Supposedly someone found the card file for the original Spectral Chaos. No way to tell if this is real, of course, but assuming it is: what do we think of it?

I've never heard of Spectral Chaos. Should I have?

Probably. It was designed by Barry Reich as part of the first batch of expansion sets. There were the East Coast Playtesters, who created Ice Age (and a bunch more sets later); there was a second team that created Menagerie, which saw print as Mirage and Visions; and there was Barry, trying to make the first multi-colored set. It introduced domain, for example. It eventually got rejected in favor of Legends.

It's also where the term 'Barry's land' comes from. The idea of a 6th basic land type to help power up Domain.

Oh geez, there's all kinds of fun things in there and I don't have the time to pick through them now. Just a quick glance told me that the term 'Swamp Home' existed and was used long before it was keyworded, then rejected.

That is, assuming this isn't a fake. It's a pretty elaborate fake if it is, though. Which is more believable? That a person when through the trouble of creating a very elaborate hoax? Or an old document happened to surface? I tend to favor the answer that infers that most people are too lazy to create something and not take credit for it.

It could well be.

FWIW, if a fake seems too elaborate, I often consider the idea that someone came up with it for some legitimate related reason, and then someone else slapped a fraudulent label on it.

Fair. This could just be an old card file made by a novice Magic designer, and someone decided to slap Barry's name on it. That actually would explain the reference to 'Swamp Home' nicely, as well as explain why there are any reprints during a time when Wizards didn't do reprints in expansions (I spotted Northern Paladin in there.) This could just be design that's heavily influenced by Invasion.

Apparently there's more. There are some things that seem off, like the rarity system and the timeline.

I want to believe!