Expropriate

The interaction

People have been misplaying Expropriate for years, specifically the money vote, and the debate over whether hexproof stops it refuses to die.

What it does

Every player at the table votes time or money. Time votes give you extra turns. Money votes let you take a permanent from each voter. In a four or five player pod this routinely means multiple extra turns or multiple permanents stolen off a single card.

Where it shines

Group slug and political decks that want a game-ending swing without committing to combat. It's the payoff you build the whole turn sequence around, not something you cast on curve.

Plays well with

• Insurrection Both are blue's version of a 'win the game' button that swings a multiplayer table hard enough to end it outright.
• Time Stretch If your deck can already afford eight mana for a game-swinging sorcery, ramping into Time Stretch's cost feels trivial by comparison, so the two get built around the same mana base.
• Omniscience A tutor plan that fetches Omniscience covers the awkward case where Expropriate gets stuck in hand, letting you cast it free instead of waiting to hard-cast a seven-mana sorcery.

The catch

The oracle text says 'choose a permanent owned by the voter,' not 'target,' and that word choice fools people into thinking hexproof or shroud don't apply. They do. Choosing a permanent to gain control of it is still restricted by hexproof and shroud exactly like a targeted effect would be, so a voter with a protected board can vote money and lose nothing. Know this before you cast it expecting to strip someone's hexproof commander.

Featured in

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