I wanted to get a cycle of lands for the basic slot, but couldn't think of anything appropriate until now. Homelands doesn't have a multi-color theme. It, in fact, doesn't any real overarching themes. Some tribal. Something about -1/-1 counters. Lots of story elements. Nothing to really hang a hat on.

But it occurred to me that by the time I'm done this set is going to be chock full of Legends. Like, close to Kamigawa density. No uncommons, but every rare creature. If that's the case, why not make that a theme?

Which is tricky. 'Lots of rare Legends' is not an asfan. No one's going to notice it unless they look at a lot of cards. That makes shoving one card in each pack that interacts with Legends an odd choice. Still, I think this cycle is simple enough to hang out at common, and the player at the table who's picked up a couple Legends will be very happy to see these wheel to him/her.

Which might infer they're too swingy? I don't know. I was pleased with the idea of a player in the late game slamming down Hazdhur, the Abbot, sacrificing 3 lands and gaining 15 life, but now I'm not so sure. Wouldn't these lands make the lucky rare drafter even luckier? Is there a way to somehow fix this in the uncommon spot? Hmm... I thought this concept was right on target, but now I'm not so sure...

I like the idea a lot, that it's an in-general bonus for playing cool creatures (especially legends who aren't otherwise especially mechanically powerful), hanging out on lands where it doesn't take up much deck space or cognitive overhead.

But I agree it could be too swingy with multiples at once (especially if this is supposed to be somewhat balanced for constructed too?) Is it possible to make it something which stacks a bit but not as much (eg. may have your life total become 10?) or that you can only activate once per turn (eg requiring the creature to tap?)

The first option would be balanced, but it wouldn't be fun. If five of these are going to pop on the table, it should be a dramatic event. Putting in an extra requirement that limits their ability to go off might be okay... but that's also sniping at the fun factor, while using up complexity points in the common slot.

I think these are probably okay for constructed, because they're self balancing. I mean, they come into play tapped early, and you're sacrificing a land for the effect late. If five crack, then you're down 5 lands. It's good, but not crazy. This particular card might need to go down to 4 life. They can be balanced. In limited, however, they're strictly a bonus in that they only help the player who picked up the Legends. Everyone else is passing these, and they (theoretically) will all dump in one player's lap.

I suppose the correct thing to do is make them uncommon, which is unfortunate. It solves the limited problem at least. I just thought I stumbled upon a good basic cycle, but I guess I didn't.

I don't think this is a particular problem. Sure, you're gaining 5 life, but you're giving up a land to do so.

Templating: "legendary" is lower case in text boxes, as on Konda's Hatamoto, Time of Need etc. Subtypes always get capitalised ("Goblin", "Plains", "Equipment", "Aura") but types ("creature", "artifact") and supertypes ("legendary", "basic") don't unless they're on a type line or at the start of a sentence.

Changed the cycle to uncommon.