Last updated on June 28, 2026
Merchant Scroll | Illustration by Liz Danforth
It's about time that Magic: The Gathering finally gets back to its roots and makes people fall in love with what originally drew them into the game in the first place. Wizards of the Coast agrees, and their recent announcement for Homelands Remastered proves it.
In a game that's become diluted with super heroes, pop culture references, and 8-power creatures for like 4-5 mana, it'll be refreshing to see a return to Magic classics like summon oysters, blue minotaurs, and Reserved List icon Narwhal.
Check up on Autumn Willow and her daughter, or Joven and his ferrets when this Standard-legal Remastered set drops as 2027's big summer set.
Heading Back Home
Forget | Illustration by Mike Kimble
Not a lot is known about Homelands Remastered yet, but we were able to sit down with the set's Lead Designer Jerry “Big Wig” Smalls to discuss some of the questions players might have about the set.
Why Homelands? Why Now?
Answer: “Simply put: People are asking for more in-universe settings. They want to experience the same Magic they played 30 years ago. They want to see original characters, settings, and clean card design. All that combined with the fact that we found thousands of unopened Homelands booster boxes in an industrial warehouse lead us to believe it's time to come back to this beloved MTG set.”
“What better way to land back home,” continues Small, “than to come back to the literal Homeland?” He followed this statement by whispering “Nailed it!” under his breath with a small fist bump.
Will the Set Be Big Enough for a Summer Standard Expansion?
Answer: “Oh, certainly. Original Homelands was only 140 cards, but we figured if we just duplicated each card twice that'd bring us up to 280 cards, which is bigger than most Standard sets.”
Of course, one of the very few complaints about original Homelands and some sets surrounding it was that some cards like Ambush Party and Hungry Mist had multiple arts, which confused players.
“We're aware of this complaint,” says Smalls. “That was a big issue when there were only two versions of certain cards, but now with us duplicating each card there will be four, which gives players the opportunity to play with a full playset of different arts for each one.”
How Will Homelands Remastered Address Reserved List Cards
Answer: “We're done with that. No more Reserved List as of the release of this set!”
Will Apocalypse Chime Work for the Remastered Set?
Answer: “Apocalypse Chime is going to receive a functional errata that now destroys permanents from Homelands, Homelands Remastered, and Marvel's Spider-Man.” When asked why they included the third option, Smalls responded: “Because bump that set, that's why.”
What About Ante Cards?
Answer: “Ante is coming back in full swing. We've noticed a decline in competitive play lately, and our data shows us that this is due a lack of high stakes at the highest levels of competition. We're reintroducing ante into MTG as a way to really make our top player's sweat, and give the average Magic player who watches MTG tournaments the League of Legends-style competition they're looking for.”
“And yes, this will affect FNM drafting and casual Commander as well,” he adds.
Does Homelands Remastered Have Appeal for Commander Players?
Answer: “Of course. We're trying to appeal to all sorts of Magic players with this release. Reveka, Wizard Savant already has 254 decklists on EDHREC, and we expect that number to go up by three, if not four once this set releases.”
Welcome Home
Narwhal | Illustration by David A. Cherry
That's what we know about Homeland Remastered so far. You can expect to find this set on shelf in mid-2027, where it'll also kick off Magic's introduction to the Pick-Fifteen Draft Format. And for all the Homelands fans out there, now's your time to emerge from the shadows and celebrate. There are dozens of us!
This is a fictional piece of satire; the characters and situations described are not meant to be taken literally. Just have fun with it, folks!
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19 Comments
You’re only supposed to do this on April 1st y’know
Bring back the MTG Vampires, Goblins, Witches, and living jack o lantern assortment.
I mean they resorted to city pigeons and hot dog carts in order to ‘complete’ the Spiderman set, similarly the Hobbit doesn’t seem like its going to have much meat to it. I can think of worse things than a nostalgia fueled cash grab revisit to an old set.
From the reactions quite a few people would actually welcome it.
You got my hopes up too high!
Sorry! Apparently there’s a number of people who’d actually love to see this!
Awesome!!! I play vintage MTG with my kiddos. I can’t stand the new stuff. We only play with cards from revised to urzas block. Depending on what this set looks like I might find myself buying boosters again.
Just to be clear this is a satire piece Marcus, not a real product.
PreModern players would grow if wizards returned to remastered sets.
I thought this was a real post for a minute until I read further.
I shouldve known this was fake, wizards would never get rid of the reserved list.
I was actually looking forward to seeing Dwarven Pony back in play again. Shame this was a joke.
Maybe one day Eddie! Sounds like people actually want it, haha.
Super disappointed thos id satire.
This old-school player’s eyes didn’t catch the “satire” part initially. Well-played luring the reader in with thoughts of “would WOTC really do this?!” before closing the trap with the part about ending the reserved list.
Maybe we’ll toss satire someone up at the top for future articles. Goal is to have fun and we do include satire in the feature image, but definitely want to avoid making anyone feel like they were “tricked”.
It might not have been a good set, but any in-universe set is better than an advertisement. I don’t know if any cards would make it into my cubes or decks, but I would try playing limited with it. Also, abolishing the reserved list would just be awesome.
Why deny people like me owning a card for a character you’ve read over 20 books about like Drizzt Do’Urden?
I don’t mind folks owning cards. I don’t think wotc should design or print them as magic cards though. Maybe there could be a card game for that instead. Or you could make your own custom Drizzt card.
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