Homelands || Crack-A-Pack - April 25, 2023
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- Опубліковано 5 лют 2025
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Fun fact, back in early competitive Magic, it was required for players to use like... 5 cards from the newest set. Most people ran 4 serrated arrows and 1 whatever in the sideboard
The 1996 World Champion had 2 Serrated Arrows in his White Weenie deck that year. Also, Serrated Arrows still sees play in some builds of Mono Blue Faries and a few other pauper decks besides seeing play in -1/-1 counter/proliferate decks in Commander.
@@jasonkorf7700 Serrated arrows is also in my Devoid Cube! All colorless cards and you can only add Wastes to your deck freely. You must draft colored mana sources if you wish to cast Devoid creatures or use activated abilities that require color.
If memory serves, this rule was added specifically because of how much Homelands sucked. Nobody was playing Homelands cards, so Wizards made them have to play Homelands cards. The rule quietly went away soon after Homelands rotated.
Serrated Arrows has aged extremely well and is still not that great. I think the first Sligh deck ran four Dwarven Traders and also a 1/1 goblin that said "Whenever you control any dwarves, bury this" good times.
Serrated Arrows had some cache for a while, not just because of the requirement to run Homelands cards, but also because of the ubiquity of "pump knights", the 2/1s that could gain extra power or First Strike for mana. Also stuff like Whirling Dirvish if you could catch it early, since it was impossible to deal with if you were monoblack. Remember Whirling Dervish? I hadn't until just now.
Fun Fact: Dwarven Trader (the 1/1 for R with no abilities) is CEDH playable! Even optimized Magda decks often take any 1 drop dwarf they can get that turns sideways and attacks.
Whenever anything in Magic was done by "a wizard", I automatically assume Urza.
nah, that time it was Feroz. He was Serra's husband, and Urza did kind of bring Phyrexians to Serra's Realm, so... you could say there's a connection...
@@sallomon2357 Urza: Just...the worst.
Urza, the second worst person in the multiverse at any given time
my favourite part is that the one creature enchantment in the pack gives +0/+2, countering the bakis curse.
I think most auras counter it.
Arguably bakis curse counters that aura by undoing its 2 extra toughness
And regeneration, countering it even *if* the creature is stacked with enough other auras that it would die from the damage.
@@irreleverent yes true, now you can trade their 1/3 dwarven trader for your 1/1 dwarven trader. Value!
In case you're wondering, Graham, the creature type "ship" has been errata'd out of existence. Every ship (except for one from Unhinged) has had its creature type changed to that of whoever's crewing it. And that includes Living Airship, despite being the one case where you could argue that the ship is the person crewing it.
Even Ghost Ship is now a "spirit". I realize there are now some obscure reasons for keeping the number of different creature types manageable, but I still grieve for the loss of so many weird-assed things.
Sure is one of the sets of all time
1:13 It was the planeswalker Feroz, as depicted on the card "Feroz's Ban"
I'm so glad Graham is doing so much better. But also, I love the opens where he's like "I'm better now. Stop worrying."
But we still worry.
Homelands has really interesting lore, it's one of my favourites for that reason! The pack flavour text does it a disservice, it's more than just "a wizard did it"
Whenever I see bad cards from early sets going for inexplicable amounts of money, my first reaction is “reserved list”.
And yep, both the curse and the ruins are on the reserved list
Yeah, gotta watch out for that for anything from Urza block or earlier.
And yet even with the reserved list Baki's Curse can't crack a dollar #FreeTheReservedListDraftChaff
Well New Phyrexia sure found Ulgrotha.
Me: "I play An-Zerrin ruins, naming 'Ships'."
My friend checking some current wording: "I got some bad news for you..."
I think if I were drafting Homelands I'd say let's play the cards as they're written.
Cube curators might want Baki's Curse for blackout cubes. Take a sharpie to it and suddenly you can have a blue pyroclasm.
Love to see an opening of the greatest set of all time
I just did a mixed sealed pool of homelands and chronicles, I opened a wizard’s school, a chromium, and a Baron sengir and rode my eight mana fliers to victory.
Baki's curse is amazing. In the same same pack that it's in there's also a creature enchantment that giveS +0/+2, can remove itself at instant speed, AND regenerates that creature. What a weirdly narrow spell. Not just blue damage, but blue *enchantment hate* damage
the ship creature type has been phased out and generally replaced with pirate. Toy Boat from unhinged is the only ship creature in the game
One of my favourite memories from MTG is doing a Dark/Homelands/Fallen Empires draft and crushing it with a Grull deck that ran surprise all stars like Orgg, Anaba Shamen, Brothers of fire, and Retribution (which is kinda mediocre removal by today's standards, so crazy good for those sets), plus some Thallids, Carnivorous Plant, and Autumn Willow on the green side. Even had Scarwood goblins the Grull bear.
That deck sounds absolutely amazing in a format where 4 or 5 mana often got you no better than a 3/3 with some crappy ability.
My "worst format" tournament ever was an "Ice Age" sealed tourney a few months after I began playing. This was when Ice Age was the latest set, and it was designed to be playable on it's own. Well, kinda. I had a blue/white main deck where I sided in a third color based on what my opponent was playing. My whole deck was defense except for like three creatures- some kind of landwalker, and a 2/2 flyer and a 3/2 flyer. That's it. And I went like 2-2 because sometimes my opponent either had no answer to my x/2 flyers, or I was able to clear a path for them.
Looking back, it was horrible. Every game seemed to devolve into both players having 8-10 life and five bad ground creatures just staring at each other until someone drew a breakthrough card. I remember the guy who went 4-0 had Stormbind. That card was so ridiculously unfair in that context.
Regarding the 'Who?' question about the plane being sealed away, i THINK it's Feroz, of Feroz's Ban. He was a traveling companion to, and possibly a partner of Serra if I recall correctly.
seems according to the homelands comic they were married although there seems to be questions about how canon the comics are
This is all correct
"Dramatic Reengrahament" might be my favorite tidbit
It's my birthday tomorrow! Thanks G 😊
Baki's Curse's oracle text changes "creature enchantments" to "auras whih makes it's being the most valuable slightly more understandable.
I can't be the only one who would watch a show about the homelands lore right?
this intro music has a really nostalgic feel to me that makes this series already feel classic
I went your guys' presentation at GP Portland many moons ago where you talked about the ins-and-outs of Homelands Team Sealed. It was very entertaining, thank you.
My buddies actually played against you guys during the third round or something, but they didn't know who you were. Oh, and I gave you a Bump in the Night.
One of the members of my team got the time wrong and we were almost scrubbed from the tournament, but we were told we could still proceed if we could find any other player, so we just recruited a rando from the lobby. It went as well as you could expect. Good memories though.
Graham, you misspoke when you explained the second ability of Carapace. The player does not need to pay 2 and sacrifice Carapace to regenerate the creature, they pay 0 and sacrifice it. (Probably due to how the rules worked on enchantments at the time)
I eagerly await the second pack of Homelands: Pack 1
First packs I cracked where Homelands! They where much cheaper so me and my friends just got some for fun and then the road to ruin was set. We bough boxes, older cards and played magic almost every day haha.
Homelands is the greatest MTG set, I will not be convinced otherwise
As a person who has used the Wizard did it quote in real life on too many occasions, this is now my favorite crack-a-pack.
I'd like to see a well-done Homelands set, like the return to Kamigawa. That set needs a redemption arc
Ulgrotha got a battle in March of the Machines so there is an outside chance of it.
I wouldn't be surprised if we see an invasion of some plane by Baron Sengir and his army that has some callbacks, and if that goes well then I think a return to Ulgrotha could maybe be on the table
@@jamessnedeker4799 which has the best flavor text of the set!
@@Taranasaurus1 true
Does Homelands have anything unique enough about it to differentiate it from Dominaria tho? Neo Kamigawa got to pull off its Japanese inspiration to create something interesting. Ulgrotha has nothing going for it.
Love the re-enactments. The one one for one is a trader. He’s trading the purple scarf or his family.
Serrated Arrows is definitely the draft pick here. It's a strong pick in Pauper Cubes; where Guardian of the Guildpact is like the Pauper True Name, Serrated Arrows is like the Pauper Jitte.
7:20 To be pedantic, "bury" did not mean sacrifice. It meant "Destroy, can't be regenerated". See early printings of Terror. Burying your own creatures was effectively the same as now sacrificing it, but effects worded that way would be very different now.
Serrated Arrows, specifically, has indeed been errata’d to say “sacrifice it” in all six of its reprints beginning with Time Spiral.
One of those was as an FNM promo!
The meaning of “Bury” always was loose. It just means putting a card into a graveyard. Call of the Wild buries cards from the top of the library, for instance.
My favorite time to encounter Homelands cards is with LRR talking about them. After my starter deck was stolen in middle school I got gifted cards to continue playing and oh boy did I get a lot of Homelands (and Invasion, which had some good stuff)
I'm so glad to have this chill and wonderful thing back in my life.
Delightful as always!
We did just get a 4 mana 2/3 first strike in MOM...it just happens to also have Backup which pushes it to "playable".
Happy to see I'm not the only one who was thinking that.
Baki's Curse is probably almost a dollar because it's on the reserve list.
I am always here for the "womp womp" that is opening a pack of Homelands.
you actually have opened the equivalent of 2 packs of homelands at one time as a crack-a-pack! back when it was part of TTC! (TTC 51 to be exact). i would know, because i sent you them.
So excited crack a pack is back
fun fact: Baki's Curse was designed to be an answer to Rabid Wombat / Enchantress decks, so from a colour pie perspective it makes more sense in blue than it does in red (blue hates green).
However, it can never actually kill a Rabid Wombat
I watched this at 2x speed, and for the last 30 seconds I switched back to 1x and couldn't imagine watching the whole video on the slower speed, lol.
Oh, I used to run those Arrowheads in a Scorpion God deck! Good times
Reef Pirates got oracled into a Zombie Pirate at the same time Fungusaur Became a Fungus Dinosaur, Which was Ixalan spoiler season. Both cards are in the maybeboards of my tribal decks for their respective tribe from said block.
Reef Pirate has been a zombie pirate for way longer than that. They got rid of the creature type "ship" back with the grand creature type update during Lorwyn.
Margaret Organ-Kean is far and away my favourite early M:tG artist. Indeed, her Foxfire remains the only original M:tG art I've ever tried to buy. Failed, but tried.
I absolutely lost it at the dialup modem sound
Serrated Arrows is an all-star in Proliferate commanders, Atraxa, Ezuri, Hapatra love it!
7:36 "eff this bogle in particular."
Just you wait until they print Baki, Wizard Attendant in Return To Homelands and Baki's Curse spikes to three dollars
Baki's Curse sounds like it might hose bogles, which is probably why it's worth anything at all.
Thanks for this.
You know, if it was legal, Baki's curse would be _the_ anti boggles card, or it would be if aura's didn't give safety nets like Totem.
Let me check the math on the Baki's Curse example...*checks notes*...*carries the 0*...yep, that sounds right.
Crack-A-Pack is back baby
Ah magic's most powerful set.
It's crazy that Dwarves never made it as a tribe in Magic. In this fantasy game, Minotaurs and Skeletons have more support.
There has been a noticeable uptick recently likely due to Magda brazen outlaw
Kaladesh and Kaldheim had strong dwarf themes, but not in many other sets
@@janMelantuOdyssey had dwarves they just forgot to make them good.
Uh, Magda?
I feel Baki's curse is ok tech as a sideboard card against creature enchantment decks if you're running low amounts of removal
Serrated Arrows is surprisingly good in some situations.
Best booster (box) Graham ever got!
I wonder in terms of design if Wizards was entertaining Weakness Creep instead of Power Creep. That would have been an interesting way to continue along, to make the elder cards the most powerful..
YOU ARE BACK!!
G I'm so glad it's fine now❤
Homelands was doing the DnD crossover way before AFR or Commander Legends 2. You can't convince me Homelands isn't someone trying to make Ravenloft into a Magic set.
"Dramatic Reengrahament"
🤣
Some time ago I played Reef pirates in my Animar zomibies deck because it's fun.
Graham asking who the mysterious wizard is? The whole point is ... he's MYSTERIOUS. ;)
Feroz is indeed mysterious
Arrows gets used in Pauper sometimes.
9:33 if you wanna see the Dramatic Reengrahament
I can see sideboarding Baki's Curse against someone that plays an enchantment heavy deck.
Ah Serrated Arrows, when you need even bad removal in your mono blue artifacts deck (or at least, I did).
I’ve actually found serrated arrows surprising useful.
I’m no MtG expert, but I feel like Bakki’s Curse would be good to sideboard for possible use in game 2 or 3 if you see enchantments being used by your opponent.
7:00 Graham is punished for not launching into the entire BadHorse theme from Dr. Horrible. >P.
Editor Matt nails these. Jeeeesus the modem noises on 'processing' bussin' /got/ me.
Serrated arrows could do some fun things with Atraxa grand unifier as the commander due to his easy she proliferates.
Baki's curse is perfect anti-Bogle tech :)
Because I used to (okay, still do) love making weird tribal decks, ship tribal was ALMOST a thing in those early days of Magic. Besides Pirate Ship and the Reef Pirates talked about here, you also had Merchant Ship (from Arabian Nights) and the legendary Skeleton Ship (Ice Age). Yeah, Pirate and Skeleton Ships never had the ship creature type, but its in the name, dang it! Phantasmal Terrain did double duty of giving your opponent islands to attack, as well as hopefully messing with their mana somewhat, and Fishliver Oil the let you get through unblocked, and if enchanted with Unstable Mutation, you could even do some damage! Was this a good deck? Oh, good heavens, NO!!! Was it fun in those 1 game out of ten where the deck worked, and your opponent was forced to realize that they were losing to ship tribal? Heck yeah!
$10 says the deck Graham runs that card in is the Old Bordered deck with Choke and *Tainted Aether~*
Inspired by Clockwork Horse I think I want to make a commander deck that includes every weird integer of counters in it: +2/+0, -0/-1, whatever just to see how unplayable and bookkeepy it gets
Baki's Curse is that secret anti-Boggles tech.
One of the new cards spoiled was a great battle card. Look up "Battle of Blair Mountain" to learn more!
It's fine now!
So now I wonder... Graham, have you ever opened a pack of Homelands on Crack-a-Pack before? ;-)
Also, about those Reef Pirates? Ship happens.
Baki's curse is great against people who do stupid boggle and enchantment strats.
Speaking of Commander, I'd imagine Baki's Curse must hurt Voltron decks something fierce.
I mean we do know the wizard, it was Feroz. They should have said planeswalker.
he was also a wizard even started a wizard school
Serrated arrows: they kill pump-knights!
Clockwork Steed may be a bad horse, but we have no indication that it's a bad clock.
Shoutout to Baki's Curse for also not killing any creature enchanted with Carapace.
I gotta say, Serrated Arrows is improved by proliferate. not hugely improved, but its in my diet atraxa deck (its diet because it runs thallids)
The minotaur is a bodyguard, not a faceguard.
Format Idea: 40 deck, your deck may have up to 4 copies of each card opened in the same Crack-A-Pack video.
I feel like Baki's Curse caught a lot of unnecessary flak in this episode. Some kind of enchantress in Commander (WUG, RUB, etc), handing out auras for political reasons (especially the Impetus ones), then nuking the board once everyone else is low enough. Is it cEDH? No, but it sounds fun.
I play Ghen pacifism tribal and this is a terrible idea. The ONLY card that could possibly make this work is Smoke Spirits Aid and even then most of the time you will kill 1 creature if you are lucky (and it's still mana intensive). 2 damage is nothing so now you need a pestilent spirit in your enchantress deck?!?
Most of the impetuses and vows won't work because they increase toughness. The creature won't die.
I think you could only really use this in some kind of Enrage/Auras mashup and still, it's bad.
I am willing to work hard to make trash work but this is a lost cause.
Baki's curse seems like ok against an enchantress deck or Voltron where auras are around their board willy nilly.
I think it depends on how many of those Auras are boosting toughness.
Serrated Arrows was pretty useful back in the day. Might still be; it’s been ages since I played a game. But An-Zerrin Ruins sounds kinda vile.
I think the Wizard that did it was Feroz, right? As in Feroz's Ban.
That pack had significantly more value than I expected. Also where did Andrew come from?
Baki’s curse seems like it might be good against boggles maybe
More Crack a pack!
serrated arrows was better than it seemed. It's not just that you can kill stuff with it, but you can keep creatures from attacking with it and smaller creatures because you're clearly going to make it smaller and kill it.
I still wouldn't call it good, but it has uses.
Serrated Arrows would be pretty nice in a proliferate deck
Baki's Curse is kind of hilarious, because it was designed to hose a strategy that never really existed, and wouldn't even be a good card to use against that strategy even if it existed
Aura voltron IS a thing... barely. The only ones I can think of offhand are Uril and Lightpaws. Probably missing a couple but it's a SMALL list. And even on the off chance you ran across one of those... it wouldn't do enough to matter.