I hear people in the forums and in person state that Homelands was/is still the worst set in Magic, how horrible it was, etc.
But I'm wondering, if the opportunity came along, how would you redesign Homelands so that it was no longer a bad set? If you kept the names and card types (i.e. keeping sorceries as a sorcery, dwarves as dwarves, etc) the same, how would you redesign the cards from Homelands? You may opt to keep some cards the same as you deem fit.
Surely you can do something to Winter Sky, or Dwarven Sea Clan, or giving Headstone something worth looking at. Please share your thoughts and ideas. I'm curious to see what you come up with.
'buster
P.S: I personally think the sub"gothic" theme of the set would play well into Innistrad's theme.
Pretty much I would just want to make the cards better.
Winter Sky
{R}
Sorcery
Flip a coin. If you win the flip, Winter Sky deals 1 damage to each creature and player.
Draw a card.
Dwarven Sea Clan could be Slingshot Goblin. That's not exactly the kind of card we would want at rare these days, though, so maybe also make it a 4/4 for 5 mana.
If anything stylistically Id break it into 2 sets. The Dwarfs and minotaurs felt very separate from the Gothic horror elements and faeries but if we were keeping the over all set as is, ya over all power level boost. The set was way weak even when it came out.
Honestly part of the issue was having it be such a SMALL set, and yet multiple cards (like Hungry Mist) took up multiple slots with different art. I would have made it a regular set, and had the design be a bit more cohesive with Ice Age.
Many of the players I knew back then quit because of this set. It was like "okay, they are obviously running out of ideas, it's a dead game."
The set would have to be scrapped and redone from scratch.
The problem was, the cards were awful. The mana cost to power ratio was a joke even by THOSE standards.
Baron Sengir, as an example, today would be 5 mana tops and have a much better ability. If I were to design him today, he'd be something like this.
3BB
5/5 Flying
All other Vampires get +1/+1. When a creature damaged by Baron Sengir is put into the graveyard from play, put a +1/+1 counter on Baron Sengir.
That's not so terribly overpowered but a lot better than what we had to play with. I realize that we had Dark Ritual back then but 8 mana is just too much and made him almost unplayable.
He was supposed to be the BIG card from the set, if my memory serves me correctly, and he was meh at best.
The set was a disaster and, IMO, the only way to improve it would be to scrap it and start from scratch.
I'll never see why people think that set was the worst ever. It had quite a few decent cards, more than some sets I know of. Cough, Prophesy.
Merchant Scroll still sees play in Legacy in high Tide and sometimes even a couple of Mono-U control decks.
Serrated Arrows made it into Standard decks when it was legal both times.
Autumn Willow was no slouch in her day. Terrible by today's Hexproof critter standards, but fairly decent back then.
An Zerrin Ruins made it into a few Legacy decks sideboards for a while. It's too expensive now, but it was a consideration here and there.
Broken Visage is one of my favorite EDH tricks, but that's not much of an argument. It's EDH.
Forget was a good Madness enabler for a bit
Ishan's Shade was a frigging beating in Standard and Vintage for a long time. Being Immune to Swords to Plowshares was huge back then.
Memory Lapse has always been a good card and still is pretty decent. Especially when it hits standard.
Sea Sprite was the premier anti-red card for a long time out of control decks that were mono-U.
Spectral Bears saw standard play and lasted into Legacy with Stompy for a long time.
Last, but far from least, Didgeridoo. Who bashes that card? Seriously, it's awesome.
The set would be fairly decent by today's standards and broken in a few cases if you only knocked off a single mana from the casting costs.
It's a lot like Fallen Empires, underrated and misunderstood. Power creep outdated most of it sadly, but I personally thought it was a fun set to play around with. I bought quite a bit of it. It had cheap packs too. $2.50 back then and it didn't change much over the years.
Just by simply lowering the casting cost of every card by 1 would make a significant impact on its power level (as long as it doesnt reduce any casting cost to zero).
But as it stands, Homelands does have some gems. Didgeridoo + Changelings is really powerful.
I'll never see why people think that set was the worst ever. It had quite a few decent cards, more than some sets I know of. Cough, Prophesy.
Merchant Scroll still sees play in Legacy in high Tide and sometimes even a couple of Mono-U control decks.
Serrated Arrows made it into Standard decks when it was legal both times.
Autumn Willow was no slouch in her day. Terrible by today's Hexproof critter standards, but fairly decent back then.
An Zerrin Ruins made it into a few Legacy decks sideboards for a while. It's too expensive now, but it was a consideration here and there.
Broken Visage is one of my favorite EDH tricks, but that's not much of an argument. It's EDH.
Forget was a good Madness enabler for a bit
Ishan's Shade was a frigging beating in Standard and Vintage for a long time. Being Immune to Swords to Plowshares was huge back then.
Memory Lapse has always been a good card and still is pretty decent. Especially when it hits standard.
Sea Sprite was the premier anti-red card for a long time out of control decks that were mono-U.
Spectral Bears saw standard play and lasted into Legacy with Stompy for a long time.
Last, but far from least, Didgeridoo. Who bashes that card? Seriously, it's awesome.
The set would be fairly decent by today's standards and broken in a few cases if you only knocked off a single mana from the casting costs.
It's a lot like Fallen Empires, underrated and misunderstood. Power creep outdated most of it sadly, but I personally thought it was a fun set to play around with. I bought quite a bit of it. It had cheap packs too. $2.50 back then and it didn't change much over the years.
Well, homelands sucked so much that they have to make a rule that you need to play 5 cards from homelands in your deck back in T2. Pretty much explained why certain cards were actually played.
The modern equivalent to Headstone already exists and is called Cremate.
I'm fully aware of Cremate, I was trying for something that fit the theme of burial better. I have a stack of them as late picks from invasion block drafts in highschool, thanks
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But I'm wondering, if the opportunity came along, how would you redesign Homelands so that it was no longer a bad set? If you kept the names and card types (i.e. keeping sorceries as a sorcery, dwarves as dwarves, etc) the same, how would you redesign the cards from Homelands? You may opt to keep some cards the same as you deem fit.
Surely you can do something to Winter Sky, or Dwarven Sea Clan, or giving Headstone something worth looking at. Please share your thoughts and ideas. I'm curious to see what you come up with.
'buster
P.S: I personally think the sub"gothic" theme of the set would play well into Innistrad's theme.
HR Analyst. Gamer. Activist | Fearless, and forthright | Aggro-control is a mindset.
Elspeth and Jhoira rock my world.
Winter Sky
{R}
Sorcery
Flip a coin. If you win the flip, Winter Sky deals 1 damage to each creature and player.
Draw a card.
Dwarven Sea Clan could be Slingshot Goblin. That's not exactly the kind of card we would want at rare these days, though, so maybe also make it a 4/4 for 5 mana.
Headstone was fixed by turning it into Cremate.
For the rares my first impressions are something like.
An-Havva Constable drop cost to 1G, change power and toughness
An-Zerrin Ruins change cost from 2RR to 3R
Anaba Ancestor no change
Anaba Spirit Crafter change cost from 2RR to 3R
Apocalypse Chime narrow but no change as its basically disk in draft
Autumn Willow Drop cost to GG and change text to Hexproof
Aysen Crusader Change Hero creature type to legend for EDH fun
Aysen Highway Drop cost to W, give it flash
Baki's Curse Baki's Curse deals 2 damage to target player for each enchantment they control.
Baron Sengir Give him death touch and drop the cost to 1BBB to bring him inline with nocturnus
Beast Walkers Turn into a 2/2 for 1 with a cost of W orG
Black Carriage Drop the cost to BB
Broken Visage Drop the cost to 1B
Chain Stasis no change
Daughter of Autumn Give her flash, change ability to read G: Redirect all damage dealt to one creature to Daughter of Autumn
Didgeridoo loose the minotaur restriction (though this might be fun with changelings)
Dwarven Pony Change art to reflect MLP FIM
Dwarven Sea Clan Loose the targets controller must control an island prohibition
Faerie Noble no change, maybe turn it blue or black
Feroz's Ban drop the cost to 2 or 3
Forget drop the cost to U
Grandmother Sengir remove the tap from her ability and make her a vampire
Hazduhr the Abbot give him defender and change the ability to read all damage done to Abbot is also applied to the sources controller.
Heart Wolf Give it vigilance
Ironclaw Curse Change to an instant and just leave it as target creature gets 0/-1
Koskun Falls no change
Leeches make it an instant and turn the W into phexian mana
Mammoth Harness change looses flying to gains defender
Marjhan Loose the islands prohibition and drop the cost to 5U
Mystic Decree Change the cost to 1U
Narwhal Change nothing its to perfect as is
Primal Order no change
Reveka, Wizard Savant Turn into a basic Tim
Rysorian Badger Give it haste and have it remove the entire grave yard.
Sengir Autocrat Make the tokens 1/1 and give them haste
Serra Aviary no change
Soraya the Falconer Change falcons to creatures with flying
Timmerian Fiends Replace with a chase rare of some kind.
Truce lower the cost to W
Veldrane of Sengir change the ability to be land walk of your choice and loose the -3/0
Wall of Kelp Make the tokens copies of Wall of Kelp
Willow Priestess drop the cost to 2G
Winter sky Change to deal 1 damage to each player and creature.
Now a days Id also be tempted to make the filter lands return an amount of filtered mana equal to the their activation cost.
Currently looking to buy miscut Homelands, (my wife thinks I'm crazy too).
Semper Gumby (Always Flexible)
Many of the players I knew back then quit because of this set. It was like "okay, they are obviously running out of ideas, it's a dead game."
The problem was, the cards were awful. The mana cost to power ratio was a joke even by THOSE standards.
Baron Sengir, as an example, today would be 5 mana tops and have a much better ability. If I were to design him today, he'd be something like this.
3BB
5/5 Flying
All other Vampires get +1/+1. When a creature damaged by Baron Sengir is put into the graveyard from play, put a +1/+1 counter on Baron Sengir.
That's not so terribly overpowered but a lot better than what we had to play with. I realize that we had Dark Ritual back then but 8 mana is just too much and made him almost unplayable.
He was supposed to be the BIG card from the set, if my memory serves me correctly, and he was meh at best.
The set was a disaster and, IMO, the only way to improve it would be to scrap it and start from scratch.
Merchant Scroll still sees play in Legacy in high Tide and sometimes even a couple of Mono-U control decks.
Serrated Arrows made it into Standard decks when it was legal both times.
Autumn Willow was no slouch in her day. Terrible by today's Hexproof critter standards, but fairly decent back then.
An Zerrin Ruins made it into a few Legacy decks sideboards for a while. It's too expensive now, but it was a consideration here and there.
Broken Visage is one of my favorite EDH tricks, but that's not much of an argument. It's EDH.
Forget was a good Madness enabler for a bit
Ishan's Shade was a frigging beating in Standard and Vintage for a long time. Being Immune to Swords to Plowshares was huge back then.
Memory Lapse has always been a good card and still is pretty decent. Especially when it hits standard.
Sea Sprite was the premier anti-red card for a long time out of control decks that were mono-U.
Spectral Bears saw standard play and lasted into Legacy with Stompy for a long time.
Last, but far from least, Didgeridoo. Who bashes that card? Seriously, it's awesome.
The set would be fairly decent by today's standards and broken in a few cases if you only knocked off a single mana from the casting costs.
It's a lot like Fallen Empires, underrated and misunderstood. Power creep outdated most of it sadly, but I personally thought it was a fun set to play around with. I bought quite a bit of it. It had cheap packs too. $2.50 back then and it didn't change much over the years.
<----Patiently waits for Balance to be legal in Legacy.
But as it stands, Homelands does have some gems. Didgeridoo + Changelings is really powerful.
BUWGRChilds PlayGRWUB
BUWGR Highlander GRWUB
UBSquee's Shapeshifting PetBU
BW Multiplayer Control WB
RG Changeling GR
UR Mana FlareRU
UMerfolkU
B MBMC B
Enchantment
All creatures from the Homelands expansion get +2/+2.
Now, in all seriousness, that should probably just be +1/+1.
You got 99 attackers but I'm blocking with 1.
The Winner is Judge | 7
This Winner is Also Judge | 6
Club Flamingo | Lots
Well, homelands sucked so much that they have to make a rule that you need to play 5 cards from homelands in your deck back in T2. Pretty much explained why certain cards were actually played.
Headstone B
Instant
Target player puts all cards from their graveyard on the bottom of their library. Draw a card
Put to rest. Again.
The modern equivalent to Headstone already exists and is called Cremate.
I'm fully aware of Cremate, I was trying for something that fit the theme of burial better. I have a stack of them as late picks from invasion block drafts in highschool, thanks