To Duress or Not To Duress

Played against Fuz last night with the Diversion deck and he was rolling a W/R/g aggro thing. I won the matchup last night 2-1 but it definitely revealed the limitations of Duress as a discard agent.

I like Duress; I think it's a fantastic card and I think it's always going to have a target. Even against Fuz's deck-a creature heavy one-I was able to knock a Naturalize out of his hand that could have destroyed my Tangle Wire. I need Tangle Wire. Despite Duress's usefulness, I may be holding onto it's power level from a time in Magic when hitting a non-creature spell in their hand was going to be backbreaking. Creatures just weren't as threatening in the time of Urza's Saga.

These days Legacy discard agents that are able to eliminate a problematic creature before it hits the board (think Mirran Crusader or True-Name Nemsis) have just as much value as being able to knock Show and Tell out of their hand. The common denominator: those spells all cost 3 or less, which suggests that Inquisition of Kozilek might be the better choice. Sure, I'm weak to something like Sneak Attack but I'm weak to that anyway and if I can eliminate their acceleration instead, then cards like Tangle Wire can do the rest.