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Expropriate is one of the scariest cards ever printed forMagic: The Gathering. Played in the right decks, it can give you an infinite number of extra turns, steal everything your opponents control, and lock them out for the rest of the game, but there is one caveat: your opponents decide how well it goes.
Making the most of Expropriate might catch the ire of your Commander table, but if you’re going to win anyway, you might as well do it in style with a few extra turns. Make sure you’re making the most of Expropriate, because time is money.
How To Use Expropriate
Expropriate is a sorcery that costsseven generic mana and two blue, meaning you can only cast it during one of your main phases when nothing else is currently on the stack.
Once it’s resolved, you and your opponents all have a decision to make. Each playermakes their decision in turn order, and shares it with the rest of the table:
This means, in a game of Commander with four players and no other effects in play, you could gain up tofour extra turns, or gain control offour permanents. This is why Expropriate is a powerful card and costs so much to cast.
A quirk of this card is that itdoesn’t targetany of the permanents you gain control of. As it says “choose” and not “target”, itcan circumvent hexproof, shroud, and ward.
Once you’ve finished voting and either adding yourextra turnsor taken control of permanents,Expropriate goes to your exileinstead of your graveyard. If you receive any extra turns, they will happen after your current turn has ended.
If you’ve gained control of any permanents, theydo not leave the battlefield.They simply move over to your control. It willregain summoning sickness, and don’t be able to tap or attack until the beginning of your next turn.
The Best Cards To Use With Expropriate
On its own, Expropriate can be a ridiculously powerful card that can swing the game in your favour. However, if you want to take it further, there are other cards that synergise well with it.
Illusion Of Choice
For just one blue mana, Illusion of Choice allows you tomake every other player’s voting decisionsfor them. This way, you can choose exactly how many permanents and how many extra turns you have, and there can be no colluding between your opponents to give you the worst deal.
As an added bonus, this effect lasts forevery vote spell that turn, so casting any other cards that require votes, likeCouncil’s Judgment or Magister of Worth,while you have the chance is recommended.
Brago’s Representative And Ballot Broker
These cards both cost the same amount, have the same type line, and do the same thing: give you an extra vote. This means you’ll be buffing the number of results you get from an Expropriate from four to five or even six, if you have both out.
Note: Ballot Broker is a ‘may’ ability. You can choose not to vote the additional times, butExpropriate will require you to vote at least the first time. If you have Brago’s Representative out,you must also vote with that.
If you gain additional votes, you do all of your voting at the same time. You’ll be making three choices in a row before your opponents cast theirs, butthey don’t have to all be for the same thing. In Expropriate’s case, you could choose to vote for both time and money.
Model Of Unity
There are cards that punish your opponent for not voting the same way as you, such as Grudge Keeper. Model of Unity goes the alternate route, andrewards players who vote in line with youby allowing them to scry 2.
Letting people dig for the cards they need could be enough to net you an extra turn or two with Expropriate. On top of that, it’s amana rockthat can be useful even when you aren’t voting.
Pull From Eternity
For one white mana, Pull From Eternity allows you to put an exiled card you ownback into your graveyard. One of the biggest downsides of Expropriate is that is exiles after it resolves, leaving you without ways to recur it.
Once it’s in your graveyard, there are tons of ways to recur Expropriate from your graveyard.Mystic Sanctuarycan put it back on top of your library, or something likeRepository SkaaborArdent Elementalistcan put it into your hand. You could evenSpelltwineit, to cast it and another spell straight from graveyards for a much lower cost than normal.
The Best Commanders For Expropriate
If you’re planning on building any of these commanders, Expropriate is definitely a card you should consider running in it,
Tivit, Seller Of Secrets
Tivit is by farthe best voting-matters commanderin the game. Not only can he trigger a vote that makes Treasures to help you cast Expropriate even quicker, he lets you vote an additional time when the time comes to cast it.
With flying and ward on top, Tivit is atricky commander to block, so you could be taking people out of the game through combat damage in all those extra turns you stack up.
The Valeyard
Like Tivit, The Valeyardgives you an extra vote. Stacking up as many of these effects as possible before casting Expropriate is an excellent way to win the game, but there are a few reasons you’d probably consider Tivit over him.
Because he’s in blue, black, and red, youdon’t have access to cardslike Brago’s Representative or Ballot Broker, limiting how many extra votes you can accumulate. He’s also more niche than Tivit, with his first ability caring aboutvillainous choices– a type of vote introduced in theDoctor Who Commander decks.
Erestor Of The Council
The blue/green Elf Commander deck from Lord of the Rings: Tales Of Middle-earth had an interesting diplomacy subtheme, and Erestor of the Council tries topersuade your opponents to side with youfor some benefits of their own.
A single Treasure token might not sound much, buthaving some mana availablewhen you go into your extra turns might just be enough to sway them to vote alongside you. Alternatively, they could use it as a political chip of their own, offering to vote money, as long as you take the Treasure Erestor gives them.
