Piracy from Portal Second Age - A Magic the Gathering Card Review

by    Phoenix Desertsong

Years ago, Wizards of the Coast released "starter" sets to try and get more players into Magic: the Gathering. These sets include Starter 1999, Portal, Portal Second Age, and the extremely rare and valuable Portal Three Kingdoms. While most cards in these Starter sets are fairly basic, with rares such as Phantom Warrior, which has been since reprinted at uncommon in other sets, there are some unique cards.

Piracy is a card never reprinted outside of Portal Second Age and Starter 1999. It actually does something really cool. For only UU (2 blue mana) during that turn you may tap your opponents' lands to help pay for your spells.

As cool as Piracy's effect is, however, it's a card you rarely ever see played due to how strange its effect really is. It's hard to build a deck around a card like this due to the fact you don't know what lands your opponent may be playing. It's a fun little card in Commander, played at the correct time. If you're able to reuse it later in the game, it gets even better. Piracy is more of a cool curiosity at this point. Still, I would've loved to have pulled one of these had I been playing those starter sets.

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