MTG Players Rediscover Ridiculously Broken Enchantment

Because the game’s balance wasn’t properly figured out, all of Magic: The Gathering’s most broken cards were printed in the early days. From free mana to two-mana extra turns, the cards printed today would never be able to compete with problematic cards from MTG’s past. Because of this, many cards from Magic’s earliest set end up being banned everywhere, their terrors forgotten.

That said, since these cards are such absurd power outliers, they’re bound to be the topic of discussion every now and again. That’s exactly what happened with MTG’s Fastbond, as players try to figure out if there’s a way to balance such a broken card.

MTG Fastbond

Allowing players unlimited land drops in exchange for some life, Fastbond is literally one of the most broken cards in MTG history. Playing this card on turn one is absolutely obscene, allowing you to drop as many lands as you like at the beginning of the game.

Combine this one-mana enchantment with a card like Courser of Kruphix Courser of Kruphix Play with the top card of your library revealed.
You may play lands from the top of your library.
Landfall — Whenever a land you control enters, you gain 1 life. or Tatyova, Benthic Druid Tatyova, Benthic Druid Landfall — Whenever a land you control enters, you gain 1 life and draw a card. , and the value you create in one turn can easily win you the game. Heck, both of these cards even gains the life back that Fastbond takes away, creating insane sequences with cards like Sensei’s Divining Top Sensei’s Divining Top {1}: Look at the top three cards of your library, then put them back in any order.
{T}: Draw a card, then put this artifact on top of its owner's library. .

Obviously, Fastbond breaks one of the core principles of MTG by letting you drop as many lands as you like in one turn, so it naturally creates a bunch of infinite combos. Something that sacrifices lands, like Need for Speed Need for Speed Sacrifice a land: Target creature gains haste until end of turn. , can mill near-infinite cards with Icetill Explorer Icetill Explorer You may play an additional land on each of your turns.
You may play lands from your graveyard.
Landfall — Whenever a land you control enters, mill a card. , for example. Similarly, Mole Man, Moloid Master Mole Man, Moloid Master You may play lands from your graveyard.
Landfall — Whenever a land you control enters, create a 1/1 green Minion creature token named Moloid with "Whenever this token attacks, you may mill a card." can create near-infinite tokens, or as many tokens as your life total allows. With Courser or Tatyova in play, these all turn into true infinites.

With Fastbond being an extremely clear power outlier in MTG, it shouldn’t shock players that the card is basically banned in every MTG format. In fact, the only place where Fastbond is currently legal is in Vintage, where you can shockingly play four copies of this card.

Fixing Fastbond?

While Fastbond being a broken MTG card is an undeniable fact, it can also an extremely fun effect to play with, especially in formats like Commander. Because of this, many players are interested in figuring out if Fastbond’s rules text can potentially be balanced out by a higher mana cost. This thread, for example, discusses whether or not Fastbond would be broken at 3 or 4 mana instead of one.

Sadly, even at four mana, Fastbond would still be an extremely powerful card in MTG, especially in Commander. Any Crucible of Worlds Crucible of Worlds You may play lands from your graveyard. -style effect can easily break Fastbond, making it rather easy to go infinite with by using a Fetch Land or something like Fabled Passage Fabled Passage {T}, Sacrifice this land: Search your library for a basic land card, put it onto the battlefield tapped, then shuffle. Then if you control four or more lands, untap that land. . Many players also mention Bounce Lands as a potential way to make near-infinite land drops with just two cards, creating tons of mana with something like Spelunking Spelunking When this enchantment enters, draw a card, then you may put a land card from your hand onto the battlefield. If you put a Cave onto the battlefield this way, you gain 4 life.
Lands you control enter untapped. in play. Even worse, cards like Strip Mine Strip Mine {T}: Add {C}.
{T}, Sacrifice this land: Destroy target land. would basically delete any lands your opponents control.

That said, at four mana, I personally think Fastbond would be very powerful, but not broken outside of a Commander setting. We already have Aluren Aluren Any player may cast creature spells with mana value 3 or less without paying their mana costs and as though they had flash. in Legacy for four mana, which creates a two-card infinite combo with Acererak, the Archlich Acererak, the Archlich When Acererak enters, if you haven't completed Tomb of Annihilation, return Acererak to its owner's hand and venture into the dungeon.
Whenever Acererak attacks, for each opponent, you create a 2/2 black Zombie creature token unless that player sacrifices a creature of their choice. , draining the table with infinite Dungeon Ventures. While Fastbond is far easier to break than Aluren, I don’t think it would be a power outlier in Legacy, and may just be a Game Changer in Commander.

Of course, despite my opinion, making a four-mana variant of Fastbond would be extremely dangerous because of how easily it could create problems. For that reason, it’s probably safer to avoid reprinting Fastbond’s textbox altogether, which is the course of action I would personally recommend.

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