Judge foil for two reasons: Firstly, it has the better frame. Secondly, it doesn't have that ugly purple timeshifted icon. (Or am I the only one who hates how that color sticks out like a sore thumb among all normal set/rarity symbols?)
I don't think anyone was trying to say you're posting in the wrong thread, I think other folks wanted to say this was nearly on all our lists. Or at the very least, we all tried it.
StarSlayer this is 100% the place for posting about your experience with Dictate. Thanks for sharing it. This thread is a place to share unpopular ideas that found success in your own cube.
Sorry, it seems that my last comment was giving a wrong impression that I didn't intend it to do. I meant that for praising Dictate, this thread is just the right place because it fits the intent of this thread perfectly.
Onto my own unpopular idea! I'm planning on cutting Dreadbore for 3 reasons!
1) Want to run Daretti, Ingenious Iconoclast.
2) Black has this effect covered with both Never // Return and Hero's Downfall.
3) It's my most minor gripe with it, but Dreadbore doesn't feel red whatsoever.
I feel you. I went through this a year or two ago. I am a huge fan of removal that deals with both creatures and planeswalkers. I was very hesitant to cut Dreadbore. I ultimately did it mostly due to point numer 2): Whereas such flexible removal was scarce a couple of years ago, we now have more decent options, making Dreadbore less necessary.
Dictate is one of those cards. It's a top 10 white card for me. Roughly comparable to Armageddon.
You don't get to call me the king of hyperbole anymore. You've just stolen the crown.
Except that wasn't a hyperbolic statement, but rather one reflecting my own experience of cubing with both cards for years. I am still baffled why Dictate is such an all-star in my cube but is getting lukewarm responses from most other cubers.
The only real explanation that I have is that the stronger creature-focus of my cube has a much higher impact on decks and matchups and general dynamic of the typical game than it seems at first glance. I do see my cube as a rather standard traditional unpowered list. The supported archetypes are rather common, as are most card choices. I try to run the most powerful cards, except for a dozen or so that I consider powered (thus making my cube unpowered) and half a dozen that I just dislike. The ratios for colors, multicolors, colorless, lands and fixing are within the norm, too. The only thing where my cube deviates is the number of creatures: I run roughly 5% more than most other lists. For years, I didn't consider this noteworthy. 5% seems so little. However, again and again, I find that I have a very different experience with a certain type of cards: Those that demand a certain creature density and/or those that thrive in creature-focused matchups.
With this in mind, Dictate of Heliod has been an absolute all-star in my cube. "I won every game where I resolved Dictate." is a common statement among my drafters. Similar to "I won every game where I resolved Armageddon.". And while the latter is the more powerful Magic card, there are more situations where it is not wise to cast it. Like, when your opponent has a relevant board presence that rivals or exceeds your own. And due to the creature-centric nature of my cube, those situations aren't uncommon, leading to games where you draw Armageddon, but it doesn't really help you. And you have to admit that it rarely helps you when you are behind on board. Unlike Dictate, which not only helps you win faster, but also prevents you from losing in such a situation. As LSV says: The best bombs are those that not only win you the game when you are ahead, but also stabilize you when you are behind and are generally good in many situations. That's just what Dictate does. Provided that you have at least two or three creatures on the battlefield. And at least in my cube, that is rarely a problem in the proper deck.
And that's why I am talking about this card in the "unpopular successes" thread. The card seems very unpopular here, but it was a huge success for us. There are few cards that go as consistently trough the following sequence:
You are losing. You resolve this card. You are winning.
Dictate is one of those cards. It's a top 10 white card for me. Roughly comparable to Armageddon.
My biggest issue was that I didn't want to wait until 5 mana to play my anthems. With all the other anthems available I felt it was better to play those early and then spend my turn 5 playing Cloudgoat Ranger instead of another anthem.
With three creatures out, Dictate adds as much p/t as Cloudgoat does... with haste. It sometimes plays like white Thundermaw Hellkite / Reality Smasher. One that can't be entirely killed with (creature) spot removal. And is even kinda recursive / resilient against mass removal (each creature you drop after a sweeper "reactivates" one of its +2/+2 buffs).
Dictate is one of the best curve topper 5-drops you can play in an aggro deck.
I've also been playing him since he came out. Realy solid red 2-drop. The first strike is very relevant. In an aggro deck with a lower instant/sorcery count (say, five or less), I like him more than the somewhat overhyped Young Pyromancer.
Sphinx of Lost Truths is a card I don't think I've ever actually seen in anyone else's cube, and it's still one I'm pretty fond of. You don't get too much from it as a 5-drop, but even in this form I find it solid against aggro, useful for card selection, and good for helping to fuel Delve as well as supporting reanimator decks and other graveyard interactions. 5 toughness also helps to survive Wildfire, offering small support for U/R varieties of the deck.
I ran that one in the early years of my cube! I liked the large amount looting and high toughness. It got cut for some more powerful 5- or 6-drop, but I don't think that it is that far off the power standard and the looting / card draw option is rare on a creature.
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A card that has been absolutely stellar in my cube that doesn't get much (or any) recognition around here is Dictate of Heliod. I think that card is absolutely insane in any WX aggressive deck. Not only does it win you the game when you are ahead (like Armageddon would), it also prevents your from losing the game when you are behind. Dictete turns any random two or three creatures (even if those are just 1-drops or small tokens) into a serious board position. And it can act as a mean surprise and is rather hard to remove. Sure, it doesn't do anything if you lose all your creatures, but it also helps you rebuild insanely quickly. Even the most meager guy you topdeck turns into an actual threat. Also, having your dudes outsized by your midrange or control opponent just doesn't happen with Dictate. You'll have the earlier creatures and the bigger creatures!
I actually defended the Invocations as not that bad when they were spoiled. Sure, they are the worst masterpieces and making the art smaller than on a normal card is super dumb, but the rest of the stylistic choices weren't that bad.
Well, I recently opened my first Invocation and after holding it in my hand, I had to revise my stance. It just looks absolutely terrible in person. The two main problems (smaller, therefore harder to see art and hard to read head line and type line) are heavily amplified by the extreme foil effect. On the online images, you couldn't really see this effect, but in person, it is just terrible.
I am generally against foil cards, because they make the cards harder to read and recognize (and thus harder to play with, which is just stupid for cards that are meant to playing with) but on the Invocations, this problem is multiplied.
I absolutely love how Feldon of the Third Path's card tells a whole story. The combination of rules text, art and flavor text is just fantastic. And the card has a pretty neat effect, too, overlapping reanimation and artifact strategies.
I second a true Xantcha card! Ashnod could also use a card.
Whirler Rogue is a very solid card. I mostly included it for the artifact archetype, but it also has sweet synergy with a bunch of individual cards (Opposition, Skullclamp, blinkers). And it can also be used in tempo decks to push those last points of damage through.
My cube has 33,5% c+uc. That ratio has gone down over the years. It was once over 40%, but Wizards prints less cubable commons than they once did and really pushed uncommons are also not that plentiful. Most inclusions from new sets are rares and mythics now. I partially blame New World Order for this. It surely reduced the amount of super strong commons and almost entirely removed those crazy quirky commons that popped up in older sets.
Here are my inclusions from HOU. I am going to cut my human subtheme and reintroduce the 3-color section with 5 cards total.
Definite inclusions (OUT >> IN):
Thalia’s Lieutenant >> Adorned Pouncer - Mediocre on its own, but great with anthems and equips. Cool lategame bonus.
Eldrazi Skyspawner OR Aether Adept >> Nimble Obstructionist - Instant-speed threat and answer in one card? Yes please!
Scatter to the Winds >> Supreme Will - Another flexible blue card. And another splashable counter.
Abbot of Keral Keep >> Burning-Fist Minotaur - More discard outlets in red! Fine aggro beater, too.
Combustible Gearhulk >> Hour of Devastation - A potent red sweeper that deals with creatures and planeswalkers!
Collective Defiance OR ?? >> Abrade - I like maindeckable artifact destruction.
Mayor of Averbruck >> Ramunap Excavator - There are cool things you can do with repeated land recursion.
Adaptive Automaton >> Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh - I love having Bolas represented in my cube. Good control wincon.
Possible Inclusions (OUT >> IN):
Secure the Wastes >> Angel of Condemnation - Another flexible blink effect.
Dragonlord Silumgar >> The Scarab God - Card seems fine.
All in all, a weaker set than most. Even though there is no real slamdunk for all sizes, HOU still has some decent cards. Though I have to admit that some of the inclusions only happen because I wanted to cut certain cards for a while now.
Did I miss it or did nobody mention all the card advantage that you can get with looting/rummaging yet?
The most fun I can remember having with Crucible of Worlds was when I combined it with Daretti, Scrap Savant. And no, I did not sacrifice Crucible with the middle ability.
Ok, not making it into smaller cubes due to the competetion is true. I myself run 5 red sweepers, 4 of which I grade strictly over Hour of Devastation (namely Fiery Confluence with its great flexibility, Rolling Earthquake because it is splashable and scalable and the two Wildfires due to being an archetype of their own). Losing out to the competition doesn't make the card bad though. Just a bit worse than half a dozen or so allstars.
After thinking about it more, I'd rather play Jokulhaups if I wanted this effect. I want to break the symmetry of 5+ mana sweepers, not break even or take a loss.
You complain that it's hard to break the symmetry of HoD, but bring up Jokulhaups as a better alternative that is easier to make asymmetrical? What? It is way harder to make that card asymmetrical. You have to actively jump through hoops, whereas with HoD, it is pretty simple.
Red has the most to lose with Hour of Devastation since it has the highest planeswalker saturation amongst mono / multi colored walkers.
Just looking at mono-color planeswalkers, all colors have enough great options by now to fill out smaller and medium cubes. It is true that if multi-colored planeswalkers are considered, then red has more frequently run walkers than other colors. I don't see how having slightly more planeswalker makes HoD bad? It's a minor consideration at best. Even if you run multiple planeswalkers in your deck, you should be able to sequence playing and using them and playing HoD.
If my good sweepers are in my other color, what do I need this for?
Sometimes I get the feeling that you misunderstand me on purpose or at least pretend that you do. The secondary color is for answering early (e.g. reanimated) fatties that red has a hard time dealing with. How do you conclude that this answer has to be a sweeper? An early fatty is usually a singular threat and you can use bounce or counterspells (blue) or spot removal (white and black) or edicts (black) to deal with those. Do you understand this now that I have spelled it out for you?
At the end of the day, it's a 5cc wrath. Those need to be particularly pushed to be worthy of inclusion.
It is pretty pushed. Red sweepers usually deal 4 damage for 5 mana or are even stuck at dealing 2, 3 or 4. 5 damage (to all kinds of creatures) for 5 mana is a pretty good ratio. And it even deals with opposing planeswalkers! That's a bargain!
This fails to kill huge monsters,
As I pointed out before, red has a problem dealing with high toughness creatures in general. Unless you sink a billion mana into an x-spell. If you want to kill huge monsters at an efficient rate, you have to look at other colors (mostly white and black). Since we are talking about a red sweeper here, the point that it fails to kill huge monsters is moot. Or we should start calling Lightning Bolt and Wildfire bad because they don't kill huge monsters?
AND kills my planeswalkers.
AND kills your opponent's planeswalkers. Which is great, because planeswalkers are usually hard to deal with in a deck that runs sweepers, since those decks lack early creatures that can pressure opposing planeswalkers without needing dedicated removal. Having your sweeper deal with multiple types of threats is a plus.
Also, since you are playing this spell, you can sequence your plays accordingly. If you drop a planeswalker before you play this, then that's your fault, not the fault of this card. Punishing you for bad plays doesn't make the card bad.
Speaking of bad plays, how often do you even drop a planeswalker before your sweeper against a deck where you need said sweeper? If you need your sweeper, than that is because your opponent has multiple creatures out. And if you run a sweeper in your deck, then this usally means that you don't have early creatures yourself. So why do you want to play your planeswalker against a bunch of opposing creatures that have a full turn to attack it to death before you deal with those creatures??
Lastly, I can't even begin to understand why being a symmetrical removal is suddenly considered a terrible thing? Wrath of God kills your own creatures, too! What a terrible card!?
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Maybe I am a bit overhyped about this card, but I have read allmost no good arguments against it. I have mostly just read a whole lot of nonsense.
Guess I'll cut Detention Sphere for it.
But yeah, couldn't this have been a 3/3 for 3BB?
I feel you. I went through this a year or two ago. I am a huge fan of removal that deals with both creatures and planeswalkers. I was very hesitant to cut Dreadbore. I ultimately did it mostly due to point numer 2): Whereas such flexible removal was scarce a couple of years ago, we now have more decent options, making Dreadbore less necessary.
Except that wasn't a hyperbolic statement, but rather one reflecting my own experience of cubing with both cards for years. I am still baffled why Dictate is such an all-star in my cube but is getting lukewarm responses from most other cubers.
The only real explanation that I have is that the stronger creature-focus of my cube has a much higher impact on decks and matchups and general dynamic of the typical game than it seems at first glance. I do see my cube as a rather standard traditional unpowered list. The supported archetypes are rather common, as are most card choices. I try to run the most powerful cards, except for a dozen or so that I consider powered (thus making my cube unpowered) and half a dozen that I just dislike. The ratios for colors, multicolors, colorless, lands and fixing are within the norm, too. The only thing where my cube deviates is the number of creatures: I run roughly 5% more than most other lists. For years, I didn't consider this noteworthy. 5% seems so little. However, again and again, I find that I have a very different experience with a certain type of cards: Those that demand a certain creature density and/or those that thrive in creature-focused matchups.
With this in mind, Dictate of Heliod has been an absolute all-star in my cube. "I won every game where I resolved Dictate." is a common statement among my drafters. Similar to "I won every game where I resolved Armageddon.". And while the latter is the more powerful Magic card, there are more situations where it is not wise to cast it. Like, when your opponent has a relevant board presence that rivals or exceeds your own. And due to the creature-centric nature of my cube, those situations aren't uncommon, leading to games where you draw Armageddon, but it doesn't really help you. And you have to admit that it rarely helps you when you are behind on board. Unlike Dictate, which not only helps you win faster, but also prevents you from losing in such a situation. As LSV says: The best bombs are those that not only win you the game when you are ahead, but also stabilize you when you are behind and are generally good in many situations. That's just what Dictate does. Provided that you have at least two or three creatures on the battlefield. And at least in my cube, that is rarely a problem in the proper deck.
You are losing. You resolve this card. You are winning.
Dictate is one of those cards. It's a top 10 white card for me. Roughly comparable to Armageddon.
Dictate is one of the best curve topper 5-drops you can play in an aggro deck.
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A card that has been absolutely stellar in my cube that doesn't get much (or any) recognition around here is Dictate of Heliod. I think that card is absolutely insane in any WX aggressive deck. Not only does it win you the game when you are ahead (like Armageddon would), it also prevents your from losing the game when you are behind. Dictete turns any random two or three creatures (even if those are just 1-drops or small tokens) into a serious board position. And it can act as a mean surprise and is rather hard to remove. Sure, it doesn't do anything if you lose all your creatures, but it also helps you rebuild insanely quickly. Even the most meager guy you topdeck turns into an actual threat. Also, having your dudes outsized by your midrange or control opponent just doesn't happen with Dictate. You'll have the earlier creatures and the bigger creatures!
Well, I recently opened my first Invocation and after holding it in my hand, I had to revise my stance. It just looks absolutely terrible in person. The two main problems (smaller, therefore harder to see art and hard to read head line and type line) are heavily amplified by the extreme foil effect. On the online images, you couldn't really see this effect, but in person, it is just terrible.
I am generally against foil cards, because they make the cards harder to read and recognize (and thus harder to play with, which is just stupid for cards that are meant to playing with) but on the Invocations, this problem is multiplied.
I second a true Xantcha card! Ashnod could also use a card.
My cube has 33,5% c+uc. That ratio has gone down over the years. It was once over 40%, but Wizards prints less cubable commons than they once did and really pushed uncommons are also not that plentiful. Most inclusions from new sets are rares and mythics now. I partially blame New World Order for this. It surely reduced the amount of super strong commons and almost entirely removed those crazy quirky commons that popped up in older sets.
Definite inclusions (OUT >> IN):
Thalia’s Lieutenant >> Adorned Pouncer - Mediocre on its own, but great with anthems and equips. Cool lategame bonus.
Eldrazi Skyspawner OR Aether Adept >> Nimble Obstructionist - Instant-speed threat and answer in one card? Yes please!
Scatter to the Winds >> Supreme Will - Another flexible blue card. And another splashable counter.
Abbot of Keral Keep >> Burning-Fist Minotaur - More discard outlets in red! Fine aggro beater, too.
Combustible Gearhulk >> Hour of Devastation - A potent red sweeper that deals with creatures and planeswalkers!
Collective Defiance OR ?? >> Abrade - I like maindeckable artifact destruction.
Mayor of Averbruck >> Ramunap Excavator - There are cool things you can do with repeated land recursion.
Adaptive Automaton >> Nicol Bolas, God-Pharaoh - I love having Bolas represented in my cube. Good control wincon.
Possible Inclusions (OUT >> IN):
Secure the Wastes >> Angel of Condemnation - Another flexible blink effect.
Dragonlord Silumgar >> The Scarab God - Card seems fine.
All in all, a weaker set than most. Even though there is no real slamdunk for all sizes, HOU still has some decent cards. Though I have to admit that some of the inclusions only happen because I wanted to cut certain cards for a while now.
The most fun I can remember having with Crucible of Worlds was when I combined it with Daretti, Scrap Savant. And no, I did not sacrifice Crucible with the middle ability.
You complain that it's hard to break the symmetry of HoD, but bring up Jokulhaups as a better alternative that is easier to make asymmetrical? What? It is way harder to make that card asymmetrical. You have to actively jump through hoops, whereas with HoD, it is pretty simple.
Just looking at mono-color planeswalkers, all colors have enough great options by now to fill out smaller and medium cubes. It is true that if multi-colored planeswalkers are considered, then red has more frequently run walkers than other colors. I don't see how having slightly more planeswalker makes HoD bad? It's a minor consideration at best. Even if you run multiple planeswalkers in your deck, you should be able to sequence playing and using them and playing HoD.
This says it all. Mister Hyperbole is at it again.
It is pretty pushed. Red sweepers usually deal 4 damage for 5 mana or are even stuck at dealing 2, 3 or 4. 5 damage (to all kinds of creatures) for 5 mana is a pretty good ratio. And it even deals with opposing planeswalkers! That's a bargain!
As I pointed out before, red has a problem dealing with high toughness creatures in general. Unless you sink a billion mana into an x-spell. If you want to kill huge monsters at an efficient rate, you have to look at other colors (mostly white and black). Since we are talking about a red sweeper here, the point that it fails to kill huge monsters is moot. Or we should start calling Lightning Bolt and Wildfire bad because they don't kill huge monsters?
AND kills your opponent's planeswalkers. Which is great, because planeswalkers are usually hard to deal with in a deck that runs sweepers, since those decks lack early creatures that can pressure opposing planeswalkers without needing dedicated removal. Having your sweeper deal with multiple types of threats is a plus.
Also, since you are playing this spell, you can sequence your plays accordingly. If you drop a planeswalker before you play this, then that's your fault, not the fault of this card. Punishing you for bad plays doesn't make the card bad.
Speaking of bad plays, how often do you even drop a planeswalker before your sweeper against a deck where you need said sweeper? If you need your sweeper, than that is because your opponent has multiple creatures out. And if you run a sweeper in your deck, then this usally means that you don't have early creatures yourself. So why do you want to play your planeswalker against a bunch of opposing creatures that have a full turn to attack it to death before you deal with those creatures??
Lastly, I can't even begin to understand why being a symmetrical removal is suddenly considered a terrible thing? Wrath of God kills your own creatures, too! What a terrible card!?
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Maybe I am a bit overhyped about this card, but I have read allmost no good arguments against it. I have mostly just read a whole lot of nonsense.