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by Christopher Askwith
The Homelands Ho-Hum Lands (Or are they?) The lands originally introduced in Homelands:
are generally considered to be total pieces of crud. And in most decks, they are. They serve no real function in many decks which require that every bit of mana count. However, there is a useful deck type which can use these cards and require them for the user's own survival. If I based my deck on Mana Flare, along with supporting spells to keep it from being countered or later disenchanted or tranquilized, I would want these kinds of lands to use when I needed to cast odd-casting cost spells, like Pyroblast, Dissipate or Serra Angel. Such lands would enable me to channel the mana of one land (2 mana thanks to the Flare) into one mana, to keep myself from suffering from mana burn. How you keep the enemy from taking an opportunity to use Mana Flare himself is up to you. In addition, if you are short of land of a particular type, you can use these lands to fill for you, as they can make unexpected sources of blue mana for counterspells. Therefore, they can also be used to bluff the foe into thinking that you don't have, say, that one green mana for Fog, or that one extra blue mana for a Counterspell. The Homelands lands can keep you from suffering from mana burn if you use large amounts of Urza's lands, which may be the case in X-spell based Burn Decks. Naturally, there are other lands which do the same job, only better. But, they are harder to get, regardless of monetary value, for that same reason. If you want one of the above listed lands, there are literally thousands of players who will dump twenty on you for enough money to buy a chocolate bar in the nearby machine. So go out, get a few, and win a game or two with 'em. It is the innovative and intelligent Magic player (and the one who wins the most games and builds the best decks) who can turn any card, no matter how bad it is, into an integral part of any neat combo which can screw over their foes time and time again.
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