How to fit Odyssey into an existing Deck

Publisher: Wizards of the Coast

This week, I’d like to talk a bit about how to fit the newest Magic expansion, Odyssey, into your existing 100/3 deck. Now, one of the reasons we at the TWG espouse 100/3 decks is because we think they’re more realistic for the average player, who isn’t going to be able to afford all the best cards. A larger deck tends to work better for such players--instead of focusing on purchasing or collecting all of the ‘end all’ cards that will form the perfect 10-round-kill deck, you can focus on overall deck strategy and learn to play for both the short-term and the long term.

As a result, this article will focus more on color themes and general card strategies, rather than specific cards--especially rares. I’ll look more at specific combos and some of the more interesting rares in a later article.

So, you’ve just bought a couple of Odyssey boosters, and you’re wondering what kind of cards will work for you. In general, here’s what I think.

Threshold is very powerful in 100/3. Larger decks mean longer games and bigger graveyards. Along a similar line of reasoning, cards that ‘eat’ away your graveyard can be very powerful.

In general, flashback cards will also be fairly powerful in 100/3, especially some of the more expensive ones that don’t work in smaller games.

Any cards that get rid of cards in your opponent’s graveyard (assuming that’s all they do) will be fairly useless.

Cards that specifically target flashbaking cards aren’t worth putting in the deck.

Finally, there are a lot of cards in Odyssey that are revisions of previous cards, but are themed for odyssey. For instance, the Odyssey power sink (Syncopate, which removes a the countered card from the game, but doesn’t tap manna like a regular power sink) or the Odyssey Mannequin (Millikin, which works exactly the same as a mannequin, but also dumps a card in your graveyard). If you’re not limited to the Odyssey expansion, then these cards don’t generally work as well as their predecessors.

Let’s look at the colors by specifics.

Green
Green players should be smiling widely when they open their odyssey packs. There are a lot of beautiful cards that work perfectly in green decks. Threshold cards are extremely powerful for those of you who like big creatures--they’re cheaper than regular big creatures, but then get even more powerful when you hit threshold.

In addition, there’s a lot to love for your swarmers. Chatter of the Squirrel is a common that can create two 1/1 squirrels, Squirrel Nest enchants a land to make it tap to create a 1/1 squirrel, Nut collector gives you a 1/1 every round, and when he thresholds all squirrels get +2/+2! There are other cards pump out squirrels more sporadically (like when you cast duplicate spells, or when an enchanted creature takes damage.)

As if that weren’t enough, there are also a whole lot of great instant creature boosters. Muscle Burst could easily replace Giant Growth as the pumper of choice, as it only costs two manna but can add up to +6/+6 to a creature. Sylvan might is another good one, which adds +2/+2 and trample, then can flashback to do it again.

In fact, there are a lot of green Odyssey cards that will improve a green deck. Replace your tough worms with flashbackable Roar of the Worm (which can make two 6/6 worms. In fact, the flashback on this one is only four manna. Not bad at all.) Replace your giant growths with muscle bursts or Sylvan mights, throw in some Chatter of the Squirrels for quick blockers, and then add a moment’s peace (flashbacking fog) for emergencies. And those are all commons and uncommons!

There’s also a basilisk that thresholds to get an automatic lure (Stone-Tongue Basilisk--and, unlike other basilisks, he can kill walls.) There’s a centaur that thresholds to become untargetable (Thrashing Centaur--he’s only uncommon). And, of course, there’s the squirrel that thresholds to +7/+7 (the infamous Krosan Beast.) A fairly common rare to keep an eye out for (It comes in the preconstructed decks, so it should be fairly easy to find) is the Nantuko Mentor, which taps to add target creature’s power to its power and its toughness. (Can anyone say Howl from Beyond+Sylvan might+Nantuku Mentor?)

White
White is the other color whose cards I can see working very well in a non-Odyssey-specific deck. There are two general themes to White Odyssey cards: thresholding flyers and creature protection.

Almost all of the thresholding white cards gain +1/+1 and flying. And, since most of them are fairly cheap, the classic ‘white weak-creature’ deck can become very dangerous with a sudden barrage of flyers. Most useful, in my opinion, are the Mystic Zealots. They’re 2/4 common creatures that gain the +1/+1 and flying with threshold.

The other big power of white Odyssey cards, of course, is protection. A lot of creatures in this expansion have powerful protection abilities. The Beloved Chaplain (uncommon) has protection from creatures. A lot of other cards have protection from one or two colors. Also of note is the Orator, which is a 1/4 that gives all your other creatures +0/+1. It’s no Glorious anthem, but it’s nice nonetheless, and it’s only uncommon.

As for protecting you, Odyssey is also fairly good. There are the Spheres, enchantments that automatically deduct 2 damage any time a source of a specific color hits you. They’re nice because they don’t take manna to activate, but I think I’d rather have circles of protection (especially since COP’s are common, and orbs* are uncommon.) The Embolden card is a very nice common (it’s a flashbackable healing salve.) By far the most powerful are the Hallowed Healers, however, who prevent two damage, but threshold to prevent four. They’re common, and so they should be a lot easier to find than master healers.

Red
Red Odyssey is pretty much flashbacking direct damage. Hit them once, then hit them again. These cards are fairly manna intensive, but so are a lot of direct damage cards.

Unfortunately, aside from that, red doesn’t really distinctify itself in Odyssey. It’s cards are good, just not much different from ones in other expansions. There are a lot of creatures that can deal direct damage in one way or another, there are a some creatures with haste, and there are a fair number of land/artifact destruction cards (some that flashback.) A fair number of red creatures gain bonuses to power if you discard cards from your hand, which can work well with flashbacking cards--or with a sudden offence. (The Pardic Swordsmith gets +2/+0 for a discarded card and one manna. Seven cards makes him a 15/1.)

There are a lot of dwarfs in this expansion, which is nice. (I’ve been getting tired of goblins.) Only a couple of them affect other dwarfs, but one is really nice--the Dwarf recruiter, which lets you search for dwarf cards and place them on top of your library. There also seems to be an inordinate number of land destruction cards--both yours and theirs--including several that flashback, and one that thresholds to become an Armageddon (Epicenter.)

Black
Black’s effectiveness in a non-Odyssey deck will be sporadic. A lot of the cards are very quirky, and will fit into some decks, but not others.

A standard black ability is to threshold to +2/+2 and ‘this creature can’t block.’ These cards will be fairly useless in 100/3 (unless you can somehow mount one seriously timely offensive). If you want nice thresholding creatures, use green instead.

Black’s power comes in its quirkiness. A lot of its cards are nice because of their oddity. One, for instance (Decaying soil) acts kind of like an enduring renewal, letting you save any creatures that die. Another, the Caustic Tar, enchants a land so that it can tap to deal three damage to a player.

Unfortunately, a lot of the powers are effective only for odyssey. Black has the most ‘remove target card from in any graveyard from the game’ powers. These are really nice if you can count on your opponent playing Odyssey, but are fairly useless otherwise. On the flip side, there are a lot of black cards that ‘eat’ cards from your own graveyard to produce effects. This is really nice if you’re not playing with many threshold cards, since you don’t have to depend on your graveyard.

If you’re playing black, keep an eye out for such cars. (Painbringer, which can give -X/-X where X is the number of cards in your graveyard, is a good one.) Also, I like the flashbacking raise dead (Morgue theft.) There is a flashbacking pseudo-drain life (morbid hunger), but it’s really, really expensive. Unfortunately, there aren’t any good drudge-skeletony blockers. There’s one that regenerates when you discard a card, but it’s one of the ones that thresholds to ‘can’t block.’ Last Rites is another nice common to watch for--it lets you discard X cards from your hand to force an opponent to discard X non-land cards. Save up a couple of less-useful cards in your hand, and then destroy their most useful cards. A good trade.

Blue
As I mentioned last week, my favorite color is hardest hit in odyssey. There’s only one thresholding card, and while it’s nice, it doesn’t quite make up for the near-lack of other good cards. It has some moderately powerful rares, but everybody does. My disappointment comes with its commons and uncommons.

Blue has its standard compliment of flying creatures, but most of them have weak powers. One lets you look at the top card of someone’s library, three more are cheap, but reduce your maximum hand size. (Which can be a real pain to blue.) One lets you pay three manna and sacrifice a land to draw a card. (Oh boy.)

The most useful common/uncommon creatures are the cephalid looter/broker, which let you draw cards, then discard the same number (Ala Merfolk Looter.) This works really well in three-color decks. There is another card, the think tank, that has a similar deck-adjusting power, as well as several ‘draw cards’ cards. However, don’t depend on blue to do anything more than facilitate--it doesn’t have the power to stand on its own. These powers are great--assuming you have good cards in your deck to draw.

Warning--the counterspells and boomerangs in odyssey are all fairly useless compared to standard ones. They’re either more expensive (and ridiculously expensive to flashback) or they work specifically in Odyssey decks.

This said, I think the most powerful 100/3 deck you could make from Odyssey cards would be green and white, with one of the other three colors to facilitate. Either add red direct damage, black resurrection, or blue deck adjustment to green and white, and you will be very well off. EUOL

Written by EUOL on September 10th, 2002