Homelands Restored: Recent Activity
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Recent updates to Homelands Restored: (Generated at 2025-08-07 17:40:12)
| Homelands Restored: Cardlist | Visual spoiler | Export | Booster | Comments | Search | Recent activity |
| Skeleton |
Recent updates to Homelands Restored: (Generated at 2025-08-07 17:40:12)
Ha! That damn Urza block, messing with the numbers. The toolbox currently sports a score of 3.893, but even Gatherer gets sucked into weird rating compromises with that block.
The counter thingy is cute, but I feel like I'd have to explain myself on occasion, and that doesn't seem worth it. Some people would want it removed, and some people would want it to do more. Better to pretend I didn't see it.
It is weird, I admit. I can do a better job rectifying this when all the cards are here, and I can see which cards need to be swapped for what. But Joven and Chandler aren't likely to move... and neither is a string of Legendary creatures with very straightforward abilities...
It's kind of sad that the rares seem to be the most simple cards in the set.
I'd just make it 0/0 that enters with two counters just because of the name. Also, never assume that cards from Urza's Block are fair ;) I guess the card is balanced as it is, though.
By modern design standards, this card is waaay too complex for a common. If this were made today (as a common) I guess it would have only the first and third ability, probably also flying or some kind of upside. This just is counterintuitive (flying vs can't be blocked by walls) and too complex. I mean to understand that the last ability doesn't kill the creature you have to understand that state based actions aren't checked before the ability finished resolving. That is insane on a common.
Edit: I think it would at least help a bit if the ability that removes counters triggers at end of turn and cares about attacking or blocking that turn. Just easier/more common wording that doesn't change a thing in 99% of the cases.
The thing that will continue to bug me about this card is the fact that these insects have wings, yet they do not fly. That seems like a reasonable addition to me. If I ever get to Whippoorwill, you can assume it's gaining flying.
The problem is that flying doesn't sit well next to the other evasion ability. How many flying walls are there really? 14 evidently. None of them are in Homelands, or are from The Dark or Fallen Empires, either (Homeland Restored's 'block'.) It just didn't look right.
I did try a few other things. I removed 'can't be blocked by walls' outright... but that ability makes sense in this block, so it wouldn't seem right to remove it. I thought about doing 'Protection from Walls', but that seemed like I was making too broad a leap. I also tried "Can only be blocked by flying creatures and walls" to represent how a swarm could be stopped, but that also seemed like I was stretching further than I should. Guess the original ability would have to stick.
Sometimes, I just kind of shrug at the numbers. Not sure what's fair, but if Jhoira's Toolbox is fair, then I'm being conservative with these guys.
There aren't enough Legends in this set to really warrant uncommon Legends, assuming five of them are bumped up to Mythic. Joven and Chandler were only commons by way of accident. Lots of Legends in a small set ending up bumping these guys down to Common 2. Back in a day when people didn't know what the rare in the pack was, it didn't seem like such a big deal. Now it looks weird.
I wanted to keep these two similar to each other, because they're mirrors to each other. In contrast, Clockwork Steed and Clockwork Swarm don't mirror each other, so I had to mess with them to make them feel like two different cards. Since Chandler destroys artifact creatures, I figured he might need to take a round to block first, so I gave him the Earth Elemental stats. Joven might be sided in against a creature light board, and could instead choose to swing with his Fire Elemental stats.
Then again, it's not like Master Decoy doesn't have this problem as well. Probably best to leave it alone. The card's been through enough.
It triggers on the attack and your opponent's attack, to simulate declaring blockers. That prevents you from blocking a creature with a creature that has Guard, then Guarding another. So, yeah, you have to activate this before attacks. That's kind of annoying. But at least activating attacks isn't on all creatures with Guard. All of the creatures with Guard in this set, however...
Maybe I should just have this say "If you control a Plains."?
It's a pretty nifty and interesting idea. Am I right in thinking that it's meant to trigger both on your attack and on an opponent's attack? (And in this case, that does mean you'd need to activate the ability before the opponent attacks, preemptively.)
Also, can we just agree this doesn't need to be a soldier? The soldier creature type is really just a holdover from the original creature type. 'Human Beast' was stapled on afterwards, and the type line just became a mess.
I'm giving Link's idea a spin. I'm curious if this passes the test. Since there are no rules about how creatures combine their power and toughness while on the battlefield, no one can complain that all the rules for how Guard works isn't spelled out on the card... that information would be found in the rulebook. But the idea may be grokkable enough, that people can navigate what those rule must be?
Maybe it's not the best answer, but maybe it's one of the better answers we're going to get?
Yet another card for the "could have been an uncommon" file. I removed the colored mana requirements, since I'm pretty sure this card is supposed to be fun, and it's not much fun if your opponents never copy it.
As for the artifacts and lands thing... This is already a Twiddle with a bonus (you could use it to untap two of your creatures for
.) and a drawback (if you tap your opponent's attackers, he might tap one of your blockers...) I don't think it really needs a further restriction. It's probably a better all around card than Twiddle now, but it's also a rare, and it isn't that much better.
Original Card: Chain Stasis
After looking at the artwork, I can't come up with anything better than 'Aliban's Power'. Not really sure what that guy is doing... but whatever he's doing, the spell still needs to say "Aliban's X". And give a creature +3/+1. Maybe I should just stop thinking about this.