Odyssey Limited Review: Blue Gary Wise This is the third installment in my series looking at the cards in Odyssey and their value in limited play. The other installments can be found here. BLUE Green is the best color in Odyssey Limited, right? Not so fast. While unable to match Green's common creatures, blue is as strong as ever, with the set's best flyers and bounce being joined by the unmatched ability to attain threshold. Throw in a little counter magic and some card drawing and you have what is quickly becoming the closest thing to a usurper green has in this set. Like blue's commons aren't good enough, it's the rares that really help the color stand out. Aboshan, Cephalid Emperor may be the best card in the set, while other bombs like Thought Devourer, Persuasion, Amugaba and Upheaval are a good way to start any deck. Blue seems to be the most adept color at blending into its surroundings, working well with each of the other colors while lending well to a splash color, with Cephalid Looter capable of cycling away uncastable spells. How you draft it depends on which color you couple it with, but regardless, the depth and strength you'll find on the island should steer you in the right direction. The Cards Aboshan, Cephalid Emperor Ladies and gentlemen, I introduce to you the one card you'll want to open if you get the choice. At the Invitational, two 8-player tables filled by the world's best sat down to Rotisserie Draft with the entire Odyssey set at their disposal, and both tables saw Aboshan picked first, before Kamahl, Cabal Patriarch, Kirtar's Wrath and all other comers. Simply, Aboshan is the strongest card in one of the strongest colors in the format, controlling the table from the turn it comes into play, regardless of whether you have other Cephalids. That it's essentially unblockable thanks to its ability to tap all non-flyers as an instant makes it both an offensive and defensive force. A 1st pick. Aboshan's Desire As good as Aboshan is, he must not have much in the way of will power, because this card just doesn't seem to do enough. If it made the creature untargetable from the get-go, maybe it would warrant a spot in some decks, but seven cards is a long time to wait. Maybe this is sideboardable in a deck that feels incapable of otherwise breaking through blue-white defenses, but you'd have to be pretty desperate. A 12th - 14th pick. Aether Burst With the cumulative effect being such a focal point on the Burst, its easy to forget that the card provides a solid effect all on its own. For just two mana, you'll almost always be able to trade card for card, protecting your creatures from kill spells, returning them after damage is on the stack, or returning opposing creatures after they've been enchanted. Don't put too much weight on the multiples aspect, though the more you have, the better they become. Just understand that Aether Burst is a solid, playable card that's good enough to make your deck. A 6th - 8th pick. Amugaba All right. You've decided you want one of your two seven-casting cost spells in your deck: either Ancestral Tribute or Amugaba. Anyone see a disparity in power here? Amugaba is not only absolutely massive, but it's also next to impossible to kill. Invasion block was as pumped up as any recent format and Vodalian Serpent was considered a very solid card. Add one mana, it gets to attack against everyone, in the air, and comes with protection from kill spells. A 1st pick. Aura Graft This is one of the tougher calls in the set. There aren't a lot of permanent enchantments in Odyssey, but any time you actually get to cast the Graft, it's bound to be good. Your opponent attacks with all his creatures, including one with a thresholded Seton's Desire, you Graft, all his creatures die. Your opponent has a 2-toughness creature you need to kill, so you shoot it with Psionic Gift, Graft it onto another creature and shoot it again. Kirtar's Desire, Persuasion, Chamber of Manipulation, Caustic Tar...Grafting any of them can prove catastrophic for your opponent. Start it in the sideboard, but get it into your deck as soon as you see targets. A 6th - 8th pick. Aven Fisher My distaste for 2/2 flyers for four mana has been addressed time and again, but there are always exceptions to rules and this is one of them. If you're going to find me an enticement, card advantage is a good one, and that's what the Fisher commonly provides. Giving you the option of either trading with an opposing creature/spell for card advantage or attacking as a source of evasion damage, the Fisher is either eventually going to net you cards or win you the game. That it's more often the former isn't a negative, because get enough card advantage and you'll eventually win anyways. A 2nd - 4th pick. Aven Smokeweaver There isn't a lot in this format that makes this thing dead. It's toughness is high enough to withstand Patriarch's Desire, its protection from red means burn can't even target it, and its ability to fly over the heads of potential defenders means it will usually survive combat. The Smokeweaver, the best anti-red card in the set is pretty good against non-red mages, meaning that it should always be a high pick. A 1nd - 3th pick. Aven Windreader If you look at the non-rares in Odyssey, you'll notice that there are only two, Balshan Griffin and Mystic Zealot, that can block and kill the Windreader while living to tell the story, and both of those monsters can only do so when meeting certain conditions. Five mana is not only a lot, but also a common statistic in this format, but the Windreader is worth it for its unstoppable nature alone. Throw in a handy little ability that will let you know what tricks your opponent has waiting for you and you have a very strong card that should always go high. A 2nd - 4th pick. Battle of Wits If all 24 packs contain a Battle of Wits and you manage to get every one, I highly recommend playing them with 191 Islands. A 15th pick. Balshan Beguiler 1/1's for three mana really need to have a tap ability that can kill a creature or control the table to be playable. The Beguiler has no such ability. A 15th pick. Balshan Griffin The only thing better than a 3/2 flyer is a 3/2 flyer your opponent can't get rid of. With very little in the way of effective discard in the format, the Griffin is constantly renewed by the ability that makes it so strong, effectively making every card you draw a replacement 3/2 flyer if the Griffin is going to 'die'. The return-to-hand ability makes the Griffin impossible to deal with in combat, forcing your opponent to try to race you. Unfortunately for them, it's pretty difficult to race a three-powered flyer. A 1st - 3rd pick. Bamboozle A thoroughly unexciting card, Bamboozle is one of those cards that can be the 23rd in your deck, but isn't ever worth getting excited about. Cast on your opponent, it ensures their card quality will be sub-par over the next two turns, cast on yourself it ensures the opposite, but both uses come at the cost of a card, making its worth doubtful. As an added bonus, when used on yourself, it gets you closer to threshold and can get flashback cards into your graveyard, all adding up to a playable effect for the right deck. An 8th - 10th pick. Careful Study I find it amazing that I've seen this card cast as often as I have. At its base, Careful Study is card disadvantage, plain and simple. Trading three cards for two, the idea is that you lose a card in trade for heightened quality and the furthering of the quest for threshold, but I just don't think it's worth it. If your deck is really weak and you need to get to your power cards, this may be an option, but even then I'd try to fight the urge. An 11th - 13th pick. Cephalid Broker Now, this is a way of increasing card quality that's a little more up my alley. The Broker is one of the best uncommons in the set, which shouldn't be too surprising considering how good all of the Cephalids are. All this 2/2's ability does is get you to your power cards faster than anything in the format save Diabolic Tutor, all the while exchanging excess land for more desirable spells. In short, this is a must-kill creature, and very worthy of your first picks. A 1st - 2rd pick. Cephalid Looter Like its cousin the Broker, the Looter gets you to the cards you need to win at no cost other than the tapping of your creature, and it does it faster, costing one less mana to get into play. Obviously the Looter's ability isn't as powerful as the Broker's, but that's an unfair comparison for a creature that, at three mana can still attack or block substantially in addition to it's very strong ability. I'd take the big fliers over it, but it's really close. A 2nd - 4th pick. Cephalid Retainer I could not believe how late this went in the Rotisserie draft at the Invitational. A toughness of three is a magic number in this environment full of Patriarch's Desires, Firebolts and the like, and in addition to the Retainer's substantial body comes one of the best special abilities in the entire set. Flood was always a top of the line draft card, an automatic first pick. Now, it attacks for two a turn while tapping down important attackers and blockers. A 1st - 2nd pick. Cephalid Scout There are no bad Cephalids, only redundant ones. The Scout is a good card to have in your deck, combining speed and evasion with astounding long game power that draws you cards and gets you to threshold, but the question is how many is too many. My guess is that you don't want to play more than two of these little critters, which can activate the turn they hit play, because drawn in clumps they won't be too good, but you definitely want one in your deck if you can get one. A 5th - 7th pick Cephalid Shrine The Cephalids hang out at a total dump. A 15th pick. Chamber of Manipulation This is one of the most comboish cards in the set. On its own, the Chamber is pretty mediocre, at most preventing opposing creatures from attacking, at least preventing one opposing creature from attacking. Using the Chamber to take control of an opposing creature with an annoying tap ability on your opponent's turn is an interesting way to get around that ability, instilling summoning sickness, but really, this card is best when combined with cards like Braids, Cabal Minion, Sadistic Hypnotist and Malevolent Awakening, cards that allow you to sacrifice the creatures you take control of for beneficial effects. Sorry guys, this isn't Ray of Command with buyback, but it is an interesting card with an exploitable ability if you happen to get the cards that go with it. A 5th - 7th pick. Cognivore Just 8 mana? You've got to be kidding me. Hey Randy Buehler, Mark Rosewater, Mike Donais et al... How does this thing cost more than Amugaba? A 12th - 14th pick. Concentrate You can't ever complain about three cards for the price of one. For four mana, you basically ensure that seven or eight times out of ten, you're going to win in the long game because your resources are amplified by the advantage this card produces. The question is when the best time to cast it is, as playing a non-interactive spell on turn four can prove fatal if the tempo lost is too much to overcome. If you have other things to do early on, do them. Once you've established yourself, Concentrate. Then you just have to pick up the pieces. A 2nd - 4th pick. Cultural Exchange Now this is some card disadvantage that's worth playing. Obviously best in a deck designed to slow down the opposition, Cultural Exchange takes the deadlocked game and makes it a joke, with the weakest and strongest creatures in play switching sides in a power play I seriously doubt results in a loss very often. Of course, if your opponent casts their third Aether Burst on their three dispossessed creatures, things won't be looking too good for you, but hey, every card has an answer somewhere in the set. A 3rd - 5th pick. Deluge I've seen this card go unplayed or unpicked the first time around the table a number of times and that just seems insane to me. This isn't Ensnare, but it's close, buying you a turn against aggressive green decks, then allowing you to serve back for the win, OR allowing you to attack with everything, then tap all non flyers before blocking OR tapping those annoying Hallowed Healers and Nomad Decoys that are preventing you from breaking though for that final damage OR...OR...OR... a 5th - 7th pick. Dematerialize Can you believe this thing is actually playable? After being spoiled by Recoil, Repulse, Rushing River and Jilt for the last year, this is what we get as far as bounce goes, and it just doesn't seem fair. Not only can you not cast it as an instant to protect your creatures, it costs a grotesque four mana. Clumsy and slow, it feels like a Portal card, but the tempo advantage you can gain from the double casting combined with its ability to 'destroy' permanent enchantments makes it a viable card for your deck, even if its marginally so. A 7th - 9th pick. Divert In a set with common kill spells like Patriarch's Desire, Morbid Hunger and Thermal Blast, it's more likely than not that Divert will find itself a use, and whenever that happens, it's likely to be a very good thing. Simply, if you need just one card to make an opponent's spell kill one of their own creatures, it's a very good thing, and if you the right spells don't come up initially, those heightened flashback costs will certainly apply themselves. Occasionally you will die with this card in your hand unused, so don't be afraid to cast it in those situation where merely denying your opponent two crucial sources of mana will disrupt their game if it doesn't appear a more optimal use is on the horizon. Try to get a Looter or Broker to go with this card: that way, either you'll slaughter your opponent early, or get a more useful card late. A 5th - 7th pick. Dreamwinder In a color with so few fat creatures, the Dreamwinder really stands out, regardless of its disability. At 4/3 for four, the Winder is obviously large by any color's standards. Better in multiples, where you only need to sacrifice one island for all to attack, Dreamwinder can occasionally come in handy in depriving your opponent of colored mana on a crucial turn. Try to get one or two of these, especially in those creature light black-blue or red-blue decks: you won't be sorry. A 4th - 6th pick. Escape Artist First things first: don't ever use this card in a non-white main deck. Generally, any cards whose sole purpose is to do one point of damage a turn just isn't going to be worth playing, with its lack of impact on the rest of the table essentially equivalent to card disadvantage, and no, discarding a card to fog a creature each turn isn't a viable strategy. That all said, I've lost a couple of games to my inability to break through white defenses as this little dork whittled away my life, one point at a time. Do not pick it high, as you'll get it low, and don't force it into your deck, but if need to, you can play it over a nineteenth land. An 8th - 10th pick. Extract Sorry guys, it may be a good way to kill a combo deck with one kill method, but that doesn't work here in Limited land. A 15th pick. Fervent Denial There's something about counter magic, isn't there? I mean, the ability to control what your opponent can and cannot play just makes you feel powerful, and the temptation to do it twice is more tempting than most of us can stand. That's why Fervent Denial has been getting picked much higher than it should. Simply, while the Denial is playable, it's very slow, only having an effect after you've either stabilized the game or been reduced to zero life. Start it in you deck, but side it out against the aggressive decks. A 6th - 8th pick. Immobilizing Ink So your opponent still has the option of untapping their creature, all the while gaining threshold. I guess you could play it on your own pinger or something, but I would expect to do much winning if you do. A 13th - 15th pick. Laquatus's Creativity Could be a lot of fun with Upheaval, but really, the Creativity just costs too much for what it does. Generally, you'll be paying five mana to discard three land for three random cards, while having a hope of Aether Bursting Kamahl then making your opponent discard him. That just isn't enough for me to be happy with. An 11th - 13th pick. Patron Wizard The most obvious comparisons this card is going to face is with Master Apothecary, but this time blue definitely got the short end of the stick. There are some decent Wizards out there, like Aven Windreader, Shadowmage Infiltrator and Puppeteer, but you'll want to be tapping them for other purposes. Even if you don't though, Blue ManaBlue ManaBlue Mana is an awfully tough pill to swallow and is almost impossible on turn three, so I wouldn't be adding this to your deck too quickly. A 10th - 12th pick. Pedantic Learning Too bad Looting doesn't count. No point on dwelling on it though. A 15th pick. Peek Peek finds itself useful in a few ways. First and most obvious, it allows you to know what tricks your opponent has in store. Second, it helps you cycle through your deck, helping you get to your best cards. Quite often, you'll find yourself without enough optimal spells for your deck meaning anything that cycles becomes good. For just one mana, Peek lets you do that while providing you with some free information and something to do on turn one. Not a high pick obviously, but definitely playable. A 7th - 9th pick. Persuasion Likely blue's best non-creature spell, Persuasion gives you the ability to take your opponent's most important creature and press it into service on your side of the table, bringing with it any abilities or enchantments it happens to be shrouded in at any given moment. Obviously, this is a powerful ability, whose worst possible conclusion will see your opponent bounce the creature, trading the bounce card for your Persuasion, far from the end of the world. More optimally, they'll have to trade their kill spell for their own creature or block with one or two other creatures. Either way, take the card advantage and run. A 1st pick. Phantom Whelp While not an automatic addition to your deck, the Whelp isn't quite as bad as some seem to think. Simply, this 2/2 for two, while not exactly an optimal attacker, fills the two casting cost slot in a color without much to do on your second turn, specializing in trading with other fast drops. If you have Angelic Walls and Patrol Hounds, the Whelp shouldn't make your deck, but if your mana curve looks like it's going to start at four mana more often than not, you may want to consider adding this dog to your deck. An 8th - 10th pick. Predict Like Peek, Predict is a card whose value can be found in the low-cost cycling it provides in helping you get to your good cards, but often it can be so much more. Combined with Aven Windreader, Predict will allow you to see the top card of either library, making your prediction a lot easier, while with Repel, it not only will draw you two cards, but also send your opponent's best card to the graveyard. If you don't have a way of making Predict work in your favor, always go with your own most common basic land type, as you'll help yourself get to threshold and give yourself the best chance of drawing two cards. A 7th - 9th pick. Psionic Gift A very solid card, the Gift is made all the more effective by the fact that, with so few playable enchantments in the format, it's unlikely your opponent will be playing enchantment kill in their decks. Killing all manner of one-toughness creatures (except Beloved Chaplain) and helping your smaller creatures trade with your opponent's larger ones, on occasion you'll find that playing this card is an instant win, with some decks just incapable of killing whatever you're placing it on. Especially valuable in blue-white, a color combination that has trouble removing creatures, the Gift should always be good enough to make your deck, regardless of your second color. A 4th - 6th pick. Pulsating Illusion I'm not a huge fan of this card, which proves virtually useless unless you start discarding cards to it, but it seems to hold its own. The problem with the Illusion is that, while it does pose a potential problem, your opponent won't attack into it unless they have an answer, and when you discard to pump it and your opponent Afflicts in response, you're falling pretty far behind. Play it if you get it, but you should only pick it if there's nothing else to take. A 6th - 8th pick. Puppeteer One of the better cards in the set, the Puppeteer completely controls the table from the moment it gets into play, either tapping your opponent's most important attacker or blocker, allowing your best defender to attack with the understanding that it can untap to block, or allowing you to double up on the tap abilities of Hallowed Healer, Chainflinger, Nantuko Disciple and the like. There are very few rares and no commons I'd take over this little guy. I recommend you take the same approach. A 1st - 2nd pick. Repel My absolute favorite card interaction in this set is Repelling my opponent's best creature in response to their activating Diligent Farmhand. There's something very cool about watching your opponent realize that their biggest or baddest is going to be shuffled into the depths of their library, likely to never be seen again. Repel is a very strong card, working as an instant and lending itself to any number of card advantage possibilities, even serving to protect your broken rare creatures in a pinch. All this plus a lot of tempo advantage makes for a good card that should go high more often than not. A 3rd - 5th pick. Rites of Refusal Nothing, and I do mean nothing, frustrates me more than how many people I've seen play this card. I mean, I've already alluded to the control countermagic offers, but you really can't let yourself get lured into this too often. Viable as a sideboard card against a deck with a few high-cost bombs, running it main deck makes no sense, with the only possible results it offers being card disadvantage or dead wood that sits in your hand until death. Yes, you can get threshold pretty quickly with this card's help, but trust me when I say that you don't want to run this in the main. A 10th - 12th pick. Scrivener One of the telling details about Odyssey is the fact that this card is so playable, while the original incarnation was marginal at best. At five mana, Scrivener is an expensive package, but with a number of strong instant commons in the set, its ability is too good to ignore. Especially strong in blue-black, where you'll be able to recur this little fellow, Scrivener's best combo may be with Aether Burst, with multiples of that card allowing for the repeated bouncing of Scrivener and opposing creatures. When deciding how high to draft it, keep the instants in your deck in mind. They'll determine its value. A 5th - 7th pick. Shifty Doppelganger Three mana for a 1/1, four more to make one of your creatures a single-use card. That's a whole lot of bad. You can use its ability as an instant to throw off opposing math during combat, but that's not much of an upside to go with a whole lot of down. A 13th - 15th pick. Standstill A potential sideboard card for a fast deck against a slow one, Standstill punishes your opponent for falling behind, but if they've done so you're probably going to win anyways. If you're blue-green with a thousand Mongrels and Werebears, it may make sense to side in if you know you're playing first. A 10th - 12th pick. Syncopate Easily the best counter in the set, Syncopate may be blue's best '2 mana' play, especially when stopping a 3cc creature after you've played your second land. The fact it removes the countered spell is huge in the era of threshold, and against decks with a lot of flashback, you may want to save it until it's going to stop Firebolt, Elephant Ambush and the like. A 4th - 6th pick. Think Tank I really like this card. Getting you to threshold quickly while improving your card quality each turn, the Tank seems to be somewhat underrated, at least for the moment. The options this enchantment gives you are limitless, with your flashback spells activating from the graveyard despite your having chosen not to draw them, the land you need coming early, and the spells you need coming late. Especially good with black spells like Gravedigger and Morgue Theft, the Tank is strong enough for every deck running blue, and with cards like Bearscape, may even be good enough to splash. A 4th - 6th pick. Thought Devourer Your maximum hand size being reduced to three doesn't matter too much if your opponent is dead. Simply put, this is one of the best creatures in Odyssey, combining evasion, size and a low casting cost to form an absolute beast your opponent must deal with quickly or die to. Thought Devourer isn't coming out on turn four too often, but it will sometimes come out on turn six alongside another creature or spell, and being able to double up that way while producing spells of this quality is very strong. You won't get too many chances at cards of this power level: get them while you can. A 1st pick. Thought Eater Not quite as exciting as its big brother, the Eater is a very solid card none the less. Obviously, you can't classify this as a 2-drop as casting it on turn two will often cost you a number of cards, but it does provide a solid evasive body for a very low casting cost, with its drawback not important enough to worry about after turn four. The Eater seems to be going pretty late right now. Be happy when you get it sixth. A 4th - 6th pick. Thought Nibbler Carrying with it the same drawback as the other 'thought' creatures, in as small a package as the Nibbler provides, it just isn't worth playing. If there weren't a drawback on the Nibbler, I still don't think it would be playable, with a 1/1 body not impacting enough on the field of play, no matter how little it costs. If your opponent has a lot of 1-toughness flyers that you can't otherwise stop (not too likely in blue), you may want to side this in, but otherwise leave it in the board. A 12th - 14th pick. Time Stretch I've always suggested players stay away from spells with a cost of seven or more, and while Odyssey seems to have made the seven mana plateau a legitimate one, the ten mana plateau is still a little above and beyond. Time Stretch is definitely powerful, but it isn't that good when you die with nine mana sources in play. An 11th - 13th pick. Touch of Invisibility Four mana is way too much for what this spell provides. Draft a flyer so you won't have to find weak ways to deal damage like this one. If you insist on playing it though, try to get a Frenetic Ogre in your deck. An 11th - 13th pick. Traumatize While not entirely practical, there could be applications for this card. Most of them surprisingly have it targeting your own library and involve large quantities of threshold, flashback and black cards like Cabal Patriarch and Painbringer that want a high number of cards in the graveyard. Realistically though, you won't be able to cast it until there are only 25 cards in your library and even then it'll cost you a card and a lot of mana, so that slot in your deck can likely be used in a better way. A 10th - 12th pick. Unifying Theory It looks powerful, but it helps your opponent just as much as you. More so if you consider that you have one less spell than they do that can activate it. A 15th pick. Upheaval This isn't the absolute best card in the set, but it is a first pick more often than not and does qualify as my favorite card in Odyssey. Upheaval uses one effect in a number of ways, most of which either prevent your death or encourage your opponent's. At worst, Upheaval is a reset button that gets you out of a bad situation, but if you can stall the game for a while it will be the game winner, allowing you to float mana and cast spells after its effect resolves. Against Mike Pustilnik at the Invitational, I floated twelve mana, cast Upheaval, then played a land and cast Mystic Enforcer and Mystic Crusader before discarding twelve cards or so, activating threshold. I won that game. You will too A 1st -2nd pick. Words of Wisdom I'm not a huge fan of this card. Yes, it keeps the balance between you and your opponent, with each of you essentially drawing one card, but I don't like helping my opponents. If your deck is weak or you have broken cards that almost automatically win games, playing this instant is fine, but otherwise I'd recommend leaving it out of your deck. An 8th -10th pick.