2001)

The metagame of Magic is always moving in a cycle. Once an expansion has been available for a few months, the cards have become familiar to the players. The constructed decks are already built, and the deck builders are merely tuning the last few sideboard cards to add a few extra points to the matchup percentages. Draft strategies are solidified in the minds of the drafting players, who can now automatically separate the trash from the treasures and confidently select every draft card, knowing exactly where each card fits into “The Plan.”

Then, a new expansion is released. Suddenly, the Magic community is plunged into a world of uncertainty, as every new card must be scrutinized to see where it fits into the current decks, and what new decks it makes possible. Every draft pack brings a new mystery, and the drafting player must form careful first impressions of never-before-seen cards before selecting a card which he only hopes will live up to his expectations of usefulness. It is a world of creativity and exploration.

Oh, and of set reviews. Miles and miles of set reviews. Article after article extolling the virtues of the latest hot burn spell and derogating the latest crappy incarnation of Fear flood the Internet, as seemingly everybody who’s ever even heard of the game of Magic rushes out to have their opinions heard.

I suppose one more can’t hurt.

So, what do I think of Odyssey? At first glance, it looks like a very exciting set. As I looked over the complete spoiler for the first time, a lot of cards stood out as very interesting, without too many alarm bells going off for potentially broken cards. Of course only time can tell for sure, but Odyssey really does look like a very solid set, and should serve as proof that R & D are doing an excellent job.

As for the individual cards, I’d like to start out by looking at the lands. It takes quite a bit of time to form a solid opinion of most cards, as each new mechanic or variation on an old one requires time and thought to discern exactly where it fits into the game. Some things never change, though, and no matter what type of deck you play and what type of environment you play it in, you always want a good stable mana base. That makes the lands an excellent starting place for learning the ins and outs of a new Magic expansion.

Before trying to evaluate the specific lands, it is useful to consider the environments in which they might be played. It is useful to consider that when Odyssey rolls into Standard, multi-colored mana will be in high-demand, thanks to all the powerful gold spells from the Invasion block. Multi-colored mana will certainly be available, however, thanks to all of the solid non-basic lands from the Invasion block, along with the allied-color pain-lands from 7th. It is also interesting to note that there isn’t a lot of non-basic land hate available, with Destructive Flow and Trench Wurm the only real possible worries. Land destruction in general hasn’t been a solid constructed strategy in Standard recently, and there’s nothing in Odyssey that would make me believe that LD will gain any popularity once that set rolls in. In short, the upcoming Standard environment should be pretty friendly to non-basic lands. However, in Extended, new non-basics would have to compete with old favorites like the original dual lands, as well as be worth playing in the face of cards like Wasteland and Price of Progress. For the most part, the lands of Odyssey seem to be outclassed when considered for the Extended environment. It is of course too early to begin even thinking about Odyssey Block Constructed.

Abandoned Outpost
Abandoned Outpost comes into play tapped.
Tap: Add W to your mana pool.
Tap, sacrifice Abandoned Outpost: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool.

This common land, along with its black, red, blue, and green counterparts, Bog Wreckage, Ravaged Highlands, Seafloor Debris, and Timberland Ruins, does not seem good enough to make the cut. We all know from playing with Invasion lands that starting with too many comes-into-play tapped (CIT, from here on) lands can really slow you down early, and give your opponent an early tempo lead. While the Invasion lands rewarded you with a consistent source of two colors, these new Odyssey lands only give you an extra color once, at the cost of sacrificing the land. That just isn’t enough to make up for the drawback. Even if you are only looking to provide the occasional off-colored mana for a small splash, there are better options.

I think the easiest comparison to make for these lands is to the CIT lands from Invasion that could be sacrificed for 2 off-colored mana, such as Ancient Springs. These lands did see some constructed use in decks that were looking to accelerate into Obliterate mana without having to lose too many lands, but were never effectively used for their ability to generate other colors of mana. That doesn’t bode well for these new lands, which only provide 1 mana when sacrificed.

Barbarian Ring
Tap: Add R to your mana pool. Barbarian Ring deals 1 damage to you.
Threshold – R, Tap, sacrifice Barbarian Ring: Barbarian Ring deals 2 damage to target creature or player.

This land is an uncommon, and is joined by a similar land for each color. The colors, lands, and abilities are:

B – Cabal Pit – Target creature gets –2/-2 until end of turn
G – Centaur Garden – Target creature gets +3/+3 until end of turn
U – Cephalid Coliseum – Target player draws 3 cards, then discards 3 cards
W – Nomad Stadium – You gain 4 life

Here is what interests me about these lands: if you have a deck built and the mana base is built right, you could cut a couple of basic lands and a couple of spells and put 4 of these lands in. By doing so, you would slightly decrease the chances of taking a mulligan due to not drawing enough lands, yet do so without reducing the number of “action cards” in your deck. In fact, you would be increasing the number of action cards in your deck by replacing some basic lands with non-basic lands that are also capable of being action cards. You wouldn’t even be replacing colored lands with colorless lands. The relevant questions would be “How many pain lands am I playing with already?” and “How good is the effect?”

Barbarian Pit and Cabal Pit are automatic plays in an appropriately colored limited deck, as they are critter removal. They seem pretty decent for constructed as well, where it should be noted that while they have colored activation costs, they are colorless effects, which means they take out critters like Voice of All and pro-color bears.

The Centaur Garden effect is less interesting but potentially worthy in limited. On-the-table growth effects are more likely to stall the game than turn it in your favor like a hidden growth effect can, but I’d still say the ability is worth it in limited where the drawback isn’t too likely to hurt you, as you won’t be playing with many pain-lands. In constructed, even hidden growth effects aren’t very popular, so don’t expect an on-the-table growth effect to see much play.

When compared to other library manipulation effects and considered for the decks that tend to use library manipulation effects, it is clear that the Cephalid Coliseum effect isn’t strong enough to warrant sacrificing a land. The only possible silver lining for this card might be the threshold mechanic, as this card would be a shortcut to 4 graveyard cards. However, when you consider trying to reach a goal as quickly as possible in a game of Magic, the road you travel usually involves mana acceleration, not sacrificing valuable early lands.

And then there’s Nomadic Stadium. Perhaps it is best explained with a story?

Sue is a rookie player, trying to learn how to better play the game by watching the players in her local card shop. While walking around the card shop, she sees Gary playing a non-basic land she has never seen before. Gary takes a point of damage every time he taps the land for mana.

Sue: “Why are you playing a land that causes you to lose life?”

Gary: “Because later in the game, I might be able to kill a creature.”

Sue: “Oh. That seems reasonable.”

Then she walks over and sees Terry playing with another non-basic land Sue has never seen before, and Terry is also taking damage from her land.

Sue: “Why are you playing a land that causes you to lose life?”

Terry: “Because later in the game, I might be able to gain life.”

Sue: “Huh?!?”

And that’s how I feel about Nomadic Stadium: Huh?!?

Crystal Quarry
Tap: Add one colorless mana to your mana pool.
5, Tap: Add WUBRG to your mana pool.

Good God, why did Wizards print this card? This is exactly the kind of card we do not want falling into the hands of The Weirdo. You all know The Weirdo. He’s that guy that always manages to find you at Magic tournaments, who might win 1 game of Magic a year, but is always happy to drone on and on about that wacky deck he built just to annoy his friends. Can’t you just hear him now? “Yeah, heh heh, you should have seen the look on my buddy’s face, heh heh, when I dropped a Cromat with my mono-red deck! I’d have gotten my Legacy Weapon, too, if I had just lived 4 more turns. That would have been cool! Heh heh!”

Don’t be The Weirdo.

Deserted Temple
Tap: Add one colorless mana to your mana pool.
1, Tap: Untap target land.

This rare land brings back fond memories of Magic before the creation of the Pro-Tour. Back then the only players you ever wanted to beat were your buddies and the folks at the local card store, and Urza’s Tower, Power Plant, and Mine along with Fireballs and Candelabra was a perfectly acceptable way of accomplishing that. Of course, it also brings back memories of Candelabra, Tolarian Academy, and drawing your entire deck before your first draw phase in Type 1.

This card is entirely dependent on having another, powerful effect to make it worth playing. Cards like that make me cringe, because they really only have two possible outcomes: the card will be utter, useless crap, or the card will be part of some combo, most likely something very obscene. Consider Donate. Donate by itself is trash, as you have to have something you’d like to Donate to your opponent in order for it to be of any use. Since playing with cards that are useless unless you draw another specific card is a pretty bad idea, you’re only going to do it if that other card REALLY makes Donate worth it. Illusions of Grandeur was discovered to be just such a card, and one of the most inane ways to win (or, more to the point, lose) a game of Magic was born.

Deserted Temple is similar to Donate in that in order for it to be worth playing with the Temple, the land effect that it interacts with needs to REALLY be worth generating twice, as in “kill you in an absurd manner” worth it, or it won’t see play at all, as when drawn by itself it is pretty poor. I expect this card to not see much use, and that is a good thing.

Petrified Field
Tap: Add one colorless mana to your mana pool.
Tap, sacrifice Petrified Field: Return target land card from your graveyard to your hand.

This rare land is similar to Deserted Temple, in that it is entirely dependent on the strength of another land’s effect to be useful. It seems attractive, since possibly you can do something like use a Cabal Pit to kill a second creature. However, there are faster, more efficient ways to kill that second creature than by spending 2 land drops and a drawn card to do it, and of course this card is very poor if you never drew the Cabal Pit to begin with. Therefore, while the Field may seem interesting, I think it will not make the cut in constructed. In limited, where critter removal is really at a premium, this land may be worth playing if you have a Cabal Pit or Barbarian Ring.

Tarnished Citadel
Tap: Add one colorless mana to your mana pool
Tap: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool. Tarnished Citadel deals 3 damage to you.

Very clearly, City of Brass would not be played if it dealt 3 damage rather than 1, as that is too much damage to manage. Therefore, it is safe to say Tarnished Citadel will not be used for any deck that is heavily multi-colored, and is intended more to be used in a deck that has only a few spells in a splash color. However, even for meeting that purpose, the Citadel doesn’t seem to be the right choice. Why not play with the other pain lands available in 7th Edition and Apocalypse? I don’t mean to state the obvious, but 1 damage is a lot better than 3, particularly when you are a little land light and you need to rely on the land in question to supply one of your main colors. This land just doesn’t measure up to all of the other multi-colored options available.

Darkwater Catacombs
1, Tap: Add UB to your mana pool

This rare land is part of a cycle with Mossfire Valley, Shadowblood Ridge, Skycloud Expanse, and Sungrass Prairie, each of which provides a different allied pair of mana. My first impression of these lands is that they will be quite useful. The benefit, getting 2 colors of mana, is obviously quite nice. The drawback of not being able to produce mana by itself is not very serious, as 1-land hands are mulligans anyways, and with 2 lands you are still producing 2 mana, so there is no lost mana amount for using these lands. You do create extra mulligan possibilities in that an opening hand with 2 of these lands might be a mulligan, where 2 other lands would make a keeper. However, you also take away from the color-screw possibility, so as long as you don’t play with too many of these to make the likelihood of an opening hand containing only these types of lands too probable, I feel they are a solid choice to help build a solid mana base. If land destruction were a more prominent strategy right now, it would be a little scary having a land that could be “virtually destroyed” by destroying all of your other lands, but LD really isn’t popular right now, and there are no cards in this set that make me want to rush out and build a land destruction deck.

Plains
Tap: Add W to your mana pool

There are also G, B, U, and R versions called Forest, Swamp, Island, and Mountain. They produce colored mana with no drawback. I say play them often and in large numbers!

That’s it for the lands of Odyssey. I hope to be looking at other aspects of the set soon, so be sure to check back!

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