Over the 33 years that Magic: The Gathering has been around, there have been several candidates for the “Worst Set of All Time.” From the wildly overprinted Fallen Empires to the recent flop Spider-Man, online opinion on the subject varies hugely. One set that consistently makes the top spot in “Worst” lists, however, is 1995’s Homelands.
Thanks to its low power level and strange suite of designs, this set has been the butt of countless MTG jokes and rants for over three decades. For the most part, this reputation is entirely deserved. That said, no set is entirely without merit. If you really dig into Homelands, you’ll uncover Black Carriage, an unusual MTG sacrifice outlet with legitimate combo potential in the Commander format.
Black Carriage MTG
As a standalone MTG sacrifice outlet, Black Carriage is pretty awful. It costs five mana, only works during your upkeep, and doesn’t offer a tangible benefit by itself. Compared to the likes of Viscera Seer and Phyrexian Altar, it’s miles away from playable.
Thanks to that untap clause, however, there are actually several ways to go infinite with Black Carriage. If you grant it a tap ability that generates creatures, for example, you can create an easy infinite loop. Elemental Mastery is the best way to do this by far. If you start your turn with Black Carriage enchanted with this, you can tap it to make four Hasty tokens. You can then sacrifice one to untap it, then rinse and repeat for infinite Hasty tokens to close things out. Alternatively, you can use Presence of Gond or Splinter Twin, though those will only net you infinite enters and dies triggers. That’s still enough to win the game with a Blood Artist in play.
If you want to get really funky with it, there are some more esoteric combo lines available with Black Carriage. If you get it in your graveyard alongside Whisper, Blood Liturgist and Marionette Master, you can drop Necrotic Ooze to end the game. Assuming you have two other creatures to spare, you can tap Ooze and sacrifice them both to reanimate Marionette Master, which will make three tokens. Sacrifice one to untap Ooze and drain an opponent, then sacrifice Marionette Master to get it into the graveyard again. From here, you can tap and sacrifice the remaining tokens to bring back Marionette Master, and repeat the loop.
While these combos aren’t groundbreaking, they are weird enough to catch many opponents off-guard. It just goes to show that even cards from Magic’s worst set have a part to play somewhere. If you want to add a touch of old-school flair to your Aristocrats list consider taking Black Carriage for a whirl.
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