Duress
Modern forum
Posted on Jan. 14, 2015, 1:50 a.m. by APPLE01DOJ
Why do I keep seeing Duress in people's list? Is it only to grab Treasure Cruise or what?
Epochalyptik says... #3
I'm pretty sure it's been seeing some play since Modern became a thing. It's one of the better discard spells, and it works very well against combo-based decks. Even against creature-oriented decks, it hits utility cards. It's not as powerful as Thoughtseize, but I've seen lists run a 3-2 or 2-1 or some similar split to avoid unnecessary life taxing.
Then again, I'm not a Modern player, so take that with a grain of salt.
January 14, 2015 2:13 a.m.
slovakattack says... #4
Duress is sometimes seen as a 1 of in some Sideboards, but that's about it.
January 14, 2015 2:22 a.m.
As has been previously stated, its basically the poor man's Thoughtseize. There is also Inquisition of Kozilek but like all of them, it has it's limitations. The big benefit I personally find to Duress is that for fast decks, it lets me get rid of removal very cheaply. I run a rogue deck (not super competitive, but it does ok) and Duress lets me get rid of especially sweepers, as one good Pyroclasm / Anger of the Gods would wreck me. And I don't have to cough up $45+ per Thoughtseize which is nice (I mean you could get the Theros ones but the Lorwyn art is so much nicer :P)
January 14, 2015 2:27 a.m.
Epochalyptik - Common 4-3 split of Thoughtseize and Inquisition of Kozilek. Almost no modern cards are above 3cmc except Restoration Angel, Karn Liberated, Splinter Twin, Birthing Pod. Inquisition is a very good choice because whilst it misses some important cards it hits many more. So whilst you can't hit Splinter Twin, you can hit Pestermite instead - therefore destroying the combo. It works out quite nicely.
Duress is a meta choice and has been seeing some play in mainboards. It hits UR aggro very hard. Can hit Birthing Pod very hard. Hits burn, and hits scapeshift. Thats basically all of the meta at the moment. It has a good role against most decks in the format except Affinity and Pod (Pod is a weird case - you either grab Pod and its awful for them or you hit nothing at all). It's actually not bad. Hits Karn against Tron too.
January 14, 2015 5:04 a.m.
Even 8Rack doesn't use Duress, but that's probably because there's a slightly different approach to the whole discarding - where it's not about what the opponent discards so much as it goes to the grave and they need as many cards that hit everything as possible. But yes, like the others have said, Duress is in a weird place right now and, for the most part, there are better options.
January 14, 2015 6:34 a.m.
APPLE01DOJ says... #8
Thanks ChiefBell, wasn't thinkin about the Delverpod Burnscape meta.
January 14, 2015 8:40 a.m.
JexInfinite says... #9
Duress can often be better than the 4th Thoughtseize in a lot of decks, because losing 2 life to do the same thing you could often do without is invaluable.
Right now, if you want heavy discard, a 3-2-1 split of Thoughtseize, Inquisition of Kozilek and Duress is probably the best. Adding a 3rd Inquisition is often correct, too.
January 14, 2015 12:03 p.m.
GlistenerAgent says... #10
The standard way to play Abzan in Modern right now is 4 Thoughtseize, 3 Inquisition of Kozilek and 1 Duress main.
The Duress is better than the fourth Inquisition of Kozilek, because drawing a second IoK means it's less likely to hit, and there's enough Delver and Scapeshift that Duress is very powerful.
January 14, 2015 2:55 p.m.
JexInfinite says... #11
Even then, the remaining Thoughtseize can often be found in the sideboard.
filledelanuit says... #2
I don't know of any decks in modern that use Duress. It is a common sideboard card for combo decks in legacy and vintage as most of the problem cards for them are counterspells. In modern Duress isn't as good because it is unable to fight through hate creature like Thalia, Guardian of Thraben. These creatures are much more effective in modern because combo decks are much slower and have less dissruption in general.
As for Treasure Cruise that seems to be a losing propisition because by taking cruise you aren't slowing down your opponents ability to develop the board. Discard is only good when you can insure that you will have a better board presence, ex Jund/Junk, or can just kill the, ANT/TES.
January 14, 2015 2:11 a.m.