The Odyssey Pre-release tournament in Akron on September 22 was the first prerelease that I had ever attended. In preparation for the event, I read up on the spoilers and all the information that I could get my hands on.

I wasn't entirely sure what to expect, but I was looking forward to having some fun playing with cards that were totally new. I hoped that I'd do all right, but I was really looking to just play.

I took the trip to Akron with Ferrett, Neil Carver, and another of Ferrett's friends who we quickly lost in another flight. The ride turned out to be the classic"left late, got lost, arrived late but the tournament registration hadn't started yet" routines, so I'll let you fill in the details. You can read Neil Carver's article on it if you're really curious.

The location is different than the last tournament I played in the Akron area, but it's large enough, and even has cheap food available. There still weren't any clocks that I could see, however.

Deck registration and construction was slated for an hour, which really isn't that much time when you're trying to learn all the cards that you have available in your pool. My skills at building decks in Limited are still pretty rough, so I'm having a little more trouble than I'd like. I decided to place my hopes in the colour that offered me the most creatures and splash some heavy burn and other usefulness elsewhere. White offered me a good number of creatures, including Wayward Angel, and Red covered the burn very nicely. Though predominantly White/Red, I did make two single-card splashes for Syncopate and Morgue Theft. The use of three taplands was very effective at providing this splash at just the right time.

After registration, we get started on the actual tournament.

When the matches are posted, my name is misspelled. This is a fairly common event for me, so I just contact one of the tournament people and we get it sorted out. Today's misspelling: Refuse. Like I wouldn't have changed it if that actually were my name.

My first game of the day is against Jester Bokman. Jester not only has an interesting name, but he seems like a pretty cool guy. We shuffle and get started... And I get to mulligan. Woo hoo. The first spell of Odyssey that I see anyone cast is Chatter of the Squirrel; I'm sure that can't be good. The Squirrel quickly gets a Psionic Gift, and from there he proceeds to beat, bash, pound, and otherwise torment my army (and me).

The second game comes up better for me. Scorching Missile goes a lot of the distance for me, but Psychic Squirrels are unpleasant here as well. I do manage a win, though. Game three is a long, drawn-out battle between my forces and Jester's forces and - again - a psychic squirrel token. I manage to get Wayward Angel into play, but have to block with everyone to keep from losing. All but my little angel dies, but that pushes me to threshold. Angel gets big, bad, and nasty, but decides she can't live all by herself during my upkeep. That gives me a big scoop.

0-1 matches 1-2 games.

After this defeat, I'm a little down, but I remember that I'm here to have fun. Winning is totally secondary. Anthony Oxford is my opponent, and he takes a mulligan this time. The first game sees me pull a quick win. I don't remember how, and I forgot to take any notes on the game.

Game 2 sees a heavier battle and a bit of a damage race. Anthony manages to do the twenty long before I do, and we move to game 3. Game 3 looks like a repeat of game 1, with me not taking any damage and managing to subvert any lifegain that Anthony musters.

1-1 match, 3-3 games.

Nick Petroski comes up as my next opponent, and his deck pulls out Aegis of Honor while I'm sitting on both of my Scorching Missiles. I opt with killing through creatures, and this works out well for me. Dedicated Martyr does a good job minimizing combat damage, and keeps me healthy enough to take the win.

With the Aegis as a consideration, I drop in a pair of Aven Cloudchasers. I hope that these will help me take out the Aegis so I won't sit on the Scorching Missiles again. Nick and I both confuse the rulings of the Cloudchaser, and believe that you can't play it unless there is an enchantment in play; this just isn't the case. The game goes very, very close, and I don't recall seeing the Aegis. I win just before he gets to do the last points to me. Wayward Angel came out just in time.

2-1 match, 5-3 games.

Round 4 is against Dion Chaney. As we're playing out the first game, his name is called for a side draft. We finish up the first game with me winning, and he concedes the rest of the match to me so he can go play. I wish him luck in the draft.

I spend a bit of time watching Ferrett play his opponent before finding Neil and playing a few pick-up games. Neil soundly thrashes me; there is just nothing I can do against his deck.

3-1 match, 6-3 games.

By this point, I'm wishing I had remembered to take an aspirin before leaving the house. I have a huge headache and that just makes playing bad.

I face off against Glen Campbell (like the soup), and look at my first hand: Six white spells and an island. Gah! I mulligan that quicker than a flash and drop into three white spells, a Swamp, and an Island. I have one Swamp and one Island in the whole deck, and they both decide to show up together. I probably should have mulliganed, but I decided to see what a really bad hand could do. Somehow I manage to find a white source of mana, lay out Confessor, and then just keep on going. Glen seems to have a glut of land and simply doesn't get threats onto the table.

The second game goes equally badly for Glen, and this time I don't have to mulligan. Again, the details are lost in the mists of time.

4-1 round, 8-3 games.

The last round of the tournament sees me pitted against Jason J. He was at the table I was at for registration, and we've been more or less nearby the whole tournament. He offers that we just draw the match, but I'd rather play. I'm feeling confident that my deck doesn't totally suck.

Jason shows me what a really well made deck can do. Kamahl, Pit Fighter makes an appearance, and along with Rabid Elephant manages to squish me like nobody's business. Game 2 sees the amazing Kamahl again, and more elephants. Is it just me, or is it impossible to kill these things with 2/2 creatures? Wait - I know it's not just me. Anything that gets +2/+2 each time something blocks it is going to be a killer. We're done really quickly, so we sign the slips and play out a third game, just to see if my deck has anything. It doesn't. I lose again, very, very hard.

4-2 match, games 8-5.

For me, this is an incredibly good result. I actually did quite well, and the total number of errors I noticed was small. I think I played pretty well all day. The taplands worked out great, and pulled off more than one surprise Syncopate.

So at the end of the day, I'm 4-2 and feeling great about the pre-release. I get my 1 prize pack, and it gives me Time Stretch as the rare. Sweet!

If you're interested, here's the deck I played:

Bog Wreckage
Abandoned Outpost
Ravaged Highlands
Swamp
Island
8 Plains
5 Mountain
Morgue Theft
Syncopate
2 Dedicated Martyr
2 Hallowed Healer
Aven Archer
Embolden
Angelic Wall
Patrol Hound
Tireless Tribe
Gallantry
Pilgrim of Justice
Confessor
Pianna, Nomad Captain
Wayward Angel
2 Scorching Missile
Anarchist
Minotaur Explorer
Acceptable Losses
Firebolt
Reckless Charge
Mad Dog

Many of these cards worked out way better than I could have hoped. Acceptable Losses went well, and I never lost a good card to it. Reckless Charge worked wonders in one game where Wayward Angel ended up being 10/4 with Haste on the turn she hit play. The least useful card was Morgue Theft, which I think I may have played exactly once.

I suppose it's time for my thoughts on Odyssey in general. Well, it's bound to make some interesting IBC decks even more interesting. Flashback wasn't as big an ability as I thought it might be, but Threshold was bigger than I thought it might be. The main focus seems to be on total resource manipulation. You have to control everything.

I'm going to put myself onto the precarious limb of those who try to predict the future and say that I think that Odyssey is going to bring to Type 2. Blue will still be powerful, but only in conjunction with other colours. Red and Black will see some serious play, and more than one person will try to resurrect Fires. Fact or Fiction splits (which were never easy) will become ridiculously difficult when you're weighing out flashback cards, threshold cards, and possible threats from what they'll be getting out of the split. Gah. I don't wanna think about it.

Combined with Invasion Block, Odyssey will encourage using three-colour decks over two-colour decks and will reward players willing to topdeck like mad.

As for me, I've had a few flashes of decks already in mind. I don't mind letting you know the general bits, since they're silly enough to not work out. One is Black/Blue discard with Lobotomy, Extract, Duress, Ravenous Rats, Undermine, Syncopate and a lot of other crazy stuff. Another is Red/Black and heavily based on land destruction. I'm sure you can figure out what goes in here.

Next time, I'll probably ramble on about the deck that I'll be building for the Provincial Championships in Ontario. Until then, direct your hate mail and other commentary to trafuse@hotmail.com.