[SCD] Land Tax

[(nameless one)]

Land Tax :w:

Enchantment

At the beginning of your upkeep, if an opponent controls more lands than you, you may search your library for up to three basic land cards, reveal them, and put them into your hand. If you do, shuffle your library.

I noticed that recently, there has been a lot of card discussion on banned cards that are believe to be borderline broken but not format warping. Whenever there are ban list speculations, Land Tax always enter the conversation. How good is this enchantment really is? Why was it banned in the first place? Is there any way this card can redeem its status in Legacy?

Whenever there is a talk about the legalization of Land Tax, Parfait has always been talked about. Parfait is essentially the predecessor of Quinn decks; the original Mono-White Control. Parfait used Land Tax and its interaction with Scroll Rack to create a card advantage machine. It is believed that such card advantage machine is too broken to introduce to the format. But how is this better than getting locked out of the game with a counter-spell engine?

Broken always comes into discussion when talking about the Parfait draw engine. I define broken as something that would singlehandedly render all the decks of Legacy a tier 2 deck. One example was Flash. Remember Columbus? Flash was the only deck to beat, hence the initiation of its banning. How broken is Parfait draw engine against the decks to beat of legacy, let alone Land Tax? What people keep forgeting is that Land Tax has a drawback: your opponent should have more land than you. In doing so, you have to keep your land to your hand to actually gain advantage from Land Tax. You have to let your opponent get more land drop, and you not getting your land drop results to your opponent's advantage in tempo. Not so broken after all right?

Looking at the decks to beat of Legacy (courtesy of The Source and this thread: http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/showthread.php?16487-Legacy-Tier-Decks-February-2010), there is no way Land Tax could just take over these decks like what Flash did:

Zoo - Land Tax requires you to have less land than your opponent. Zoo could run with 3 lands maximum and still beat you like they have all their lands in the field. And by the time you get the Tax-Rack Parfait engine going, its going to be too late. Not to mention that you cant productively run that engine with only two lands.

Merfolks - Same deal with Zoo. Merfolk (like the good old fish decks) can run with minimal land. I could see Land Tax working against Merfolk but I dont see it dominating like how Zoo dominates Merfolk.

ANT - Probably, by the time you get Parfait draw engine running, you are already dead.

CounterTop Variants - This I can see where Parfait could shine. Tops are mana-intensive and Parfait shine against mana-intensive decks. But hey, every deck has a bad matchup right?

Dredge - Dredge is almost mana-less. Go figure.

Pro-Bant - Bant Progenitus need their mana to function. I can see Parfait doing good against this deck. The card advantage vs. tool that you can utilize within a Parfait deck can take advantage of Pro-Bant decks.

Aggro-Loam - It all comes down to Chalice of the Void on this one. With Chalice at one, Aggro-Loam has this.

Canadian Thresh - It is said that Canadian Thresh does not have any bad matchups. This deck is no excemption. Canadian Thresh can run on minimal lands no problem.

Vial Goblins - Vial Goblins are mana hungry and Land Tax works really well against mana-hungry decks.

Bant Survival - Bant Survival decks are mana intensive but a resolve Iona could ruin a Parfait pilot's day (given that it is only mono-white)


As you can see, there are only 5 decks where Land Tax could actually shine. The other 5 actually has that fightning chance. So whats so broken about that? The last time I checked, all decks have their bad matchups. Its what makes the format so healthy.

One of the supposed reasons on why Land Tax is banned is because of time constraints. All that searching and shuffling could take so much time. But, doesn't spinning SDTops and fixing your draw take time? Doesn't Standstill cause the game to go slow? Staxx has a way of controlling the whole board to make both players take their time. Ever played against Quinn? Land Tax could actually speed up mono-white control's win.

So, what really makes Land Tax banworthy in the format? Sure it renders Land Destruction strategies pointless but in Legacy, all strategies or decks in general have their bad matchups. Its not like Land Tax can combo out and win every time and dominate the whole format. Its not like its the only card that uses a lot of time to utilize. Then why is it banned? I want to know why Land Tax got the banhammer when the eternal format splitted.

MTG Salvation is going to have a tournament that will legalize Land Tax, just to see why the card is banned. Having said, we have no idea on how it will be used. Hopefully, it can be used by someone who can use it to its fullest potential. This way we can hopefully study and investigate why it is banned.

I remembered when Metalworker, Entomb and Dream Halls were still banned. There are a lot of Sourcers that mentioned that Land Tax is actually more likely to be unbanned than the following three because it is not as powerful as the mentioned three. The three got the nod. Metalworker shined on Staxx (but Baneslayer Angel took the thunder). Unfortunately I do not remember which big tournament that was. All I know is that Staxx took 1st in a very variant meta. But other than that, Staxx was not really the deck to beat. Metalworker did not warp the format and everything was fine. Entomb shined on Reanimator and won GP Madrid, but that deck had some luck (topdecking Exhumes, opponent misplaying). There was only one Entomb-Powered Reanimator on the Top8, which is far from dominating, let alone format-warping. Dream Halls Combo is yet to show that it can warp the format. And yet, before these cards where unbanned, Land Tax was supposed to be the safer choice compared to the three.

So why is this card so banworthy? The only thing I see this card doing is make mono-white control decks better (like what Entomb did to Reanimator). At worst, Land Tax renders any Land Destruction startegies pointless but doesn't Iona achieve the same with mono-colored decks? Am I missing something? Discuss.

[sunshine]

One of WotC's major complaints about this card (and I will try to dig up the article when I get out of work) was that it could promote decks where the optimal first turn play is not to make a land (shhh... nobody tell them about Dredge, it's my favorite deck!). Essentially, this is just not the direction they want the game to go - eternal or otherwise. The fact that the card also has the potential to cause time contraint issues, and that it was once a powerhouse only add to their reluctance to unban it.

[menace13]

In MTGO Classic, we have Land Tax and not one deck uses it.
Althought Classic is not Legacy, the card remains without a place to be played.
The Scroll+Tax combo is a bit slow and easy to disrupt and not many decks can actually use Land Tax w/o a high Basic count-10 approx for 3 activations-.
There are a good number of unbannable cards, this is one of them imo.

[Zilla]

I'm pretty sure no one familiar with the format believes that Land Tax would be a problem if it were unbanned. It's like a running joke at this point. As I recall, one of the main reasons given for its continued presence on the banned list is because it requires too much shuffling, which is sort of reasonable I guess. Although in a format this reliant on Fetchlands, I'm not sure it's particularly relevant. We've sort of surpassed the "too much shuffling" threshold as it is.

The bottom line is that it's definitely safe to bring off the list. So safe, in fact, that it's questionable whether or not anyone would even play it. I think most people are pretty ambivalent about it at this point.

[(nameless one)]

In MTGO Classic, we have Land Tax and not one deck uses it.
Althought Classic is not Legacy, the card remains without a place to be played.
The Scroll+Tax combo is a bit slow and easy to disrupt and not many decks can actually use Land Tax w/o a high Basic count-10 approx for 3 activations-.
There are a good number of unbannable cards, this is one of them imo.

Also, MTGO Classic Format was used as the basis to unban Entomb.

In contrary to what you mentioned that it has no place. The combo itself is an archetype of its own: Parfait

[menace13]

I meant format, Parfait or anything else with Land Tax would only appear in Legacy if unbanned, as there are none using it in Vintage-currently only place legal-.

Yes hopefully they see that a good number of other cards can safely go off the banned list as well.

[Clark Kant]

The main problem with the card is the amount of card advantage it generates. For just one mana, you get three cards each and every turn. Yes, it's not an ancestral recall since you only get basic plains, but only if you don't combo the card with Scroll Rack, which many decks will.

It's definately a very strong card for control, let no one tell you otherwise. The question is will it break anything or make control too powerful. I don't think it will especially given how weak control has gotten recently.

Is Scroll Rack + Land Tax superior in power to Counterbalance + Top. I think in a lot of ways yes. The difference being that it's good in white decks as opposed to blue decks.

I think wizards can unban the card.

But only after they confirm that they will reprint it and Scroll Rack as a FTV set or in a future set.

The card combo is not broken. It will make monowhite control playable though, which is very good.

The real question we need to answer is which cards Land Tax will be abused with.

Top or Scroll Rack? Top is already played by Quinn so that seems solid. But Scroll Rack is a solid card by itself as well, even in Quinn. And it's far more abusable with Land Tax. Will Quinn replace Top with Scroll Rack in order to truly abuse Land Tax?

Will some decks play Top + Scroll Rack + Land Tax + Counterbalance + Brainstorm. All five cards work great together? Is that too many cards to devote to a card engine, or is just begging to be abused?

[FoolofaTook]

If you're playing a low mana strategy, which many Legacy decks do naturally then Land Tax is a free reshuffle your library every turn option. You don't need to find basic lands or even be running them to use it. Top and Land Tax would be an amazing search engine in control builds that were using a lot of cheap removal to maintain the board while looking for the kill. Top, Land Tax, Brainstorm and fetchlands would basically turn into a card quality dream. Now throw in the potential uses it actually has as a land finding device and I suspect that WotC doesn't want to touch unbanning it with a 10 foot pole.

[menace13]

Control already uses Tops,Fetches,Bstorms,Ponder to filter into redundancy/answers, adding Tax just seems like there would not be much room for it.
In your application it would be featured in Bant or Landstill where they already play Slyvan Library and when do you ever have more land than Landstill?

[(nameless one)]

Land Tax will not work in Landstill because Landstill need a lot of lands to work. Land Tax will only work for your advantage if you have less land than your opponent.

[FoolofaTook]

Control already uses Tops,Fetches,Bstorms,Ponder to filter into redundancy/answers, adding Tax just seems like there would not be much room for it.
In your application it would be featured in Bant or Landstill where they already play Slyvan Library and when do you ever have more land than Landstill?

You replace some number of Ponders with some number of Land Tax. You revel in basically being able to play Path to Exile for no negative effect since it advances your plan in two ways, both getting rid of a creature and giving your opponent an extra tapped land. In many cases you have the ability to go get all the mana you will ever need for the game in question on turn 2 or 3. Is all of the above broken? Probably not, but it took me all of 10 minutes to come up with it. Give 10,000 players a month to break Land Tax and somebody will.

[Anusien]

Land Tax is interesting with Squandered Resources and Cadaverous Bloom. But that mana is not conducive to multiple basic lands.

[DrJones]

I would love being able to play Mind Swords again.

[FoolofaTook]

Probably the frst direction people would go in trying to break Land Tax would be to try to play Landstill on a Threshold level mana base, using Land Tax to get the extra land in hand they needed to get up to 4 mana. That would let Landstill add 4 to 5 extra spells into the mix, which would be broken as hell if they could still reliably hit their 4. Landstill minus 5 land and plus 4x Land Tax and 1x Scroll Rack as an example.

[(nameless one)]

Would Land Tax help Enchantress? I could see it help build Enchantress' hungry mana-base. Not to mention it combos with Solitary Confinement

[FoolofaTook]

It probably would. It has so many uses due to the many effects it has on the game that it's easy to see why a lot of people want it unbanned - it really would add very nice touches to a lot of decks that at least splash white.

[Clark Kant]

The real question we need to answer is which cards Land Tax will be abused with.

Top or Scroll Rack? Top is already played by Quinn so that seems solid acting as an additional shuffle effect. But Scroll Rack is a solid card by itself as well, even in Quinn. And it's far more abusable with Land Tax. Will Quinn replace Top with Scroll Rack in order to truly abuse Land Tax?

Will some decks play Top + Scroll Rack + Land Tax + Counterbalance + Brainstorm. All five cards work great together? Is that too many cards to devote to a card engine, or is just begging to be abused?

[Peter_Rotten]

[Incoming Sarcasm]

Wow, I'd love to see Land Tax off the list. At the end of your turn, I'll activate Top and spend 20 minutes looking at my top 3 cards. Upkeep, I'll spend too long finding three basics, put em in my hand, shuffle up, activate Top to look at new cards, spend 20 minutes looking at them, and then cast my uber win condition (http://media.ebaumsworld.com/picture/stacey83/Wild_Snorlax201.jpg) for the... um... win.

Land Tax is boring and unfun. Putting three card into hand - even basics - is still pretty awesome. The dead horse is dead; no need to beat him any further.

[FoolofaTook]

For UW control, which would now have morphing possibilities towards aggro-control, I think the initial synergies would be Land Tax, enough basic land to guarantee getting a 3 pull once - so maybe 5 or 6 basic plains and islands, Path to Exile, Brainstorm, fetchlands and Sensei's Divining Top. Then you have questions about, and probably branching attempts off to include Counterbalance, Scroll Rack, Enlightened Tutor and various other bombs.

Land Tax would not have to be a 4-of, nor would Sensei's Divining Top. In fact 3x Land Tax, 3x Sensei's Divining Top and 2x Enlightened Tutor would probably be the first place I would look if I was thinking about the theme. The key would be being able to play fewer lands while also adding in potentially perverse combo pieces in place of them. Landstill is already pretty gruesome to play against if they get to turn 4.

[wcm8]

UW tempo? Isn't land tax pretty much better than the creature that fetches one land with an activation cost?

[dahcmai]

Sensei's Divining Top is probably the sole reason for keeping it on there. I can't imagine the agony of having to play against a deck that ran 4 of both. It would take forever between all that searching and shuffling the top of the deck to get a damned game in. Ban top then bring it back. Shaharzad is about the only thing that would take longer at that point, which is another wonder of the list for that matter. :/

Land tax was strong in it's time. I doubt it's half as good now, though you can bet it would see play. It's still no slouch. Personally, I wish they would remove it. I love that old card.

[Antonius]

UW tempo? Isn't land tax pretty much better than the creature that fetches one land with an activation cost?

no, because Weathered Wayfarer can get wasteland and other really, really hateful cards of that nature.

As for the tax: I believe whoever mentioned the silly synergy with Path to Exile is correct. Land Tax would probably be used in some remnant of landstill which will then likely morph into a faster deck, eschewing its 4cc bombs for Daze, because daze makes Tax that good.

I could envision Land Tax finding its way into a BGW Loam control, perhaps with Squandered Resources. Ha ha ha, that actually has potential to be quite silly. With Loam, Confidant AND Tax as your card advantage engines, top/scroll rack for card quality and Resources to generate mana... You'd also have the aforementioned Path to Exile synergy, swords, recurring discard, Vindicate effects, tutor in the form of Entomb, recursion with Volrath's, Tabernacle, and KotR as a finisher. Oh and don't forget Goof. Could run Terravore, too.
Could be good, only question is if you'd be able to squeeze in enough basics to keep the Tax relevant. Might have to ditch some of those cyclers that go hand-in-hand with loam.

EDIT: hmm, It seems that I've come across a good idea here, purely by accident. Has anyone used Loam + Scroll rack? seems to achieve the exact same effect as Tax and Rack, but without the limitation of lands played. This could be an amazing. I have to test a singleton Scroll Rack in my lands build.

[DragoFireheart]

I really don't know what to say: Land Tax seems like a horrible card for this format when you consider the speed of decks like Zoo, AdN and Dredge. On the other hand, I wonder if this could be powerful in some sort of control CB shell like someone mentioned.

[TheInfamousBearAssassin]

Land Tax would be terrible and unplayed, as it's terrible and unplayed in MTGO Classic, as it was terrible and unplayed in 1.5.

The card is strictly worse than Life from the Loam in like eight or nine different ways.

Land Tax was good in a format where you could play Moxen and Sol Ring and Mana Crypt and the leading two drop was Whirling Dervish. Today it's a joke.

[undone]

Pretty sure you just throw 4 Tax +2-3 scroll rack into a counter top deck and you now have 3 combos which simply lock the game out (Top + CB, Rack + CB, Tax + CB) and two absurdly strong ones (Brainstorm + Tax, Top + tax) The deck just becomes more resistant to wasteland and it only requires you to play a total of 3 islands or 2 islands and a forest. Things which arent bad by themselves in the first place. Pretty much doubles the number of times any given player shuffles and its also a sad panda with daze.

Pretty much every card in UGW thresh interacts with Landcestral recall in a positive way to push the deck out of reach.

[FoolofaTook]

Pretty sure you just throw 4 Tax +2-3 scroll rack into a counter top deck and you now have 3 combos which simply lock the game out (Top + CB, Rack + CB, Tax + CB) and two absurdly strong ones (Brainstorm + Tax, Top + tax) The deck just becomes more resistant to wasteland and it only requires you to play a total of 3 islands or 2 islands and a forest. Things which arent bad by themselves in the first place. Pretty much doubles the number of times any given player shuffles and its also a sad panda with daze.

Pretty much every card in UGW thresh interacts with Landcestral recall in a positive way to push the deck out of reach.

You throw 1 Scroll Rack in and 1 or 2 Enlightened Tutors. But yeah you have the idea that many people will push on trying to find a break.

[menace13]

Land Tax would be terrible and unplayed, as it's terrible and unplayed in MTGO Classic, as it was terrible and unplayed in 1.5.

The card is strictly worse than Life from the Loam in like eight or nine different ways.

Land Tax was good in a format where you could play Moxen and Sol Ring and Mana Crypt and the leading two drop was Whirling Dervish. Today it's a joke.

Finally someone whom actually gets it. +1.

I have the cards and have tested it in CBalance and Landstill-bulky and slow-, with less than 9 basics it is not Recall-like at a reliable output.Playing 4 CBalance, 3 Tops ,4 Tax, 4 Bstorm, 1 Rack, 2 E. Tutors, 4 FoW, 4 Daze and 4 PtE is already at 30, not much room for much else.
Buddies of mine build lists around it with Gush and Tutors for Classic-still meh(every once in a while you will get a person whom wont play a land until you do)-, IBA nailed it eloquently.
If anyone has a decent list i will build that too