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A Complete Review of Odyssey (red)As an additional cost to play Acceptable Losses, discard a card at random from your hand. Acceptable Losses deals 5 damage to target creature. ==> FUN: 1 Two cards and four mana and it can't even target players. Those aren't acceptable losses to me. -- 173. Anarchist 4R Creature - Townsfolk 2/2 (C) When Anarchist comes into play, you may return target sorcery card from your graveyard to your hand. ==> FUN: 3 A good way to reuse Wraths, Traumatizes and Diabolic Tutors. Always fun with Living Death or Twilight's Call. -- 174. Ashen Firebeast 6RR Creature - Beast 6/6 (R) 1R: Ashen Firebeast deals 1 damage to each creature without flying. ==> FUN: 4 A bigger Thrashing Wumpus. It won't hurt everything and is more expensive to use, but I can live with that. Of course at 8 mana it isn't exactly easy to get into play. A good target for a Spirit Link. -- 175. Barbarian Lunatic 2R Creature - Barbarian 2/1 (C) 2R, Sacrifice Barbarian Lunatic: Barbarian Lunatic deals 2 damage to target creature. ==> FUN: 2 This one tries hard to be a Mogg Fanatic but falls woefully short. It's simply too expensive to cast and use. -- 176. Bash to Bits 3R Instant (U) Destroy target artifact. Flashback 4RR (You may play this card from your graveyard for its flashback cost. Then remove it from the game.) ==> FUN: 1 Shatter isn't all that spectacular to begin with, but at double the price it's not even worth looking at. The flashback doesn't help much either, because it's just too expensive. -- 177. Battle Strain 1R Enchantment (U) Whenever a creature blocks, Battle Strain deals 1 damage to that creature's controller. ==> FUN: 1 A reprint of Heat of Battle. They must really be out of ideas. -- 178. Blazing Salvo R Instant (C) Blazing Salvo deals 3 damage to target creature unless that creature's controller has Blazing Salvo deal 5 damage to him or her. ==> FUN: 1 Not a bad concept, but it only fits in decks that put on early pressure and in those decks I'd rather have a Shock or one of its lookalikes so I can burn my opponent instead. -- 179. Bomb Squad 3R Creature - Dwarf 1/1 (R) Tap: Put a fuse counter on target creature. At the beginning of your upkeep, put a fuse counter on each creature that has a fuse counter on it. Whenever a creature has four or more fuse counters on it, remove all fuse counters from it and destroy it. That creature deals 4 damage to its controller. ==> FUN: 3 A nice fun card, but too fragile to be any good. If this guy is destroyed within a few turns, he has no effect at all. Those fuse counters will just sit there and do nothing unless you cast a second one. -- 180. Burning Sands 3RR Enchantment (R) Whenever a creature is put into a graveyard from play, that creature's controller sacrifices a land. ==> FUN: 4 By itself it could be useful in a creature light land destruction/burn deck. Of course it can combo with Questing Phelddagrif and Tremor, but it's much more classy to combo it with any card that animates all lands. Shock one of them, which triggers Burning Sands, which triggers Burning Sands etc. Until your opponent runs out of lands. Of course it's a little risky as well, because if your opponent has a Shock as well, your lands will chain-react too. -- 181. Chainflinger 3R Creature - Beast 2/2 (C) 1R, Tap: Chainflinger deals 1 damage to target creature or player. Threshold - 2R, Tap: Chainflinger deals 2 damage to target creature or player. (Play this ability only if seven or more cards are in your graveyard.) ==> FUN: 4 A bit like Anaba Shaman with possible double damage. -- 182. Chance Encounter 2RR Enchantment (R) Whenever you win a coin flip, put a luck counter on Chance Encounter. At the beginning of your upkeep, if Chance Encounter has ten or more luck counters on it, you win the game. ==> FUN: 5 Perfect for any coinflipping deck. A few Goblin Bookies will help to stack the game in your favor. There are no cards, that I can find, that allow for cheap coin flipping. Well, Mana Clash does, but that doesn't specifically mention winning the flip, only what happens when it comes up heads or tails. And there's an Unglued card as well: Flock of Rabid Sheep. Of course a deck like that would need Goblin Bombs as well! -- 183. Demolish 3R Sorcery (U) Destroy target artifact or land. ==> FUN: 3 A splashable version of Pillage. It's worth the extra mana. -- 184. Demoralize 2R Instant (C) Each creature can't be blocked this turn except by two or more creatures. Threshold - Creatures can't block this turn. (You have threshold if seven or more cards are in your graveyard.) ==> FUN: 1 Not completely useless, but pretty boring. -- 185. Dwarven Grunt R Creature - Dwarf 1/1 (C) Mountainwalk ==> FUN: 2 I like dwarves (it's a change from all those goblins), but this is just a Mountain Goat with a bigger beard. -- 186. Dwarven Recruiter 2R Creature - Dwarf 2/2 (U) When Dwarven Recruiter comes into play, search your library for any number of Dwarf cards and reveal those cards. Shuffle your library, then put them on top of it in any order. ==> FUN: 4 I don't think there are as many useful dwarves as goblins yet, but it pays to be prepared. -- 187. Dwarven Shrine 1RR Enchantment (R) Whenever a player plays a spell, Dwarven Shrine deals X damage to that player, where X is twice the number of cards in all graveyards with the same name as that spell. ==> FUN: 3 Another Shrine that really doesn't start to shine until the game has been going on for a while. Or until a player has been Traumatized. I'd rather play Spellshock, because the damage is more reliable. -- 188. Dwarven Strike Force 4R Creature - Dwarf 4/3 (U) Discard a card at random from your hand: Dwarven Strike Force gains first strike and haste until end of turn. ==> FUN: 2 An ok card, but nothing special. I'm not crazy about the random discard, though. I never have much luck with those. -- 189. Earth Rift 3R Sorcery (C) Destroy target land. Flashback 5RR (You may play this card from your graveyard for its flashback cost. Then remove it from the game.) ==> FUN: 3 Four mana to kill a land is ok. The flashback is expensive though. I'd still rather use Rain of Salt, even though sometimes it just sits in your hand until you have enough mana to play it. At least with Earth rift you can keep the pressure on. It's worth testing them both. -- 190. Ember Beast 2R Creature - Beast 3/4 (C) Ember Beast can't attack or block alone. ==> FUN: 2 It's too easy to make him harmless by destroying your other creatures. -- 191. Engulfing Flames R Instant (U) Engulfing Flames deals 1 damage to target creature. It can't be regenerated this turn. Flashback 3R (You may play this card from your graveyard for its flashback cost. Then remove it from the game.) ==> FUN: 3 Useful against cards like River Boa and Nightscape Familiar. -- 192. Epicenter 4R Sorcery (R) Target player sacrifices a land. Threshold - All players sacrifice all lands instead. (You have threshold if seven or more cards are in your graveyard.) ==> FUN: 3 Armageddon is a great card, but somehow as a red card it just loses some of its shine. That's probably because red has so many ways to destroy land already. It doesn't help that Epicenter can't give you an instant win by blowing up all lands on the fourth turn when your opponent is lagging behind. It'll take a lot longer before Epicenter can do an Armageddon. -- 193. Firebolt R Sorcery (C) Firebolt deals 2 damage to target creature or player. Flashback 4R (You may play this card from your graveyard for its flashback cost. Then remove it from the game.) Reach out and torch someone. ==> FUN: 3 This is the kind of burn I like. Early on it gets rid of an annoying weenie and later it finishes off something big that your creatures couldn't handle or gets your opponent one turn closer to death. -- 194. Flame Burst 1R Instant (C) Flame Burst deals X damage to target creature or player, where X is 2 plus the number of Flame Burst cards in all graveyards. ==> FUN: 4 A duplicate of Kindle. I don't mind if Wizards prints duplicates of fun cards like that. -- 195. Frenetic Ogre 4R Creature - Ogre 2/3 (U) R, Discard a card at random from your hand: Frenetic Ogre gets +3/+0 until end of turn. ==> FUN: 3 A bit on the expensive side, but it can get very dangerous. If you have five mana to play this guy, next turn you could pump it for +15/+0 if you have enough cards in hand. Of course it still only has 3 toughness and no trample, so it's not that great. -- 196. Halberdier 3R Creature - Barbarian 3/1 (C) First strike ==> FUN: 1 One toughness makes it too easy to kill. At 2 mana, I'd consider playing it, but not at 4. -- 197. Impulsive Maneuvers 2RR Enchantment (R) Whenever a creature attacks, flip a coin. If you win the flip, the next time that creature would deal combat damage this turn, it deals double that damage instead. If you lose the flip, the next time that creature would deal combat damage this turn, prevent that damage. ==> FUN: 2 Works well with Chance Encounter, but also with instant creature pumpers. Cast Giant Growth on a creature you won the flip for and it'll really hurt your opponent. -- 198. Kamahl, Pit Fighter 4RR Creature - Barbarian Legend 6/1 (R) Haste Tap: Kamahl, Pit Fighter deals 3 damage to target creature or player. ==> FUN: 3 It can be a very strong card, but that one toughness bugs me. Tremor, Nausea, Pyroclasm and a whole list of other spells kill it almost as an afterthought. For what's supposed to be such a fearsome warrior, he's also pretty easy to kill in combat. Any 1/1 creature can do it, although few will live to brag about it. At least it has haste, which means it's possible to surprise an opponent and sneak through for six or get at least one use out of its ping ability before it gets killed. -- 199. Kamahl's Desire 1R Enchant Creature (C) Enchanted creature has first strike. Threshold - Enchanted creature gets +3/+0. (You have threshold as long as seven or more cards are in your graveyard.) ==> FUN: 3 First strike is indeed exactly what Kamahl needs. A good creature enchantment... once you get threshold. -- 200. Lava Blister 1R Sorcery (U) Destroy target nonbasic land unless its controller has Lava Blister deal 6 damage to him or her. ==> FUN: 2 For tournaments, this looks like a good card for land destruction decks, but in casual play I don't like running the risk of playing against a deck with no or few non-basics. I'd rather just pay one more mana and use a Stone Rain or Pillage. -- 201. Liquid Fire 4RR Sorcery (U) Liquid Fire deals 5 damage divided as you choose between target creature and the creature's controller. ==> FUN: 3 Nice effect, but six mana is an awful lot. Rolling Thunder is much more flexible and can get better effects in multiplayer. -- 202. Mad Dog 1R Creature - Hound 2/2 (C) At the end of your turn, if Mad Dog didn't attack or come under your control this turn, sacrifice it. ==> FUN: 2 I'd rather have one of those 2/2s that can't block, because this one effectively can't either and the ones that can't block can at least hold back when attacking is not a good idea. -- 203. Magma Vein 2R Enchantment (U) R, Sacrifice a land: Magma Vein deals 1 damage to each creature without flying. ==> FUN: 1 A limited form of Pestilence. It's a bit much to have to sacrifice a land for each activation when it can't even hurt players or fliers. -- 204. Magnivore 2RR Creature - Lhurgoyf */* (R) Haste Magnivore's power and toughness are each equal to the number of sorcery cards in all graveyards. ==> FUN: 3 I guess sorceries tend to be more expensive than instants, making it harder to quickly fill your graveyard with them. That would explain why the blue Lhurgoyf is twice as expensive as the red one. It also doesn't help that haste isn't as good as flying. -- 205. Mine Layer 3R Creature - Dwarf 1/1 (R) 1R, Tap: Put a mine counter on target land. Whenever a land with a mine counter on it becomes tapped, destroy it. When Mine Layer leaves play, remove all mine counters from all lands. ==> FUN: 2 Yet another case of a 1 toughness creature that has to survive for a while to get results, yet can't protect itself. And when it dies, all its work will have been in vain. Too depressing. -- 206. Minotaur Explorer 1R Creature - Minotaur 3/3 (U) When Minotaur Explorer comes into play, sacrifice it unless you discard a card at random from your hand. ==> FUN: 1 Balduvian Horde's little brother. Probably not a bad creature, but as a rule I don't like creatures that cost an extra card to play, especially not if if that card is chosen at random. -- 207. Molten Influence 1R Instant (R) Counter target instant or sorcery spell unless its controller has Molten Influence deal 4 damage to him or her. ==> FUN: 1 A solid card in any burn or sligh sideboard and maybe even in the main deck, because so many decks play instants and sorceries. I'm just not a fan of those decktypes. A good burn deck is done in less time than it takes to thoroughly shuffle the deck. And I hate shuffling. -- 208. Mudhole 2R Instant (R) Target player removes all land cards in his or her graveyard from the game. ==> FUN: 1 I guess Mudhole hoses those powerful out-of-control Planar Birth decks. And it shrinks the green Lhurgoyf a bit. But that's all I can think of. -- 209. Need for Speed R Enchantment (R) Sacrifice a land: Target creature gains haste until end of turn. ==> FUN: 1 Not my kind of card, especially not as a rare. It's a waste of lands if you're using it to haste weenies and if you use it on big creatures, you have plenty of time to cast Fires of Yavimaya or Fervor. -- 210. Obstinate Familiar R Creature - Lizard 1/1 (R) If you would draw a card, you may skip that draw instead. ==> FUN: 2 Yet another red rare I'm not crazy about. Sure, it hoses decks that try to make you draw your whole deck, but how well does it do that? A 1/1 is not hard to get rid of, especially with a lot of mana available. -- 211. Pardic Firecat 3R Creature - Cat 2/3 (C) Haste If Pardic Firecat is in a graveyard, Flame Burst's effect counts it as a Flame Burst. ==> FUN: 4 Too bad there isn't a similar one for the white burst. As a creature it's only so-so, but as a way of getting 9 damage out of that final Flame Burst, it's great! This is a good way to make a vanilla creature more interesting. -- 212. Pardic Miner 1R Creature - Dwarf 1/1 (R) Sacrifice Pardic Miner: Target player can't play lands this turn. ==> FUN: 1 I like Turf Wound and Solfatara, but only because they're cantrips. The ability itself is rarely useful. And without using the ability, Pardic Miner isn't much of a creature. The only use I could see for this card is that a creature is easier to recycle and thus set up a land lock. It's not worth it, especially as a rare. -- 213. Pardic Swordsmith 2R Creature - Dwarf 1/1 (C) R, Discard a card at random from your hand: Pardic Swordsmith gets +2/+0 until end of turn. ==> FUN: 2 Another expensive 1/1. No matter how many cards you sacrifice to pump it, an opposing 1/1 will still trade with it. -- 214. Price of Glory 2R Enchantment (U) Whenever a player taps a land for mana during another player's turn, destroy that land. ==> FUN: 3 Price of Glory hoses control decks. I like playing control. Oh well. It may also work well with the Rhystic cards from Prophecy. Suddenly, countering those cards costs land as well. -- 215. Reckless Charge R Sorcery (C) Target creature gets +3/+0 and gains haste until end of turn. Flashback 2R (You may play this card from your graveyard for its flashback cost. Then remove it from the game.) ==> FUN: 3 The flashback version of Seething Anger. The haste makes a nice addition and can really throw your opponent off when he's expecting to get a full turn to deal with the creature you just played. The flashback is just a nice bonus and not too expensive to use. -- 216. Recoup 1R Sorcery (U) Target sorcery card in your graveyard gains flashback until end of turn. Its flashback cost is equal to its mana cost. (Mana cost includes color.) Flashback 3R (You may play this card from your graveyard for its flashback cost. Then remove it from the game.) ==> FUN: 4 Not a bad way to reuse your Wraths, Living Deaths and Traumatizes. It's cheaper than Elven Cache and splashable. Plus you get to do it again if you have enough mana for it. -- 217. Rites of Initiation R Instant (C) Discard any number of cards at random from your hand. Creatures you control get +1/+0 until end of turn for each card discarded this way. ==> FUN: 4 It's no Overrun, but you can have a pretty short game with this. It takes a lot of cards to fuel it, though. It may even be worth adding Howling Mines to a red creature/burn deck. Cast a few weenies, burn away blockers and use the mines to keep your hand full for the game-winning Rites. It's a dangerous tactic, though. A counterspell on the rites wouldn't be so bad, but a Fog certainly would be. -- 218. Savage Firecat 3RR Creature - Cat 0/0 (R) Trample Savage Firecat comes into play with seven +1/+1 counters on it. Whenever you tap a land for mana, remove a +1/+1 counter from Savage Firecat. ==> FUN: 4 Five mana for a 7/7 trampler? Yes please! The downside isn't that bad, because you don't really need to cast anything when you have a 7/7 trampler making life difficult for your opponent. -- 219. Scorching Missile 3R Sorcery (C) Scorching Missile deals 4 damage to target player. Flashback 9R (You may play this card from your graveyard for its flashback cost. Then remove it from the game.) ==> FUN: 1 Lava Axe without the funny flavor text. The flashback is too expensive to matter. -- 220. Seize the Day 3R Sorcery (R) Untap target creature. After this phase, there is an additional combat phase followed by an additional main phase. Flashback 2R (You may play this card from your graveyard for its flashback cost. Then remove it from the game.) ==> FUN: 3 With enough mana, you can make 3 attacks with the same creature in one turn. There must be some good trick you can pull with that. You could add white for Serra Angels and other non-tappers, but it's more fun to use a card like Shocker (milling up to 21 cards), a poison creature or a creature enchanted with Destructive Urge, so you'll kill 3 lands. -- 221. Shower of Coals 3RR Sorcery (U) Shower of Coals deals 2 damage to each of up to three target creatures and/or players. Threshold - Shower of Coals deals 4 damage to each of those creatures and/or players instead. (You have threshold if seven or more cards are in your graveyard.) ==> FUN: 3 A potential 12 damage for 5 mana is pretty good. Even without threshold it's a good way to get rid of a few creatures. Usually I'd prefer Pyroclasm, but that can kill your own creatures as well. -- 222. Spark Mage R Creature - Dwarf Wizard 1/1 (U) Whenever Spark Mage deals combat damage to a player, you may have Spark Mage deal 1 damage to target creature that player controls. ==> FUN: 3 It'll usually be too easy just to block him. But sometimes it could give an opponent problems, like when he only has a Temporal Adept in play. Besides, it's a 1cc wizard, for a Patron Wizard deck! -- 223. Steam Vines 1RR Enchant Land (U) When enchanted land becomes tapped, destroy it and Steam Vines deals 1 damage to that land's controller. That player moves Steam Vines to a land of his or her choice. ==> FUN: 4 A red Kudzu. An underestimated card, I think. Sure, your opponent can keep the land untapped and get one more use out of it, which is pretty bad in competitive play, but not that big a deal if you're just playing for fun. Steam Vines will only work as part of a dedicated land destruction deck, though. You have to be able to get ahead in land, so that when your opponent uses the enchanted land and moves Steam Vines to one of yours, you can move it back to one of his. Reusable land destruction at the price of a land each time. Most opponents will quickly realize they'll run out of land before you do, so they'll just let it sit on one of their lands, effectively putting it out of action completely. Until, of course, you play your Icy Manipulator. It's also a blast in multiplayer. -- 224. Thermal Blast 4R Instant (C) Thermal Blast deals 3 damage to target creature. Threshold - Thermal Blast deals 5 damage to that creature instead. (You have threshold as long as seven or more cards are in your graveyard.) ==> FUN: 1 Way overcosted. It needs threshold to be any good at all and even then you can only target creatures with it. -- 225. Tremble 1R Sorcery (C) Each player sacrifices a land. ==> FUN: 2 Turn two land destruction is pretty good in theory, but not if it destroys one of yours as well, because that messes up your turn three Stone Rain/Pillage. Raze is cheaper and targeted and isn't that great either. I guess this'll have more effect in multiplayer, but in multiplayer land destruction isn't very useful. -- 226. Volcanic Spray 1R Sorcery (U) Volcanic Spray deals 1 damage to each creature without flying and each player. Flashback 1R (You may play this card from your graveyard for its flashback cost. Then remove it from the game.) ==> FUN: 3 Cards like this one and Tremor have a tendency to catch opponents off-guard. With a bit of luck, it can wipe up a few creatures after combat. If you only need one damage from Volcanic Spray, you can keep it in your graveyard as a useful threat. -- 227. Volley of Boulders 8R Sorcery (R) Volley of Boulders deals 6 damage divided as you choose among any number of target creatures and/or players. Flashback RRRRRR (You may play this card from your graveyard for the flashback cost. Then remove it from the game.) ==> FUN: 2 Volley of Boulders looks like it was designed with Pyromancy and Infernal Genesis in mind. The casting cost is just too much to seriously consider. Even in casual play it's not worth the rather limited effect of six damage. The flashback is more reasonably costed, but requires a heavy commitment to red. -- 228. Whipkeeper 2RR Creature - Dwarf 1/1 (U) Tap: Whipkeeper deals damage to target creature equal to the damage already dealt to it this turn. ==> FUN: 1 Not a bad ability, but it's another overcosted, vulnerable 1/1.
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