Odyssey (Magic: The Gathering)

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Odyssey
the Mirari, a metal orb on a helix
Released	September 21, 2001
Size	350 cards (110 common, 110 uncommon, 110 rare, 20 basic land)
Keywords	Threshold, Flashback
Mechanics	Discard, Graveyard effects
Dev. code	Argon
Exp. code	ODY
	v · d · e
First set in the Odyssey block
Odyssey Torment Judgment

Odyssey is the 24th Magic: The Gathering expert-level expansion set. Released in September, 2001, Odyssey is the first set in the Odyssey Block. Its expansion symbol is a small image of the Mirari (see storyline).

Storyline

The storyline of Odyssey leaps forward 100 years after the events in the set Apocalypse on the remote continent Otaria. Odyssey 's protagonist is Kamahl, a formidable fighter-mage skilled in both throwing fireballs and melee combat. Kamahl has a close friend Chainer, a cabalist, and a cool-headed sister Jeska. The antagonist is Laquatus, a sly merfolk who uses trickery and mind control to bend others to his will. Other characters include the cephalid emperor Aboshan, Kamahl's centaur friend Seton, Kamahl and Jeska's dwarven trainer Balthor, the militaristic Kirtar, the mellow but dangerous Cabal Patriarch (The First), and the unpredictable sociopath Braids.

Almost everyone in the story is after the Mirari, a legendary artifact of immense power with the ability to make its wielder's innermost wishes come true. The Mirari is relatively small, resembling a metallic ball mounted on a wiry helix. The Mirari notoriously drives its wielder insane, often causing death and massive destruction, wherein it awaits a new master.

A new approach

The Magic: The Gathering Creative Team began a new approach to Magic's storyline starting with Odyssey. Changes include:

• The 13 previous sets' storyline, beginning in Weatherlight and climaxing in Apocalypse, that depicted the adventures of Urza Planeswalker, Gerrard Capashen and the Weatherlight crew's crusade against the Phyrexians, has been dropped. For Odyssey, a new story begins in a new setting with a new cast of characters.
• Kamahl is a red protagonist (Red is the color of chaos, destruction, and impulse).
• Laquatus is a blue antagonist (Blue is the color of knowledge, trickery, and now, even deceit).
• Odyssey portrays black themes that include the entertainment and glory of the pit fights mixed with capitalism. These themes have relatively good connotations compared to black's themes in previous storylines, which included genocide, soul-harvesting, and finding the most agonizing torture for captive victims.
• New storylines can be as short as three sets, and each storyline can be revisited or cross paths (for an example, see Mirrodin's storyline).

Set history

Odyssey 's main theme is the graveyard. All the colors interact with the graveyard and use it as a resource, though green and black are the strongest graveyard colors. Previously, the graveyard rarely affected gameplay, but Odyssey 's cards forced players to constantly keep track of both graveyards at all times.

Odyssey's secondary theme is token creatures. Throughout the Odyssey block, all the colors receive more token creatures than usual, and green's token generating spells are some of the most powerful tokens generators in Magic history. This was because if spells had Flashback they could be played from the graveyard for its Flashback cost and would be removed from the game once it resolved. This essentially allowed you to play the same spell twice. The most notable card among these was Call of the Herd which was later reprinted as one of the Time Spiral 'Timeshifted' cards.

Many of Magic's marquee races like Elves and Goblins are completely absent from Otaria. White is represented by Nomads and the Aven birds of The Order; Blue has the deceitful, octopus-like Cephalids; Black is plagued by the Horrors and Minions of Cabal summoners; Red showcases Dwarves, Firecats, and Barbarians of the Pardic mountains; and Green is rife with Centaurs, Squirrels, and the insect-like Nantuko druids of the Krosan forest.

Mechanics

Odyssey introduced two graveyard-centered mechanics:

• Flashback - These spells can be played again from the graveyard, essentially getting a second use out of the spell. However, using a Flashback ability removes the card from the game.

Red and green are the strongest flashback colors.

• Threshold - Certain spells and creatures gain bonuses when your graveyard reaches or exceeds the seven card threshold. Blue is lacking in threshold cards but has the easiest time achieving threshold.

Reception

Odyssey was a poorly received set. ^[1] Mark Rosewater, the lead designer for Odyssey, claimed that the set was the one from which he learnt the most as a designer, as it was the set in which he made his biggest mistakes.^[1] Rosewater went into the Odyssey design deciding he wanted to challenge notions of card advantage. Looking back on this he states that he was doing this for himself at the expense of the audience at large.

Other design mistakes highlighted by Rosewater included the Threshold mechanic. The mechanic forced players to keep track of the number of cards in their opponent's graveyard and which cards could put cards into the graveyard.^[1] It was found that this was largely not enjoyable for players.

Notable Cards

Psychatog

"Psychatog" is a multi-colored (blue and black) Magic: The Gathering creature card, printed at the "uncommon" level of rarity in the Odyssey expansion set in 2001.^[2] Its abilities, which allow the player to strengthen it by discarding cards or removing cards in the graveyard (discard pile) from the game, resulted in Psychatog being labeled "broken" (overpowered) by players; in an online poll conducted in 2002 at Magicthegathering.com, 35.9% of respondents said they believed that printing Psychatog had been a mistake.^[3] Six of the top eight players at the 2002 World Championship used Psychatog-based decks, including the winner, Carlos Romão.^[4]

Psychatog forms part of a five-card cycle of multi-colored atogs, the others being Sarcatog (black and red), Lithatog (red and green), Thaumatog (green and white), and Phantatog (white and blue). Several other atogs exist; the first, printed in the Antiquities set in 1994, was simply named Atog. Atogs other than the original Atog are named for what they "eat": for example, Necratog eats corpses, and Atogatog eats other atogs. Psychatog consumes thoughts, represented in Magic gameplay by the cards in a player's hand. Due to Psychatog's preeminence among the various atog cards, it is referred to informally simply as Tog.^[5] Another nickname is Dr. Teeth, due to its artwork.

Development

The multi-colored atogs in Odyssey were intended as hybrids of the earlier, single-color atogs. Psychatog is a hybrid of the black Necratog (from Weatherlight) and the blue Chronatog (from Visions), and this is reflected in the card's art.^[6] Psychatog has a modified version of Necratog's ability to "eat" cards in the graveyard, but it was felt that Chronatog's ability, which involves skipping turns, should not be continued in Psychatog. It was initially replaced with an ability that required removing 7 cards from the player's library (deck); running out of cards means losing the game, placing a limit on how many times this ability could be used. After developer William Jockusch showed that this could be circumvented simply by using a large enough deck, the number of cards removed was increased to 10, but even this was felt to be too powerful — Battle of Wits, a card that wins the game for players with more than 200 cards in their library, was being planned for the same set, giving players more incentive to use unusually large decks. Eventually the "library-eating" ability was replaced with its current discard ability.^[7]

Strategy

Psychatog decks are usually constructed as Control decks, which focus on stalling against the opponent's threats until they can be defeated using Psychatog. Cards such as the blue Counterspell, which disrupts the opponent's spells, and the black Chainer's Edict, which eliminates their creatures, fulfill this role. Another important class of cards are those that allow the player to draw extra cards, such as Concentrate and Deep Analysis. In addition to getting needed cards quicker, these provide more fuel for Psychatog's ability. Standstill, by deterring the opponent from playing cards and allowing the player to draw cards when they do, can fulfill both of the above roles, but it is less effective against other Psychatog decks.

The coup de grâce of most Psychatog decks is to play Upheaval followed immediately by Psychatog, using mana that was "floated" prior to the Upheaval. By returning all cards in play to their owners' hands, Upheaval simultaneously removes the opponent's defenses while providing ample fuel for Psychatog's abilities.^[8][9]

References

1. ^ ^{a b c} Rosewater, Mark (05 October 2009). "Leading a Horse to Water". Wizards of the Coast. http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/mm/59. Retrieved 3 November 2011. 
2. ^ John Kaufeld, Jeremy Smith (2006-02-17). Trading Card Games for Dummies. p. 55. ISBN 9780471754169. http://books.google.com/?id=o7wzTh3N_soC 
3. ^ Buehler, Randy (2002-07-12). "Psychatog Redux". Latest Developments. Magicthegathering.com. http://wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgcom/daily/rb28. Retrieved 2008-05-11. 
4. ^ Sideboard Staff. "2002 World Championships Top 8 Decks". Magicthegathering.com. http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=sideboard/worlds02/t8decks. Retrieved 2008-05-11. 
5. ^ "Glossary". M:TG Archive. http://mtgarchive.net/wiki/Glossary. Retrieved 2008-05-11. 
6. ^ "Atog breeding". Magic Arcana. Magicthegathering.com. 2002-02-27. http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgcom/arcana/40. Retrieved 2008-05-11. 
7. ^ Buehler, Randy (2002-07-05). "That Big, Toothy Grin". Latest Developments. Magicthegathering.com. http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=mtgcom/daily/rb27. Retrieved 2008-05-11. 
8. ^ Flores, Mike (2003-04-25). "Giant-Sized Regionals Primer: Psychatog". Magicthegathering.com. http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=sideboard/strategy/20030425a. Retrieved 2008-05-11. 
9. ^ Blevins, Jon (2003-04-04). "Psychatog, The Complete Breakdown, Part I: The Major Builds". StarCityGames.com. http://www.starcitygames.com/php/news/article/4723.html. Retrieved 2008-05-11. 

External links

• Wizards' official page for Odyssey