The life loss on this is incredibly chancey, and
yet Dark Confidant fueled most (if not all) of
the top tier decks in the Standard it was legal
in. It's not hard to build a solid deck with
nothing costing over three mana-- and drawing
cards is indeed worth it. Most novice players
look at this card, cringe at the potential life
loss, and move on. But that's often because
those players haven't quite realized A) how much
a high mana cost hinders a card's power, B) how
important it is to draw extra cards, and C) how
un-important having a high life total is, as
long as you have enough life to stay alive. Now
that Altar's Reap has been printed, the
Confidant is only more powerful, as you have an
easy way to stop the life loss that grants you
even more cards.
I have to write this review carefully, lest I
run out of superlatives halfway through. See,
the thing about a lot of creature abilities is
that they have foils in other cards, many of
which are useful in other contexts too. A
creature that cares about graveyards suffers
against Relic of Progenitus, and you can even
maindeck that because somebody shoved the words
"draw a card" into its rules text. A creature
that disrupts your opponent's hand can be
stopped by all the anti-discard measures they've
printed down the years to make sure that nobody
rules the world with their Quest for the Nihil
Stone decks. But a creature that puts you ahead
on the one concept that makes Magic run, just by
living, is always going to be relevant. A
creature that attacks and blocks on the curve
and accelerates you to the later stages of the
game will always have a role to play, regardless
of what turn he comes down. A creature that
facilitates any and every style of deck's game
plan, and asks only for one of the resources
that is least relevant in return, will never go
out of fashion. And there is only one creature
that does all of those things.
Welcome back readers todays card of the day is
the other marquee card of Modern Masters Dark
Confidant. Dark Confidant is a lynchpin of
modern providing a powerful card advantage
engine for decks to utilize while also providing
a decent attacker that can influence the game
early. As a constant source of card advantage
Dark Confidant is one of the strongest creatures
of all time as trading life for cards has been a
known powerful strategy combine with deck
manipulation for best effect. In legacy Sensei’s
Divining Top and a plethora of cheap and
powerful spells provide opportunities for this
card to shine. In casual and multiplayer this
card is fine in one on one games as it can allow
you to gain an advantage but in multiplayer
could be highly irresponsible if not outright
suicidal to try and eek out an advantage for
this card as multiple enemies derail its power
immensely. In limited it’s a cash grab card that
can provide an aggressive body but which limits
the casting cost of some of your spells. Overall
one of the most powerful creatures ever printed
and can provide an insurmountable advantage.
Today's card of the day is Dark Confidant which
is a two mana Black 2/1 that has you reveal the
top card of your library at the beginning of
your upkeep, lose life equal to the converted
mana cost, and add it to your hand. This
is an excellent card in an aggressive low mana
cost build where taking more than three damage
for a card is unlikely, or in decks that
manipulate the library to control what gets
revealed and what gets drawn. This is a
huge target for removal, but for just two mana
that is not a real drawback and has to be
removed before the next upkeep to not net a card
advantage. As a 2/1 it also works for
early damage and has multiple avenues of being
sacrificed or removed if your life point total
gets dangerously low. Overall one of the
top creatures for efficiency in a deck made to
take advantage of the effect.
In Limited formats where this is available it is
a major source of card advantage, but extremely
risky as trying to build or use a deck without
higher mana cards can be difficult or lacking in
raw strength. If a low mana curve pool is
both available and viable it should be the
centerpiece of a very powerful design. In
Booster this should be a first pick for the
potential it offers, the value as a rare draft,
and as a hate draft to prevent another deck from
using it against you. In Sealed managing
to use it effectively might be unlikely, but the
consideration should be made as it provides a
huge advantage.
