Land Tax
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.
- CMC
- 1
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- W
- Rarity
- mythic
- Set
- Wilds of Eldraine: Enchanting Tales
- Price
- —
- EDHREC rank
- #400
Land Tax is one of the most efficient mana-smoothing engines ever printed — one white mana buys you up to three basic lands per turn cycle, converting a behind-on-lands situation into a stocked hand and a full grip late. Killian, Decisive Mentor cuts its cost to zero, which turns a powerful enchantment into a free engine on turn two.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Killian, Decisive Mentor
Killian, Decisive Mentor reduces Land Tax to zero mana, letting you deploy it the turn Killian enters and immediately start stockpiling basics — the synergy score of 0.65 is the highest on this list for a reason, and over 76% of Killian builds run it.
Daxos the Returned
Daxos the Returned generates experience counters off enchantments entering the battlefield, so Land Tax does double duty: it fixes mana and ticks the counter that scales every Spirit token Daxos makes.
Avacyn, Angel of Hope
Avacyn, Angel of Hope decks top out at eight or nine mana and can't afford to miss drops — Land Tax insulates those expensive hands against mana screw while feeding the graveyard for any reanimation backup plans.
Grand Arbiter Augustin IV
Grand Arbiter Augustin IV slows opponents down but needs to hit its own mana reliably; Land Tax guarantees land drops through the early stax pieces and keeps Grand Arbiter's pilot ahead of the tax effects it's imposing.
Lorehold, the Historian
Lorehold, the Historian cares about enchantments and historic permanents entering play, so Land Tax pulls weight as both a trigger source and consistent land-drop insurance across a long game.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | not legal |
| pioneer | not legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Commander is where Land Tax does its best work — four players means someone almost always has more lands than you at some point in the game, and the trigger fires every upkeep it's relevant, turning a single early land investment into a long-term card advantage engine. In Legacy, Land Tax is legal and has seen fringe play in white-based control shells that pair it with Scroll Rack to convert surplus basics into fresh cards every turn, though the format's speed limits how often a one-drop enchantment gets to take over a game. Vintage follows the same logic: legal, occasionally played in prison or tax strategies, but too slow to headline anything. Land Tax is not legal in Modern, Pioneer, Standard, or Pauper, so Commander and the older eternal formats are its entire home.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
unknown tier
Pricing data isn't currently available for Land Tax, so check Scryfall or TCGPlayer for live numbers — it has been reprinted several times, which has historically brought the price down from its earlier highs. Given its inclusion rate in Commander, it's worth picking up whenever you spot a reasonably priced copy, especially in Orzhov or mono-white builds where it's close to mandatory.
Explore
Sources
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.