Odyssey: The White Stuff

[Gizmo]

This is the first of my looks at Odyssey, first glance and all that.

Ill be using the novel ratings system of:
:'( - Its so bad it makes me cry
:-( - Its poor
:-| - Its servicable. Might see some play
- Its actually pretty good, should see extensive use.
- Wa-Hey! I like this guy.

and also

:-? - Dunno how good this will be.
- OMG! This looks like it could be a problem card.

All ratings are given for standard without paying more than 3 seconds thought to what the card does. Cards might be good in other formats and I might mention that, but mainly Im talking about standard.

WHITE

Aegis of Honor :-(
W
Enchantment
1: The next time an instant or sorcery spell would deal damage to you this turn, that spell deals that damage to its controller instead.

Its not so hot, as its basically a bad CoP:Red as it doesnt stop creature damage or anything like that. Youd never have it in your SB against red decks, but you MIGHT use it in Arena mirrormatches, which are often very much about Death Grasps. In that case though itsvulnerability to Vindicate is a bit relevent and Id use Samite Ministrations instead.

Ancestral Tribute :'(

Angelic Wall :-(

Animal Boneyard :'(

Auramancer :-(

Aven Archer :-(

Aven Cloudchaser :-(

Aven Flock :-(

Aven Shrine :'(

Balancing Act (rare) :-?
2WW
Sorcery
Each player chooses a number of permanents he or she controls equal to the number of permanents controlled by the player who controls the fewest, then sacrifices the rest. Each player discards cards from his or her hand the same way.

Its Balance. But the thing is that if Balance wasnt utterly broken it would have been ... balanced. I CAN see this being used in some sort of no-permanent but land sort of deck, combined with say Overgrown Estate as a board clearer. But how you are going to use that to gain an advantage is beyond me. Its obviously powerful, its obviously going to see people working with it, but there is also no obvious way to break the synergy.

Beloved Chaplain :-|

Blessed Orator :-(

Cantivore :-(

Cease-Fire :'(

Confessor :-(

Dedicated Martyr :-(

Delaying Shield :-(

Devoted Caretaker (rare)
W
Creature - Cleric
W, T: Target permanent you control gains protection from instant spells and from sorcery spells until end of turn.
1/2

I think this guy is very good, for a start if the spoiler is correct (Im not sure it is) its a 1/2 for W, which is already red hot. The ability is pseudo-mother of runes, not quite as powerful but as it can protect any permanent, not just creatures, I think its very powerful.

Divine Sacrament (rare) :-|
1WW
Enchantment
White creatures get +1/+1.
Threshold - White creatures get an additional +1/+1.

Crusade didnt rotate out for long. I tihnk this struggles in comparison to Glorious Anthem.

Dogged Hunter :'(

Earnest Fellowship :'(

Embolden :'(

Gallantry :'(

Graceful Antelope :-(

Hallowed Healer :'(

Karmic Justice (rare) :-|
2W
Enchantment
Whenever a spell or ability an opponent controls destroys a noncreature permanent you control, you may destroy target permanent that opponent controls.

VERY powerful. I like this guy a hell of a lot. (mental note, check if destroying the Justice makes them sac a permanent, if not its significantly less powerful). Oops, just read it didnt work for creatures, I like it less now.

Kirtar's Desire :-(

Kirtar's Wrath (rare) :-|
4WW
Sorcery
Destroy all creatures. They can't be regenerated.
Threshold - Instead destroy all creatures, then put two 1/1 white Spirit creature tokens with flying into play. Creatures destroyed this way can’t be regenerated.

6 is a lot of mana. 1/1 flyers arent that irritating. Its a block constructed spell, not T2.

Lieutenant Kirtar :-|

Life Burst :-|

Luminous Guardian :-(

Master Apothecary :-(

Mystic Crusader :-|

Mystic Penitent :-(

Mystic Visionary :-(

Mystic Zealot :-(

Nomad Decoy :-(

Patrol Hound :-|

Pianna, Nomad Captain :-|

Pilgrim of Justice :-|

Pilgrim of Virtue :-(

Ray of Distortion :'(

Resilient Wanderer

Sacred Rites :'(

Second Thoughts :-(

Shelter :-(

Soulcatcher :-(

Sphere of Duty :-(

Sphere of Grace :-|

Sphere of Law

Sphere of Reason :-(

Sphere of Truth :-(

Spiritualize :'(

Tattoo Ward :-(

Testament of Faith :-|

Tireless Tribe (common) :-(
W
Creature - Nomad
Discard a card from your hand: Tireless Tribe gets +0/+4 until end of turn.
1/1

We all know the extended trick with About Face. Doesnt mean its any good though.

Wayward Angel
4WW
Creature - Angel Horror
Flying
Attacking doesn't cause Wayward Angel to tap.
Threshold - Wayward Angel gets +3/+3, is black, has trample, and has "At the beginning of
your upkeep, sacrifice a creature."
4/4

Worse than Serra Angel, better than Lord Of The Pit. I think its kind of fruity actually.


As ever, white is less about a wide band of quality spells, and more about havng a few powerful effects it can use. I think there are some of those in here, but overall white doesnt get TOO much to shout about, if anything particurly.
White ALWAYS turns out to be better than expected though, its an expert at being bad but irritating, it also has powerful cards from IBC that will be leading people to play it - Trenches, Vindicate, Lynx, Mage, Wrath etc...

 

[Duel]

I dunno. Second Thoughts is pretty good....
confessor has a use....
I think you expect too much from cards, which are mainly for limited play.

 

[Hetemti]

Balancing Act
Doesn't kill what you want it to kill. Bummer.

Divine Sacrament
Simple: Sacrament for All White, Anthem if you're molatto. If you get this and no good white cards in your sealed deck, it's Devine Excrement.

Karmic Justice
Better than nothing...finds a home in U/W enchantment based decks.

Kirtar's Wrath
It's not Rout, it's not Wrath. No thanks. Besides, can a Bird thowing a temper tantrum really compare with the creator of the universe who hasn't had his lithium?

Life Burst
John Avon does photo realisim and adds an 80's music video feel.

Patrol Hound
My "Wuv Muffin"'s a foil.

I forgot her name, but the Grafitti Janitor wasn't too bad...but it shows just how stupid Master Healer is when a common at half the CC can do the same job.

Verdict: :-| White is, well, white. Nothin' groundbreaking here...but more Annoying Life Gain than usual. But...what is it going to do while it sits on that mountain of life? Lose, I suppose. Props to the Flavor Text Dpt. for making the StP/farming reference on that new remove-from-the-game card.

 

[Duel]

Yeah, I liked that too. Second thoughts is strong. Expensive, but strong....

Duel, who drafter 3 second thoughts in a draft and scrubbed out round 1 to the amazing finkeltrator deck, as played by mister Zadok

 

[Mikeymike]

White Weenie is reborn in this set. Lots of good stuff for it.

Mystic Crusader - He is immune from 80-90% of the playable removal out there and gets better with threshold. Very nice.

Divine Sacrament - Hetemi hit the nail on the head with this one. Plus I'll have to call it Divine Excrement every time it shows up now.

Life Burst - I truly hate this F*@#ing card. Typicall really annoyning white spell.

Second Thoughs - Its looks too expensive but it does a lot for 4W and handles a lot of problem creatures.

Kirtar - I really like Kirtar. A 2/2 flyer for 3 is respectable on its own. But her ability makes her an all-star. Only 1W without tapping to Order a creature, very nice. Can single handedly hold back a Spiritmonger AND attack for 2+ each turn. The only downside is that her ability can't surprise anyone so a smart opponent can play around it.

Graceful Antelope - Interesting, but its not useful until it gets in once. If it does your opponent is in for a long game.

Devoted Caretaker - My favorite card in the set besides Verdant Succession. Best 1-drop ever.

Aven Shrine - I hate life gain rare enchantments. What a worthless card.

Animal Boneyard - This I like. I always wanted Diamond Valley but I couldn't afford it, this will have to do until I get 1.

Ancestral Tribute - This can net you a ton of life, but who's going to pack a 7CC lifegain spell? Can you even pay the Flashback? I love how Wizards previewed this card on their website like people were supposed to be excited about it.