If you read enough of Mark Rosewater's articles,
you'll find he's rather critical of his own work
on the Odyssey block. He says it didn't go over
very well with all players because its cards
make you play in counterintuitive ways relative
to basically every other block; sometimes the
right play really is to discard your entire hand
to active Wild Mongrel's ability six times, even
if it isn't in combat. I actually really like
that it makes you play in a unique style. Few
sets were able to do that in such a thorough
way; Odyssey and Rise of the Eldrazi are among
the only ones.
I didn't own very many cards from the Odyssey
block until after all three sets had been
released, so I originally read Brawn as a way to
get some sort of compensation for when it was
inevitably killed. Of course, it is much more
than that, and has if anything improved with
time. It's a boon to every creature that
everyone ever looked at and sighed, "if only
this had trample". If your format also allows
Gifts Ungiven or Fact or Fiction, you can get
the effect while also drawing cards. It also
wasn't bad in the old-style Ichorid Dredge
decks, the ones that actually played lands; they
could operate on one or two Bayous and Tropical
Islands, and thus render opponents basically
unable to throw their Llanowar Elves in the way
of the onslaught to buy a turn.
I love that each of Judgment's Incarnation
creatures takes the shape of one of the major
races from the Odyssey block. It really helped
tie the setting's mythology together on the
cards. Perhaps we'll have a new Otaria expansion
some day.
Megatron, you fool! By killing Brawn you
gave Trample to Optimus Prime!
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Today's card of the day is Brawn which is a four
mana Green 3/3 with Trample and when it is in
your graveyard and you control a forest all
creatures you control have Trample. This
is an absolutely fantastic effect to have in
Commander or Multiplayer and aside from it
potentially being removed instead of destroyed
it offers exceptional value for the cost.
An opponent will not want to destroy it, so
sacrifice effects can help in setting up other
creatures to Trample for higher damage.
