Homelands

Homelands

Homelands, released in October 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. 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.

Homelands was developed as a separate expansion from the current Ice Age block at the time. The set introduced no new mechanics or keywords, but used some of the mechanics of Ice Age, most notably the cantrip ability and single-color legendary creatures. Each color had at least one legend, with some colors having as many as five. The absence of mechanics found throughout the Ice Age block, such as Snow lands and cumulative upkeep, and the fact that it didn't follow the Ice Age block storyline, made it a poor fit in its former block. The expansion symbol of the set is a simplified globe of Ulgrotha, the plane where Homelands was set.

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. The art on all versions of the same card are illustrated by the same artist.

Homelands was probably the last set printed by Cartamundi in Belgium, because it was the last set to be printed on the 121-card print sheets that were used by that firm. However, Cartamundi would later restart printing Magic cards again. The Homelands lands have a unique teal colored text box.