Question about Duress

[magus888]

The use of duress seems to be limited to a "combo protection" role in decks such as Oath, (insert preferred prefix)-Long, Dragon, and some Belcher variants. Should duress be used on the offense or the defense in these decks? Using it early game gives the pilot a vast quantity of information. This allows for game manipulation and slows the opponent's game plan (especially in combo matchups). The dissadvantage of this method is it allows your opponent to build up the offense prior to comboing.

Which strategy "Offensive or Defensive" should be used, and in what situations?

[TheUprisal]

In Oath, it is defensive.  You play it in hopes of not wasting a FoW when trying to force through your Oath.

In combo, Duress is offensive.  You play it turn 1 to see whats coming, then maybe play another when you go to win if you fear the Force.

A basic generalization, the faster your deck is the more offensive Duress becomes.

[Moxlotus]

I really think you can't use 2 distinct categories.  In Oath I will cast turn 1 Duress all day without an Oath even in hand.  You have the option of taking a counterspell ("defensive") or a bomb like Tinker ("offensive"). 

After turn 3 or so I think Duress becomes "defensive" in any deck.  You want to save it so it can take out whatever will stop you from going off.  It is too late to get a bomb, because they should have sufficient protection for it.

[magus888]

Do you use duress as soon as you draw into it, or do you ever hold on to it?

[TheUprisal]

Yes.  Game 1 to see what they are playing, and to pluck a bomb.
Game 2 to pluck a bomb.
Game 3 to pluck a bomb.

Especially in today's metagame, where the fastest non-lock control decks win stupidly fast (Gifts, Oath)

Against a deck like Stax or UbaStax (basically anything without Forces) I play them IMMEDIATELY and make them rely on Welder.

Though Im not a fan of Duress against Stax (any version) anyway.

[rureddy31]

I am using Duress in CS right now, and I can't tell you how happy I am todraw it, especially in a deck like control slvaer. It lets you go broken, without fear of disruption or some sort of trick. Duress is absolutely gold. Of course, in a stax/fish meta, maybe not so much, but in general I loved how it worked it Rochester.

[Bob The Builder]

Do you use duress as soon as you draw into it, or do you ever hold on to it?

This depends on the hand and how far you are in the game.

I choose to duress at turns 1-3 no mather wat (so if I draw duress i play it)  later on I might hold on till I want to go for the win.

[Fantaman]

In the italian Meta duress is probably one of the hottest cards!! You can have a bomb against TPS or T1T or GIFT. Normally Staxx is not so played and against stacker yes it's a dead card...but I suppose that sometimes against fish a duress first turn maybe usefull:

rods, styfle, force or others bad cards that need our counters.

Otherwise duress is a great card you can win a mirror of controll like gift vs gift with it!

Yes duress it's offensive on the 75% in tye 1 decks.

Byez!

Fantaman

[UR]

In Dragon I normally play this card offensively. Mainly to prevent my opponent from doing something broken while I'm stuck setting up my combo. If I can cast it on turn one I will normally do so, since you will have the biggest chance of doing something useful with it. I have Xantid Swarm for defence anyway.

If the game goes on for a while and I know I'm playing a control deck, I really like casting one just before I go off... to be sure. But alas, it doesn't always happen since I'm only running three...

[dre4m]

and against stacker yes it's a dead card...

Actually, a turn one duress against Stax if you are playing combo can be exceedingly good, especially if you are on the play, in which case you can get rid of their Chalice/Sphere/3sphere or whatever disruption they have that is most dangerous to you going off, so that they have to wait at least a turn for their Welder to go active and you can either establish some board position, have a counter ready, or simply go broken turn two and win.  I am, of course, speaking from personal experience, as I like to mulligan until I have a chalice or other disruption against certain combo decks, notably Dragon, and a turn one Duress has the tendency to ruin my day, especially if i have a welderless hand and/or mulliganed.

[And11]

He said Stacker, not Stax. Stacker is a Workshop Aggro deck with few actual Duress targets, that is being played a lot in Italy especially.

[FMG]

I think that since there is so much control right now in America. Duress could be a good call. I mean there were 3 CS decks in the top 8 of the last SCG event. It has always been a great card. The question I always found myself asking is if it should be in the main or the sideboard. If you run it you have to run at least 3 to make it worth the spots. Having 2 Duress doesn't help very much when you need it turn 1, or when you need it to play the turn you win to draw out the counters. Like UR said it is good on the offinsive. You could play Xantid Swarm to help. If you are playing slaver though I am not sure. It just depends on what you think the metagame is going to be.

[Fantaman]

Probably Duress is one of the major attack cards!!!!

I was wondering that inside U.s. and European Meta that's no difference between duress position on the main deck and sideboard.

The only fact is that in Europe Duress is not so much played in C.Slavery ( lot of players play BR slaver deck );

The rest of the decks like tps or t1t  and dragon Ubr play duress main deck in 4 and 3 copies.

Gift uses 2 duress on the sideboard.

Normally duress is a first turn card so 3/4 of them is a possible first turn chance!

Byez

[untap/win]

duress is almost as good as brainstorm...
when casting it, it makes oppenents use a poorly timed brainstorm to hide essential cards..
It smashes on mostly everything playing blue and is mostly never a dead card, even against stax, because it takes out a sphere,a COW  a stack or, even just the fact that you know whats in the opponent's hand and what to expect over the next three turns....
I ran duress in the sideat Waterbury and it proved me very well as a wish target and an additional reb.

[Harkius]

duress is almost as good as brainstorm...

This may be a bit of an overstatement. Many T1 players will know that a Duress is a possibility, and most Tier One Vintage decks can work around a single Duress. Two may cause them a few problems, but with the nearly ubiquitous Goblin simply Welding things back into play, Duress on a Smokestack or a Sphere will not always cause your opponent the problems that you wish.

In short, Duress is a versatile card, difficult to characterize as offensive or defensive. Much life FoW. That would be what we called a utility card in my day. 

Duress doesn't wreck house, but it can make your life less pleasant. That is why smart players take it into account before they think that they can go lethal on their first turn if they are on the draw.

Harkius