Spoiler Highlight: Dark Confidant in Standard & Pioneer

It sounds crazy, but the biggest problem with Dark Confidant in Standard and Pioneer is essentially the same: waiting a turn. If we look at the best decks today, a lot can happen in that time: a Heartfire Hero could be attacking you with Manifold Mouse and Monstrous Rage, the opponent could play a Sunpearl Kirin at the end step to play Kaito, Bane of Nightmares for Ninjutsu and still bounce a Stormchaser’s Talent, or already have an Abhorrent Oculus in play creating a 2/2 on the board the next turn — It’s hard for a single turn with Dark Confidant to be enough to recover from these.

Even if the opponent doesn't have an explosive early game, Bob needs a more specific archetype to work against the current Metagame, and none of the strategies that would easily support him want him for different reasons. Orzhov Bounce, for example, runs Temporary Lockdown and its combination with Nurturing Pixie to reuse several ETBs in the same turn in some games while it is a cheap sweeper in others, not to mention that the main win condition involves Unholy Annex, which, if revealed with Dark Confidant, deals eight damage to its controller.

Unholy Annex is also a deterrent to Dark Confidant in more traditional Midranges, where the higher curve might not be an issue with other cards like Sheoldred, the Apocalypse, but eight damage in a more aggressive Metagame easily spells defeat — and between a 2/1 creature that dies to Torch the Tower or an enchantment that drains life from the opponent while creating a 6/6 on the board, these archetypes are likely to prefer the latter.

Bob can find space in Dimir lists, which don't have Unholy Annex and play plenty of cards with lower mana value, despite usually having eight four-drops between Enduring Curiosity, Kaito, Bane of Nightmares and Sheoldred, the Apocalypse — another challenge for him in these cases also involves Preacher of the Schism, whose body matters in the current Metagame as it dodges Lightning Strike, Torch the Tower and Cut Down while blocking well and trading with any creature in combat.

But perhaps the mistake is in considering Dark Confidant only for Midrange decks. Aggro lists have also used it in the past and usually carry the low curve necessary to get the most out of it. With other creatures with cheap two-for-one effects or a faster clock, he can generate a steady stream of card advantage for his controller to never run out of steam — while the mice package might not be the ideal home, other versions of Aggro could be born from the inherent advantages Bob offers.

Not to mention other low-mana value archetypes that have benefited simply by including him in their lists. Raise the Past variants, for example, benefit greatly from a two-mana creature that generates an extra draw every turn without any additional conditions, and the life loss is easy to work around in this list.

The recent Insidious Roots variants also fit into this category, although they have a potentially bad synergy with Dark Confidant due to Overlord of the Balemurk, which, despite being commonly cast for two mana, has a total value of five. Still, cards like Scavenging Ooze can easily bypass the new creature's life loss.

All the possibilities mentioned for Dark Confidant in Standard apply to some extent in Pioneer, but here it has some new challenges and possibilities.

Pioneer's mana curve can go much lower in the Midrange: except for Unholy Annex, Rakdos, for example, only runs Sheoldred, the Apocalypse and Fable of the Mirror-Breaker as cards with a mana value higher than two, and replacing Annex with Bob would be the obvious path for those who want to take advantage of the new card — the question is whether it is worth giving up Annex's interactions with Mutavault as another victory line for just one mana per turn.

We can't forget about Sacrifice decks either. In addition to easily compensating for the life loss with Cauldron Familiar, these naturally have a very low mana curve except for Ygra, Eater of All, which if resolved will usually win the game — in addition, Final Fantasy also brings Sephiroth, Fabled SOLDIER to the deck, which also compensates for the life loss. While he probably won't replace Mayhem Devil, Sephiroth could make a big difference in the Golgari variants.

Other strategies today in the lower tiers can take advantage of Dark Confidant in different ways: Waste Not is another archetype that can reduce the mana curve to accommodate the card while still taking advantage of Sheoldred, the Apocalypse and other cards with mana value up to four, while Cori-Steel Cutter and a lower mana curve with Soul-Scar Mage and Wizard's Lightning would offer more aggressive openings while Dark Confidant replenishes its owner's hand every turn.

Bob could also work in Humans, since he shares the same creature type and the archetype naturally tends to use cards with lower mana value, and could make the most of the mix of lineage interactions with a constant source of card advantage in the same slot.

Dark Confidant is a legend from times gone by, and the fact that we have doubts about its potential for play in 2025 shows how much Magic's Power Creep has grown over this decade. It's a sign of how, just like when it was released in 2005, times change. Excellent cards lose ground, and the natural progression of complex mechanics and exciting abilities slowly deteriorates the pillars that once defined the structure of what made a card good or even too strong for the game.

Bob, now as an Ascian, has potential. There are places where it could work, but there are also circumstances in both Standard and Pioneer today that doesn't align in its favor—it'll definitely be the first card to be ostensibly tested when Final Fantasy comes out on June 13, but until then, we can only imagine what to make of it and reminisce about the days when having a Dark Confidant on the board meant being the king of card advantage.

Thanks for reading!