Expropriate

Sorcery

Council's dilemma — Starting with you, each player votes for time or money. For each time vote, take an extra turn after this one. For each money vote, choose a permanent owned by the voter and gain control of it. Exile Expropriate.

Discussion (51)

TheTryH4rd on Urza, Lord High Artificer

1 week ago

Yea, I didn't end up cutting out Power Artifact for that very reason. I just had to make room in the deck for it.

At this point if I want to take the next jump in making the deck more competitive, I think I need to pull the cards that don't enable/facilitate the combos like Blatant Thievery, Expropriate, and Rite of Replication and replace them with card draw and more tutors. But I have such love for those cards that its a hard step to take.

Based on CMC and effect Thassa's Intervention is better in every way than Pull from Tomorrow. So if I were going to pick one or the other it would be Thassa. I think Blue Sun's Zenith would be a good card to include as an alternative win condition on infinite mana to back up Codex Shredder. Dig Through Time would be good in that late game situation as well when still trying to assemble the pieces to combo off.

billy21 on Mizzix

3 weeks ago

When I was playing it, I noticed it had a lot of X spells which I don't think interact with Mizzix well. I'd try ditching a couple of those and some higher cost creatures to speed up your early game. Then I also added a couple things that should help you keep a board state.

Narset's Reversal

Expropriate

Arcane Signet

Rhystic Study

Impulse

Faithless Looting

Rise from the Tides

Cyclonic Rift

Leyline of Anticipation

Metallurgic Summonings

Chaos Warp

Baral, Chief of Compliance

Goblin Electromancer

smleger on Jodah Big Mana Tribal

4 weeks ago

Great idea putting in the Expropriate!!!

Tzefick on Pattern Recognition #136 - Counters

1 month ago

I think counter magic is perfectly fine as a concept. It's a way to deal with issues, before they actually become an issue and it examplifies one of blue's main weaknesses: Difficulty in dealing with the board. I used to hate counterspells when I got into Magic again (during Lorwyn, damn Faeries), as they simply seem like a disability to play the game; "I want to play something." - "You may not". I have since accepted their place in the game and their importance.

The reason I still do dislike counter magic is because it exists to provide a strength to cover a weakness. A weakness that since then has been partially filled out by strong answers to the board over the course of Magic's history. One of the main offenders is Cyclonic Rift , especially present in Commander and other multiplayer formats that are significantly slower than Duel Magic (1 on 1). Other offenders are cards that really should be enchantments, but opted for a more nefarious although simpler route: Curse of the Swine and Reality Shift , and their predecessors; Pongify and Rapid Hybridization .

As said by Berry in the article; Blue has the ability to change something from one thing to another. We have also seen various types of such polymorphing done in enchantment form; Darksteel Mutation , Lignify , Frogify . All of this makes perfect sense in what blue is capable of doing.

However doing a change irreversibly like the Curse of the Swine or Reality Shift, is giving hard answers to a color whose weakness is hard answers - at least on the board. Yeah, you replace them with a creature, but a much weaker creature and if a token, one you can permanently remove by having it change zone.

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Another issue with counter magic is the tempo shift. The opponent casts a 5 mana spell, you cast a 2-3 mana counter spell. Suddenly there's a disparity of 2-3 mana in the counterspeller's favor. It is mainly equalized because the blue player must have ready mana, resulting in that player not developing their own board state. However that can again be offset by utilizing instant speed spells or abilities that either advance board state or card draw for the blue player.

If the blue player didn't have these chances to apply disparity in mana spent and benefit, the color would struggle to have meaningful strengths, I know that. However the issue is in finding the fine line between how much mana disparity is acceptable. The cat is out of the bag on this one, as there have already been printed numerous versions of unconditional counterspells that have set a precedent for what blue counterspells are allowed to do and how cheaply.

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If you compare a counterspell to a destroy spell, the main difference is obviously zone of application and also timing of application. One proactive, one reactive (well actually both are reactive, but you probably know why I have to make a distinction). Reactive spells provide a lot more flexibility in when you're required to use them. Their main problem is that sometimes reactive spells are too late to cause the same mana disparity that a counterspell does. As soon as that permanent hits the battlefield, an ability may come into effect, be it triggered, static or active. A reactive spell cannot avoid that.

Also take into account that blue can deal with any spell in existence, with the possible exception of spells with Split Second, specifically designed to be uninteractive - and still they can be interacted with . If there's a spell that is uncounterable, you can get creative with Venser, Shaper Savant , Time Stop , Mindbreak Trap , Ashiok's Erasure , there's load of ways to get around "uncounterable". Blue is also the color that will straight up see a threat on the board and simply take it for themselves, with Control Magic , Gather Specimens , Blatant Thievery , Expropriate . Effectively a removal, card draw and threat all in one.

No other color can boast the same catch all mechanic. White comes close for something in the same ballpark, but it is still just a bleak imitation - as countermagic goes. And evidently look at that price tag.

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In the earlier days of Magic, blue was not the only user of countermagic. I feel like you could provide other colors with more conditional types of countermagic, to better even it out. And not just anti countermagic like Guttural Response . Blue would still be the best, but not the sole user. - White is a color that protects itself, so something like Hindering Light is the most likely avenue to take White Countermagic, anything that touches my stuff - go away. Think Equinox in terms of templating but not necessarily that specific. Giving their spells on the stack protection from a color or supertype or plain "old" Hexproof. - Green already has an affinity to provide hexproof to their stuff, Heroic Intervention and Veil of Summer , so expanding on that seems reasonable. - Red could go the Fork / Shunt route but is unlikely to get countermagic that straight up nullifies other types of spells than spells with targets. - Black is kinda difficult. The usual is just to tack an alternative payment of life, cards or permanents on an otherwise Blue card. Black already have an indirect proactive answer through selective discard, like Duress . The issue is these are all sorcery speed, so if an opponent suddenly starts drawing a lot of cards, it can be difficult for black to be proactive in time. So perhaps just providing Duress at instant speed through a condition would be acceptable. Something like "Instant Duress may be cast as an instant if an opponent has drawn two or more cards this turn." / "Instant Duress may be cast as an instant if the target opponent has 5 or more cards in hand". Any kind of variation on that.

Of course some would talk about color pie bleeding/breaking, but ain't that already happening by giving blue hard removal (by proxy) and large scale soft board removal? I know some of these issues are mainly aimed at multiplayer formats, but we cannot ignore that Magic has grown to be something else than only Duel Magic (1 on 1). Blue's counter magic is here to stay, but is it too much to ask that the other colors can get even slightly in on the action if not directly, then indirectly by interacting more with the stack?

Green has one of the best palettes available to them for a slightly slower format; mana ramp, card draw, large threats, ability to scale well, protective measures, explosive finishers and a hell lot of combo potential and pieces.

I think Green is only beaten slightly by Black in terms of Commander due to tutors in a singleton format. And because Black can cheat mana costs or pays differently, has access to card draw and good finishers, along many more combo pieces.

Blue is one of the only colors that reliably can stop combo or finishers dead in their tracks. Reversibly, they are the color best suited to keep those combos or finishers uninterrupted. They have the best access to card advantage and resource manipulation. And extra turns.

There's a reason that many cEDH decks are mainly some variation of Sultai colors (Green, black and blue) with maybe one added color or full WUBRG. I think this picture would be more diverse, if more colors became able to interact better. The ability to interact is one of the core foundations and strengths of Magic. Counter magic is a pillar of this interaction, more colors should find a way to do it or something similar.

Pervavita on Should Nyxbloom Ancient be banned?

1 month ago

This is a 7 cmc card that doesn't win the game the turn it hits so I don't think this is nearly as broken as something like Expropriate . Is it good, well yes it is quite good but I don't think we are looking at something as strong as Prophet of Kruphix .

alechodgin23 on the queen of sultai

1 month ago

Cool build. Got a +1 from me.

If you're wanting to go more competitive, eliminate all but one of your win cons and go all out on that one win condition. Maybe have a "1 card win con" as a back up like Torment of Hailfire or Expropriate .

If it were me, I'd stick with the Jace/Lab Man combos. Those are your 2 key pieces and everything will either go infinite with them or protect them.

If you eliminate the other cards from your deck, that'll give you more room for control, protection, and/or synergies with that one combo, and you'll be able to pull it off even more consistently than you already do.

My last recommendation would simply be more card draw. You seem like a good deck builder so I assume you already know all that's out there in Blue and Black regarding to draw. You definitely need more.

dingusdingo on Need to cut 5 cards ...

1 month ago

1) You have 40 lands. If you keep Exploration while raising draw power, you will see far more use from it. Its a really good card, you can cut down to 36 lands and add 4 draw effects and I bet you will see higher performance. Consider Sylvan Library Dark Confidant Phyrexian Arena Runic Armasaur Tymna the Weaver or any handful of others. You can cut all the way down to 34 lands if you add some strong draw pieces.

2) Najeela has some easy built in combos, one of which you run in Sword of Feast and Famine . Also check out Nature's Will and Druids' Repository . These cards allow Najeela to win all by herself once you hit a critical mass. They're very good in any Najeela deck.

3) If you're playing superfriends, you need more ways to clear board or more ways to stop attacks. Consider wipes like Pyroclasm Whipflare Toxic Deluge Wrath of God Supreme Verdict . Consider no attack pieces like Ensnaring Bridge Ghostly Prison Meekstone Silent Arbiter Magus of the Moat . Having some more of these will help with space for your PW to power up.

4) I'd cut some of the larger spells you run. Expropriate is nice but its going to be a dead draw if its in your hand for first 6-8 turns of game. Same with Primevals' Glorious Rebirth . It might be worthwhile to keep Ulamog.

5) Adding in 1 cost mana elves can significantly speed your game, and gives you chump blockers. Llanowar Elves Fyndhorn Elves Deathrite Shaman Birds of Paradise Elvish Mystic Boreal Druid

theThane on riku of two reflections edh

2 months ago

If you wanna go all-in on the spell copying i have a few things. You need cost reduction, in addition to Electromancer you have Baral, Chief of Cumpleaños , Arcane Melee , Mizzix of the Izmagnus , and Curious Homunculus  ^Flip for creatures. There're also the Medallion artifacts( Sapphire , Emerald , and Ruby ) and Jace's Sanctum is an enchantment that also has you scry 1 each time you cast an instant or sorcery. You can also look at As Foretold , Throes of Chaos , and Maelstrom Wanderer as ways to get "free" spells so you can use the mana that the spells cost to instead copy them. You're also going to want more mana acceleration so you can cast multiple spells or utilize multiple copy effects the best dorks are Rattleclaw Mystic , BoP , and Sylvan Caryatid and for 2CMC rocks you have the Signets( Izzet , Simic , and Gruul ) and the Talismans ( Creativity , Curiosity , and Impulse ). If you don't want to rely on artifacts for ramp since they don't synergize with Riku Kodama's Reach and Cultivate are pretty much auto-includes for G ramp spells, and Nature's Lore , Farseek , and Skyshroud Claim to get non-basic Forests into play faster, this does mean you'll need more non-basic Forests so you should get Breeding Pool , Stomping Ground , and Sheltered Thicket . Once you have costs down you can focus on the value you get out of your spells an easy way is looking at Twiddle effects like Rewind , Frantic Search , Snap , and Unwind , similar to Peregrine Drake and Palinchron , they untap their costs worth of lands so when you copy them or reduce their costs they start to generate mana. Now that you've generated a stupid amount of mana you need things to do with it so you have Epic Experiment , Expropriate , Time Stretch , and Rishkar's Expertise for value and you can use Fireball , Fall of the Titans , Finale of Devastation , and Electrodominance to just straight up kill people. Additional ways to copy spells are Dualcaster Mage , Dual Casting , Repeated Reverberation , Bonus Round , and Increasing Vengeance and Echo Mage , and some added value effects you can use are Rashmi, Eternities Crafter and Sunbird's Invocation .