Odyssey

For other uses, see Odyssey (disambiguation).

Odyssey
Set Information
Set symbol
Themes and mechanics	Filter lands, "Graveyard matters", Token creatures, Unusual tribes
Keywords/​ability words	Flashback, Threshold
Set size	350 (20 basic lands, 110 commons, 110 uncommons, 110 rares)
Expansion code	ODY
Development codename	Argon

Odyssey is the first set in the Odyssey block. It is the 24^th Magic expansion and was released on October 1, 2001. The prerelease was on September 22–23, 2001.

Set details

Odyssey contains 350 black-bordered cards (110 rare, 110 uncommon, 110 common, and 20 basic lands). Odyssey's expansion symbol is a representation of the mirari. Alongside Torment and Judgment, the second and third expansions of the Odyssey block, Odyssey was a graveyard-focused ("graveyard matters") expansion. 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. For Odyssey, a new story began in a new setting with a new cast of characters.

Marketing

Odyssey was sold in 75-card tournament decks, 15-card boosters, four preconstructed theme decks and a fat pack. The booster packs featured artwork from Seton, Krosan Protector, Mirari and Aboshan, Cephalid Emperor. The prerelease featured باسلْ ليسك - الحجر واللسان (Stone-Tongue Basilisk printed in Arabic text) as the prerelease card. The set was accompanied by the novel of the same name.

Flavor and storyline

Odyssey is set on the continent of Otaria on the devastated plane of Dominaria, approximately a century after the events of the preceding set, Apocalypse of the Invasion block.

The Odyssey block storyline features desert nomads and bird (aven) warriors of the Order; the highly advanced underwater Mer Empire of the cephalids; barbarian and dwarves of the Pardic Mountains; and the centaurs, druids, and other creatures of the Krosan Forest. Each of these civilizations struggle to survive day by day, a fact off which the Cabal, an occult and sinister organization, led by the Cabal Patriarch and includes members such as Braids and Chainer, that controls most of the land and its wealth, benefits, as it operates pit fights for entertainment of the masses and, for the one lucky pit warrior who survives, fame and fortune.

The Order, structured like an army, counts among its leaders the militaristic Kirtar, Pianna, Teroh, and Eesha, and strives to break the Cabal's iron fist over the populace. Meanwhile, the Mer Empire, led by Aboshan and his wife Llawan, and advised by Laquatus, ambassador to the Cabal, scheme for absolute control of the continent by flooding the continent and killing the "inferior air-breathers". The Krosan Forest, having survived the plague of Phyrexians, grows more self-sufficient and hostile to outsiders; but, it also has a peaceful side to its existence, with figures such as Thriss and Seton being comparably more receptive of outsiders, one of whom will be Kamahl, the protagonist of the storyline cycle and, during the events of the Odyssey novel, is a young Pardic barbarian and warrior proficient with weapons and fire magic who seeks glory within the pits of the Cabal.

In leaving behind the Pardic Mountains, where age-old territorial skirmishes between the barbarians and dwarves continue to rage on, Kamahl leaves his sister Jeska; and, in an attempt to make a name for himself, Kamahl will forge new alliances, make new friends, lose friends, and irrevocably change his fate and fortune as well as that of the continent, in no small part due to the alluring and mysterious Mirari, a magical orb that calls out to all who gaze upon it and fills their heads with delusions of grandeur and dreams of conquest.

Misprints

• A number of Cephalid Looter cards were misprinted with the creature subtype Wizard in addition to Cephalid instead of merely Cephalid.
  • As of the Grand Creature Type Update, the card has since gained a class subtype of Rogue; as such, Cephalid Looter's subtypes are now officially Cephalid Rogue.
• Bash to Bits by Matt Cavotta was miscredited to Gary Ruddell.

Critical reception and tournament impact

While by no means comparable to the power level of the Urza block expansion sets but also incomparable to the dearth of power in Masques block, Odyssey and its subsequent expansion sets were moderately powerful. However, it nevertheless received a mixed reception from players, who were "forced" to play Magic with the graveyard in mind.

Magic writer Abe Sargent of StarCityGames.com wrote that, of 350 cards, of which 20 are basic lands, only four — Wild Mongrel, Psychatog, Upheaval, and Roar of the Wurm — were good. However, he noted that the expansion was influential in establishing the graveyard as a relevant zone of the game. D. Gran, also of StarCityGames.com, however, listed Braids, Cabal Minion and Entomb as tournament-worthy cards from the set.

Magic readers and forum-goers noted that Odyssey was a welcome departure from non-interactive and unfun Magic; however, it was also noted that Odyssey and Onslaught blocks were, to an extent, dominated by blue decks or decks containing blue.

Tokens

Several tokens for Odyssey cards were offered as Magic Player Rewards.

• 2/2 Bear for Bearscape
• 4/4 Beast for Beast Attack
• 1/1 Squirrel for Squirrel Nest, Chatter of the Squirrel, Nut Collector, Nantuko Shrine and Druid's Call
• 2/2 Zombie for Zombie Infestation
• 3/3 Elephant for Call of the Herd and Elephant Ambush
• 6/6 Wurm for Roar of the Wurm

The 1/1 Spirit token with flying for Kirtar's Wrath only appeared in Magic Online.

Themes and mechanics

Odyssey introduced the graveyard-related keywords Flashback, which allowed players to replay instants and sorceries with the ability one more time for their flashback cost, and Threshold, which conferred some sort of bonus if and when the permanent or spell's controller had seven or more cards in his or her graveyard. Odyssey was the first set in which protection from all colors (Iridescent Angel), creatures (Beloved Chaplain), enchantments (Tattoo Ward), and instant and sorcery spells (Devoted Caretaker) were printed.

Cards with flashback featured a tombstone icon, an indicator, in the upper-left-hand corner of the cards. so as to facilitate playing with cards with the graveyard-active ability. Flashback would be revisited in Innistrad block, but the tombstone icon was not featured on cards after Odyssey, with exception to the reprinted Call of the Herd and Judgment's Valor, from Time Spiral. This was, in part, due to the change in card frames between the Scourge and Mirrodin expansions.

In addition to the "graveyard matters" theme, Odyssey had a minor token subtheme, as reflected in the number of token-generating cards, and a significant number of cards with activated abilities involving discarding cards from one's hand or sacrificing permanents.

Odyssey block is said to be the spiritual predecessor of Innistrad block due to the thematic similarities, namely, the emphasis on the graveyard. Interestingly, both blocks share the mechanic Flashback.

Creature types

In order to establish a distinct setting from the Weatherlight Saga, a majority of common creature types from the Weatherlight Saga, such as elves and goblins, were removed and replaced with completely novel or unusual tribes, including, but not limited to, barbarians, birds (avens), centaurs, cephalids , druids, dwarves, and Nantuko insects.

The creature types Antelope, Cephalid, and Squirrel were introduced in Odyssey. The creature types Guardian and Townsfolk were used in this expansion at the time of printing but were later removed.

Cycles

Odyssey features 15 cycles, many of which are allied-colored cycles.

Cycle name	Description and notes
Bursts	Each of these common instant or sorcery spells has an effect that linearly scales up by the number of similarly named cards in all graveyards. Two of these spells, namely Flame Burst and Muscle Burst, also scaled with the number of cards named Pardic Firecat and Diligent Farmhand, respectively, in all graveyards. These five spells were inspired by Kindle (Tempest) and Accumulated Knowledge (Nemesis).	Life Burst	Æther Burst	Mind Burst	Flame Burst	Muscle Burst
Desires	Each of these common Auras has static ability, a static threshold ability, and a name alluding to a notable Odyssey block storyline character associated with the respective color; depicted holding the Mirrari.	Kirtar's Desire	Aboshan's Desire	Patriarch's Desire	Kamahl's Desire	Seton's Desire
Hounds	Each of these five common 2/2 Hounds cost M and have an activated or triggered ability.	Patrol Hound	Phantom Whelp	Filthy Cur	Mad Dog	Wild Mongrel
Land Auras	Each of these five uncommon Auras enchant lands. Four of them confer a beneficial activated ability, while one (Steam Vines) has a detrimental triggered ability.	Animal Boneyard	Chamber of Manipulation	Caustic Tar	Steam Vines	Squirrel Nest
Lhurgoyfs		Cantivore	Cognivore	Mortivore	Magnivore	Terravore
Retrievers	Each of these five common 2/2 creatures, which, when they enter play, allows its controller to return a card of a particular type from his or her graveyard to his or her hand. All of these cards, with exception to Auramancer, which replaced Treasure Hunter, were reprinted from Tempest block.	Auramancer	Scrivener	Gravedigger	Anarchist	Cartographer
Rites	Each of these five common instants whose effect is determined and proportional the number of cards discarded at the resolution of the spell.	Sacred Rites	Rites of Refusal	Last Rites	Rites of Initiation	Rites of Spring
Shrines	Each of these five rare enchantments costing MM and with a triggered ability, triggering whenever a player casts a spell and having an effect depending on the number of cards in all graveyards with the same name as that spell.	Aven Shrine	Cephalid Shrine	Cabal Shrine	Dwarven Shrine	Nantuko Shrine
Spheres	Each of these five white enchantments with an ability that reduces 2 damage of damage that would be dealt to its controller by a source of a specific color.	Sphere of Truth	Sphere of Reason	Sphere of Grace	Sphere of Law	Sphere of Duty
Sac lands	Each of these five common lands come into play tapped and have two mana abilities, one of which is the ability to tap for one mana of a specific color and the other is the ability to tap for one mana of any color but also requiring the land's sacrifice.	Abandoned Outpost	Seafloor Debris	Bog Wreckage	Ravaged Highlands	Timberland Ruins
Threshold lands	Each of these five uncommon lands with an ability to tap for mana of a specific color, albeit at the cost of 1 point of damage, and an ability that may only be activated if a player has threshold. These lands represent the pit arenas used by Otaria's different cultures and tribes within the Cabal's gladiatorial games and pit fights.	Nomad Stadium	Cephalid Coliseum	Cabal Pit	Barbarian Ring	Centaur Garden

Allied-colored cycles

Cycle name	Description and notes
Atogs	Each of these uncommon allied-color gold creatures with a CMC of 3 and two activated "eating" abilities, or abilities that cost a resource associated with that color to increase their power/toughness by +1/+1 per activation, that are an homage to the those of the Atog mega cycle comprising Auratog, Chronatog, Necratog, Atog, and Foratog. Originally, these Atogs were conceived as "hybrids" of the original Atogs. Of these Atogs, Psychatog was the only one to have made a significant impact on competitive Magic; the abilities of the others as well as their colors were not overwhelmingly conducive to competitive Magic, and there was a lack of synergy between the abilities of the other Atogs. In addition to this cycle of Atogs, Odyssey featured Atogatog, a legendary Atog "Lord" who ate Atogs to increase its power and toughness.	Phantatog	Psychatog	Sarcatog	Lithatog	Thaumatog
Gold spells (rare)		Iridescent Angel	Shadowmage Infiltrator	Vampiric Dragon	Decimate	Mystic Enforcer
Eggs	Each of these five uncommon artifacts with ", , Sacrifice this card: Add two mana, one mana each of the colors of an allied-colored combination, to your mana pool. Draw a card.".	Skycloud Egg	Darkwater Egg	Shadowblood Egg	Mossfire Egg	Sungrass Egg
Filter lands	Each of these five rare lands with ", : Add two mana, one mana each of the colors of an allied-colored combination, to your mana pool.".	Skycloud Expanse	Darkwater Catacombs	Shadowblood Ridge	Mossfire Valley	Sungrass Prairie

Vertical cycles

Cycle name	Description and notes	Common	Uncommon	Rare
Flashback creature token producers	Each of these green sorcery spells with flashback creates a green token creature.	Chatter of the Squirrel	Roar of the Wurm	Call of the Herd
Punisher spells	Each of these red instant spells provides the targeted opponent with the choice of two generally unfavorable effects, one of which is direct damage.	Blazing Salvo	Lava Blister	Molten Influence
Thought Beasts	Each of these aggressively costed blue Beast creatures with flying reduces your maximum hand size.	Thought Nibbler	Thought Eater	Thought Devourer

Pairs

Matched pairs

Odyssey has two matched pairs.

• Pilgrim of Justice and Pilgrim of Virtue are both Clerics with protection from an enemy color of White and an activated ability, costing and the sacrifice of itself, to prevent the damage from a source of the enemy color in question.
• Aven Smokeweaver and Treetop Sentinel are both 2/3 Bird Soldiers with flying and protection from an enemy of Blue.

Mirrored pairs

Odyssey has no mirrored pairs.

Reprinted cards

• Anarchist, first printed in Exodus
• Angelic Wall, first printed in Portal Second Age
• Buried Alive, first printed in Weatherlight
• Cartographer, first printed in Exodus
• Gallantry, first printed in Tempest
• Gravedigger, first printed in Portal, last seen in 7th Edition
• Overrun, first printed in Tempest
• Patchwork Gnomes, first printed in Tempest
• Scrivener, first printed in Exodus

Functional reprints

• Aven Cloudchaser, functional reprint of Cloudchaser Eagle (Tempest) with additional creature type
• Aven Fisher, functional reprint of Kingfisher (Urza's Destiny) with additional creature type
• Battle Strain, functional reprint of Heat of Battle (Stronghold)
• Druid Lyrist, functional reprint of Elvish Lyrist (Urza's Saga) except for creature type
• Dusk Imp, functional reprint of Feral Shadow (Starter) and Moaning Spirit (Portal Second Age) except for creature type
• Dwarven Grunt, functional reprint of Goblin Mountaineer (Starter), Mountain Goat (Ice Age), and Zodiac Goat (Portal Three Kingdoms) except for creature type
• Leaf Dancer, functional reprint of Cat Warriors (Legends) except for creature type
• Piper's Melody, functional reprint of Renewing Touch (Portal Second Age)
• Psionic Gift, functional reprint of Hermetic Study (Urza's Saga)
• Woodland Druid, functional reprint of Norwood Ranger (Starter) and Trained Jackal (Portal Three Kingdoms) except for creature type

Strictly better

• Wild Mongrel, upgrade from Balduvian Bears (Ice Age), Barbary Apes (Legends), Bear Cub (Portal Second Age), Forest Bear (Portal Three Kingdoms), and Grizzly Bears (Limited Edition)

Preconstructed decks

Odyssey has four bicolored theme decks.

Theme deck name	Colors Included
Liftoff	W	U
One-Two Punch				R	G
Pressure Cooker			B	R
Trounce-O-Matic		U			G

External links

• Odyssey product information page — Wizards of the Coast
• www.magicodyssey.com — Wizards of the Coast