Making Piracy Work

[JessWill]

Back in the day, there was the card Piracy from Portal. As far as I'm aware, this card doesn't actually work as intended with the existing rules because your opponent can simply tap their lands before you can, but it's a cool idea.

What's more, the Portal set inherently was designed as an introductory set for beginners with slightly different rules than normal MTG, and none of the cards were tournament legal at the time. So this card and perhaps some other ones from the set feel like a lost opportunity.

This inspired me to come up with a number of designs that do something along the lines of what Piracy was trying to do, worded in such a way that it actually works with the existing rules.

Nomadic Travels
Sorcery (R)
Untap all lands controlled by target opponent. Until end of turn, that opponent can't tap lands they control and you may tap lands controlled by that opponent for mana. Spend this mana only to cast spells.

A more permanent variation on this effect as an Aura Curse, and today's DCC entry:

Coastal Piracy
Enchantment - Aura Curse (R)
Enchant player
Enchanted player can't tap lands they control during your turn.
Untap all lands controlled by enchanted player during your untap step.
You may tap lands controlled by enchanted player for mana during your turn.

A more multiplayer-friendly / commander variation:

Planar Dominion
Enchantment (R)
Opponents can't tap lands they control during your turn.
Untap all lands controlled by each opponent during your untap step.
You may tap any untapped lands controlled by an opponent for mana during your turn.

I removed the rider about only spending the mana to cast spells on these, I'm unsure exactly how necessary it really is. Still a little unsure on the exact mana values I should be using too - I'm tempted to cost Nomadic Travels at to be safe. While I'm unsure if I should do the same thing for Coastal Piracy and raise it to . But the gist of the cards are there.

As written, these cards also prevent your opponent from casting spells or activating abilities with mana costs during your turn. And the effect scales a lot in power in the late game. You're basically using your opponents lands as ramp without directly gaining control of them.

[Scuirimancer]

Piracy made sense at the time because mana burn was a rule. So unless your opponent had a convenient way to sink all that mana, they had to choose between losing life or letting you use their lands. I don't think Portal really had different rules, did it? It had different terminology in some cases (ie, "offense and defense" instead of "power and toughness"). They realized pretty quickly that this was dumb. They also avoided using fast effects, since they didn't want to confuse players with the stack and timing rules, so no instants or activated abilities, with a few exceptions that were worded in a roundabout fashion.

Would Split Second make Piracy work as intended?

I like the idea of a Piracy enchantment. You get a City of Solitude in addition to the extra mana, which is pretty good. It's a huge influx of mana, like getting 6+ lands into play, but I think your Planar Dominion is probably okay at 4UG.

What about a version where you can *only* tap your opponent's lands for mana?

Pirate's Dominion 2UG
Enchantment
Lands you control don't untap during your untap step.
At the beginning of your upkeep, untap all lands target opponent controls. You can tap those lands for mana this turn, and that opponent can't.

[JessWill]

Piracy made sense at the time because mana burn was a rule. So unless your opponent had a convenient way to sink all that mana, they had to choose between losing life or letting you use their lands. I don't think Portal really had different rules, did it? It had different terminology in some cases (ie, "offense and defense" instead of "power and toughness"). They realized pretty quickly that this was dumb. They also avoided using fast effects, since they didn't want to confuse players with the stack and timing rules, so no instants or activated abilities, with a few exceptions that were worded in a roundabout fashion.

Would Split Second make Piracy work as intended?

I like the idea of a Piracy enchantment. You get a City of Solitude in addition to the extra mana, which is pretty good. It's a huge influx of mana, like getting 6+ lands into play, but I think your Planar Dominion is probably okay at 4UG.

What about a version where you can *only* tap your opponent's lands for mana?

Pirate's Dominion 2UG
Enchantment
Lands you control don't untap during your untap step.
At the beginning of your upkeep, untap all lands target opponent controls. You can tap those lands for mana this turn, and that opponent can't.

Yea my research indicated that it only made sense in Mana Burn combos, but that's not the use of the card one would be inclined to take just reading the card plainly. I do, in fact, want to simply tap my opponents lands for mana on my turn.

Also, someone pointed this out and I didn't realize it but, there already is a card called Coastal Piracy, so I'd have to change the name.

As for Pirate's Dominion, seems like a pretty big drawback to Winter Orb yourself, but I guess I could see that worked around.

[JessWill]

For balance reasons, I'm inclined to redesign Coastal Piracy (now Planar Piracy) with a higher mana cost because it's just too powerful for 4 mana when you think about the amount of ramp you get + denying your opponent's actions on your turn.

Planar Piracy
Enchantment - Aura Curse (R)
Enchant player
Enchanted player can't tap lands they control during your turn.
Untap all lands controlled by enchanted player during your untap step.
You may tap lands controlled by enchanted player for mana during your turn.

Planar Dominion would also have to have its mana cost increased, if it were to be pursued. While Nomadic Travels still feels okay to me, especially with the spells only rider. Though my only worry is that if it's given flash, it's then OP.

[wizyard]

the card Drain Power had a solution, by draining their mana pool you got the mana whether you or your opponent is the one to tap the lands

[JessWill]

the card Drain Power had a solution, by draining their mana pool you got the mana whether you or your opponent is the one to tap the lands

That's true. Mana Drain also accomplishes something along those lines via a counter. Though from what I recall this is/was a banned/restricted card because of its power level.

I'd also note, if Piracy actually worked as a naive first glance would indicate, it implies something more applicable to multiplayer games, since Piracy applies to any opponents lands (except they can tap it first so it doesn't.)

Planar Dominion is my design that kind of accomplishes that, though it's perhaps the most pushed design I came up with here and would have to have its CMC increased when you compare it to what I came up with for Planar Piracy.

[JessWill]

@wizyard

Since both Drain Power and Mana Drain was brought up, I was inspired to make this design, which kind of splits the difference and does something more like what I want Piracy to do, but at instant speed: Tap out your opponent and get all the mana.

Prophet of Dominion
Creature - Faerie Wizard (M)
Flash
Flying
When this creature enters, target player activates a mana ability of each land they control. Then that player loses all unspent mana. At the beginning of your next main phase, add the mana lost this way to your mana pool.
4/4

I was somewhat inspired by seeing Mistbind Clique as well.

I still feel a bit green / unsure about designing for Mythic, as I'm mostly experienced playing MTG before Mythic existed and it can be hard to gauge what counts as a mythic or if it's just an excuse to design an overpowered or broken card. But this feels appropriately mythic to me.

[Scuirimancer]

Random thought while reading through these...

Pirate Base UG
Enchant Land
You control enchanted land during your turn.

[void_nothing]

Now that's just smart templating.

[JessWill]

Random thought while reading through these...

Pirate Base UG
Enchant Land
You control enchanted land during your turn.

That's cool and to the point, as a microcosm of this general idea. There's a much older card from Mirage, Wellspring that kind of already does this, but it's a sleeper card at this point that feels pretty minor for the 3 mana.

I've also designed a share of creatures before that let you gain control of opponents lands until end of turn, if tapped / untapped / deals damage to opponent. Similar theme. Works for the flavor of Barbarians in as well as Pirates and Nomads in .

[Scuirimancer]

That's cool and to the point, as a microcosm of this general idea. There's a much older card from Mirage, Wellspring that kind of already does this, but it's a sleeper card at this point that feels pretty minor for the 3 mana.

Ohh yeah... forgot about Wellspring!

[JessWill]

That's cool and to the point, as a microcosm of this general idea. There's a much older card from Mirage, Wellspring that kind of already does this, but it's a sleeper card at this point that feels pretty minor for the 3 mana.

Ohh yeah... forgot about Wellspring!

Yea, though Wellspring is kind of in "the wrong colors" being white, doing it in blue and green like you did makes more sense with the color pie and flavor-wise. Making it 2 mana also makes it feel worth it.

There's actually another old card, one set after Mirage, from Visions, that gets mana from your opponents lands and is in the right colors: Pygmy Hippo. It actually taps out all their lands if you deal damage to them and choose to forgoe the damage, but you get colorless mana.

[Scuirimancer]

Syphon Mana 2R
Sorcery
Add R to your mana pool for each land target opponent controls. Then tap those lands.

[JessWill]

Syphon Mana 2R
Sorcery
Add R to your mana pool for each land target opponent controls. Then tap those lands.

I can definitely see red having a go at this too, as it is very anti-blue as something on your turn.

I could see adding that much mana at once for cheap stacking like crazy in longer / group formats and some might object to this card because of that. Not sure if it should be increased to 4 mana. Or only apply to untapped lands of theirs.

Going out on a limb here, but another approach for red might be something like:

Occupy Terrain
Sorcery (U)
Gain control of target land until end of turn. Untap that land. Until end of turn, that land produces an additional .

Or, as a more limited version of your idea...

Syphon Mana
Sorcery (U)
Tap all untapped lands target player controls, then add for each land tapped this way.

This would require you to use other cards to untap your opponents lands to maximize on it, while still allowing for potentially large amounts of mana in the late game.