Pointed Discussion

Dash Hopes more like Bad Hopes amirite?

i play this in mai skull deck

Non-blue counters make me sad.

So no one else sees how hideously powerful this spell is? The weakness of the spell is of course the fact that your opponent can choose their fate and will naturally take the option they believe will hurt them the least through the course of the game. However, on the other hand, it doesn't matter which one they pick because either way you have achieved a large amount of mana efficiency; you've either countered a spell for two mana (not an easy thing to do these days) or done 5 damage for two mana.

Few things about this card in my experience:

1) When they think they don't need that 5 life they are usually wrong about that.

2) When they think it's not a big deal to let you counter a spell with your black deck, and they'd rather hang onto that 5 life, they're usually wrong about that, too.

3) This doesn't work as well in a multi player game, kinda like browbeat. It's a scary thing to do and someone is gonna want to stop you.

I think the main disadvantage of this card is that it does not advance your board position if the opponent chooses the "lose 5 life" option. Because board position is paramount and the opponent's life total relatively unimportant to a control deck, this card would only be useful in a mono-black beatdown. And because a beatdown deck does not want to leave mana open, this is probably going to be the last card in your hand. That means that if your opponent is also playing a fast deck, they probably won't be playing vital spells at the same time that you have mana open. It might, however, be decent disruption to sideboard in against a control deck. I think Duress or Thoughtseize are probably still superior, but I think this card is pretty neat and would like to try it out.

"1) When they think they don't need that 5 life they are usually wrong about that.

2) When they think it's not a big deal to let you counter a spell with your black deck, and they'd rather hang onto that 5 life, they're usually wrong about that, too."

I think this just means you play with idiots.

While in theory, your life total is fairly unimportant, and that the last point of life is what matters, Dash Hopes has the potential to remove 5 points of life. That's a quarter of what players will have without any lifegain. If you're already playing a form of aggro, this puts more stress on your opponent, and gives him less time to figure out options. If you're playing cards like corrupt and consume spirit to the face, all the more stress.

Huh? Wait, wait... It's common?? Counterspell (with black?) unless opponent: "I'll take that Lava Axe instead... for two mana." Neither of those effects are bad for that cost.

A Counterspell or a Lava Axe for 2!

HOLY CUSS WORD! Think about having all four of these in your hand. O_O

Personally I like it, even though it's not 100% foolproof. Most of the time the smarter opponent will take the 5 damage but if you're playing Black Aggro then that's generally a good thing...

I think I'm going to need a few of these.

It suffers from the Mana Leak problem late game, but paying three mana late game kills you less often than 5 life.

It's good because, like Lapse of Certainty, it's a non-blue counterspell. How many players are honestly going to expect a counterspell from a deck not running blue?

For those of you asking; this card is rated low because this card is terrible. The "punisher" cards such Dash Hopes, Browbeat and Skullscorch are among the worst cards in the entire game; you're opponent is the one who gets to decide how this spell will resolve and they will never choose that option that is best for you, the spell's controller. The only time these cards will ever be any good is when you already winning the game. This is the worst card in Planar Chaos and a card I hated at common as it was always clogging up the drafts with it's unplayable jankiness.

I like what they did with this and Imp's Mischief, where they took characteristics of blue and red and pulled them together into a black spell.

epic counter.

What many of you are not understanding is this is not for a control deck (for my part). Mainly its a 2 mana 5 life card, in a black deck designed to drain the life out of your opponent you want them to prefer board position to life. Good spell.

I love how incredibly powerful the cards from Planar Chaos are.

This card is nice, and was a good way to get a Counterspell into black while retaining a black feel. Nonetheless it sucks if your opponent has 5 life to spend. I played against a friend's deck and lost 15 mana to three of these but won anyway. This card can go either way. If your opponent has so much life they can afford to lose 5 without a sweat, you probably need to chip away their life anyway. And if they can't, then you get a counter. It's nice, but it can have it's downfalls.

I really like this card. What I like is that it's a bad card, but it's the kind of bad card that really makes you justify why it's so bad, because it's not obvious. So it's a really interesting card. I also like that it explores how much life you'd need to pay before it becomes a good card, because 5 life is fairly significant. Would it be a good card for 6 life? How about 7 life? How about 10 life? It's definitely not clear. It's a puzzle. And I like that.

it's great if you got two of these in hand and they pay the 5 life... you do it again! I say it's a win win situation. You could not play this and deal with their spell or you can make them pay the toll fee of 5 life.

This is a great card, provided you don't really expect to counter your opponent's big threats. You should take it as an instant-speed Lava Axe for two, which is awesome.

I love running this card in a Zombie-themed life-loss deck. Throwing this card in a deck with Shepherd of Rot, Gempalm Polluter, Vengeful Dead, and Tombstone Stairwell is fun times.

It's a counter in BLACK! No one will expect this, and either 5 dmg for 2 mana or counterspell for 2 mana is great! I love this card!

Majinara, posting a bunch of (highly implausible) hypothetical situations where dash hopes doesn't work does not make it garbage.

you can't comparer this to counterspell blue is the counter colour and black isn't so of coures blue counters should be better but still 5 life for 2 mana even red don't do that on one card!

It shines best with other cards that cause life loss on a timer (Maralen of the Mornsong for example) which make the "pay 5 life option" a lil heftier. Against lifegain its hilariously bad, but if you've got a clock on someone, it can speed those up a little. Not great, not garbage, 2-of at most. 3/5

I'm not going to lie:
I'm sort of surprised that this doesn't have a higher ranking.
It's essentially a black Counterspell,
But adding an ability to allow something to come through for 1/4 of a normal life total.
This is coming from somebody who hardly plays games against people who do combos, of course,
Where a hard counter is necessarry, obviously.
But, seriously, this card is seriously scary,
Especially because not only do people not see it coming,
But outside of combo, it's a quick tough choice to decide if what you played is worth 5 life.

Wow, I'm surprised it's only at 3.5. This card is highly underrated for a normal game in Legacy. Both B/W and B/G control decks work amazing in the format, and this card can help out both.

Wound Reflection + Sorin Markov. No, it's not a fairy tale.

There are 2 things that make this card good 1 makes it a little worse
1.Cheap
2.Both options don't suck

1.The opponet will choose the option that works better for his strategy, but both can be bad options in a pinch

Overall 4/5 a solid effect for its color

2 words. Isochron Scepter. Muahahahaa...

As a casual player only, I see this as an extremely mana efficient two drop.

My advice would be as follows - Don't use it as a hard counter but a lava axe. If you expect an opponent to give up Baneslayer Angel for 5 life, you are definetly an idiot. If you expect someone to happily take 5 to the face for a measley BB... then why not?

good as a damage spell, or as controll in the right conditions. usually you want to cast it when the oponint eather cant pay the life or if its targeting a spell that may or may not be worth 5 life. In the end, only use it in casual, as it is obviosly not competitive wourthy.

Dash Hopes is horrible. When you need a counter, it causes lifeloss. When you need your opponent to lose life, it counters. It never does what you want, unless you are in a situation where no matter what it does, you win. It's like a coin that, when you flip it, always makes you lose, because your opponent can choose the outcome.

If most of you guys think it's good, why has Dash Hopes never ever been in any successful tournament deck? Because adding Dash Hopes to a deck is a good way to ensure it won't be successful.

Yes, 5 lifeloss for two mana is good. Yes, countering a spell for 2 black mana is good. But the point is that both effects are highly situational. It doesn't matter what the card COULD do, because the only thing it does is what your opponent wants it to. Dash Hopes is like a burn spell that will never kill an opponent, or like a counterspell that works on all spells, except on those where it counts.

In what deck do you want to play it? Control? Dash Hopes is the opposite of control: it lets your opponent control the outcome. Control decks are not about burning your opponent for 5, they are about neutralizing their threats. Aggro then? Aggro wants to deal as much damage as quickly as possible. Aggro decks are not about countering spells, because countering spells is not part of an aggro strategy.

Once you realize that Dash Hopes is a bad card, you are on the way to becoming a better player. I never lost to an opponent playing Dash Hopes. When I did happen to encounter it, it was in the worst case slightly annoying. And whenever I'm paired with a random person in my team, who plays Dash Hopes, I groan because I know this game will be hard to win.

Haha, this is my favorite argument on gatherer.

Giving your opponent control is ALWAYS a bad thing!

Right Browbeat? How about you Fact or Fiction? Painful Quandry, what a piece of crap!

If you feel bad about casting this, you can always pay the 5 life yourself and counter it.

I have always been a fan of Blazing Salvo

I wasn't aware this card existed, working on getting a play set now.

Best response ever to Legacy RDW casting Fireblast

5 just for being black control. Rage about it.

Noone expects counter from a monoblack deck..especially if you're playing pauper format

Counter target spell or 5 damage for 2 mana ? ? Bring it on !
5/5

It's a great card. The drawback is minimal, and it is perfect for black. Black control decks still have to do damge, black is good at doing small amounts of damage directly and this dovetails with that strat. It also is amazing for discard strats, since they are going to be desperate to get that spell they saved out and will pay the life.

In an agro deck it's amazing because you can save it for when they are about to get a spell out that will save them from your assault. The key is to only use it in scenarios that make the choice hard for them. Black agro is not red agro: it's more likely to go late/mid game and you need direct damage or some other way of getting in the final punch. Of course, if you've got them down low anyway then it kicks ass. I wou;ld use it in a casual mono-black vampire deck to help get them below 10 life. As for requiring you to have untapped mana, if you are playing agro then you'll run out of cards and prolly have too much mana anyway.

That said, it does seem a bit weak in team muti-player as the opponent with the most life will counter it.

Still, compared to may similar-costing blue counterspells I think the drawback is more than fair. Paying 5 life is a lot worse than tapping some extra mana.

The people who argue against cards like Browbeat, or Dash Hopes are sucking the fun out of my Magic, and yours. Don't listen to them. Every card has its time to shine. You can't Counterspell something if your opponent doesn't play anything. You can't Lightning Bolt your opponent if they have Leyline of Sanctity up. You certainly can't use Tivadar's Crusade to any effect if your opponent isn't playing goblins. Magic is about mind games as well. You people seem to assume your opponent will always have the upper hand if you play cards like these. How about, you force them into a position where either outcome will ruin their game? Timing is crucial in magic all the time. This isn't the first card that relies on it. As a matter of fact, I would go so far as to say, 'every' card in Magic relies on timing. What if your opponent is at 3 health and they play some game breaking card? How often do you get to counter, or deal raw damage with black? Let me reitterate: Don't listen to people who try to go into the complexities of a children's card game. People are stupid. Exploit it with this card.

Dash Hopes is worse than Withering Boon. Yes, I am fully aware that Withering Boon is a terrible, terrible card. It just further emphasizes how bad Dash Hopes is.

You see, Withering Boon serves a role of reliably countering spells; if you need your black deck to have the ability to counter creatures, it will get the job done. The same can't be said for Dash Hopes. You can only rely on Dash Hopes giving you the worse of two potential outcomes. A good Magic deck is more than an amalgam of beneficial effects; a good deck defines the terms the game will be played upon, and then seeks to enforce them. You can't be proactively enforcing your gameplan with any of the "punisher" mechanic cards. So rather than building a finely-tuned machine, using cards like Dash Hopes is really throwing yourself at the mercy of your opponent's deck.

"Right Browbeat? How about you Fact or Fiction? Painful Quandry, what a piece of crap!"

Yep, Browbeat and Painful Quandry are crap.

Fact or Fiction is a totally different matter -- you either get cards or more cards. Futhermore, it's an instant that's definitely in the spirit of blue and backed by similar cards. Blue draw / go works a bit better than Mono-black permission decks.

"The people who argue against cards like Browbeat, or Dash Hopes are sucking the fun out of my Magic, and yours."

Just because you have a differing viewpoint on the card, it gives you the authority to speak for the experience of other people? What a concieted notion. As for myself, I enjoy discussing the merits and drawbacks of Magic cards. If you don't, you are probably in the wrong place if you wish to enjoy yourself.

"You can't Counterspell something if your opponent doesn't play anything."

Sounds like you're going to win that game anyway, so I don't see that as a situation where you'd complain. But addressing your missing of the point: Counterspell / Lightning Bolt / Tividar's Crusade always have the same function whenever cast. Dash Hopes has the potential to perform one of two functions, which you don't get to choose between. It is this added variable that Dash Hope introduces that ruins the card. Some variablility in the game is inevitable, but you should try to reduce it as much as possible if you wish to win.

"You people seem to assume your opponent will always have the upper hand if you play cards like these. How about, you force them into a position where either outcome will ruin their game?"

I don't think anyone arguing against Dash Hopes is assuming that. An example of why Dash Hopes is bad in the context you describe, prompted by you:

"What if your opponent is at 3 health and they play some game breaking card?"

I would have killed them last turn with the cards or creatures that aim to deal the final damage that I was playing instead of bad cards, like Dash Hopes. It seems like a better thing to do rather than playing a card that will never kill the opponent.

"Don't listen to people who try to go into the complexities of a children's card game."

Like you were just doing?

"People are stupid."
It is pretty stupid to tell a person that they shouldn't think too much about a game of strategy that they enjoy.

You would have a valid argument if it weren't for both effects being useful and undercosted.

Unless they're playing hardcore life-gain, people aren't going to be lining up to lose 5 life.
If they didn't really need the spell that's being countered, you wouldn't have countered it.

For 2, I'll let you pick. I really don't mind.
As has been said, in my experience with this card, the opponent will often end up making a bad decision and putting themselves further behind.

If you want 100% reliable counter spell, this is obviously not the spell you want.

But a bad card? I think you're wrong there. As long as you're not just countering every spell with this thing, the worst it can be is 5 damage for 1B.

And there's nothing more satisfying than watching an opponent kill themselves.

Worse than Counterspell, but black counterspells are off-color and this gives your opponent the choice between two bad decisions (pretty much like the red Odyssey spells like Browbeat, Breaking Point, or in this case (Molten Influence)
When not used for competitive Magic, it's still fun in casual.

This is a great card, it's either a counterspell or a Lava Axe for less than half the cost. No matter what they choose, you're still getting a bargain.

I can't believe that people are trying to say that this card is bad! This card is so insanely powerful, as far as I'm convinced it can single handedly end a game. It's a black counter spell with no draw backs. Don't wanna lose a quarter of your life? Well then your super important strategy card is gone. Don't want to lose your super important card? Well I guess you have to lose a quarter of your life. This card brings whole new meaning to Black Control, and can easily dominate a board. I have a deck that plays four of these babies in casual play and when this thing plays out for only two mana, my friends immediately start yelling obscenities as they desperately try to figure out what is more important to them, their strategy or their life. Five star card, and god save us all if it's ever reprinted again.

If your opponent has 5 or less life, this is a guaranteed black Counterspell.

And if they don't, well, then, you just dealt 5 Damage for 2 mana which is pretty good too.

I think more Spikey players don't like this card, no so much because of the choice it gives your opponent, but because the life loss in irrelevant. While writing this, I have to wonder why (as in I am disagreeing with myself) that they wouldn't feel the same way about burn spells. I would guess, that burn spells, are usually with more burn spells, you burn the opponent with them, and then burn them some more, and win.

This card, won't counter a spell, if it does, then you countered the wrong thing (or they would die if they took 5). That doesn't sound so good does it?

Or it does 5 damage for 2 mana, which is a great ratio, but doesn't really matter, I think many players would start off at 15 life for you to start with 6-7 (1st/2nd) cards in hand. Maybe even 10 or 5 (for less cards) How scary is someone with 3-4 cards in hand at the beginning of the game?

I have read a lot of scumbug1's comments. I have also noticed that he and I, are definitely on the opposite sides of the fence. I also notice he (or she I guess) puts up a good point most of the time. I'm quite sure we could discuss magic even change each others' opinions.

How does one rate a card? To tell the truth, I find it quite easy with cards nowadays, I find most of them quite straight forward. Either its good, or its not. Older cards, seem to require more thought to them. I can't just rate this card, Scumbug is absolutely correct in saying this card is worthless (in his opinion, this card is always not a good card, in my opinion by itself, it had no value, but once again, do you value a card based on how it does, or its potential?).
Both things are good for you, either you counter what needs to be countered, OR you do massive damage for 2 mana, problem is, you will never get what you need the most but perhaps if you make both choices very hard, but to do this, you need to use a different color, and this counter is very mono/heavy black. With green, your creatures will be too big, if you counter a kills spell, they will take the life, because its much less than your creature will most likely do, if you counter a creature (of a different color) odds are it either deals with your creature (and they take the life) or it was the best they had, and they let you, so they can ignore a swing from your creature. With white, I feel its about the same. Blue, Black and Red can keep it secret from your opponents and make the choice harder to make, but Blue is NOT allowed, because if you are using blue, then use a real counter. With black, you can use this to counter an important Enchantment or Artifact, but they will just take the 5, your creatures aren't efficient, and you aren't doing a lot of direct damage, most direct damage in black, cares very little about 5 life, usually its overkill, or not enough.
So we are looking at a black red deck, that's the first thought I had about this card. Red is the color I ... get along with the least. I don't understand it like red mages do, but wouldn't you rather have a more efficient burn spell? 2 mana, five life, is great, but you have to do it during their turn, and most red burn is low in mana (and therefore, very mono red).

There is no reason to use this card in most decks. Yes it can help you, but 'you' (some players, not just you) need to learn that there is always a different way to deal with things, let me give you an example.
Green can't kill creatures, almost ever, so when you are being milled to death by a Lich Lord of Unx how do you deal with it?
I firmly believe that a player should try and play a color that suits them, you will understand the game better and have more fun. When I teach new players magic, I always explain colors to them, and let them take their time.
If you feel that non-green is more your color, you may have looked at the question exactly as I wrote it, with green you can't deal with it, and then you will die, but green players, and players that know the game well, know that the best way to avoid losing, is to win. Some quick calculations, some spells on the stack, win that turn.
Ah yes, red, you can't deal with enchantments, almost at all, putting this in your deck, you can counter it, OR get a great mana cost to damage burn on them, good right? No, you put a more solid card in.
In the end, I have to give this card a 1/5, it just has no reason to be played in most decks, odds are you can find a better card, or a more solid one.
I have to agree with Scumbug1 again about Fact Or Fiction this isn't the same thing, either you win or win more, but I wonder why he considers Browbeat and Painful Quandary bad. I have come to a conclusion about Brow, I guess I'll think more about Quan.
Scumbug, if you ever see this, I would like to see, in good detail, why you think those cards are horrible. I had my own opinions, but I learned that 5000 characters are the maximum anyway, I deleted it.

Cast Lava Axe, then counter it with this.

Meh. This card is not very useful simply because decks won't like both possible outcomes of the card.

If you're aggro, you want to have the 5 points of life loss, but you can't just sit around and hold BB up to cast the card. It's not like the last burn spell in a player's hand that can circumvent board position and card advantage. When you're aggro and you've gotten your opponent very low, they usually stabilize and have a better board and hand than you. If you have dash hopes, they'll let you counter their spell and they'll still be ahead. It doesn't fit early game or late game.

If you're control... You've just lost a card from your hand and 2 mana.

Say,due to your deck just working out you end up in a board position that favors you and your opponent decides to pull the plug with a board sweep ranging anywhere from day off judgment to black sun zenith. If you dash hopes anything like that than the only one gaining an advantage.

Either they remain in a weakened position or they stand on equal footing minus five life. I'm aware that the card is situational but the opponent wiping the board when things go south is a fairly common situation.

I would have definitely ran this in my black/white pestilence deck if it were around back then.

"And I play Dash Hopes on your Goblin Grenade."

"Hah! I pay 5 life!"

"You realize you just sacrificed your only creature and paid one mana and I only paid two for the same thing to happen, right?"

"Oh."

People need to stop acting like this is a decent card. They're going to take whichever one is less good for you. It's a counterspell when you really want them to lose life, and it's a loss of life when you'd really rather they not cast that thing.

It's the exact same as browbeat, only black. Don't give me any crap about "sucking the fun out of Magic." Using bad cards isn't fun. Letting your opponent decide what the card you just played is not fun. This card is not fun, it's frustrating.

Haters gonna hate
i made a mind game deck, using this, Temporal Extortion, Painful Quandary, Choice of Damnations and Pain's Reward
it works wonders and its always fun to watch your opponents not knowing which choice is less harmful...often falling in an error

I've used this to great effect before. It really catches a lot of people off guard to see a counterspell in a mono black deck, and if you're running aggro they're really caught between a rock and a hard place, having to choose between casting blockers/other helpful spells and letting you cast an improved Lava Axe for two mana.
I even recall a time where my opponent was about to cast Wrath of God with less than five life left: Since you can't pay life that you don't have it got countered, and I swung for the win on my next turn.

I've also had bad experiences with this though, and you really have to consider the type of deck you're playing with this. Admittedly, most of the time this really isn't all that great in an aggro deck, because you really want to have creatures on the field dealing damage to your opponent rather than being stuck with this card in hand and two untapped lands. However, as I mentioned earlier I've definitely had my wins with this card, and I tend to always run 1-2 copies because they usually come in handy one way or another (and they're generally just a nice trick to have).
With control-type decks, however, this card is pretty decent. It's not exactly a counterspell, but it is a nice alternative to regular removal.

4/5, for uniqueness, fun and the fact that this is well costed for what it does.

lel

It's awkward, but you can donate Platinum Emperion to your opponent (and of course, use Pacifism on it or something) to make this a hard counter. And then kill them with poison counters or something.

This should be rated higher. It's a black counter spell! :-)

My opponent was about to kill me anyway, so I played this, paid 5 life, and denied him the pleasure.

Anyway, in my opinion, at least, this is a very playable card. I agree that it doesn't exactly fit in either control or aggro, but there are other deck styles beyond those two.

I love playing this card. Yeah, you get to pick between two effects, you'll pick the lesser damaging one, but given that I only paid BB, either is fine for me.

People who hate this card probably hate every single spell that doesn't say "this spell can't be countered".

If there was anything I'd want to slap on an Isochron Scepter..

I hate to break the bad news to you guys, but this card is not good. Something as important as a counterspell shouldn't be so unreliable.

The following article is about one of the better 'Opponent's choice' cards, Browbeat.
Though it goes on to explain why cards that that allow your opponent to choose the outcome are always bad in general, regardless of the power or efficiency of either ability.

http://magic.tcgplayer.com/db/article.asp?ID=7146


There is one redeeming qualty about this card, however. It does become a hard counter if your opponent has 5 or less life, which is pretty cool. Usually though, I would prefer to just run Duress.

- hopes

Blue mage: gg black mage.... I play Jace, The Mind Sculpture.

Black mage: I’ll counter with Dash Hopes.

Blue mage: Counter!?! Wtf? Fine I’ll pay the 5 life.

Black mage: I’ll Dash Hopes again.

Blue mage: FFFFUUUU!!!!

I think this is a good card by itself, mostly for it's use in the late game, and because I can't think of another mono-black non-color-specific counter spell.
However, it really shines in combination with other black cards like Wound Reflection and Exquisite Blood. Having either one of those cards out when you cast this will basically assure you counter. A 10 life swing for two mana is pretty nuts, and if the card is something they will absolutely not let be countered, well then you don't have to play dash hopes and go for removal. Painful Quandary is another great thing to have out, the opponent already loses 5 life or another card (if they have one) for casting the card. Add a Sygg, River Cutthroat for good measure.
There are plenty ways to make this card work in a control deck. Saving it until you have one of those enchants out to surprise them, or, my preference, play one early and make your opponent really think twice about every spell they play or don't play while you have two untapped swamps.

If it said "Target spell's controller loses 5 life" instead of what it says now, people would love it.
So why do people dislike a 2 mana lose 5 life spell?
You aren't supposed to play this as a counter - rather, punish them for casting the spell and if you play it well, it becomes a counterspell. Just don't play it assuming you'll get the one you want.
4.5/5 because either choice is very good for you.

@Zacklar don't forget Lethal Vapors. I use it in my old school mono black control deck and it's almost always amazing.

Yup. Haters gonna hate... but I'll say it. This card flippin rocks. If you don't like it, you don't know how to use it.

@BongRipper420, anytime I hear someone start a statement off with 'I hate to break the bad news, but' and then immediately flows into an opinion, it doesn't make me sympathetic to the argument. Just how I feel. Anyway, how can you say that a spell that gives your opponent choices of how it works is always bad no matter the power level? What if a card was printed as "U: Counter target spell. The controller of that spell may counter this effect by skipping his or her next turn, and you draw three cards."? There would be no debate that that wold be a good card, with an absurd power level, broken in fact. The fact that the opponent has options does not make a card bad, it just makes it worse. Also, even if this card wasn't powerful, which you claim, it still is a good card because it has an interesting effect that makes many people happy. It's fun to play and is the type of card that makes Magic what it is.

Isochron Scepter

This is good in mono-black aggro. Use it to counter kill spells or counterspells. What happens is they either eat the life loss from the creature, or they eat the life loss from the spell.

This may work well in a deck with Undermine and Countersquall as well, as it does much the same; except the effect is larger and conditional. We'll see.. but my guess is that if they lose the life against a deck sporting those and aggro creatures, they lose; and if they let you counter it when you're beating them over the head with aggro creatures, well they probably lose.

I lost a legacy match due to this attempting to counter some burn hitting a Geralf's and a gravecrawler. The problem was that if I didn't burn it he'd hit me for 5 anyway, and if I burnt them there was a chance I'd draw into the land I was so desperately waiting for.

Well, I lost 5 life, didn't draw the land, and lost the game anyway; but this card clinched it in a way that a discard or kill spell could not have.

I've had great success with this in a mostly-aggro deck. 15/20ths of the time, they pay the life, which when combined with my early-game pressures usually puts them into kill range. And the rest of the time (when they can't pay the life), it stops whatever they cast to try to recover.

Yeah, they get to choose, but both choices are great for me and watching them agonize over the lesser of two evils only makes the game more fun. And I can usually kill whatever blocker they play anyway, so I want them to pay the life. But by all means, keep slamming this card; the fact that so many people think it's underpowered makes it that much more satisfying when it wins me the game.

Some see an undercosted Lava Axe. I see an overcosted Goblin Grenade that can't kill creatures or end the game when you need it to.

Its pretty much a black counterspell in a really aggressive deck.

Also wow this is common rarity.

Seeing as no one seems to have mentioned it yet, Vexing Shusher turns this situational -at-best Counterspell into a or Cancel.

You guys are TOTALLY missing this. Countering a spell is competitive. 5 damage for 2 mana is competitive.

Play this against an early power house creature. Your average person who sees this card is going to accept a goblin grenade, and think they got a good deal. All to save an early game creature you'll likely remove. Gatekeeper of Malakir, go for the throat, damnation. Is your tarmgoyf worth 5 life? Will you be able to hold it, or will I kill it for less mana than you paid to cast it? will you waste 5 life on something I can steal next turn maybe?


Late game has even more uses...and have you ever seen the look on someone's face when they're screwed either way? Now thats a fun card.

"alright, I'm at 3, but I can survive this turn. I cast Fog"

"Dash hopes"

"motherf..." *throws hand down angrily*

There are 3 things that make me think "I want this card".

1- mono black has approximately 0 enchantment removal (excluding a few artifacts which have rather high mana costs). This card can potentially stop game-changing enchantments like sulfuric vortex or propaganda.

2- I play black/red control-style vampires (red doesn't have many enchantment removal cards which don't have a large disadvantage or are quite expensive I.e: chaos warp) and I have always thought that blue control would always have a massive advantage over me because it has counterspells while I do not.

3- At worst, this card is makes an opponent loose 5 life for the cost of 2.

Though it may not always counter a spell, and blue control still has advantages, this card seems rather useful.

5/5

Dash hopes is basically one of the best counterspells... save for counterspell itself. You see, Browbeat allows for a 3 card draw, instead of a counter, but costs 3 instead of 2. I would always having a backup card in the case of dash hopes, though. Like, If they decide to take the 5 to the face, have a backup Counterspell just to add onto it. and if they decide to take the counter, you can save the backup for later.

In short, use this card to test the waters. Its a good leading card, but on its own, it isn't that good.

Still, if you run U/B, You probably want this card.

Hey, ever hear the one about the blonde who wanted to run Dash Hopes? She put it in her infect deck!

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btw guys, scumbling is a troll. I think he and majinara are brothers or something. Always hating on high-rated cards to get a rise out of people.

lol at all the "haters" comments.

I'm sorry to break it on you guys, but this card does absolutely nothing. Doesn't matter what kind of deck you are playing, swapping all the dash hopes for extra lands is always going to be statistically better, just by reducing the number of times you get mana screwed. Which is a higher percentage than the times the opponent will cast a MUST-counter spell while being at 5 life.

So many good memories of casting this spell, especially in pairs. "Oh, you're paying the five? BAM! How about ten?! Is your Tarmogoyf going to make you up that much? Oh by the way, my Guul Draz Vampires are big and unblockable now..."

Question. If I cast Dash Hopes to counter a target spell and someone pays the 5 life to counter Dash Hopes, can I then cast another counter spell to counter the originally targeted spell? How would the rulings illustrate that?

For 2B mana an opposing player loses five life or has a spell countered! When I first discovered this card, in a collection that a good friend gave to me for free, I almost couldn't believe it. Insanely good card.