Dictation Quillograph MTG Card

Rarity	Common
Type	Artifact — Contraption
Released	2017-12-08
Set symbol
Set name	Unstable
Set code	UST
Number	175
Frame	2015
Layout	Normal
Border	Borderless
Illustred by	Ralph Horsley
Un-set :-)	This card is part of an Un-set

Key Takeaways

Dictation Quillograph offers doubled spell casting opportunities for major game influence and tactics.
Resource enhancement is achievable with this card’s spell-copying ability, leading to rapid mana growth.
The card’s instant-speed usage grants a flexible and dynamic response to opponents’ moves.

Text of card

Whenever you crank Dictation Quillograph, until end of turn, target creature gains "Whenever this creature deals combat damage to a player, you may draw a card. If you do, discard a card."

Card Pros

Card Advantage: Dictation Quillograph shines when it comes to card advantage, letting players transcribe and create a copy of certain spells, essentially doubling opportunities to influence the game state or outmaneuver opponents.

Resource Acceleration: This card takes resource acceleration to a new level, allowing for strategic planning and more efficient use of mana. By copying spells that generate resources, you can ramp up your mana base even faster, leading to a significant advantage over your adversary.

Instant Speed: The ability to use Dictation Quillograph at instant speed grants flexibility, enabling responses to the unfolding game dynamically. Instant speed plays are crucial for shifting momentum and this card allows for a reactive strategy, keeping adversaries guessing.

Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Engaging in the intricate magic of Dictation Quillograph necessitates discarding another card. Such a cost is steep for those already grasping at a waning hand, potentially stripping away strategic options or valuable plays.

Specific Mana Cost: Harnessing this card’s potential requires a precise blend of mana, locking its use within decks that can consistently produce the exact colors, and thus might not seamlessly integrate into more flexible mana bases or various deck archetypes.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: While the allure of Dictation Quillograph is undeniable, the mana investment required can be weighty when contrasted with other options in your arsenal. Its cost often dwarfs that of alternatives that either advance board presence or refill your hand with less strain on your resources.

Reasons to Include in Your Collection

Versatility: Dictation Quillograph can be a flexible addition to various deck archetypes that benefit from copying instant or sorcery spells. Its ability to interact with the stack gives it a place in a range of strategic plays.

Combo Potential: With the power to duplicate spells, this card opens up a plethora of combo possibilities, allowing for powerful plays and synergy with spellslinger-type decks that focus on casting numerous instants and sorceries.

Meta-Relevance: Given its ability to copy key spells, Dictation Quillograph holds significant value in a meta where spell-based strategies are prevalent. It allows players to get ahead by leveraging their spells’ effects multiple times.

How to beat

Dictation Quillograph may seem like a tricky card to navigate against in the world of Magic: The Gathering. This card lets a player capitalize on casting spells by potentially creating an abundant supply of tokens. However, even the mightiest cards have their vulnerabilities. The key to suppressing Dictation Quillograph’s advantage lies in timing and disruption.

Aggressive counterplay can efficiently derail the card’s benefits. Therefore, employing instant-speed removal or counterspells when the opponent is poised to cast a critical spell can prevent the replication of tokens. Additionally, hand disruption tactics can preemptively rid your opponent’s hand of the Quillograph or target the spells essential for its activation.

It is also effective to manage the battlefield with board wipes before the token generation gets out of hand, ensuring that the Quillograph’s potential impact is diminished. Always keep in mind that strategic plays, surveillance of opponent’s mana, and prediction of their casting patterns are indispensable when attempting to render Dictation Quillograph less effective in a duel.

Cards like Dictation Quillograph

Dictation Quillograph offers a unique twist in the realm of card advantage tools in Magic: The Gathering. When we consider its parallels, one can’t help but look at the likes of Teferi’s Puzzle Box, which nets a new hand each turn, though it doesn’t offer the same targeted approach to manipulation. Dictation Quillograph allows you to shape your hand with precision every upkeep, offering a degree of control uncommon in continuous shuffle effects.

Another comparable card is Jace’s Archivist, which shares the ability to refresh hands. However, Dictation Quillograph gives a more gradual and controllable method, dispensing with Jace’s Archivist’s abrupt and often unwieldy discard and draw approach. Then there’s Whirlpool Rider that also reshuffles hands, but it lacks the repeatability and strategic depth that come with Dictation Quillograph’s trigger with each upkeep.

In spatial analysis, Dictation Quillograph stands out for its consistent, controlled impact on the game’s tempo and the precision it offers players over their strategies. This positions it as a formidable tool in decks designed for methodical play and hand sculpting.

Cards similar to Dictation Quillograph by color, type and mana cost

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Dictation Quillograph MTG card by a specific set like Unstable, there are several reliable options to consider. One of the primary sources is your local game store, where you can often find booster packs, individual cards, and preconstructed decks from current and some past sets. They often offer the added benefit of a community where you can trade with other players.

For a broader inventory, particularly of older sets, online marketplaces like TCGPlayer, Card Kingdom and Card Market offer extensive selections and allow you to search for cards from specific sets. Larger e-commerce platforms like eBay and Amazon also have listings from various sellers, which can be a good place to look for sealed product and rare finds.

Additionally, Magic’s official site often has a store locator and retailer lists for finding Wizards of the Coast licensed products. Remember to check for authenticity and the condition of the cards when purchasing, especially from individual sellers on larger marketplaces.

Below is a list of some store websites where you can buy the Dictation Quillograph and other MTG cards:

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Rules and information

The reference guide for Magic: The Gathering Dictation Quillograph card rulings provides official rulings, any errata issued, as well as a record of all the functional modifications that have occurred.

Date	Text
2018-01-19	Any Contraption that’s on the battlefield and wasn’t assembled immediately heads to the scrapyard. However, if it’s a not an actual Contraption card (like Copy Artifact isn’t), it goes to your graveyard as normal. Non-Contraption cards can’t be in the scrapyard.
2018-01-19	At the beginning of your upkeep, if you control any Contraptions, move the CRANK! counter to the next sprocket. You may then crank any number of Contraptions on that sprocket, causing their abilities to trigger. Cranking a Contraption is always optional.
2018-01-19	Contraptions are artifacts. Anything that interacts with artifacts will interact with Contraptions.
2018-01-19	Contraptions aren’t put into your main deck. They go into a separate deck called the Contraption deck.
2018-01-19	If a Contraption would leave the battlefield and go to any zone other than exile, it instead goes to the scrapyard, the Contraption deck’s version of the graveyard. Things that affect the graveyard do not affect the scrapyard. You can exile Contraptions just fine.
2018-01-19	If you crank multiple Contraptions, their abilities can be put onto the stack in any order. The ability put onto the stack will resolve first.
2018-01-19	If you or a permanent you control are instructed to assemble a Contraption, reveal the top card of your Contraption deck. Put it onto the battlefield on one of the three sprockets.
2018-01-19	If you or a permanent you control assembles a Contraption and your Contraption deck is empty, nothing happens. You don’t lose the game.
2018-01-19	In Constructed formats, a Contraption deck must have at least fifteen different Contraption cards and no more than one of each.
2018-01-19	In Limited formats, a Contraption deck may include any number of Contraption cards in your card pool. You don’t have to include every Contraption card you draft or open in sealed deck. In those formats, your Contraption deck may include duplicates.
2018-01-19	In silver-bordered games using Contraptions, you have three sprockets, illustrated on the back of Contraption cards. At the start of the game, put a CRANK! counter on sprocket 3.
2018-01-19	While Contraptions you control are on the battlefield, the Contraption deck is not, even if you are using it to signify the three sprockets.