Is this card back in print because creatures are
more important than they used to be? Is this
card back because the game as a whole is more
powerful and can "handle" it now? Is this card
back because they know how much people like
playing with it? Is this card back because
Steven Belledin just wanted to make that
painting? You decide.
Today's card of the day kicks off a week of Black
mana cards with Duress. Duress is a solid
example of Black's heavy discard theme and
allows you to see your opponent's hand. Both
useful and only mitigated somewhat by not being
able to discard lands or creatures. Many times
the best target is an Instant or Sorcery, but
you also can hit Planeswalkers, Artifacts, or
Enchantments. All in all a decent one mana card.
In Constructed it can find a home in just about
any hand destruction design. The reveal and
choosing the card is a big plus, but it possibly
discarding nothing at all balances it out.
In Casual outside of a pure hand destruction
build or naming a card in the opponent's hand
combo, there's little else for it to do. It
isn't fun in and of itself and isn't the kind of
card you hope to drop on the field for the shock
factor.
Limited is the place to play this card in Black.
Often there will be something nasty in the
opponent's hand and it is a fantastic turn one
play when you are unlikely to have anything else
to play off of a single Swamp. It isn't a bad
topdeck either as in the format any cards in
your opponent's hand late game could be a
serious threat. Well worth playing in both
sealed and booster draft formats. That being
said, in booster draft I would not pick it too
highly and consider it more of a supporting
role.
Multiplayer is a very poor place to run hand
destruction as your opponents outnumber your
discard abilities. A target of this card will
also be likely to focus their attention on you
after having an important card dropped from
their hand.
Welcome back faithful readers, this week’s
choice of cards have been picked by yours truly
in order to explore what Magic 2010 has to offer
to the black mage. It’s been a while since
Duress has been reviewed by the Pojo staff,
since that time we have seen the introduction of
Thoughtseize, for all intents and purposes a
strictly superior card compared to Duress. With
the reintroduction of Duress into non-eternal
formats players are once again able to utilize
the power of this card. In standard having
Thoughtseize and Duress available for a few
months has a profound effect on the arsenal of
black mages, as well as providing a nice
disruption package for decks using black mana.
In extended having both the most powerful 1 mana
casting cost spells available would be a boon
for some decks and a pain for combo oriented
decks. In eternal formats no difference besides
a new piece of artwork, it will still see as
much play as it has been receiving. In Casual
it’s a nice form of disruption and a lot cheaper
than Thoughtseize makes it a prime candidate for
casual players. In Multiplayer targeted discard
is bad unless you know someone is packing a must
deal with threat or combo piece. In limited it’s
a common form of hand removal take it if you’re
in black. Overall Duress is a reprint that’s
overshadowed by the reprinting of Lighting Bolt
but is still a powerful and effective one drop
that should excite the players interested in
hand disruption and the power of black. Tune in
this week as we continue to explore what black
has to offer in Magic 2010.
