Here is a quick review to Odyssey-Limited. For those of you who aren't familiar with Limited play, it is based  on the concept of having less resources to base your deck on. Instead of using any cards you want, you may only use the cards you get.
For example, Sealed Deck is where you are given a Tournament Pack and two Boosters, as well as extra lands to build your 40 card deck.
Booster Draft is where you select one card from a pack of 15, then another card from a pack of 14 (that another player has already taken a card out of), and then another card from a pack of 13, and so forth. This is continued until 3 booster packs are finished.
 
Anyways, here is a brief guide to help you build a Sealed deck, or draft in Booster.
 
Notes to consider (for beginners):
-Since the deck minimum is 40 cards, always play a 40 card deck. No more than that. Not even 41.
-Aim for a 2-3 colored deck in Sealed and a 1-2 colored deck in Booster.
-It is important to have a good balance of creatures, lands, and non-creature spells.
-A rough estimate: About 15 creatures, 16-17 lands, and 8 support spells should do it.
-KNOW THE COMMONS!!! 77% of the cards you'll see will be commons. If you know them well,
       it will give you a huge advantage.
-KNOW THE COLORS!!! If your first two packs have good cards of a certain color, and you are
      totally oblivious that that color sucks, it might hurt you. On the other hand, if your opponent's
      know that the specific color sucks, they'll stay out of it, giving you more good cards.
-KNOW YOUR OPPONENTS!!! This might not always be possible, but if you know one of your
      friends always plays blue, use it to your advantage and stay out of his color.
 
Advanced booster draft strategies (for advanced, duh):
-Either draft aggressively or submissively.
-To draft aggressive is to pick a color and totally draining the entire card pool of that one color. If the player to your left doesn't get any red cards, he won't play red. As a result, he will pass you powerful red cards in the second pack.
-To draft submissively is to take the best card in the pack (regardless of color) in the first couple picks, and try to figure out what the guy to your right is taking. Then pick a color that he's not taking, and stick to it.
-Pay attention to every detail in the packs that are passed to you. For example, if you see a Hallowed Healer in your second pack, and the one card that the guy on your right took was a common. HE IS NOT PLAYING WHITE. You know this because Hallowed Healer is easily White's best common. Therefore, if he were to be playing white, that Hallowed Healer wouldn't be there anymore...
-Don't fight anyone for colors. I've seen beginners do it. I've seen experts do it. Two people sitting side-by-side, both trying to get red cards. As a result, both players ended up with crappy decks, and the guy a few seats down  won the tournament. Not much of an advanced strategy, but I can't express that enough.
-Drafting strategically is not always just taking the best card in each pack. For example, if you open a pack with a black  power card, 2 other good black cards, and a really good white card, take the white one. This will lure the next couple of guys to your left into playing black, forcing them out of your colors. You sacrifice one power card, but you can get 3 power cards back in your next pack, while the guys on your right fight over black. 
 
 
HERE ARE SOME ODYSSEY SPECIFIC NOTES:
 
Colors to Play
BEST
1.White
2.Green
3.Red
4.Blue
5.Black
WORST

White's best commons
5.Embolden
4.Aven Flock
3.Second Thoughts
2.Mystic Zealot
1.Hallowed Healer

Blue's best commons
5.Cephalid Scout
4.Syncopate
3.Repel
2.Aven Windreader
1.Aven Fisher

Black's best commons
5.Afflict
4.Zombie Assassin
3.Gravedigger
2.Patriarch's Desire
1.Ghastly Demise

Red's best commons
5.Thermal Blast
4.Barbarian Lunatic
3.Chainflinger
2.Firebolt
1.Flameburst

Green's best commons
5.Nantuko Disciple
4.Moment's Peace
3.Wild Mongrel
2.Elephant Ambush
1.Rabid Elephant

Strengths and Weaknesses.

White: Odyssey White is every drafter's dream. It has everything you'd want in a limited deck. Good high-CC common creatures like Mystic Zealot and Aven Flock; good weenies and bears like Patrol Hound and Mystic Visionary; good creature removal/containment like Second Thoughts, Kirtar's Desire and Angelic Wall; and plenty of tricks like Embolden and Shelter. With plenty of good cards in all sorts of varieties, I really can't see a weakness here.

Blue: Odyssey Blue has some powerful cards. Its common and uncommon fliers are awesome, and it has some nice control spells too. Drafting a horde of fliers is made simple by Odyssey blue. However, having really good cards does not replace having lots of good cards. Unfortunately for Blue, there are few good cards, more specifically: few good commons. This makes it very difficult to base your deck on blue. Blue almost depends on a second color.

Black: Besides a few good removal spells, there's not much really going for Odyssey Black. Its creatures are sub-par, the non-creature spells are not much better, and the commons in-general suck. Black's biggest weakness is its lack of offense. I'd avoid Black, barring that I get some power rares and uncommons. In any case, mono-black is suicide.

Red: I don't think I've seen direct damage this good and plentyful in a long time. 8 of red's 21 commons are direct damage (if you count Scorching Missle), or direct damage dealing creatures. Unfortunately, this does not leave a lot of room for attacking creatures. Unless you want to try to burn the opponent to death with direct damage, you'll need to add Red to a color that can provide creatures. In any case, Red's direct damage will be a force to be reckoned with.

Green: Green's packed with powerhouses like Rabid Elephant, and Wild Mongrel, sweet tricks like Moment's Peace, Refresh and Muscle Burst, and even has a few creature/trick hybrids like Elephant Ambush and Beast Attack. Offensively, Green is a monster. Defensively, Green has few ways to handle with fliers and other threats. Though Green is perfectly capable of going solo, it works well with White/Red to back it up defensively.

questions? comments? bokchoyboy@powersurfr.com