a few cracks about it before anyone else does. Like any other Magic expansion, my main focus is not on the broken rare or the new mechanics but the storyline. Personally, I am really sick and tired of reading what Urza and his lackeys are up to, since they are always battling villains and trying to save the world. It is hard to get emotionally attached to these characters because most of them don't have a life or any feelings that I can relate to. Afterall, what do I know about blowing up Phyrexia and fighting freaky machines?

One of the great improvements I see that WoTC made with this set is that they have decided to release the novel BEFORE the cards came out. It is nice that they finally realised how much the readers hated having the book spoiled by the cards' flavour texts. For example, the death of Hanna, Darigazz and Gerrard are all printed on cards before we even have a chance to read the book, which really kills the plotline even though Rob King is a great writer.

The storyline of Odyssey take place at Cable City in Dominaria (again!) 100 years after the Invasion of Yawgmoth. The story is set in an arena where the Master of the arena invites fighters from all over the world to compete for money and glory. Bored with his yokel mountain life, a barbarian named Kamahl decides that he would go to this city to see what all the fuss is about. Like many hicks who are attracted to televisions and bikinis the first time they are in a city, Kamahl's attention was immediately drawn to a magical artifact known as "Mirari", which gave him extra motivation to win the contest.

Back to the game, the new mechanic Flashback reminds me of a crappy version of Buyback. Instead of unlimited recycling, you can only re-use the card once and it is removed from the game after flashback, banning all possibility from recurring it again with other cards. I am presuming that this was done because the Flashback spells are so powerful that if it was allowed to be used more then twice, it would break the game. However, from what I have seen so far, the cards with Flashback usually have a ridiculously high casting cost along with an even HIGHER flashback usually on a spell that is nothing to write home about. From the past creative patterns of R&D, I'm guessing that there will be some life gaining, direct damage, counter magic, giant growth and discard Flashback spells. If this is true, it would appear that R&D is playing its own version of flashback, bringing back crappy cards from the Magic graveyard with a so-called new mechanic to fill the slots in the new expansion.

Threshold on the other hand is quite an innovative mechanic as it includes the graveyard as part of the resource in the game. The threshold ability is usually slow to build since it requires you to have 7 cards in the graveyard before it can be activated, unless you are combining it with cards that require sacrificing a permanent for an ability (like Overgrown Estate). The Threshold ability will make your opponent think twice before putting your resources to your graveyard. Presumably, it is not a good idea to use Flashback cards with Threshold creatures since they counter-act each other.

Like anyone who visited the Wizards' Odyssey page, the first card that I notice was Kamahl, Pit Fighter, which is fantastically drawn by Kev Walker. For a mountain yokel, Kamahl is a 4RR to cast, 6/1 legendary creature with haste plus an ability to do 3 damage to target creature or player. To me, this card looks good on paper and a real bomb to draft, but with the amount of removal and counter magic in this environment, I don't think it would see much play in constructed given its high casting cost and vulnerability. Too bad that he doesn't have trample, or he might see some play in fast red decks.

On the other hand, the Mirari appears to be one of the best legendary artifacts we have seen in Magic. For a 5 mana articfact, you can Fork all your instants and sorceries spells with an extra 3 colorless mana. Both Blue and Red should benefit greatly with the use of this uncanny artifact, doing twice the damage or drawing twice as many cards at the end of their opponent's turn. Just imagine how broken this card would be with Accumlated Knowledge, Shock and Duress. With the new flashback ability, you can practically cast the same spell 4 times, provided that you have enough mana.

Ancient Tribute is most likely to be one of those rare cards I rip up after a draft, a common fate to all crappy rares I get. For 5WW you gain 2 life for each card in your graveyard, a spell that can only be useful in late game with a 9WWW Flashback. If this is the average quality of White cards, it looks likely that White has once again taken the shaft in the set.

Krosan Beast is the last card on the Odyssey page at the moment, it is a 3G to cast 1/1 with an insane Threshold ability that makes it an 8/8. However, as witnessed in the IBC environment, large creatures with no haste or evasion are not that playable because of the large number of creature removal, regenerators, counter magic and bounce spells. Like the barbarian legend, unless you have some way to prevent the beast being stalled by the ways mentioned above, it is not as great as it seems.

All in all, Odyssey looks like a promising set with a whole new era to explore, the sample chapter of the book looks promising even though Vance Moore's last effort, Prophecy wasn't a book I would recommand reading. Before I finish, I want to say that due to the lack of tournament reports from Sydney in the last month, our Sydney tournament organiser Chris Foggin has offered a prize (can't remember what) for the best tournament report on the GP trials in Sydney. You can submit your report to MTGparadise and if Foggo don't pay up, he can be found at Games Paradise on Thursday nights. The bringing of knives and other sharp objects is optional:P. I'd write one if I'd made top 8, but I didn't and I don't feel like advertising my defeats over the net. So I'm stuck writting crappy articles as usual. :P

Congrats to Nic Smith for winning the IBC PTQ. Now how about forking some of that money out to buy us a drink?

As Always
Minga Wong
t_memo@yahoo.com