"Those greedy rich Lotus Cobras need to pay their taxes!"?

I already forgot that I made this. One of the GDS2 sets used gold counters, right?

Answering my own question: Right. Devon Rule used them in Utopia. I was going to say I wouldn't want them to pay for mana or life, but that interpretation is much less parasitic than having them only pay for costs asking for gold counters.

...not to have the silly conversation in Spirit Away take from your comments over here in Tax Collector land.

The idea's fun, but, as you pointed out, parasitic. I actually had a different impression of the card when I first saw it. I didn't feel that it got the flavor of tax collection down perfectly. I mean, if a card's going to go out there and extend itself for a strange parasitic mechanic, it might as well ask for it in as forced and contrived a manner as possible. ;)

While my head is floating around 25% taxation rates and 1.5% APR, I accidentaly came up with a playable mechanic:

"When ~ enters the battlefield, gain control of target land, as long as its controller controls at least five lands."

It is with some regret, that if this card existed in the real world, that it would need a clause that said "If a player controls one hundred or more lands, he may ignore this ability."

Hah. Nicely done sir.