Homelands
- For other uses, see Homelands (disambiguation).
Template:Expansion Nonblock Homelands, released in 1995, is the seventh Magic expansion. It was the second expansion of Ice Age block until July 2006, when it was replaced by Coldsnap in this role.
The mechanics found throughout the Ice Age block, such as Snow lands and cumulative upkeep, were absent from Homelands. This and the fact that it didn't follow the Ice Age block storyline made it a poor fit in its former block.
Homelands is frequently panned as Magic's all-time low in game design, though it has also been praised for the quality of its setting and flavor.
Set details
It was sold in 8-card booster packs, each bearing the same green background image.
Homelands was the last set printed by Carti Mundi in Belgium.
Homelands was developed as a seperate expansion from the current Ice Age block at the time.
The art on all versions of the same card are illustrated by the same artist.
Homelands is the last expansion to be printed on only two sheets and sold in eight-card booster packs (two cards from the uncommon sheet and six cards from the common sheet).
The set's rarity breakdown is: 25 commons (25@C4), 47 Uncommons (26@U3, 21@C1), 43 Rares (43@U1). Each common card has 2 pieces of art, making collectors view this as a 140 card set.
Mechanics and themes
Homelands introduced no new mechanics. It had a number of themes, including a large number of real-world creature types, clockwork artifact creatures, Legendary creatures, and a number of "tribal" effects that enhanced only one creature type.
Homelands explored popular characters including Sengir and Serra and had a strong flavor, meaning that the cards were designed to fill specific roles. The flavor text on the cards can also be used to piece together parts of a story.
Storyline
The planeswalker Feroz came across Ulgrotha, the once-beautiful plane now destroyed by the Wizards' Wars. At the last unspoilt oasis on this plane he met fellow planeswalker Serra, whom he married. Together they worked to restore the plane, and to protect it, Feroz's Ban was created. Feroz died during its creation, however, and the grief-stricken Serra abandoned the plane. In her absence the isolated civilizations of the plane fight amongst each other while the vampire Baron Sengir plots to take control of the plane under the fading Ban of Feroz.
Design & Development
Homelands was developed, as many of the earlier sets were, without much comunication between designers of various sets. It was developed with a flavor-first design philosophy, which, along with its separate story line, resulted in its strong difference from the Ice Age and Alliances expansions to which it was related in time. This flavor-first design also led to oddities in abilities. For example, many abilities were found in colors that normally do not recieve them, such as flying in green or vigilance and trample in black, although this philosophy was not as developed in 1995 as it is today. Mark Rosewater wrote that "Homelands was a poorly designed set". [1]
Cycles
Homelands has one cycle:
- Tri-color land cycle: Uncommon lands with "
: add 
to your mana pool. ,: Add C to your mana pool. 
,: Add D or E to your mana pool." where D and E are the allied colors of C — Aysen Abbey, Wizards' School, Castle Sengir, Koskun Keep, and An-Havva Township.
Notable Cards
- Serrated Arrows saw tournament play not only as a result of the high prevalence of cards like Order of the Ebon Hand in Standard at the time, but also because of a short-lived rule requiring constructed tournament decks to include at least five cards from each legal set.
- Merchant Scroll, reprinted in Eighth Edition, is a blue tutor card that remains a passable card in many formats.
- Ihsan's Shade is among the iconic and flavorful legendary creatures of the set. Others include Autumn Willow, Eron the Relentless, and Baron Sengir.