Duress
Sorcery
Target opponent reveals their hand. You choose a noncreature, nonland card from it. That player discards that card.
- CMC
- 1
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- Core Set 2020
- Price
- $0.22
- EDHREC rank
- #3233
Duress strips the single most dangerous noncreature, nonland card from an opponent's hand for one black mana — and you get to look at everything first. Tinybones, Bauble Burglar turns that discard trigger into card advantage, making Duress pull double duty as disruption and draw engine.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Tinybones, Bauble Burglar
Tinybones, Bauble Burglar runs Duress in over 57% of lists because every discard trigger feeds the Bauble Burglar's card-draw ability, turning a one-mana disruption spell into a cantrip that also guts the opponent's best noncreature threat.
Tinybones, Trinket Thief
Tinybones, Trinket Thief drains life whenever an opponent discards, so Duress isn't just hand disruption — it's a one-mana ping that scales with how many opponents you hit across the game.
Tinybones, the Pickpocket
Tinybones, the Pickpocket wants to cast spells exiled from opponents' hands, and Duress sets that up by clearing the path while simultaneously identifying the most valuable target to chase down later.
Tergrid, God of Fright
Tergrid, God of Fright converts discarded permanents into stolen battlefield presence, so Duress earns its slot by clearing noncreature answers that would otherwise stop Tergrid from snowballing off forced discard.
Aclazotz, Deepest Betrayal
Aclazotz, Deepest Betrayal punishes opponents for having empty hands, so Duress does double work — stripping a key spell now while accelerating the hand-emptying that Aclazotz rewards.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | legal |
| standard | legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
In Commander, Duress is a surgical tool rather than a staple: it hits the combo piece or board wipe that would otherwise end your game, but at one mana with no replacement draw it can feel narrow in a four-player pod where artifacts and enchantments are everywhere. In Legacy and Vintage, Duress is a format-defining piece of hand disruption, clearing the way for combo or stripping a Force of Will before a critical spell. Modern and Pioneer treat it as a sideboard card — it comes in against control and combo to strip counterspells and win conditions, often from the sideboard where its narrowness is a feature rather than a bug. In Pauper and Standard it sees consistent play as cheap, efficient disruption that nearly every black deck is happy to run at least two copies of.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.22 bulk tier
At $0.22, Duress is bulk — one of the cheapest impactful black spells in the game, reprinted so many times that supply vastly outstrips any price pressure. It holds that floor permanently; there is no realistic reprint or demand scenario that moves this card off the bulk table.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
- Tinybones, Bauble Burglar
- Tinybones, Trinket Thief
- Tinybones, the Pickpocket
- Tergrid, God of Fright
- Aclazotz, Deepest Betrayal
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.