June 20th B&R List Update: Land Tax unbanned

[I am the brainwasher]

Land Tax is good in formats where the fundamental turn is at least twice what it is in Legacy. The card is close to completely unplayable.

I think this is more true than most players want it to be. I am definetly so not spending any money on either Scroll Rack or Land Tax, thats for sure.
Well, I have nontheless a gut feeling that I might get trolled with decks that pack SDT, Scroll Rack and Land Tax to ensure G2/3 is not going to happen everrr.

[ramanujan]

About time. Too bad the card wont see any real play. I have my set of Legends Land Taxes from back when I was a Parfait fiend so I am covered if it happens to do well. As is, my land taxes will be of better use in Commander decks.

[Julian23]

The DCI has broken the first rule of Fight Club.

[Infinitium]

So, no changes to the format then?

[jrw1985]

Don't get me wrong. Land Tax is a nightmare for RUG Delver. And the ramp it provides will certainly make adaptations in a lot of decks.

RUG will play 1 Tropical Island and 1 Volcanic Island and laugh at Land Tax while delivering Delver beats.

[Gheizen64]

So, no changes to the format then?

I already made that joke but no one noticed it

[nedleeds]

The value of Land Tax on the play is in landing Diamond or Chrome Mox, and depending on what internet deck with 4 x Brainstorm, 4 x Force of Will you are playing against that might be an auto-force.

On the draw Land Tax can be a little trickier, since running it into Daze not only counters it but puts you ahead in land parity for future Taxes (or trying to push your tax through with force).

With tax your brainstorms with a shuffle effect are almost always full on ancestrals since you have plenty of sandbagged lands.

I would have liked to see Mind Twist come off along with this. Tax was always a nice counter to Mind Twist and other random discard.

Edit: Also ... I think it's funny that scroll rack sits at 25-30, when Tax which has a ton more copies printed is 40-70. Also, Mox Diamond should be the card to prey upon if you feel tax will be a thing in the format.

[jrw1985]

The only way to really abuse Land Tax is to use it in tandem with Scroll Rack to draw 4 cards per turn, right? If you're not drawing 4 cards per turn it really isn't worth devoting 12 slots of your deck to this combo (Tax + Rack + Enlightened Tutor). It's a really big card, mana, and design commitment to even make it playable. Because, let's face it, noone actually wants to just draw 3 or 6 basic lands with Land tax.

I'm not terribly hopeful about Land Tax seeing play down the road, for the simple reason that it's trigger is pretty conditional given the insanely low land-count in modern Legacy. How many decks never play more than 3 lands before they win?
RUG Delver
Reanimator
Storm
Dredge
Burn

Is anyone really excited about playing a card that does nothing the turn it's cast, does nothing on the play, needs a second card to make it good, and might not even trigger against many of the most popular decks in the field?

[sdematt]

Awful card is still awful.

I play UW Thopters, and I have no reason to cut slots to add in Land Tax. It's not like I'm putting the lands into play.

This card is super slow, and if you're buying ANY fourth edition card for more than a few dollars, well, something about a fool and his money and there's one every minute.

-Matt

[DragoFireheart]

I didn't expect Land Tax to get unbanned.

In any case, it was a good choice of them. Unban a relatively harmless card and banned nothing.

Earthcraft is probably next.

[nedleeds]

Is anyone really excited about playing a card that does nothing the turn it's cast, does nothing on the play, needs a second card to make it good, and might not even trigger against many of the most popular decks in the field?

Yeah ... I mean you are basically stating why it should have been taken off years ago. The same arguments go for several other cards, but I understand them wanting to go one card at a time to get a better feel for the impact.

Land Tax could be the backbone of a white control deck ... maybe throw back to the prison days. Tools like Tabernacle with Winter Orb are a pretty solid lock versus men, other lock pieces can shut out combo (leyline, rule of law, trinisphere, geddon, runed halo, suppression field). Also a u/w control deck can get pretty insane mid-game Jace-storms and Brainstorms out of just a couple of tax triggers. What newer players maybe aren't seeing is that 1-2 triggers is all it takes and you've more than compensated for the slots the taxes took up. Your deck is drained of lands and is just a pile of gas and shuffles (the remaining fetches).

I bet they sat around the DCI office and put Mind Twist, Earthcraft, Black Vise, Land Tax and Worldgorger Dragon in a Fedora ... then just picked one at random.

Edit: also ... Firestorm.

[Gui]

The DCI has broken the first rule of Fight Club.

LOL haha

That's ok man, it's been a long time since they've been created xD

[Freggle]

Land Tax isn't a utility card it is an archetype.

I suspect brewers will develop a tier or close to tier deck showcasing this card in relatively short order.

Academy Rector / Land's Edge burn? [shrug]

...to early to tell.

Edit: Seismic Assault

[Malakai]

I didn't expect Land Tax to get unbanned.

In any case, it was a good choice of them. Unban a relatively harmless card and banned nothing.

Earthcraft is probably next.

Everybody keeps saying that, except it turns the enchantress deck into a turn 3 combo deck that never loses to blue decks.

[Freggle]

Everybody keeps saying that, except it turns the enchantress deck into a turn 3 combo deck that never loses to blue decks.

I love me some Squirrel - Craft.

[Aggro_zombies]

Everybody keeps saying that, except it turns the enchantress deck into a turn 3 combo deck that never loses to blue decks.

Enchantress could probably use some love. The deck isn't that great these days as it is.

[Malakai]

I love me some Squirrel - Craft.

Squirrels are actually the secondary win condition. Sigil of the Empty Throne also allows you to combo out, as does Words of Wind.

[Koby]

Elves is even faster... Wirewood Hivemaster actually makes each elf cast net positive mana.

[TooCloseToTheSun]

People are playing it on workstation! I was about to 2-0 him when he played Tax with a Scroll Rack on the board. I had 5 lands, 4 Islands and a Wasteland, he had 4 Snow-covered Plains. So, I sac'ed my Wasteland targeting itself and this exchange ensues:

0:10:01 [Cubby225] Cubby225 taps Wasteland
0:10:04 [Cubby225] Cubby225 puts Wasteland to Graveyard from Play
0:10:08 [Cubby225] It is now turn 23 (Cubby225)
0:10:08 [Cubby225] It is now the Beginning Phase, Untap Step
0:10:10 [Cubby225] Cubby225 untaps his/her permanents
0:10:10 [Cubby225] It is now the Beginning Phase, Upkeep Step
0:10:10 [QTD] <QTD> target?
0:10:12 [QTD] <QTD> Wait!
0:10:12 [QTD] <QTD> Wait!
0:10:13 [QTD] <QTD> Wait!
0:10:13 [Cubby225] <Cubby225> itself
0:10:19 [Cubby225] <Cubby225> you can
0:10:19 [QTD] <QTD> can't
0:10:35 [Cubby225] <Cubby225> yes, announce targets -> pay costs
0:10:39 [QTD] <QTD> lol
0:10:44 [QTD] <QTD> read the rules
0:10:47 [QTD] <QTD> CAN'T
0:10:52 [Cubby225] <Cubby225> one sec
0:11:25 [Cubby225] <Cubby225> google wasteland itself
0:11:33 [Cubby225] <Cubby225> first link on the mana drain
0:11:43 [QTD] <QTD> Don't waste my time!!
0:11:58 [Cubby225] <Cubby225> learn the rules bro
0:12:05 [QTD] <QTD> CYA NOOB
0:12:06 [<System>] <System> Player Lost

I love MWS.

[hi-val]

There exists a big gulf between unplayable jank and too-good broken stuff. I'd like to remind people that Land Tax fits in there. It's a solid role-player. The Tax-Rack engine is a strong one, but it obviously requires work to get going. Tax is probably not as good on its own. It's probably not as good when you're just using it to feed things like Seismic Assault. I do think the card shows a lot of promise with Trade Routes, since you can play lands as normal and then, when you need to, turn on the Tax and start cycling lands away.

It's like when Facebook's IPO was announced and everyone wanted to be smarter than the market and say "lol too ezxpunsive, would never buy." And sure, it was overpriced at $40/share, but it's worth a non-zero number, and that number is probably in the mid-$20s at the very least. Land Tax will be played; it probably won't be great, but like Replenish and Time Spiral, it'll be a valuable card in the decks that can use it.