If Magic's planes were D&D worlds...

[Dion of the Fraternity]

So, there are novels about *Homelands*?

Last time I checked, not yet.

[Le Noir Faineant]

I hope they change that in the forseeable future. The newer MtG worlds seem somewhat very trashy too me... Anyway, just my opinion, I don't even know them too well.

[Coan]

So, there are novels about *Homelands*?

Last time I checked, not yet.

There probably never will be (unless they do a book of short stories again). They will only hire authors to write about the current world as people can buy those, collect the cards and make Wizards money. Homelands is a bit too old now and I imagine a fair few players have forgotten about it.

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

Not quite true. they released the Legends cycle in 2001 and a second Legends cycle in 2003. But then, saying that Legends was always a much more popular set than Homelands is like saying Magic is more popular than Dragon Dice.

Then again, it did feature some all time favorite Magic characters like Serra and the Sengirs, so who knows? There might be something in one of the anthologies. I'm not a huge conossieur.... (I only read Arena, and that was only to get the promo cards.)

Here's a list of all the Magic novels.
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=bo ... bliography

[Le Noir Faineant]

Thank you for the list, Gonzoron!

Maybe I'll find something that catches my interest...

It's a shame that Homelands is no more. One of the bet card sets so far...

[Dion of the Fraternity]

On the topic of the realm of MERCADIA I mentioned earlier (originally posted at the M:tG Storyline boards):

The plane of Mercadia has a rich history and a varied geography. To the east lies Rishada and the Outer Sea, where the city-state of Sarprazzo is located in. To the south is the Deeplands, dark swamps where unspeakable horrors lurk. In the center lie the plains and Mount Mercadia. To the southewest, lies the Rushwood and the the west, you can find several mountain ranges. The sky itself is an oddity: it is lemon-colored to orange at times.

Its oldest people, the Mercadians, are desendants of the Thran themselves. The Mercadians reside on an inverted mountain centered in the middle of the plains.

Another three civilizations are known as "The Children of Ramos." Supposedly desendants of Dominarians rescued by the great dragon engine during the brother's war, these people split into three seperate cultures.

The Cho-Arrim are forest-dwellers who live in the great forest known as the Rushwood. Itself a living entity, it allows the Cho to live a peacefull life within the woods. The Cho are desendants of Urza's injured human fighters, possibly Argivian, Yotian and Korlisian, with maybe a Fallaji within the group. These people believe a person's soul goes into the Great River, which flows through the Rushwood with no apperant beginning or end.

The Rishadans are the coastal pirates of the plane. Their main city resembles Mercadia City, but has a more seaside feel to it. These people are desendants of the crew of a pirate ship saved by Ramos during the Sylex blast. Before uniting with them, the Rishadans constantly killed the Sarprazzans, calling them "a nuisance."

The Saprazzans are the the merfolk people of Mercadia. Living on a small island in the greenish-colored seas of their plane, the merfolk have possibly the most socially advanced civilization in their world. With vizziers and judges and the like, justice can always be applied to those who are found guilty. They are desendants of a school of merfolk saved by the dragon engine.

Alongside the Mercadians live the Kyren. These are goblins who have evolved in a period of 9000 years into the masters of the Mercadian people. They had full control over the magistrate and the nobles. But they themselves were servants to the Phyrexians and the evincar of Rath, Volrath.

Another interesting group is the Cateran Guild. These brigands are cutthroat mercenaries that do the magistrate's dirty work . . . for a price. Some speculate they were founded by the Cabal dementia master, Cateran. This Dominarian is thought to have escaped into his own plane where he made his horrors come alive. The Caterans might be the Cabalist's nightmares come to life.

In Deepwood lurk the ghouls of those who perished during Ramos' fall from the sky. In the city of Ouramos, a shrine to Ramos, dwell the dryads. These forestfolk can communticate with others by simply willing it. And in the center of it all lies Ramos. The great dragon engine rested there until Weatherlight's crew came.

The other people of this world are varied. The barren plains are home to farmers and native peoples whose heritage is not well known. There are also men with heads of boars and women with heads of eagles.

When the flying ship Weatherlight arrived, the leader Cho-Manno fell in love with the ship's healer, Orim. With the help of the rest of the crew, they managed to unite the children of Ramos and the people of the plane to overthrow the Kyren rule. When Orim left, it was forseen that she would return to the world of the lemon-clored sky. After the Dominarian Apocalypse, this came true with the help of Karn Planeswalker.

Hence, a D&D world in the making.

[Coan]

Volrath was the coolest of villians. I couldn't believe they killed him off so easily (compared to how many times he evaded death).

But I would say Mercadia is a good place (but I do like Phyrexia).

[Dark Whisper]

While mixing D&D and Magic :

D&D Magic Cards

[JinnTolser]

It's a shame that Homelands is no more. One of the bet card sets so far...

You are, sadly, in the minority opinion about that. Most Magic players (if the WotC boards are any indication), name Homelands as their least favorite set because the cards are comparatively underpowered. Fallen Empires tends to be next on the list.

Anyway, to answer the original question, I would love to play in Dominaria, circa Ice Age. Kamigawa is an interesting world, but too one-shot, as was mentioned before. Never cared for the flavor of Mirrodin, nor the Magic storyline in general for the last few years.

[Le Noir Faineant]

It's a shame that Homelands is no more. One of the bet card sets so far...

You are, sadly, in the minority opinion about that. Most Magic players (if the WotC boards are any indication), name Homelands as their least favorite set because the cards are comparatively underpowered. Fallen Empires tends to be next on the list.

Yep, they were underpowered, but they had better art and a more interesting flair than the following editions, IMHO... But that game's *frozen* for me for a long time... Check ME CCG. Far better than Magic, IMHO.

[Cole Deschain]

Typical.

Fallen Empires and Homelands had the best story behind them IMNSHO.

So of course the people who play to win ignore that in favor of the more powerful card sets that came later.

Sorta like the sniping between FR and Dragonlance fans about which world's lead characters could "take" the others.

[Dark Whisper]

You are, sadly, in the minority opinion about that. Most Magic players (if the WotC boards are any indication), name Homelands as their least favorite set because the cards are comparatively underpowered. Fallen Empires tends to be next on the list.

They weren't. At least, only some of them. It's rather the other way round; each new expansion brought stronger, cheaper (only talking about mana cost, not money) und more broken cards.

There was no card in Homelands or Fallen Empire that had to be banned from tournament play (with the possible exception of a ante cards; don't remember). Compare this to one of the Urza's sets, where several cards had to be called back, never seeing (or at least, not for long) "official" play (Dream Halls, Fluctuator, and some).

Compare Polar Kraken (11/11, cumultative upkeep : Sacrifice two islands) to Phyrexian Dreadnought (12/12; When P.D. comes into play, sacrifice one or more creature with a combinded strength of 12 or more or sacrifice it).

Kraken was Ice Age, P.D. one of the Urza's, IIRC. And that trend goes on and on...

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

P.D. was Mirage actually, and it was only Urza's block where the power level got really out of hand. Since Urza's (And the low-power backlash of Mercadian Masques block) they've gotten really good at balancing the power levels, IMHO.

I loved Fallen Empires and Homelands for flavor, (I still play my Thallid deck from time to time, and Baron Sengir is the centerpiece of my vampire deck) but a lot of the cards are terrible. Really, truly terrible, compared to anything before or since.

Given the choice of pushing the envelope and occaisionally having to ban a card vs. pumping out stuff like Aliban's Tower (target blocking creature gets +3/+1), An-Havva Township (tap for 1 colorless, tap and 1 for G, tap and 2 for R or W), Thrull wizard (3 mana for a 1/1 with 1B: Counter target black spell unless that spell’s controller pays B or 3) or Prophecy (reveal the top card of target opponent's library, if it's a land, gain 1 life. Shuffle that library, draw a card next upkeep), I prefer the occaisional banning.

[sawbones]

One of the reasons that the Homelands and Fallen Empires sets aren't as popular or valuable is that they were very small sets with long print runs. It was easy for everyone to get their hands on any of the cards. Homelands was playable when it was first released, but Fallen Empires was usually only played by individuals who liked theme decks such as thallids or thralls. It was incredibly underpowered even compared to previous sets. I remember buying a box of Fallen Empires for about $25 and doing countless booster drafts and sealed deck matches with my buddies. It was a blast, but very, very few of those cards ever made an appearance in any tourney deck I played.

Homelands didn't have a novel, but there was a comic book released that laid out the storyline pretty well. I think the art in the comic was done by a couple of the artists from the set too.

http://www.trollandtoad.com/p116849.html


edit: Homelands, while not the most playable set in the cardgame, would likely make the best Roleplaying environment. It had the best developed story of any of the early sets, and the best developed characters as well. I can't speak as to anything after the Urza block as I've only played occasionally since then and haven't really followed the game.

[Cole Deschain]

but Fallen Empires was usually only played by individuals who liked theme decks such as thallids or thralls. It was incredibly underpowered even compared to previous sets. I remember buying a box of Fallen Empires for about $25 and doing countless booster drafts and sealed deck matches with my buddies. It was a blast, but very, very few of those cards ever made an appearance in any tourney deck I played.

Au contraire. A red/green Thallid deck employing fireballs, streams of life and Ashnod's Altars could take out any deck I put it up against.