If you're having visions of the Second Coming of
Dark Confidant, think again. This needs to
become untapped for it to work, and to do that,
it first has to tap. Typically this is done by
attacking, but Pain Seer is a "combat-vanilla"
2/2. Easy to block and kill, easy to kill with a
spell. If you want to tap it reliably, you'll
have to grant it a tap ability. Personally, I
like Witches' Eye for this purpose, as it helps
you prevent the life loss from Pain Seer's
ability from being too grievous. You might even
find yourself leaving lands on top of your
library! Trouble is, that's a two-card combo
just to draw an extra card each turn, and the
second card (Witches' Eye) just isn't useful
without the first card to combo off. We'll see
if Pain Seer finds its niche in Constructed, but
I have my doubts.
It's the new Dark Confidant! Granted, this
version generally has to attack for you to get
that oh-so-tempting bonus; but I would argue
that if you're playing a 2/2 creature for two
mana but don't want to attack, there's a
fundamental problem in there somewhere. While a
2/2 creature also dies pretty easily, opponents
have always tended to try and kill the original
Dark Confidant on sight anyway, so the effect
will sometimes be basically the same. And
when he doesn't die . . . well, we already know
how powerful this combination of effects can
be. Also, now there's a second Dark
Confidant legal in Modern. That almost scares me
more than the applications for Standard.
Today's card of the day is Pain Seer which is a
two mana Black 2/2 with Inspired that when it
untaps has you add the top card of your library
to your hand and lose life equal to the
converted mana cost. This isn't as much of
a consistent ability as Dark Confidant had, but
the 2/2 body and option to not use it balances
that out somewhat. Combined with other
effects that tap, or removal to clear the field,
this is a reliable enough draw engine in a deck
that either defends with high toughness like
Phenax or drains life from the opponent.
Overall a solid card that will see play, but
probably not one that will join the top end of
current Black decks in competitive settings.
In Limited this is a risky choice to run as it
makes higher casting cost cards in your deck a
dangerous threat in the middle to later stages
of the game. Scry can help when deciding
to tap Pain Seer and the card advantage is well
worth it with a low mana curve design. As
a first pick in Booster or part of a Sealed pool
it can be built around or just included in most
decks running Black as a 2/2 for two at worst,
which isn't unreasonable in the format.
Pain Seer is a hard card to judge. I like to
draw extra cards and I like to be aggressive. I
have yet to use Pain Seer in action, but I have
a feeling that it can work well. Mono-Black
players are running Pack Rat right now and I
think that Blood Scrivener & Underworld
Connections actually work better in that deck.
If you are thinking about running a B/G Heroic
deck then I could see Pain Seer as solid turn 2
creature that can be followed by more low
casting cost spells. This creature may not be
the next Bob but it is definitely an aggressive
card drawing creature. Only time will tell if
Pain Seer can be a staple in Standard or the
‘future’ Modern format!
