Cabal Therapy

[JBay]

Cabal Therapy
U, Sorcery, B
Name a nonland card. Target player reveals his or her hand and discards from it all cards with that name.
Flashback - Sacrifice a creature.

Could Cabal Therapy be playable as extra disruption in a mono black deck or splashable disruption?

There were only a couple of arguments on the BD thread, so I took it upon myself to continue. (Unless this matter has already been decided)

As I see it, if you pack 4 each of duress and therapy, you have a great shot at pulling a first turn disruption, also possibly snagging many cards in game 2 or 3, naming maybe drain or force.

Would 12 disruption in a mono black deck be overkill?
 4 duress
 4 hymn
 4 cabal therapy?

Some posts suggested maybe replacing hymns with therapy.

Plus, let's not forget the flashback- sac a creat.
In a mono black deck, that can definitely be pleasant if you have a negator in play.

What are everybodys thoughts/comments on this?

[suicide_slushy]

i'd really like to try them, thinking of cutting my 2 edicts, a sinkhole, and either a creature, md rod, or other discard spell

[Master Tap]

I personally like it because it is based off the old ability on one of my fave creatures:nebuchadnezzar  

[Gothmog]

I tried Cabal Therapy fairly extensively as splashable disruption, and the big problem is, its a sorcery.  I understand why they don't want instant speed discard, but the flashback ability is much worse because you can't Therapy in response to an opponent's creature removal.

[JBay]

It would also be a lot more convenient maybe in response in response to a well timed rancid earth against an aggro deck.

[Fishhead]

> Could Cabal Therapy be playable as extra disruption in
> a mono black deck or splashable disruption?

I gave it a spin in a BG disruption deck which had a  creature curve of Pump Knight & Shade, Negator, Scuta.  I played just Duress and Therapy, theoretically hoping to drop a creature on turn 2 instead of Hymning.  So, in other words, a very rough draft of a deck.  

Basically, Therapy not useful if you go first and havent scouted your opponent.  Its not useful if your opponent is playing a deck you havent seen before.  Its surprisingly so-so if you are facing a very redundant deck like Sligh (if I name Bolt, he casts it and I see 2 Chain Lightnings.  Grr.)  Its not useful if you are facing a non-redundant deck, you'll never guess what he has in his hand.  Augh.  

But it is useful in certain situations.  The best use I found for it was to hold it until turn 3 when a Keeper player might be ready to bust out either Abyss or Balance on you then name one.  If you guessed wrong, sac a Pump Knight and flash it back.  My dreams of opening with Therapy naming Mana Drain and cleaning my opponents hand out were not realized.  

Like someone said while watching my games - "The problem with that card is that you can miss.  Go fish."

> Would 12 disruption in a mono black deck be overkill?

I think so.  The value of Duress and Therapy drop rapidly as the game progresses because they cannot stop the opponent from topdecking.  You need to have a strong early game to apply pressure.

[suicide_slushy]

it runs more than 12 as is

4 hymn
4 duress
4 sinkhole
2-4 null rod
3-4 wasteland
1 stripmine

[Zherbus]

I think if mono black needed more disruption, Mind twist and unmask would be next in line.

[MarkPharaoh]

Yes because cabal would only work well if after a Duress since you seen the oppenent's hand.  And yes Unmask would be before it, it has better synergy in my opionin then Cabal.

[MoreFling]

you don't need that extra disruption in mono black.

you have :

4 hymn
4 duress
1 mind twist
4 sinkhole
4 wasteland
1 stripmine

and my opinion is that that is more then enough.
Only use for it I see, is like mentioned, saccing a negator for it, but er... usually doesn't even help, since it is a SORCERY, and negators tend to get hurt in times when sorcerys are useless.