7th Edition (yet again)

[NeuroDeus]

IN:
Birds of Paradise
City of Brass
Drudge Skeletons
Duress
Eastern Paladin
Elite Archers
Ensnaring Bridge
Fallen Angel
Fog
Gerrard's Wisdom
Giant Growth
Glorious Anthem
Goblin Hero
Goblin Matron
Goblin Raider
IA pain lands
Mahamoti Djinn
Megrim
Mind Rot
Nightmare
Northern Paladin
Orcish Artillery
Ostrasize
Pariah
Pygmy Pyrosaur
Serra Angel
Shivan Dragon
Southern Paladin
Western Paladin
Worship
Wrath of God

OUT:
All other non-basic lands
Armageddon
Cursed Scroll
Erhnam Djinn
Kindle
Icy Manipulator
Incinerate
Man-'o-War
Mana Flare
Mox Diamond
Nevinyrral's Disk
Peace of Mind
Powder Keg
Royal Assassin
Sengir Vampire
Shard Phoenix
Silver Wyvern
Sorceress Queen
Stupor

The latest list from pwrchild's trade... And I tell you I believe her...

 

[Hetemti]

Rebels - Crusade, Disenchant, Seal of Cleansing
Fires - Burst, Fires, Shock, Seal
U/W Control - Almost anything
Machinehead - Almost anything

Dear, God, no! Not a card that lets a new deck compete! Ahhh! We can't have more than four decks in the environment! Dare someone have to come up with a strategy other than "Log on, print, buy cards on printout"? Oh no! Head for the hills! Someone might try to make our combodecks not combo exactly the same way every time! Ahhh! And what if the rumors are true and they reprint Drudge Skeletons too! A 1/1 Regen. for only 2 mana! Ahhh! They're killing Magic with these insanely broken black cards! Whaaaaaaa....

 

[Duel]

Yeah, we don't want black to become decent, now, do we?

Ahhh! Shivan dragon is back! How cool is that?

 

[Istanbul]

Woooooow. Sarcasm. That makes you SO COOL, lemme tellyou...

You think black is weak? Go look at Terror and tell me that black is weak. Look at Thrashing Wumpus and Vampiric Tutor and Avatar of Woe and Addle and Urborg Skeleton (you heard me) and tell me that black is weak.

Duress will NOT make black a viable decktype, if it's not one already. It'll just be a four-in-every-deck card. Duress is simply *too good* in a color with Dark Ritual. I say this after extensive playtesting.

 

[Cateran Emperor]

You say that after intensive playtesting with what Isty? Black badly needs some kind of good discard. Black is nearly powerless against enchantments now with only Duress as early discard (Unmask is good, but it can be harsh sometimes to remove that one card).

But then, we want Black out of the picture for the thrashing Phyrexian Negator gave blue when Urza was around hrmm Isty?

 

[Chaos Turtle]

Now, first off... black is not top-quality right now. Adding Duress won't make it top-quality.

Having the Paladins, Nightmare and Fallen Angel will help though.

See, if the environment is supposed to be about creatures (which it certainly seems to be these days) then Duress will be of limited usefulness, serving mainly to keep annoying enchantments, artifacts, sorceries and instants.

Besides, we might very well have seen the last of Dark Ritual, once Masques block rotates out this fall. It looks like WotC is trying to beef up black's discard, search, and intelligence (seeing what the opponent has). I suspect this is to make up for the loss of the Ritual.

 

[Duel]

Black is not top quality right now.
I doubt anything, until a radical storyline turn sets in, will make it top quality
Duress, however, may give it the power to become an excellent supporting color.
AND it serves as enchantment elimination.

I'll look at those cards and tell you black is weak. Not because it doesn't have strong card. Because it doesn't have good supporting cards. THAT is what every color, and every deck needs.

Why aren't fish good? They have lords and they have vodalian zombies, right? They don't have battle fish. They only have 1 1cc merfolk. They lack supporting cards.

 

[Chaos Turtle]

Now, I said:

Now, first off... black is not top-quality right now.

Then, Duel said:

Black is not top-quality right now.

Who are you, freakin' Tom Ripley? A Single White Female?

Augh! I am getting freaked out!

(By the way, Terror sucks.)