Pain Seer vs Bob
Modern forum
Posted on Feb. 8, 2014, 5:07 a.m. by -MisterJ-
I'm coming back to magic after bailing out during the Kithkin reign back in the day. I always had a Soft spot for Dark Confidant but my question stems from the new Pain Seer that just dropped.
Both have same CMC and while Bob can only happen once per turn, Pain Seer can get more than one play a turn theoretically and has extra point on Defense...
Sorry if this has already been asked... But which do you think is better for Modern play?
See I didn't think about that... The turn after playing Dark Confidant you get to use the ability where Pain Seer is two turns after being played unless the ability could be abused with tap dance...
February 8, 2014 5:14 a.m.
Dark confidant is so much better it's not even worth the comparison. The reason is that Bob works on his own. You give him 4 slots in your deck and that's it. However, pain seer requires tap and untap shenanigans to get going which means you have to mainboard cards that do that. You've then spent 8 slots on the deck on making one card work.
February 8, 2014 6:54 a.m.
Okay well lets say we want to build a black suicide deck, do we still say that Bob is better?
February 8, 2014 7:40 a.m.
Outside of some combination that legitimately breaks Pain Seer ie not just Twiddle and such, Dark Confidant is going to be the better card 99.99% of the time. The only meaningful common situation that comes to mind in Modern is Electrolyze .
February 8, 2014 8:03 a.m.
As said above, the benefit for Dark Confidant is that it doesn't need any support cards. Throw 4 at your deck, make sure your curve is low (which you want it to be in Modern anyway) and your good to go.
Pain Seer requires support to do anything, which means your already watering down your decks power to boost Pain Seer. In Standard, this might get you to Tier 2 at best (and I speak from experience, I'm building Pain Seer.deck in Standard). In Modern, you will just get crushed. People will run Pain Seer because they don't want to shell out for Bob, but they aren't going to be winning any tournaments with him.
February 8, 2014 8:14 a.m.
APPLE01DOJ says... #9
February 8, 2014 10:11 a.m.
NotSoLuckyLydia says... #10
As you will see from my profile, Dark Confidant is the better of these two. But beyond my unrequited love for Bob, he requires no assistance to work, he gets to work the very next upkeep, and I mean... He's just better. You play it and get cards. You play Pain Seer and maybe get one or two.
February 8, 2014 4:01 p.m.
Didgeridooda says... #11
You are also comparing legacy/modern with standard. With the Springleaf Drum thingy, he will be successful in standard.
Didgeridooda says... #2
Pain Seer needs a little help to get going. Dark Confidant is automatic. The Dark Confidant I feel is much much better. In the right deck Pain Seer could be very good.
February 8, 2014 5:11 a.m.