A question for the experienced 4CC player.

[Tristal]

Regarding Decree of Justice, how often do you find yourself doing the following:

Cycling it for 0 (or 1) soldier?
Cycling it for a lot of soldiers (3+)?
Cycling it for a lot of soldiers off a Mana Drain?
Hard casting it for one angel?
Hard casting it for a lot of angels off a Mana Drain?

I find myself doing the last of these far more often than any other option.  Does this seem weird to anyone else?  In my last tournament, I went 5-0 (10-0) and made zero Soldiers, but around 12 Angels.  I'd like to get some opinions on this card from other 4CC'ers; how do you people use this card?

Also, when posting, please say how many Decrees you run - I think running two you would be more likely to cycle it early on; I only run one.

[JuJu]

First, Thank You for still playing 4cc and Decree of Justice. I thought I was the only one left besides Zherb.
To answer your question, it depends. I'm running 2 DoJ and 2 Angels and that DoJ has won me so many games I've had absolutely no business of winning. In the mirror it's amazing. They can throw out all kinds of broken stuff and then EoT you cycle for a bunch of soldiers.  Sometimes the same wll happen vs Mono blue. Sometimes when Playing against Aggro, I'll drain into 3 of them and  Kill of Juggies and what not.  DoJ doesn't even make a difference vs Combo. But in the end it all depends.

[Zherbus]

I'm using two in the board, sometimes 1 maindeck.

Cycling it for 0 soldiers? Maybe once... ever.
Cycling for 1 soldier? Pretty rarely
Cycling it for 2-3 soldiers? Pretty common
Cycling it for 4+ soldiers? More common than just 1, but fairly rare.
Cycling it for a lot of soldiers off a Mana Drain? As often as possible.
Hard casting it for one angel? I did it a few times against Suicide and Fish in my day.
Hard casting it for a lot of angels off a Mana Drain? 2-3 happens, but not often at all.

[Milton]

It is a terrific card for my metagame.  It can suprise the hell out of someone who has a Standstill in play and it makes your drains phenomonal.  My metagame is aggro and artifact aggro heavy, so I have 2 Decree, 2 Shaman and 2 Angels maindeck.

[MaxxMatt]

I played 1 Decree until 2 weeks ago.
I decided to play 3 of them now and a single Angel.
I found them the perfect fit in my metagame. They are self replacing and are good against Hulk. Angels NEVER resolve against Hulk. They are so pathetic in that matchup ( but strong in a lot other matches ) than i cut them all gaining a lot more than I lost.

Back to the question.

Cicle for Zero or 1 is usual with so many Decrees. Almost never happen when I had only one Decree.
Cicle for 3+ Soldiers is needed with my last configuration becuause I often won with them. Usually is the second Decree to be meduim sized.
Cicle for a lot of soldier. Maybe it is playstyle, but it never happen. Casting creatures  instead of resolving draw spells or Mindtwist or CoW or Y.Will is a big no in my mind
6 Mana for a flying 4/4 It usually happened ONLY against stupid aggro-random decks. So... Not so often
A lot of mana for a lot of flying 4/4 It is the role of my last Decree. Soldiers against Control and Combo and Angels against Aggro and Prison decls if the game is long and I have a lot of mana.

I have 3 Skeletals and 2 Gorillas maindeck, while I have a single Gush in my board. With one Exalted, I usually can rise a bit my life points not to autoscoop to my own spells. Against Control and Combo Decrees are far better than Exalted and you don't need to draw more cards than the 2/3 of your life points in order to win. Against aggro you have a lot of Tutors and Counters to find and protect the lone Angel.

Hulk, Prison and Combo are my common matchups, so I HAVE to use more Decrees to rise my own winning rate against them.

On the other hand, I found ZERO difficulties on resolving in a productive way both Decrees and Exalted in every matchup EXCEPT the one against Hulk-Smash and sometimes against C-Slavery. The rate of Decrees/Exalted in my maindeck depends ONLY of their rising number.

[Tristal]

Cycling it for a lot of soldiers off a Mana Drain? As often as possible.

I ONLY do this in control mirrors, and only when I don't have another good mana sink in my hand (FoF, Scrying, Twist etc).  Given a choice between card draw or kill condition, I'll take card draw almost every time.  (The exception is if I have 3 from a Drain and an Angel in hand; usually I'll morph the Angel and hold back for morphing or FoF mana at EoT.)

[Zherbus]

If I can help it, I avoid using my card draw on my mainphase. Besides, the effect it has to make an opponent go from the proactive to reactive is often unsettling if you can make about 4 tokens.

[JuJu]

usually I'll morph the Angel and hold back for morphing or FoF mana at EoT.)

You're playing Morphling? Or is that just an example?

[Daniel_112]

He meant unmorping the angel, not "Morphling".

I'm thinking of playing this in a heavy powered meta:
3 decree 1 angel

If you play more decrees its easier to cycle your first decree for only 2 tokens. It makes your decrees suck less at the beginning of the game.

[orgcandman]

Cycling it for 0 soldiers? Almost never
Cycling for 1 soldier? Again...very rarely
Cycling it for 2-3 soldiers? This is the number
Cycling it for 4+ soldiers? Every now and then if the game has stalled out
Cycling it for a lot of soldiers off a Mana Drain? If I get the chance, and there's no angel/will/crucible in hand
Hard casting it for one angel? I'll usually do this if I feel I can squeeze one out.
Hard casting it for a lot of angels off a Mana Drain? The most I've pooped out was 3. I like this more than cycling, but I think cycling is the better play usually.


As far as decree/angel configuration, I don't see how the deck can support less than 2 angels. I'm seeing people do it left and right, but it just seems like a dice roll to me.

[Danzig]

Cycling it for 0 (or 1) soldier? Never.
Cycling it for a lot of soldiers (3+)? Most of the time.
Cycling it for a lot of soldiers off a Mana Drain? Some of the time.
Hard casting it for one angel? A few rare times.
Hard casting it for a lot of angels off a Mana Drain? Thrice.

I run 3 Exalteds and 2 Decrees.