Limited Edition Alpha, Magic's very first set, introduced a number of breakthrough abilities and keywords. Some of the more popular abilities have proliferated ubiquitously; Trample, Flying, and First Strike still appear on cards printed in 2025!

Other abilities have been left to obsoletion due to lack of power level or player interest. Today I'm going to talk about one such ability, which originally showed up in Alpha without a specific keyword, was later keyworded for one particular case, and then since obsoleted.

If you're trying to guess the ability, here's a giant hint: the iconic card from Alpha that contained this ability was the common Sea Serpent.

Mechanics of Magic: Landhome

A 5/5 creature for six mana wasn't the most impressive rate, even back in 1993, but it was a fairly large Blue creature. At common, Richard Garfield likely didn't want to print a Blue creature that was so powerful as to rival Green's Craw Wurm. Green is expected to have large creatures; Blue...not so much.

Perhaps this gap was addressed with the addition of Sea Serpent's rules text. "[Sea] Serpent cannot attack unless opponent has islands in play. [Sea] Serpent is destroyed immediately if at any time controller has no islands in play."

In other words, if Sea Serpent's controller has no Islands, then Sea Serpent dies. In order to attack a player with Sea Serpent, they must have Islands in play. The flavor of this ability is spot on--Sea Serpent lives in the water, so of course you need to control Islands for it to stick around! Also, how can Sea Serpent navigate over to an opponent to attack them if they don't have any water? It stands to reason your opponent will need Islands to be attackable!

This flavor, on Blue creatures in particular, appeared in a few places, including Giant Shark and Merchant Ship. Then something changed. In 1997, Wizards of the Coast printed a card in Mirage called Kukemssa Serpent, with a brand-new keyword.

Islandhome

Kukemssa Serpent is a sea creature, so it needs a body of water to survive. It also needs to swim in said body of water to get around. Thus, Kukemssa Serpent was the perfect candidate to contain this Island-possessing limitation. Rather than have the lengthy rules text listed out yet again, Wizards of the Coast dubbed this ability "Islandhome," and a new keyword was born.

According to 2024's Comprehensive Rules, Islandhome (now obsolete) is an ability that meant, "This creature can't attack unless defending player controls and Island" and "When you control no Islands, sacrifice this creature." Additionally, cards printed with this ability have been given errata in the Oracle card reference.

Joining the likes of Haste and Vigilance, Islandhome became another keyword that originally debuted in Alpha and later given a name.

Other cards with Islandhome include Manta Ray, Pirate Ship (Fifth Edition), and Dandan (Fifth Edition).

In total, only five creatures were actually printed with the keyword "Islandhome" in the card's text box. After debuting in Mirage in 1996, and showing up just a handful of times through 1997, the named mechanic had a fairly short lifespan.

What About Other Lands?

Technically, Islandhome wasn't the only form of this ability. If you want to refer to this ability most broadly and inclusively, you would use the term "Landhome." That's because cards across Magic's history have been printed with similar limitations applying to other basic lands in the game. These were never printed with their respective keyword name (e.g., "Mountainhome" or "Swamphome"), but instead always spelled out the rules text or some variation of it.

For example, consider Goblin Rock Sled from The Dark.

This creature (I still love the "Summon Rock Sled" on the type line) can't attack unless your opponent controls a Mountain. Fortunately, the resemblance to Mountainhome ends there--you don't have to sacrifice Goblin Rock Sled if you don't control any Mountains. Thus, the creature technically only has half of the ability.

Sometimes the cards would follow the standard Landhome templating. For example, Gorilla Pack, printed in Ice Age, was a three mana 3/3 creature that had Foresthome in all but the name. It couldn't attack a player who didn't control Forests and you had to bury your creature if you didn't control any Forests.

Even as recently as 2007, cards were printed with the Landhome rules text, even if they were no longer given a keyword. Consider Planar Chaos' Bog Serpent, meant to be a color shifted version of Sea Serpent.

Bog Serpent is also a 6-mana 5/5 creature just like Sea Serpent was. Instead of having Islandhome, Bog Serpent has the unique distinction of being the only card with the complete Swamphome rules text (though Barbarian Outcast from Torment contained half of the text).

I'm sad that Wizards of the Coast never printed a creature with some version of Plainshome. We only have Islandhome, Foresthome, Swamphome, and a variation on Mountainhome across around 35 cards in Magic's history.

Iconic (?) Landhome Cards

With a library of 35 cards, you may ask if there were any cards with Landhome or Landhome-adjacent abilities that made a splash in Magic gameplay. I can't guarantee any of these cards really moved the needle in tournament play, but there are a couple that at least stand out to me.

Hoemlands was a notoriously underpowered set. On average, the creatures were awful, and the more powerful creatures were printed with horrendous drawbacks. Marjhan is one such example, a Blue 8/8 creature for seven mana with an oppressive drawback.

In addition to having Islandhome, Marjhan can't untap unless you pay two Blue and sacrifice a creature. Sure, you got one good attack in...if your opponent controlled an Island. After that, however, you had to start paying the hefty untap cost. An 8/8 for seven mana was an impressive rate back in 1995, but I suspect players didn't shuffle Marjhan up all that often outside of casual play.

Speaking of an impressive rate, how about a 5/6 flying Blue creature for just four mana? Look no further than Serendib Djinn, from Arabian Nights.

Again, the rate is extremely powerful--even in today's game, a 5/6 flyer for four would be most powerful. However, having to destroy one of your own lands each upkeep is a hefty drawback! What's more, if you destroy an Island (which you probably control a handful of, since Serendib Djinn costs four), you also take three damage. AND if you have no land in play, Serendib Djinn is immediately destroyed. It's not really Islandhome, but it's an interesting spin-off of the effect.

The most recent appearance of a card with a Landhome-adjacent ability is the reprint of Veiled Serpent, printed in Dominaria Remastered. Originally printed in Urza's Saga, Veiled Serpent is an enchantment that becomes a 4/4 Serpent creature that can't attack players who don't control Islands.

At least Veiled Serpent has Cycling for two mana, giving you a buyout if you're playing against an opponent with no Islands. Slipstream Eel, originally printed in Onslaught, followed a similar pattern with cycling.

One creature that saw at least a little play amongst my casual playgroup back in the late 1990s was Seasinger, from Fallen Empires.

You had to bury Seasinger if at any point you controlled no Islands. Assuming that criteria was readily met, Seasinger offered an interesting activated ability. If your opponent controlled an Island, you could tap Seasinger to steal one of their creatures. Permanently! With that final clause on the card, you could leave Seasinger tapped for as long as you wanted to control said creature. If your opponent played an even better one, then on your turn you could choose to untap Seasinger, give your opponent their creature back, and then activate her again to steal the better one.

As you can see, I'm reaching here. The reality is, not many Landhome cards were all that powerful. The last one I'll mention was no different in that regard, though it did implement the Landhome ability in a unique way, never repeated by another card. Check out Coldsnap's Ronom Serpent.

We already know that a generic 5/6 Blue creature for six mana isn't very good. Added onto it, though, is Magic's only instance of Snowlandhome (I think I made this word up). You had to sacrifice Ronom Serpent if you controlled no snow lands, and Ronom Serpent couldn't attack a player unless they controlled a snow land. This maybe wasn't a problem in Coldsnap Limited, but anywhere else this creature is basically useless.

Wrapping It Up

It's a shame that Wizards of the Coast never truly stretched Landhome to be a more aggressive mechanic. I understand that the ability is a bit too limiting in basically turning your creatures into walls with defender more than half the time, but nowadays such cards would come with extra activated abilities. For example, a modern creature with Islandhome could have an activated ability that turned one of your opponents' lands into a basic Island until end of turn.

Alas, Landhome has instead been relegated to the obsolete bin. While not discussed specifically, Mark Rosewater stated in 2016 that Landhome is a 9 on the Storm Scale. This sentiment was repeated again in 2024.

My biggest regret about the likely permanent disappearance of Landhome is the loss of flavor as it applies to Ships. While it makes sense that sea creatures would need Islands to survive and attack, Wizards has definitely moved away from such flavor in modern Magic.

With ships, the flavor is even stronger, and I've always wanted to build a Commander deck around Ships (which have since been changed to other creature types). Many of the early Ship creature cards had Islandhome, but with the obsolescence of the keyword, my dream of Ships returning as a creature type became that much more far-fetched. I guess I'll have to keep my Merchant Ship, Skeleton Ship, Pirate Ship, Armored Galleon, Steam Frigate, and Wu Warship set aside for the time being.