Hello and welcome back to the Magic Super Cube!

For those unaware, we are going to be going through the history of Magic sets and choose cards from sets that were Standard legal or would have been Standard legal had the format existed and make a huge Cube from every one of the choices.

We are going to be delving into Homelands, which is widely considered to be one of the worst sets in Magic’s history. While there aren’t too many strong or sought after cards, there are a few cards that are interesting enough to work with for the set.

This was a smaller set of 115 cards so there was still a decent variety of cards, and it also allowed me to pick two creature and two noncreature cards for each color, a decent chunk of artifacts, and some lands.

This was an interesting set to explore so let’s get to it!

White

White really set the tone in what I would be looking at for picking the cards, and there were some difficult choices.

For the noncreature cards, I took a look and decided to pick a couple of unique one. One is a form of early card draw in white, and the other is a way to help facilitate an archetype for the rest of the Cube that can form naturally.

The creature cards were pretty interesting because while all the colors had some number of legendary creatures, both of the creature choices for this set are legendary and the others aren’t. The reason was that one helps give white some decent defensive options while the other helps a creature type that will be more prevalent as the Cube builds up.

My picks for white are Prophecy, Rashka the Slayer, Serra Aviary, and Soraya the Falconer.

Blue

Every provided a challenge, but I do have to say that blue probably had the toughest choices out of all of them, at least in regard to creatures.

A lot of creatures in this set for blue are odd and don’t look to be much fun to play with, so I decided to pick one to help introduce another typal subtheme for the Cube and the other creature being a way to help facilitate a certain strategy for blue in the future.

The noncreature spells in comparison were a lot easier to pick from. One of the choices is a solid counter spell, and the other choice was one of the more sought after cards in the set and one that blue will definitely be able to use in the future.

My picks for blue are Labyrinth Minotaur, Memory Lapse, Merchant Scroll, and Reef Pirates.

Black

Black was another case of having some trouble picking cards, though it was for different reasons.

For the creature side of things, I was stuck between two particular creatures, but ended up picking one because of how iconic that particular creature is and the other being a decent creature for black that can help shore it up defensively.

The noncreature cards were a little easier, though there was still a bit of choice paralysis on which to pick. I decided to add a card that acted as an interesting form of removal as well as a card that helped shore up black defensively, which I think it could benefit from in the long run.

My picks for black are Baron Sengir, Funeral March, Ghost Hounds, and Koskun Falls.

Red

Out of all the colors, red was the easiest to pick, and it also allowed me to delve deeper into some new typal strategies.

The creatures were a little tricky, but I ended up picking two creatures of the same creature type because I think that it would be interesting to have, and one of the more iconic cards of the set will benefit having some more members of that creature type available.

The noncreature cards on the other hand were neat picks that helped red do some interesting things for the Cube as a whole. One is a way to actually deal with creature typal decks and the other is a color hoser that tends to deal with smaller creatures.

My picks for red are Anaba Bodyguard, Anaba Spirit Crafter, An-Zerrin Ruins, and Evaporate.

Green

Green was probably the second easiest color to make choices from, and they are some pretty interesting choices.

For the creature cards I decided to go to both ends of the choice spectrum, one being a creature that is known from the set and the other creature being a creature that is “technically” something green shouldn’t get often but can help green maintain a decent form of defense.

The noncreature cards also played in some interesting space for green. One of which works well as a bit of a combat trick that people won’t be expecting, and the other is a way for green to deal an additional bit of damage to greedy mana bases.

My picks for green are Autumn Willow, Primal Order, Shrink, and Willow Faerie.

Artifacts and Lands

Looking at the artifacts, there were quite a few choices to make, and one very tough choice I had to make as well.

There were two obvious choices for artifacts, one that helps develop a particular typal strategy and the other being an iconic card from the set and seen in tournament play. There were also two creatures that would serve well for the set, one being a overcosted beat stick and the other a way to develop a strategy for artifact creatures.

The last artifact choice was an interesting decision point, and one that I will stick to even if no one would realistically be able to play it. It will only work because of the fact that Homelands has equal representation in the set that I felt comfortable choosing it.

The lands choices was incredibly easy because there was a whole cycle of lands in Homelands that do some unique ways to fix mana, but at the very least also tap for colorless mana if necessary.

My picks for artifacts and lands are Apocalypse Chime, Clockwork Gnomes, Didgeridoo, Ebony Rhino, Serrated Arrows, Wizards’ School, Castle Sengir, Koskun Keep, An-Havva Township, and Aysen Abbey.

In Conclusion

Homelands wasn’t as difficult of a set as I thought it would be, but there were still some tricky picks to be made.

When we return to the Magic Super Cube, I realized that I have accidentally skipped over a set. You see between Ice Age and Homelands there was a pseudo Core set in the form of Chronicles, which means we get to have another set to help set a base line for the Cube. I will be going over Chronicles next time, which will be an interesting series of cards to be sure.

As usual, here is the Moxfield link to keep up with all the cards in the Cube!

See you next time!

Peace,

From, J.M. Casual

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