Landhome
| [Land]home | |
|---|---|
| Keyword Ability | |
| Type | Static |
| Introduced |
Alpha (mechanic) Mirage (keyword) |
| Last used | Weatherlight |
| Reminder Text | [land]home (If defending player controls no [land type], this creature cannot attack. If you control no [land type], bury this creature.) |
| Storm Scale | 9[1] |
| Scryfall Statistics | |
Landhome is an obsolete group of keyword abilities that was used in conjunction with land types. It captured the flavor of creatures that require a certain environment to move through.[2][3] The mechanic is still used occasionally, but it is now written out in the rules text. The cards that featured the keyword have received an updated oracle text. "Landhome" now only exists as a slang term.
Description
"Landhome" was never meant to be printed as such. It was envisioned to be combined with a land type and to appear as "Islandhome", "Mountainhome", and so on. It prevented the creature with the ability from being declared an attacker if the defending player controlled no lands of the appropriate type. Additionally, creatures with landhome were sacrificed if their controller didn't control any lands of the appropriate type.
It is now printed as two abilities:
- "<This creature> can't attack unless defending player controls a <land type>."
- "When you control no <land type>, sacrifice <this creature>."
History
Like Haste and Vigilance, Landhome was not originally keyworded. The "islandhome" keyword was only used between Mirage block and Fifth Edition in 1996-1997. After that, no more cards were printed with the keyword, and it lost its official status at the time of Time Spiral (2006) after WotC decided it was 'uninteresting,' and had appeared on too few cards.[4] Although "Islandhome" was the only variant printed (and on only five cards at that), other cards have abilities that are functionally identical.
Islandhome left a mechanical legacy in large blue creatures that have difficulty attacking, but now with restrictions that are much easier to satisfy rather than being entirely contingent on the opponent's mana base. Some examples are Godhunter Octopus (opponent controls enchantments, in an enchantment block), Deep-Sea Terror (functional threshold), and Glacial Crasher (any mountain, making it either anti-red or multicolored blue-red).
No cards were ever created that can be considered to have "Plainshome".
Rules
From the glossary of the Comprehensive Rules (July 25, 2025—Edge of Eternities)
- Islandhome (Obsolete)
- An obsolete keyword ability that meant “This creature can’t attack unless defending player controls an Island” and “When you control no Islands, sacrifice this creature.” Cards printed with this ability have been given errata in the Oracle card reference.
Examples
Using current oracle text.
Example
Gorilla Pack 
Creature — Ape
3/3
Gorilla Pack can't attack unless defending player controls a Forest.
When you control no Forests, sacrifice Gorilla Pack.
Card list
The following is a list of cards with landhome. The landhome columns 1 and 2 refer to the two clauses that constitute landhome, if both are ticked that means both clauses are on that card while a cross means that the respective clause is not found on that card.
- ^V printed with the Islandhome keyword in Fifth Edition.
- ^† the only existing version was printed with the Islandhome keyword.
References
- ↑ Mark Rosewater (September 4, 2016). "Ante Banding Landhome Fear Intimidate Landwalk & Shroud. Are all...". Blogatog. Tumblr.
- ↑ Brady Dommermuth (June 1, 2009). "Mechanically Inclined". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast. Archived from the original on 2021-04-29.
- ↑ Mark Rosewater (June 8, 2015). "Evergreen Eggs & Ham". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast.
- ↑ Doug Beyer (June 25, 2008). "Merfolk Resurfaced". magicthegathering.com. Wizards of the Coast. Archived from the original on 2020-11-12.