At the Madison prerelease, Bob Maher, Jr. showed up to autograph cards – including his Pro Tour cards and Dark Confidant. Dark Confidant – autographed or not – is amazing, so I had to build a deck around it.
Dark Confidant (henceforth “Bob”) provides one main function – card drawing. It can also beat, and can hold a Jitte, but card drawing is what it does best. However, that card drawing comes at a price – a significant price if you draw something like Ink-Eyes or Kokusho.
Now you can get around that problem by stacking your draws with Sensei’s Divining Top, but that also has a drawback. First of all, you want to keep the mana curve on a Bob deck pretty low, because some of the time your will not have the Top around, sometimes you will have three big cards on top of the deck, and sometimes Pithing Needle will kill the Top. That means Bob fits best in a cheap, fast deck – the kind of deck that has little time to spend dinking around wasting time and mana spinning Tops. Maybe Top could work in a deck with lots of Swamps and Consume Spirits, but that sort of deck works better with Phyrexian Arena and board sweepers like Hideous Laughter, which kills Bob. I spent some time testing, but Bob does not want artifacts like Tops. He wants swords – Jittes, to be specific.
The first deck I tried Bob in is G/B, with Elves of Deep Shadow, Birds of Paradise and Hypnotic Specters. This fit better, but I really like Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni as a finisher there, and Ink-Eyes likes little rats better than Bob – who’s over six feet. Bob kept fighting with Nezumi Graverobber and Ravenous Rats for that slot – and I found that I was liking those two over Bob in most cases. G/B aggro decks with Bob seem random and uncertain – but maybe I just have it wrong. The big problem is that the decks lack serious evasion, other than Hyppies, so they need to play big finishers, like Ink-Eyes. However, those finishers often finish you, when you reveal Ink-Eyes and lose six life. Anyway, here’s my best build.
G/B Bob
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Elves of Deep Shadow
4 Hypnotic Specter
4 Dark Confidant
4 Hand of Cruelty
3 Nezumi Graverobber
2 Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni
4 Putrefy
4 Last Gasp
4 Umezawa’s Jitte
4 Llanowar Wastes
4 Overgrown Tomb
8 Swamp
7 Forest
Quick breakdown of the critical cards, other than the obvious ones (e.g. hopefully you know why Hyppie is in the deck.)
Last Gasp
Instant speed removal for most of the format, and I have used two to nail Ink-Eyes or Meloku on several occasions. This is very good against aggro. It is also an answer to Carven Caryatids – swing with Bob, when they block, make the Column a 0/2. Not amazing, but okay.
Umezawa’s Jitte
Of course you play with the most busted artifact in the format. Bob makes even the life gain ability relevant. Suppression Field can make it a pain, but it is still too good to avoid. If Suppression field is a huge part of your meta, however, try Cruel Edict, or just bring in Naturalize.
Nezumi Graverobber
Two power for two mana, and they can hold a Jitte. They also mess with Dredge, provide an answer to Exile into Darkness and screw up recursion in the Gifts deck. They get bigger when flipped, but if you have the mana to start using the reanimation ability, you are probably losing.
Ink-Eyes
It is better as a surprise, and quite painful when you Bob it up (which I seem to do a lot.) It is a great card, but in testing it was often either a case of winning more or losing now to Bob damage. Still, it is about all you have for the late game, unless you want to test Mortivore. I didn’t.
Matchups
The matchup against R/W Boros decks with heavy burn is not good. Your Hyppies are not going to live long, nothing else blocks fliers, and Bob is going to be a few free Shocks for your opponent. If they get either Suppression Field or Glorious Anthem down, even an active Jitte is not enough to pull it out. I also tested against a R/W version with Boros Swiftblade – and the first strike gave me some problems if I couldn’t draw Hands. I had an earlier version of this deck with more hand destruction – Blackmail and so forth. Neither version is better than fifty/fifty, and probably worse. Your odds go up as the amount of burn in the opposing decks decrease, but never by enough.
I don’t like playing this against Gifts. The hand destruction version was a bit better – lots of discard, graveyard destruction and quick beats were, to quote JW, “some good.” Gifts needs some time to set up. The discard build does not give it too them. The Hands of Cruelty version, however, too often does. If you do give Gifts time to set up, or if they draw Carven Caryatids – or even Sakura-Tribe Elders – faster than you draw Putrefies, they will stall into the late game. Then you lose. A deck full of 2/2’s, with a creature-based card draw engine, is not happy facing recursive Hideous Laughters and Kagemaros.
I still have this deck proxied up, but I’m not happy with the idea of playing something that has marginal matchups against the two best decks in the field.
For what it’s worth, my sideboard for the deck is four Blackmail (Cranial Extraction seems too slow), 4 Naturalize, 4 Disembowel (discussed below) and 3 Vulturous Zombies in that slot.
Getting Wet
Since Mono-Black and G/B Bob decks were not cutting it, I tried U/B, since Watery Graves is the only other Ravnica dual that has Black. I looked at counter-based decks, but that does not work. Bob is card advantage in short games – in long games the life loss will kill you. Bob also wants to see a really, really flat mana curve – nothing above 2 if at all possible. However, the best counters are three mana (Hinder) or more. That means that the U/B deck wants to be aggro – and we all know that Blue is chock full of aggro creatures. However, if you rummage around enough, it is amazing what you can find. (But, like the small change in couches, it’s still not worth much.)
I have tried all kinds of stuff. For a very brief time, I thought the answer was Illusionary Pet. We were brainstorming, so we stuck some proxies into the deck and started playtesting. Problem was, we “remembered” the card as a 4/4 flier, which meant that it could hold off the WW/r deck’s early air assaults, then the deck would win with a mix of Pets, Moroii and Halcyon Glaze (Glaze + Pet = combo.) The deck was working so well we dug out actual cards. Turns out the flying part is illusionary – the Pet is a ground-pounder. Without flying, the Pet / Glaze combo cannot hold off WW/r – even Dancing Scimitar would be better in that matchup.
The only viable option seems to be building around Dimir Cutpurse. He is golden when he gets through, but you need to make sure he gets through. That means lots of removal to clear small blockers. Even Boomerang is solid removal, since you can occasionally bounce something, then force them to discard it to the Hyppie or Cutpurse.
Here’s the current version:
U/B Bob
4 Underground River
4 Watery Grave
3 Tendo Ice Bridge
3 Island
8 Swamp
2 Terrarion
4 Last Gasp
3 Boomerang
4 Cruel Edict
2 Disembowel
1 Consume Spirit
4 Blackmail
4 Hypnotic Specter
4 Moroii
4 Dimir Cutpurse
3 Dark Confidant
3 Ravenous Rats / Hand of Cruelty
This was marginally better. It could usually clear the path for the Cutpurse, and was quite good at raping the opponent’s hand.
One glaring omission is Jitte. It is deliberate. Without it, Suppression Field does absolutely nothing, and with all the bounce and removal in the deck, you should keep your opponent from ever accumulating counters on their Jitte. At least, that’s the theory.
When you consider Boomerang, remember that the deck has fifteen discard effects, and eight of those (Hyppies and Cutpurses) are reusable. Boomerang is also the answer to all the annoying garbage that someone might play, from Glorious Anthem to Night of Soul’s Betrayal. It is also game over against Enduring Ideal decks, and helps against Reanimator. Consuming Vortex is much easier on the mana supply, and might find a spot in the sideboard, but Boomerang is more versatile.
The biggest problem with the deck is often dying to your own Dark Confidants and Moroii. I could not flatten the mana curve enough. It is almost bad enough to make me want to add more Consume Spirits, but killing a Isamaru with Consume Spirit takes five mana – four of them black – when Glorious Anthem is in play, but just two with Disembowel. Disembowel was a sideboard card, until I saw that Quentin Martin Gifts deck was playing Birds. Now every tier one deck has multiple targets for Disembowel. Even decks like Good Form and so forth have Sakura-Tribe Elders.) This deck would kill for Vicious Hunger, however.
Terrarion is in the deck because I was having occasional mana (color) problems, because it draws a card and because I did not have enough one drops. That said, it is pretty marginal.
Playtest Results
I provided rough decklists in the previous article, because unless you know what I was testing against, my results won’t be much good. Here they are again, tweaked. As always, the gauntlet decks split controversial cards – e.g. if the debate is between Char and Devouring Light, I run two of each.
White Lightning:
My test version of White Lightning has 16 fliers, 2 Isamaru, 2 Hand of Honor, 4 Lightning Helix, 4 Shock, 2 Char and 2 Devouring Light. It also has 1 Hunted Lamassu and 1 Hunted Dragon and two Suppression Fields, and therefore no Jitte. I have also playtested against a variety of builds, including everything from Boros Swiftblade to Rally the Righteous to Bathe in Light to Thundersong Trumpeter.
This game comes down to surviving the early game, then getting some of your card drawing online or getting Cutpurse through. Either of those will give you card advantage – and you need it. Their cards are, generally, better than yours, and much better if they get Anthem. However, once you start getting card advantage, you win the attrition war. Sometimes. The matchup is not pretty – probably slightly in their favor.
Take their burn spells with the Blackmails if you expect to play Dark Confidant. You really want to have Bob live for at least a turn or two. However, don’t be afraid to trade him if you are a card or two up. The Shocks and Bolts from Bob add up – and you really do not want to reveal Moroii.
I don’t have sideboard tech against WW/r. I want two more Disembowels, and might try two Consuming Vortex if I had a lot of room. What I really fear is that these decks might randomly bring in Pyroclasm. If they have two Anthems, none of their stuff dies, and all of yours does. More typical sideboard cards (Hokori, Hearth Kami, Suppression Field, enchantment destruction, even Jitte) shouldn’t do much against U/B Bob.
Gifts:
My Gifts build is pretty much a standard Kamigawa block, triple-Kagemaro version with a Grave-Shelled Scarab, Gleancrawler and better lands wedged in. I have also proxied up Quentin Martin decklist.
Gifts is not fast. U/B Bob is fast. Gifts has a powerful late game. Bob has a marginal late game. Gifts lives on card advantage. Bob has 15 discard spells, and Boomeranging a land can be a useful tempo play, because you do not want them activating Kagemaro. You need to win fast.
Grave-shelled Scarab is an annoying creature. You can bounce him or Edict him all you want, but he is still coming back. Cards like that are almost enough to justify Nezumi Graverobber – although siding in yet another card that dies to Hideous Laughter is not great tech. All too often, Graverobber is a four-mana Cremate without the cantrip – but it is still probably better than Shred Memories. I have also had fun with Shadow of Doubt, but Shadow of Doubt does not beat down, and trying to keep Shadow mana open too often means that you will get to late game simply because you don’t win – and in the late game, you have much more to worry about than countering Gifts or Kodama’s Reach.
Cranial Extraction feels similar – it is a slow, control element that doesn’t belong in a deck that absolutely must be the beatdown in this matchup.
G/B Rock and Aggro:
The matchup against the G/B aggro deck, above, usually comes down to a topdecking war. Both decks pack removal and hand destruction. Games are usually decided by one deck drawing a threat, and the other drawing land.
Games against control Rock decks play out about the same as Gifts, except that you have to face the very slow Plague Boiler instead of nifty searching with Gifts. Plague Boiler hates Boomerang. However, this deck dislikes Carven Caryatid, and hates Grave-Shelled Recursive Wall Monster.
This build suffers from three problems. First, it lacks a big, fat finisher other than Moroii. Second, it is vulnerable to color screw over time. Third, the mana curve is still too high – Bob can kill you. I can think of two possible changes that might solve some of these problems.
First, Genju of the Falls might provide an evasive beat stick for the late game. It can enchant the Watery Graves, and would supply another one drop, but I would have to readjust the number of Islands and Swamps. The casting cost – meaning the Bob cost – is certainly right. (Later note: in playtesting I was rarely impressed. Way too often, this just traded an Island and mana for a Glorious Anthem-pumped Lantern Kami, and once I started losing Watery Graves that way, I got mana screwed. Okay, not great.)
The second option is less likely to work, but seems possible. With the deck already running both Boomerangs and Cruel Edicts, I am wondering if adding Consuming Vortex and Hunted Horror might be a possibility. Now in any normal situation, Hunted Horror will be bad – if your 7/7 attacks, it gets blocked by the two tokens and a Sakura Tribe Elder – and the Horror dies. However, with a bunch of bounce and Cruel Edicts, you should be able to get rid of at least one token. Hunted Horror could be an answer – probably sideboard – to various control decks like Gifts. It seems like a reach – but this deck really wants cheap power. Again, testing will tell.
Testing, the next round.
More testing, trying to tune this enough to take to States.
I played against the WW/r decks, and W/R decks (like WW/r but with a higher burn count.) U/B Bob, as listed above, struggles. I won less than fifty percent. Replacing the Blackmails (which are decent but unspectacular in this matchup), with Jittes helped, unless they had Suppression Field – or Fields, which is really bad. It wasn’t enough, though. Ravenous Rats were unimpressive, as you would expect. The discard suite could wreck the deck on occasion – especially after a mulligan – but it was not consistent. More importantly, even with all the removal and discard to pull burn spells, Dimir Cutpurse almost never got through – and when he did, it was often too late. I cannot begin to count how often a turn 2 Bob or turn 3 Cutpurse was met with an immediate Lightning Helix – I do know it happened every time I played one during a four hour session. Four Shocks and four Helixes are a problem – and it gets worse if they play a couple Chars, which kill the Moroiis. Even trying to bait out the burn by playing lesser creatures, hoping they get flamed, was not a help.
You can tweak the deck to get back to a winning percentage. You need to play four Hands of Cruelty, three Jitte and at least two Hunted Horrors – and draw them. You cut the Terrarions and get lucky with the mana, and lose the discard suite. Dimir Cutpurse is marginal here, but Ink-Eyes would be great (although if you reveal her with Bob, you will be dead. Games against WW/r decks almost never end with U/B Bob at more than five life.)
Against Gifts, the deck is also shaky. The problem is that it is just not quite fast enough. Beating down with 2/x creatures is not amazing, unless one of them is Dimir Cutpurse – and then only if he is getting through. Even then, you know the world will eventually end when Gifts hits the mana to drop a monster. If you are reasonably lucky, the discard suite will keep Kagamaro from being a Wrath, but Ink-Eyes, Meloku, Keiga and all the other Legends the deck runs are a pain. Hideous Laughter is not funny, either.
You can also tweak the deck to put up a good fight against Gifts. You want the four Blackmails, four Ravenous Rats and Nezumi Graverobbers (mainly to stop Exile into Darkness and Gifts – and you don’t cast it until you have targets.) Hunted Horror is marginal in this matchup, because you really do not want to provide more blockers. You need to use the Disembowels and Last Gasps on Carven Caryatids and Sakura-Tribe Elders (yes, they sac in response, but then Dimir Cutpurse gets through.) You need to kill all the chumps, and save the Cruel Edicts for Ink-Eyes and so forth. With tweaks, the deck seems to go about fifty-fifty.
You can see where this is going, and why I am not happy with the deck. As listed, it has bad matchups against two tier one decks. The tweaks necessary to make it better against either deck make it worse against the other. The discard suite does smash Hondens and random combo decks, but that’s not good enough.
Maybe I’m missing something, but I’m probably not taking Bob Maher, Jr. to States next weekend.