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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, put them into your hand, then shuffle.
Ban history
Banned at founding, unbanned 2018, re-banned 2023 for the Tax-Rack draw engine.
- Banned in Premodern
- 15 July 2023
- Re-ban; originally on the 2012 founding list, unbanned 2018-06-25
- Category
- Power
- Research
- Research confidence: High confidence
- First printed
- First printed in Legends (1 June 1994); Premodern-legal via Fourth Edition.
Why it’s banned
On the original ban list (official). Reason then: fear of a blue-white control soft lock with Forbid or unfair card advantage with Scroll Rack.
Official reason
“Land Tax enables an overpowered draw engine which can be set up consistently at a minimal mana cost. Disrupting the engine in time can be difficult, and requires cards not available to all colours.”
Context (not an official statement)
Land Tax + Scroll Rack 'effectively draws three extra cards per turn for only one colourless mana', supported by Mox Diamond, Undiscovered Paradise, Enlightened Tutor, Zuran Orb/Gush. The engine spread across prison, control and aggro-control shells (Pink Prison, Oath Parfait, Blue Parfait). Berlin also noted, but did not rely on, complaints about slow and passive games.[1, 2, 3]
The story
Land Tax (Legends, 1994; in Fourth Edition) was restricted in Standard in 1996 and banned in Extended in 1998. It was on Premodern's original ban list over fears of a Scroll Rack card-advantage engine, but Berlin unbanned it in June 2018, judging Tax-Rack beatable. Over five years the engine migrated through Pink Prison, Oath Parfait and blue Parfait decks, and on 15 July 2023 Berlin re-banned it, writing that his 2018 arguments had been proven wrong.
Premodern changes
- On list
- UnbannedUnbanned: Tax-Rack 'felt very beatable'; other draw engines (Standstill, Fact or Fiction, Accumulated Knowledge) are comparable.[2]
- BannedRe-banned, effective immediately: overpowered, consistent, shell-independent engine; Berlin wrote his 2018 points had 'been proven wrong'. Enlightened Tutor considered as an alternative ban and rejected.[1]
Other formats (Wizards)
Historical context, not Premodern decisions.
- StandardRestricted
- LegacyBanned
- ExtendedBanned
- LegacyBanned
- LegacyUnbanned
Related cards
Sources
- Ban List Update 2023 (Martin Berlin, 2023-07-15)
- Ban list update June 2018 (Martin Berlin, 2018-06-25)
- The Dreams of a Father: Devastation of Premodern (2018-11-30)
- Wayback: premodernmagic.com/banned-watched/ 2018-05-06 (34 banned, 5 watched)
- MTGBans.info per-card timelines (effective dates; site's AI-generated rationales NOT used)
- MTG Wiki: Banned and restricted cards/Timeline
- Scryfall card data (printings, release dates)
- premodernmagic.com legal sets endpoint
Research as of 18 October 2026.
In our decks
Not in any of our curated decklists yet. Find similar cards.
Played in tournaments
Share of published Premodern decklists that play Land Tax (main or sideboard): 4,173 lists from paper events and MTGO in the last 90 days, through .
Not seen in any of the 4,173 tournament lists from the last 90 days. Browse the meta.
Printings (18)
Every tournament-legal paper printing (no gold-border, World Championship or oversized cards). Hover or tap a row to preview that printing.
