Expropriate is one of the most intimidating cards ever released for *Magic: The Gathering*. In the right decks, it can provide countless extra turns, allow you to seize control of your opponents’ permanents, and effectively shut them out for the remainder of the game. However, there’s a catch: your opponents are the ones who decide how it plays out.
Expropriate is a sorcery costing seven generic mana plus two blue. This means you can only cast it during one of your main phases when there’s nothing else currently on the stack.
After it resolves, all players must make a choice. Each player, in turn, will announce their decision:
This translates to you potentially gaining up to four extra turns or taking control of four permanents in a four-player Commander game with no additional effects in play. This immense power is why Expropriate has such a steep casting cost.
An interesting aspect of Expropriate is that it does not target any of the permanents you gain control of. Since it uses the word “choose” rather than “target,” it can bypass hexproof, shroud, and ward.
Once the voting concludes and you’ve either taken your extra turns or seized control of permanents, Expropriate is exiled instead of going to your graveyard. If you do get extra turns, they will take effect once your current turn ends.
Permanents you gain control of remain on the battlefield. They do incur summoning sickness and can’t tap or attack until your next turn begins.
By itself, Expropriate is a powerful card that can turn the tide of the game. However, there are several other cards that can enhance its effectiveness.
For just one blue mana, Illusion of Choice allows you to control the voting decisions of other players. This way, you can ensure you get the maximum benefit from Expropriate, eliminating the chance for your opponents to conspire against you.
Additionally, this effect will hold for all voting spells cast that turn. Therefore, it’s beneficial to also play any other cards requiring votes, like Council’s Judgment or Magister of Worth, since you have the opportunity.
Both of these cards cost the same and provide an extra vote, allowing you to significantly increase the results you receive from Expropriate. With both in play, you could go from four votes to five or even six.
However, note that Ballot Broker has a ‘may’ ability. You can opt not to cast additional votes, but you must vote at least once for Expropriate. If Brago’s Representative is on the field, you must include that vote too.
If you gain extra votes, you submit all your choices at once. You’ll be able to make three decisions before your opponents get to cast theirs, but those votes don’t need to all be the same. For example, you might choose both time and money when voting for Expropriate.
While some cards penalize opponents for not voting similarly to you, like Grudge Keeper, Model of Unity rewards players who align their votes with yours by allowing them to scry 2.
Encouraging others to dig deeper for useful cards could be enough to net you an extra turn or two with Expropriate. Also, it’s a mana rock that remains useful even outside of voting scenarios.
For one white mana, Pull From Eternity allows you to return an exiled card to your graveyard. One downside of Expropriate is its exile effect after resolving, which means you can’t easily recur it.
Once it’s in the graveyard, there are numerous ways to get Expropriate back. Cards like Mystic Sanctuary can put it back on top of your library, or others like Repository Skaab or Ardent Elementalist can return it to your hand. You could also go for Spelltwine to cast Expropriate along with another spell for a reduced cost.
If you’re considering building a deck around any of these commanders, Expropriate is definitely a card worth including.
Tivit stands out as the ultimate voting-focused commander. He can create Treasure tokens when voting, helping you cast Expropriate even faster. Plus, he grant an extra vote whenever the time arises to play it.
With flying and ward, Tivit poses a significant challenge to block, giving you opportunities to deal damage and potentially eliminate opponents during the extra turns you rack up.
Similar to Tivit, The Valeyard also provides an extra vote. While stacking as many of these effects before casting Expropriate offers an excellent strategy, there are reasons to favor Tivit over The Valeyard.
Since he is in blue, black, and red, you miss out on various cards like Brago’s Representative or Ballot Broker, which limits your capacity for gathering additional votes. His focus on villainous choices – a unique type of vote from the Doctor Who Commander decks – also makes him less versatile than Tivit.
The blue and green Elf Commander deck from *Lord of the Rings: Tales Of Middle-earth* features an interesting diplomacy theme, with Erestor aiming to persuade your opponents to ally with you for mutual benefits.
Getting a Treasure token may seem minimal, but having extra mana available during your bonus turns could be enough to sway their votes. Conversely, they might use it as leverage, claiming they will vote for you if you hand over the Treasure that Erestor provides.
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Dockside Extortionist might have been banned in MTG’s Commander format, but that doesn’t mean you can’t still make a ton of mana with these cards.
