Earthcraft

Premodern-legal editions of Earthcraft — old-border printings plus any period-appropriate foil promos (Arena/Judge, through Scourge). Hover to preview an edition on the card; click to select it.

Tempest

1997·tmprare

Selected

Old-border editions + pre-Scourge promo foils (Arena/Judge). Modern-frame reprints (8th Edition onward) exist but are not period-appropriate printings.

Why It's Banned

Earthcraft lets you tap any untapped creature to untap a basic land, and paired with Squirrel Nest it forms a clean two-card infinite engine: a basic land enchanted by Squirrel Nest taps to make a 1/1 Squirrel, Earthcraft taps that Squirrel to untap the land, and the loop repeats for an unbounded swarm of Squirrels. In a format built around fair creature decks and slow, interactive games, a cheap deterministic kill that assembles from two enchantments — both squarely in the legal pool — warps the metagame far beyond Premodern's intended power level. The combo is too compact and too hard to interact with for a format that prizes grindy, board-centric play.

Earthcraft was printed in Tempest (1997) and Squirrel Nest in Odyssey (2001), both legal in Premodern's 4th Edition–Scourge window; Earthcraft combo engines had already proven their strength in eternal formats, where Earthcraft itself is banned in Legacy. Premodern lists Earthcraft on its ban list as a creature-combo enabler.

Trivia & Lore

• Earthcraft was banned in Standard (Type 2) in the March 1, 1999 DCI announcement, part of the 'Combo Winter' purge that the same day also hit Dream Halls, Fluctuator, Lotus Petal, Recurring Nightmare (in Standard) and Time Spiral (in every format). It was NOT banned in Extended that day -- Earthcraft's Extended ban did not come until the September 1999 announcement (alongside Dream Halls, Lotus Petal, Mind Over Matter and Yawgmoth's Will). At the time of either ban its famous Squirrel Nest combo did not yet exist.
• Squirrel Nest, the partner card the combo is named for, was not printed until Odyssey (October 2001) as an uncommon (#274) -- four years after Earthcraft and 2.5 years after Earthcraft was already banned in Standard. The card most associated with Earthcraft postdates its first banning.
• Earthcraft was restricted in Vintage (Type 1) on March 1, 2003 (effective April 1, 2003) -- not because it was a Vintage problem, but because Vintage's restricted list was tethered to Type 1.5's banned list; every card restricted in Vintage was automatically banned in Type 1.5 (later Legacy). Restricting it in Vintage was the only mechanism available to ban the Earthcraft+Squirrel Nest combo in Type 1.5. Stephen Menendian later wrote that a DCI-connected judge confirmed this was the real reason.
• Once Type 1.5 was rebranded 'Legacy' and the Vintage and Legacy lists were unbuckled in 2004, Earthcraft was unrestricted in Vintage -- it had only ever been restricted there on Legacy's behalf. It has been fully legal in Vintage ever since while remaining banned in Legacy.
• Earthcraft has exactly one printing -- Tempest, October 1997 (#222) -- and is on the Reserved List, so it can never be reprinted. It was never included in the 1999 Battle Royale box set or any later product.
• The card was illustrated by Randy Gallegos and carries flavor text from Tempest's Elvish hero: 'The land gives up little, but we are masters of persuasion.' --Eladamri, Lord of Leaves.
• Before Squirrel Nest existed, the original abusive Earthcraft engines were different: early builds paired it with Wild Growth and Sacred Mesa to make arbitrarily many Pegasi, and Randy Buehler and Mike Turian built 'Horsecraft,' which used Overgrowth and Recurring Nightmare to Corpse Dance a Mogg Fanatic over and over.
• Earthcraft's combo loop works because its cost is 'Tap an untapped creature you control' rather than the tap symbol -- so summoning sickness (rule 302.6) never applies. Newly created Squirrel Nest tokens can be tapped to Earthcraft the instant they appear to untap the enchanted land, even with summoning sickness, which is why the loop goes infinite.
• Stephen Menendian argued in 2010 that Earthcraft+Squirrel Nest, if unbanned in Legacy, would be no more dangerous than already-legal two-card combos like Thopter Foundry+Sword of the Meek or Painter+Grindstone, noting it is answered by widely played cards such as Pithing Needle, Krosan Grip and Nature's Claim. Despite his case it remains banned in Legacy.