Decree of Justice - A Magic the Gathering Rare Card Review

by ElspethFTW, Old School Duelist

Decree of Justice was originally printed in Scourge. It has been reprinted in the modern border as a Judge Promo, in Commander 2014, and in the Duel Decks: Elspeth vs Kiora. Therefore it is a pre-Modern card. It’s a fun little card, although due to its very restrictive mana cost, it’s not played outside Commander. Entreat the Angels is strictly better from a Constructed point of view. However, this card has an interesting take on the Cycling mechanic. Let’s take break this card down.

On the surface, Decree of Justice is a powerful card with a very high converted mana cost (XX2WW). To summon a single 4/4 white Angel creature token with flying into play, you have to pay 4WW. Six mana doesn’t seem worth that. For 2 flyers, you’re paying 6WW. Yes, the more mana you put into it, the better the result, right? Technically, yes. But that’s a ton of mana that you’re not going to have often in Constructed. Interestingly enough, the aforementioned Entreat the Angels, is basically the same thing, except with a cost of XXWWW. But that card also has the Miracle casting cost of XWW, so it’s clearly easier to cast.

The way the Miracle mechanic works, if you draw a Miracle card as the first card you drew during a turn - even if it’s on your opponent’s turn - you may cast it at instant speed for its Miracle cost. Miracle cards are all pretty powerful - Bonfire of the Damned, Terminus and Temporal Mastery being the other notable ones. Clearly, Entreat the Angels is the superior card. So what does Decree of Justice have going for it, then?

What sets Decree of Justice apart from Entreat the Angels is that it has Cycling for 2W. This means you can discard it and draw a card by discarding it and paying 2 colorless and one White. That doesn’t sound very exciting. However, as a caveat to that, you may pay X mana in addition as you Cycle it. You then get to put X 1/1 Soldier tokens into play. While that isn’t nearly as good as Entreat the Angels‘ Miracle casting cost,  Decree of Justice can do it at any time at instant speed, since Cycling is an instant speed mechanic.

Therefore, in Commander, this is a super good card. Being able to make a whole bunch of tokens at instant speed and drawing a card is totally worth it. It plays well alongside  Entreat the Angels, actually, in a token deck. It’s a little too costly to see competitive Constructed play. But it’s a solid card in Commander. It’s definitely a card to go after if you love abusing tokens in Commander. If not, it’s a card that you can find some Commander player who will definitely want to take it for a spin!

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