Magical Thinking: Odyssey
By: Jessie Staffler
Tags: Hobby, Game Design, Magic The Gathering, Board Games, Gaming

Welcome back to Magical Thinking, a look back at the art and cards of Magic: the Gathering, set by set, from the beginning. All from the view of a casual fan. Today we begin a new block with the Odyssey Block, and the titular expansion of the block, Odyssey.

Released in October 2001, Odyssey is set one hundred years after the events of Apocalypse. It’s a brand new Dominaria on a brand new continent, where five factions fight among themselves, and a barbarian named of Kamahl seeks his fortune and glory in the fight pits of the Cabal. Meanwhile the Mer empire wants to conquer the continent by flooding everything, and the White Mana aligned Order fights against the Cabal. And in the background there’s this weird magical thing called the Mirari, which is tempting everyone with dreams of conquest. What will happen next? Let’s find out.

Pretty sure Odyssey introduced Avens into Magic. It also began a trend that would continue with the Leonine and the Loxodon: using the animal type as the creature type. It’s a good idea that saves design space and makes the type more flexible since you can mix them with other non-Aven birds.

Hope you are packing some removal spells. Otherwise you got this guy to deal with, the ultimate chump blocker…who’s probably two steps away from launching into a Disney princess song.

What are they burning to get faces in the smoke? I think maybe they are burning something they shouldn’t be burning. I always thought that sort of thing was Green’s sort of thing.

The Odyssey block had a large overarching theme of “Graveyard matters”, so you got a lot of stuff that interacted with the graveyard. Like Threshold: If you have a big enough graveyard your cards do more stuff. If you’ve watched Mark Rosewater’s “Magic: 20 years and 20 lessons learned” then you know this was a disaster with players because they actually wanted to play their cards and not just put them in the graveyard, but still it’s an interesting experiment. Although one that probably just should have been for Black.

Here is the other graveyard related mechanic from this set: Flashback. If it has a gravestone next to the name, you can cast it from the graveyard then exile it. Not gonna lie, I think this one works better than Threshold.

Now this is a better Karma card than the karma card we got in the original set. Plus I like how it harkins back to the abstract art of older sets. Now instant Karma really is gonna get you.

This is a cycle of enchantment cards which shows the leader of every faction with their hands on the Mirari, which is basically what you would get if the One Ring was a Fushigi. I gotta say that bird’s Kubrick stare is freaking me out.

And here is the big bird himself in action. It seems this is also the point in Magic they began giving Legendary creatures actual creature types.

Although it’s not a great mechanic, I do like the flavor of Threshold, since it often shows a creature transforming over time. In this case growing wings and gaining magical power….

…Or corrupting into a hideous monster. I like this one because it literally goes from being Serra Angel to the Lord of the Pit. It’s like two classic monsters in one.

And here we have one of the Big Bads of this expansion. The big squid himself, who wants to drown out all the inferior air breathers. Considering Cephalid don’t really get much play anymore you can imagine how well that plan went.

Those lights on its side make it look like a cross between an eel and a bus. Like that cat bus from My Neighbor Totoro, only way more horrifying.

Hey, do you know how expensive a deep tissue brain massage is? Those magical tentacles are worth every cent.

Oh hey, it’s the card that will guarantee you never get invited back to game night. Because no one wants to play a guy with a 500 card deck who just cheats this monstrosity out and wins on curve. As a mill player I am especially offended this card exists.

Of course with all those Threshold cards, you need ways to fill your graveyard as well, right? Here’s one way.

There’s a Call of Cthulhu reference in here. I just know it.

TEEEEEEEFFFFFF

Seriously, dude. That looks like it hurts like Hell. Someone get that guy some Aspirin.

Eeesh, now that guy’s a mess. Although I do like the effect of discarding to make it stronger. Put that mana flood to good use.

Wow, and I thought the guy from Concentrate had it rough. Also, this is just a bad card. There is no way a 2/2 flyer is worth a reduced hand size.

“Drink….more….Ovaltine….HEY WAIT A MINUTE.”

Ah, Braids. I never read the tie-in novel to this set, so I don’t know how big a part she plays, but just from her cards she seems like a fun character. I always love the crazy unpredictable bad guy trope. Also she’s banned in Commander for good reason, endlessly making opponents sacrifice stuff is just no fun.

And here’s the big daddy of the Cabal himself. And of course his power involves sacrificing others to take down his opponents. Hell, he’ll sacrifice you twice; one from the playing field and once in the graveyard, if that’s what it takes.

Again, a big fan of the Threshold mechanic here, and I like the flavor of this card that it’s some kind of bogey man. Uncle Istvhan would be proud.

Love the flavor text on this one, although I’m pretty sure this is just one of those naked mole rats with wings. Hmm, I wonder if you could tape wings on a mole rate and pass it off as the son of the Jersey Devil? Let me make some calls.

This is probably one of the first attempts to create a lycanthrope type card that actually transforms. We’ll get a few more in this set, but it will take a while before WOTC gets it right in Innistrad.

You think a creature called Face of Fear would have fear all the time. Braids is right, this needs to go back to the drawing board.

Yeah I think there’s a bit more of a hint of insanity with this guy. I don’t know, maybe I’m being unfair.

Innocent Blood is one of my favorite removal cards from Black. It’s cheap, and since it’s a sacrifice effect it can bypass a lot of stuff even if you can’t aim it. I ran this in a ton of decks in my college days. To the point one of the people I played with tried to bullshit me that they made a ruling everyone playing needed a creature to sacrifice to it to play the card (which is not the case). Innocent Blood got into Arena via Jumpstart, so you can use it in historic mode. I suggest you do so, you’ll be glad you did.

It’s been a while since we’ve had a card that turns you into a lich. Just hope your opponent isn’t packing any enchantment removal or things might get messy.

This guy looks like a Mortal Kombat character to me. Maybe its just the pose, he does look like he’s doing martial arts. It’s not just me, right?

Okay, I like this card. Of course I am biased because Zombies are one of my favorite tribes in Magic, so let’s discard some cards and make some Zombies.

Hey, you can use an Anarchist to return the card Anarchy to your hand. That’s clever, right? Probably not.

I love the flavor here. It’s slow as Hell and very impractical, but it’s a lot of fun. You just need a way to delay your opponents while you blow up their creatures.

Wow, and I thought Battle of Wits was BS. Now I want to make a Rakdos deck with this and Tavern Swindler and just coin flip to victory.

Not gonna lie I am digging the Dwarves. I always felt they were under represented compared to Goblins, so it’s nice seeing them get their time to shine. All we need are some Hobbits and we’d be in business.

Flame Burst was the basis of one of my very first red decks in college. It was not a very good deck because this card isn’t very good. Even if you take into account Pardic Firecat (coming later).

Well maybe you should play a little more defensively, my dude. Because right now a rat could breath on you and kill you. At least Haktos has protection. And to think, this is the hero of this expansion.

And here is the card that goes with flame burst, so you can have at max a 10 damage flame burst if you have three other flame bursts and four cats in your graveyard. The problem is that means you never really want to play these things as creatures, you want them right in your graveyard. Which is kind of emblematic of the problem with this set: People want to play their cards, not just dump them in the discard pile. So make better cards.

HALITOSIS!

Not gonna lie, I want to buy a van just so I can have this guy airbrushed on the side of it.

I think we found Stephen Colbert’s personal Hell. How many Bears can you count in the distance?

Bears, Squirrels, Centaurs and Druids. that’s the name of the game in this set. They really need some sort of legendary Squirrel to tie all of this together.

Oh, and Elephants too. Can’t forget the Elephants. You know they never forget you. Not ever. That’s more ominous than I meant. OR IS IT?

Pretty sure Gorilla’s don’t have tails, but I’m not telling him that. Also, it’s weird while everyone is piling stuff in their graveyards here we have green clearing theirs out so they can have an 8/8 monkey.

Okay you can either have a giant gorilla or a giant squirrel, but not both. You know which one I’m going with (It’s the Squirrel).

That is one creepy looking centaur. Is it supposed to be a deer or something? Why is its head like that? What is going on here?

Snapping into a Slim Jim: The horrible truth. This is pretty much My Hero Academia the Magic card.

Another new race, the Nantuko. Bug people are always cool. I kind of wish these guys got more use.

Sorry, but it’s not a proper rite of spring unless it involves a sequence showing the rise and fall of the Dinosaurs (Granted this is Green so this isn’t out of the question).

And here we have the Green Legendary. He is certainly…there.

This is kind of neat. I like the flavor. Kind of surprised this didn’t come back in Theros, since it really fits the flavor there.

Another swing at an attempt to make a Lycanthrope card. Honestly, I’m just here for that terrible pun.

Here we go, baby! The Atogs are back, and now they’re multicolored, starting with the big grand daddy of them all, the Alpha Atog himself; AtogAtog. What does he eat? Other Atogs. Is he any good? Probably not, but I would love to use him as a commander someday.

This is probably the best Atog of them all, since it shows up again in some championship decks. Mainly because its pump abilities synergized and Blue and Black had plenty of ways to feed it. AtogAtog may be the king, but this guy is the Atog Du jour.

Here it is, the big macguffin everyone is fighting for in this block. It’s easy to see why, since it can copy your spells. It’s a pretty powerful effect, and can do some broken stuff. Where did this thing come from anyway? Who made it? And why?

Spoilers: It was made by Karn. Give him a break, he’s just starting out. Haven’t we all accidentally made the One Ring at one point or another?

Hey now I can play AtogAtog even faster.

And that does it for our look at Odyssey. Come back next time as we continue our look at the Odyssey block with Torment. Until then, stay Magical.