TT Confident (a.k.a. The Perfect Pile)

[Thug]

First of all, for those of you who didn’t see it yet, or those of you who are just looking for a decklist, here it is: (this is the list I played at last tournament, not the final version, guess you’ll have to scroll you’re mouse wheel for that one)

TT Confident v1.1

Lands:
3 Polluted Delta
2 Flooded Strand
4 Underground Sea
2 Tundra
3 Island
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Library of Alexandria

Artifacts:
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Emerald
1 Lotus Petal
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Black Lotus
1 Sensei, Divining Top
1 Memory Jar
1 Darksteel Colossus

Blue:
4 Brainstorm
4 Mana Drain
4 Force of Will
2 Rebuild
2 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Tinker
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Hurkyl’s Recall
1 Mind’s Desire

Black:
2 Duress
3 Dark Confidant
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Yawgmoth’s Will
1 Yawgmoth’s Bargain
2 Tendrils of Agony

Sideboard:
1 Darkblast
1 Engineered Plague
2 Shadow of Doubt
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Sundering Titan
2 Sacred Ground
1 Balace
2 Seal of Cleansing
2 Tormod’s Crypt
1 Echoing Truth
1 Blue Elemental Blast


I played this deck last weekend to a 5-1 record in the Castricum tournaments. I only lost 2 games, but unfortunately in the same match. For a deck that I had hardly touched before the tournament and which was based around a card that hadn’t seen any real play in vintage yet I think I did fairly well. Here’s a short report.

---

Round 1: FCG
Game 1: Confidant buys me a lot of time by blocking a Piledriver and I tinker into Colossus for the Win. But instead of beating him with it I go for the stylish kill by bouncing it back to my hand and finishing him with a lethal Tendrils.

Game 2: My second turn plague makes 3 lackeys hit his graveyard and that sealed the deal.


Round 2: FCG
Game 1: I force a lackey, but he gets back in the game with a recruiter. I counter a Sharshooter to buy another turn because he can only get me down to 1 with help of his Siege-gang. In my following turn I resolve a will and some other stuff, but can only get the storm count to 7 before resolving my Tendrils. With the life gained I’m able to survive another turn, but I have little business left (just a Rebuild and a Desire). Next turn I Desire for 5, and one of the cards is my second Tendrils (Sweet).

Game 2: He tries a first-turn Blood Moon which I FoW. I resolve a plague a little later which seals the deal again.


Round 3: Workshop Aggro
Game 1: He starts with Chalice for 0, but I kept a slow hand with multiple Brainstorm and Drains, so it doesn’t really hurt me. He doesn’t play much business before I get double blue online, and I counter a Thirst and a Tinker (with Welder on the board). At some point I resolve a Thirst and have to choose between keeping a Rebuild and a Desire, going for a large Desire, or keeping double drain and play the controllish game. Off course I go for the Desire, but my Desire for 7 reveals little to nothing. I get a Seal of Cleansing, Time Walk and maybe a BS or Thirst. Over the next turns I counter at least 3 more of his spells because I keep drawing FoW’s. Finally I find a Confidant and it starts the beats. With the help of some brainstorms I avoid taking heavy damage myself while my confidant and his mana vault deal the final points of damage to him. (Somewhere I also resolved a 8-life Tendrils)

Game 2: He plays stuff, I deal with the stuff. At one point we’re both out of gas but I got a Confidant on the board, which should win me the game. However he draws a Duplicant and gets an amazing 2/1 beat stick. With about 10 mana available I draw Demonic and Will wins me the game before the beat stick even touches me.


Round 4: 5-c Stax
Game 1: He start of with a Sphere or Resistance off a Workshop, and avoids burn by dropping a Mox. I drop lotus with the help of a Island, getting Drain online. Two turns later I drain a Karn and drop a Bargain through double Sphere of Resistance. But this gives him the opportunity to Resolve a Smokestack. I pay enough life to find a H. Recall and am able to bounce his board end of his turn. I’m holding Ancestral, Walk and Will, so winning soon after is no trouble.

Game 2: I keep a risky 1-land hand that has Brainstorm and Darkblast. I brainstorm into some more lands and kill a Welder while he build mana and drops multiple Spheres again. After a brainstorm I dredge back the Darkblast to get rid of two bad cards, but unfortunately the third card is the land I needed, I do not draw a land for at least 4 more turns and he has little trouble locking me out.

Game 3: I mulligan away a so-so hand that had no real business. My 6-card contains Sacred Ground, Seal of Cleansing and Confidant, together with some lands, so I keep it even if it lacks acceleration. He drops a Tangle Wire first turn (great play) and this keeps me off 2 mana for the next couple of turns, since I can find no artifact mana at all. He gets a Trini into play and I’m pretty much locked . After taking only 6 damage from his mana crypt in at least 10 turns he finds a Welder and a Karn a little later to finish this game. The fact that he drew 3 wastlands in the early game didnt help this game.


Round 5: Oath.
Game 1: This is the first time I get to start game 1!, and the second time I get to start a game. I take advantage of it by resolving a Time Walk and passing the turn with three mana open. He plays Sol Ring and I thirst eot, discarding a Lotus. Next turn I play a confidant with Drain backup. He doesn’t counter but instead plays an Oath on his turn, which I try to drain, but he finds a FoW with an impulse to protect it. It doesn’t matter though, since confidant gives me another artifact bouncer to make the Tendrils in my hand lethal.

Game 2: He keeps a hand he shouldn’t have lacking coloured mana sources, and I get a huge Desire (13 storm I believe) which leads to Will. After bouncing my artefacts some more I resolve a Tendrils with 34 copies.


Round 6: UW landstill
Game 1: He drops a standstill but misses multiple land-drops while I miss none. When he finally finds some Factories I break the Standstill with a Thirst, and next turn I resolve a Will for the Win.

Game 2: We trade some counters, and I get a Confidant at some point. I hardcast Jar and use it next turn to dig for some better cards. The only useful card I get is a Top, which finds me a second confidant. After blocking a Factory with a Confidant and keeping the other to draw me some cards I finally see a Tendrils with my top, which combines well with the Rebuild in my hand to win the game.


I finish 3rd, with two players with a 5-0-1 record above me, and about 5 with 12 points below me.

That’s it for the small report, except for one more note about the deck I played:
It was 62 cards, and thus suboptimal. But I had to choose between several cards and rather played with them all to see how they would please me, so I kept all in. I will propose a revised decklist at the end of this little article.

---

History
It was pretty funny seeing people guess about how I came up with the deck, but I think no-one will ever have guessed what really happened. It actually started when I was looking at possible legacy cards that could tutor for Battle of Wits, which lead to the Transmute ability. I thought there was a 5cc card with transmute, but after looking it up there wasn’t one, which ruined my ideas of making Battle of Wits playable in legacy. What I did see was a 6cc card with Transmute, which I wanted to try building a deck around (mainly for grabbing Desire). An uncounterable way to find Desire seemed pretty good, and I made a deck full of cheap useful artifacts and lots of artifacts bouncers, coupled with Desire, Tendrils and some tutors. The fact that you could get Bargain with the transmute cards too made them pretty decent.
But the deck never really impressed me, and slowly I started cutting the orthodox cards for more mainstream cards. In the end I combined three ideas in one:

- TPS with Drains,
- Playing with Confidant
- Creating storm with artifact bounce spells

---

While playing in the tournament I saw a lot of reactions of surprise when they saw Drains, Combo-Elements and even the suicidal 2/1 dude. While the deck may looks like a total pile, it actually has a huge amount of synergies, all starting at the Confidant:

Confidant + Top: This one is pretty obvious, the Top allows you to dodge taking damage from your confidant. In the worst case you get to exchange the Top with the top card, forcing you to take a single damage.

Confidant + Tendrils: Confidant digs for cards to up the storm count, but at the same time it takes the need for a copy away every time it hits your opponent. Also several times I used a small-sized tendrils to gain life to stay away from the dangerous low digits with a Confidant in play.

Top + Rebuild/Tendrils: Top is an easy way to get the storm count higher, and it’s just another artifact to be bounced by H. Recall and Rebuild.

Confidant + Drains (and FoW’s) : Having 8 counters in your deck and lots of draw allows you to win games mono-u style. Sit back and ride the card advantage of confidant to the win.

Confidant/Rebuild + LoA: It’s very easy to get back up to 7 cards in this deck, and therefore LoA shines in the deck.

---

What I would change if I would play the deck again:
First of all the deck needs to get rid of Tinker-Colossus, or at least the Colossus. Aside from the danger of taking 11 damage from Confidant Collosus does simply not fit into the deck. I sided it out in round 3 to 6 and only kept it in against FCG. With 2 Tendrils in the deck you rarely lack the ability to get one, and I think the second Tendrils fits the deck much better than Colossus does. Colossus should find a spot in the sideboard though.

Duress isn’t worth it, it should also be moved to the sideboard. I added Duress to make the matchup against Slaver/Gifts better but I think you don’t need these before sideboard. Confidant is enough of a bomb against these decks. Duress should be in the sideboard though.

The deck needs more Tops, I rarely regretted seeing my single copy. It’s not only great with Confidant but it also makes winning early with Tendrils much easier by digging for pieces and upping the storm count

The deck begs for a Swamp, and probably still does after the Duresses leave.

---

This leads to this revised deck:

TT Confident v1.2

Lands:
4 Polluted Delta
1 Flooded Strand
4 Underground Sea
1 Tundra
3 Island
1 Swamp
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Library of Alexandria

Artifacts:
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Emerald
1 Lotus Petal
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Black Lotus
2 Sensei, Divining Top
1 Memory Jar
0 Darksteel Colossus

Blue:
4 Brainstorm
4 Mana Drain
4 Force of Will
2 Rebuild
2 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Tinker (could be Thirst #3 too)
0 Merchant Scroll
1 Hurkyl’s Recall
1 Mind’s Desire

Black:
0 Duress
4 Dark Confidant
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Yawgmoth’s Will
1 Yawgmoth’s Bargain
2 Tendrils of Agony

Sideboard:
1 Darkblast
1 Engineered Plague (the fact that it won me 2 games makes it stay)
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Sundering Titan (if you expect a lot of Gifts)
2 Tormod’s Crypt
2 Sacred Ground
1 Balace (if you expect a lot of aggro)
1 Seal of Cleansing
1 Echoing Truth
1 Tundra
1 Darksteel Colossus
2 Duress
0/1 Tinker[/i]

---

Some Questions and Answers from the Castricum thread:

@ Koen:
Your deck did look very intiresting. I would be intirested to know how "combo" pieces such as Bargain and Desire did in what seems like a control deck.

Bargain fits into this deck a little better than most control decks, but it’s really not all that different. After playing with Bargain in this deck, I might even play it in Gifts. But the fact that you have Tendrils to gain life, and the ability to win easily when drawing about 10 cards makes this card powerful in this deck.

Desire is a card I would have cut before the tournament if I had to go down to 60 cards. But it proved much better than expected during the tournament. When you hand doesn’t combine well with the Desire, you still can pitch it to FoW, Brainstorm and Thirst. Not to mention that a single artifact bouncer makes this card incredibly powerful.

In general I think this deck runs very little cards you never want to see (No Recoup, Burning Wish, Truth etc) and because of this the deck can afford to run some cards that can win games but can also sit useless in your hand. Because you don’t have many other cards you want to get rid of with Brainstorm and Thirst.

Also, was it worth running 2 Tundras just for the white spells in the sideboard? They just seem out of place and could be unnecessary wasteland targets.

Before the tournament I hadn’t really thought about the sideboard yet, and I needed an answer to Stax (aside from all the bouncers). Sacred Ground seemed the best option, and because this made me add some more powerful white cards I couldn’t get away running a single Tundra. Looking back I think having a Swamp over 1 of the Tundra and cutting some white cards in the sideboard would have been a better option.

When I saw Koen's deck on Morphling.de my first thought was 'He did it.' This of course refers to his announcement to be willing to test TPS with a combined number of both Rituals and Drains. It seems to me that he tried to merge Gifts.dec and TPS, cut Rituals at some point and generates Storm through Rebuilds.

As explained above, this isn’t really how I created the deck. If I would have started with TPS solely the deck would probably have run Drains and Rituals, but that’s a different deck, something I may try later.

That was my thought as well, but good job Koen, either way.  Confident is really powerful

Thanks, I think almost half the archetypes out there could be adjusted to fit in Confidant and most of ‘em probably should because the card is a powerhouse.

---

That’s it,
Feel free to share thoughts about the deck

Koen

[49 Cents]

Game 3: I mulligan away a so-so hand that had no real business. My 6-card contains Sacred Ground, Seal of Cleansing and Confidant, together with some lands, so I keep it even if it lacks acceleration. He drops a Tangle Wire first turn (great play) and this keeps me off 2 mana for the next couple of turns, since I can find no artifact mana at all. He gets a Trini into play and I’m pretty much locked . After taking only 6 damage from his mana crypt in at least 10 turns he finds a Welder and a Karn a little later to finish this game.

You failed to mention that I'd drawn all 4 Wastelands.. And it weren't 10 turns, atleast 14..

Great work with the deck. It was really powerfull all day. But why the lack of Vamp?

Greetz,

Hugo

[Nastaboi]

Actually, there is a card that can transmute into Battle of Witts:

Brainspoil
3BB Sorcery
Destroy target creature that isn’t enchanted. It can’t be regenerated.
Transmute 1BB

It needs black mana, but you were already running Diabolic Tutors, weren't you?

As for the deck itself, it reminds me of Methuselahn's Rebuild deck.

[TheUprisal]

I like this deck, and I like it even more now that Duress has been moved to the side. 

Confidant is the nuts;  just completely, completely fucking nuts.  I have to ask though about a couple cards.

LoA? This deck seems as though it only has 7 cards on the first 2 turns.  Is this worth running a non-U/B source?

And speaking of which, the Swamp greatly adds to the lessened destruction by Wasteland.

2 Rebuilds AND a Hurkyl's? This seems a tad overkill.  Maybe replace

-1 Rebuild
+1 Tinker

To help you go get that Memory Jar?

I do realize this is TPS w/ Drain and Confidant.  But my concern is, there is too much control and too little gas for when you want to win.  This is the reason I think Colossus is still good MD.  This looks as though it would fizzle way too much for a tournament setting.  But I will test this;  I always have liked the idea of Drain in Storm.

Manabase is very solid, except for the questionable LoA.  But that will be a testing focal-point.

Good job at the tourney, BTW.

[Disburden]

Just here to give you props, Thug. This pile is friggin sweet. It actually lead to me trying Confiant/Top in a lot of decks, including my gifts deck.

[JDawg13]

I really like the looks of this deck and think it can be really powerful if tuned to properly suit one's metagame.  I think that the addition of white for things like Seal of Cleansing and Sacred Ground is a mistake, when many of your best answers to Stax are in your main color already.  You've got the three maindeck bounce spells, which is always strong, but if you're looking for more in the sideboard, then Annul becomes a solid choice.  It gives you better cost diversity which can help to combat Chalices, and is strong against Oath as well.  Cutting white allows you to run another basic land as well, something I love in the environment right now.

Here's what I would consider as a good place to start with a sideboard for this deck, after dropping white:

3 Annul
2 Duress
1 Tinker (3 Thirsts main)
1 Colossus
1 Sundering Titan
2 Tormod's Crypt
1 Echoing Truth
1 Engineered Explosives (not sure this is still as good without the third color consistently, but you do still have moxes)
1 Darkblast
1-2 Engineered Plague
0-1 Something else (perhaps another Hurkyl's)

[JACO]

Koen, I've been thinking of incorporating Dark Confidant into combo for a while, and this looks like an interesting start.

After playing with Bargain in this deck, I might even play it in Gifts. But the fact that you have Tendrils to gain life, and the ability to win easily when drawing about 10 cards makes this card powerful in this deck.

I am kind of suprised to see 2 Thirst for Knowledge in your list, and 0 Gifts Given. Thirst seems really weak compared to the raw power of Gifts. How did you like Thirst, and what do you think about possibly cutting them for a couple of Gifts?

Also, isn't Rebuild always better than Hurkyl's Recall? In all my testing of TPS, and even Long, I've never wished that I had drawn a Hurkyl's Recall, rather than Rebuild, which is almost always a bomb, and at the very least cyles on opponent's EOT to replace itself. Against pretty much everything besides the combo mirror, Rebuild is always going to be better, beause it removes everything Stax or the Chalice player can play, and simultaneously bounces all your accelerants to your hand to up your storm count (rather than Hurkyl's Recall, which only does one or the other).

Do you have no Vampiric Tutor because of the loss of 2 life, or why exactly? That seems like it would be better (to my untrained eye) than Mystical, even though it isn't pitchable to Force of Will, blahblahblah. You already have 20+ blue spells, so that shouldn't be much of an issue at all.

I know how much you love Necropotence, so was that just not included because of the lack of Dark Ritual and the fact that it sucks to pass the turn with a Necro in play?

To me, Confidant seems like it would fit better in a proactive GrimLong or Charbelcher style deck, where you just have bomb after bomb, and you don't lose 5 life for drawing a Force of Will. But I digress...

[Fall-Titan]

JACO, Although i have yet to play this deck, i am pretty sure i know the answer to why a hurkyls is left in the mainboard rather than 3 rebuild. The first reason is the rare occasion that a chalice for 3 is out and there is an absence of chalice 2. Like i said, although this is rare, certain workshop [players could hone in on the fact that ur win enablers are 3 cost and bring in chalices for 3. The more important reason that there is a hurkyls in there and i would assume much more common scenario is because of meddling mage. This deck can win without artifact bouncers but it comes at a slower pace. Lastly and the no duh reason would be that every once in a while u only want to bounce your opponets artifacts. The original list had D.C. If a trublesome artifact sits on the other side of the board, rarely would you want to bounce your D.C. just to get rid of it.

[49 Cents]

It is quite simple actually, Rebuild costs 4 with a Sphere of Resistance out, and you only play 3 basic lands so your lands can be wasted aswell. If you are on the draw and they start with a Chalice I'd rather have a Recall then a Rebuild..

[Moxlotus]

Confidants are amazing.  I'm currently testing them in a weird version of GrimLong.  They really smooth out draws and help against Control and dig deeper for bounce against Stax.

[Thug]

First of all,
Thanks for all the replies.

Actually, there is a card that can transmute into Battle of Witts:

Brainspoil
3BB Sorcery
Destroy target creature that isn’t enchanted. It can’t be regenerated.
Transmute 1BB

It needs black mana, but you were already running Diabolic Tutors, weren't you?

I have no clue how I missed that one, I was looking through all cards with the text "transmute" on it.
I wasnt running Diabolic Tutor because it costs too much, but this card certainly makes Battle of Wits an option again.
Guess I have a new project to work on

LoA? This deck seems as though it only has 7 cards on the first 2 turns.  Is this worth running a non-U/B source?

LoA is absolutely amazing, I don’t think I have abused it in a deck more than in this one.
As mentioned before with Bouncers and Confidant it's fairly easy to get back up to seven in the midgame.
And an early LoA still wins games against control.
It's definitely worth running, you could get away with 15 coloured lands, so maybe you should look at is as an uncounterable card-drawer that even produces mana.

2 Rebuilds AND a Hurkyl's? This seems a tad overkill.  Maybe replace-
1 Rebuild
+1 Tinker
To help you go get that Memory Jar?

Desire and Tendrils will definitely get weaker when a bounce spell is cut. I feel the bouncers are core cards and a fundamental part of the deck. I don't think it will work as well with one less bounce spell.

I do realize this is TPS w/ Drain and Confidant.  But my concern is, there is too much control and too little gas for when you want to win.  This is the reason I think Colossus is still good MD.  This looks as though it would fizzle way too much for a tournament setting.  But I will test this;  I always have liked the idea of Drain in Storm.

You shouldn't look at it as a pure combo deck. This deck is very capable of playing two if not three different strategies. More than TPS this deck can control a game, with Confidant beating and providing card advantage. If you try to play this deck as a combo-deck you might fizzle a lot, but that’s logical with more reactive cards in the deck.

Collosus, as strange as it sounds, it a horrible slow threat after the first two turns. It's still a good answer to various hate cards and should be in the sideboard, but it has really underperformed maindeck.

Just here to give you props, Thug. This pile is friggin sweet. It actually lead to me trying Confiant/Top in a lot of decks, including my gifts deck.

Thanks

I really like the looks of this deck and think it can be really powerful if tuned to properly suit one's metagame.  I think that the addition of white for things like Seal of Cleansing and Sacred Ground is a mistake, when many of your best answers to Stax are in your main colour already.  You've got the three maindeck bounce spells, which is always strong, but if you're looking for more in the sideboard, then Annul becomes a solid choice.  It gives you better cost diversity which can help to combat Chalices, and is strong against Oath as well.  Cutting white allows you to run another basic land as well, something I love in the environment right now.

I cannot say that white is better than Annul right now, or the inversed. But I will sure give Annul a try, if only to bring back green in the deck. I ran a single tropical and Crop Rotation in the deck for a long while, but they were removed when I added white. It's too bad green has so little to offer besides crop rotation.

But then again, I’m starting to think Disenchant is better than Seal, and Naturalize compares to Disenchant, so green might very well be an option. I guess only testing more sideboarded games can tell.

I am kind of suprised to see 2 Thirst for Knowledge in your list, and 0 Gifts Given. Thirst seems really weak compared to the raw power of Gifts. How did you like Thirst, and what do you think about possibly cutting them for a couple of Gifts?

Thirst is a weak card without Welder, but the fact that the decks still smells like a combo-deck makes a cards that digs deep for three mana very good. Gifts seems weak without Ritual to fuel Necro and Will and without Recoup for the really good piles. Combine that with the fact that the deck runs little tutors, and there are little powerful gifts piles that remain.

But the most important argument is the difference in mana cost, 2U and 3U makes so much difference. You can see this difference when you beat Gifts with Tog in 8 from 10 games just because Intuition is 1 mana cheaper than Gifts.

Also, isn't Rebuild always better than Hurkyl's Recall? In all my testing of TPS, and even Long, I've never wished that I had drawn a Hurkyl's Recall, rather than Rebuild, which is almost always a bomb, and at the very least cycles on opponent's EOT to replace itself. Against pretty much everything besides the combo mirror, Rebuild is always going to be better, beause it removes everything Stax or the Chalice player can play, and simultaneously bounces all your accelerants to your hand to up your storm count (rather than Hurkyl's Recall, which only does one or the other).

If there's one thing in which I have faith, it's diversity. I won't pay out often that you have two different cards that do (almost) the same thing, but it will eventually matter. For one, I probably would have been unable to win game 1 against Hugo (49 Cents) and his 5c-stax if I would have run 3 Rebuilds instead of 2/1. It won't matter in most of the games, but I think 2/1 is better in the little games in which it does matter.

Do you have no Vampiric Tutor because of the loss of 2 life, or why exactly? That seems like it would be better (to my untrained eye) than Mystical, even though it isn't pitchable to Force of Will, blahblahblah. You already have 20+ blue spells, so that shouldn't be much of an issue at all.

The life loss is a reason, black mana is another and the fact that I rarely feel the need for a Tutor is a third reason. Demonic mostly gets Ancestral, Walk and Will and occasionally a Tendrils. All these things can be accomplished by Mystical as well. I don't see a card in my list that's weaker than Vampiric, so I'm interested: what would you remove for it?

I know how much you love Necropotence, so was that just not included because of the lack of Dark Ritual and the fact that it sucks to pass the turn with a Necro in play?

I dont care about passing a Turn after dropping Necro, as long as your deck runs FoW, this is hardly a drawback. But I feel the deck can't produce BBB consistant enough. Heck I have won lots of games with a Mox Jet as only black source (go bounce!). I think you can produce 4BB probably more reliable than BBB, combine that with the fact that Bargain is a better card than Necro and it should make sense.

Really, If I could find something that looks like a justification for playing Necro I would play it, because as you mentioned already I love Necro.

To me, Confidant seems like it would fit better in a proactive GrimLong or Charbelcher style deck, where you just have bomb after bomb, and you don't lose 5 life for drawing a Force of Will. But I digress...

Just some maths about the damage Confidant does to you (averages) (based on my latest version)
The average damage a single Confidant does to you each turn is 1.5833 (95/60)
The average damage a single Confidant does to your opponent is 2.0000 each turn.
The average damage Confidant does to you could very well be below 1 point a turn in you take Brainstorm and Top into the calculation, but I think it's nearly impossible to find a proper function for this calculation.

So even if you just counter everything your opponent does you will win the damage-race.
You dont even need Brainstorms or Top for that.
People are way too scared by the 5cc of FoW, but math proofs them wrong

Koen

[dexter]

The deck seems to have potential, havent gotten to trying it out myself but just looking through the decklist it makes me wonder a couple of things.

1. What round does this deck usually wiin?

2. Is it really better than a regular TPS that should have more speed mostly thx to the Rituals you seem to be missing?

3. Is it really faster than a regular DrainGifts?

edit: scratching last question, sorry for misremembering, to early for my brain to function

[Disburden]

The new list doesn't run DSC, which leads to less dead cards in the hand.

[virtual]

I've been testing confidant in a TPS-esque deck.  It's been fantastic.  You've taken it a step further, so I'll try it out. 

Confidant is ridiculously good.  Replacing the duresses is the right call, they're similar, except confidant draws cards if it resolves. 

-Virtual

[forests failed you]

Confidant really does lend himself nicely to combo decks.  The extra card over the course of two turns usually puts you far enough ahead to just win.  He seemed really solid as a living wish target in 2 land Belcher, as he usually gave you enough 'umph' to just force your bombs through.

[pyr0ma5ta]

Confidant and DSC in the same deck is a no-no

[49 Cents]

What are you talking about? The chance you reveal Colossus is insane small, plus the fact that you have Tops and Brainstorms..

[Disburden]

What are you talking about? The chance you reveal Colossus is insane small, plus the fact that you have Tops and Brainstorms..

I actualy run Confidant and Top in my Gifts deck. It runs Colossus and Tendrils in the board for the kill. I have only died ONCE because of revealing Colossus off the top during my upkeep, which was only due to the fact that I didn't have Top out and ran out of Brainstorms, so I took a chance. Otherwise I haven't had problems, even with revealing Gifts Ungiven and losing four life, Confidant speeds your card advantage up so quickly you win sooner than usual, the life isn't important usually.  Plus is works amazingly with Library of Alexandria.

[pyr0ma5ta]

I don't know, there's an awful lot of good, expensive cards in the deck...

4 Force of Will
1 Bargain
1 Mind's Desire
1 Memory Jar

and Sundering Titan and DSC in the board.  I hope that the pain you take isn't that much, but in a long drawn out match, you might end up taking too much pain and allowing Gifts to combo out with only storm of 3 or something.

[nataz]

there are 35 cards that will deal o-1 dmg in the deck.

even without the lib manipulation, drawing the extra card should be worth it im most situations, especialy since the only life that matters is the last one.

think of it like crypt, it speeds up your deck, with the draw back of life loss. 

[Thug]

The deck seems to have potential, havent gotten to trying it out myself but just looking through the decklist it makes me wonder a couple of things.

1. What round does this deck usually wiin?

It all depends on the game state, like with any deck that has any interaction with the opponent. I haven't tried goldfishing with the deck yet, or at least never have written down the results but I suppose you could win around turn 4-5 most of the time if you goldfished the deck, maybe even faster.

2. Is it really better than a regular TPS that should have more speed mostly thx to the Rituals you seem to be missing?

The deck is hard to compare to TPS since it shares little strategies with it. Lot of cards are simular but the way the deck (ab)uses them is different. Instead of forcing through a bomb early on, like TPS most often does this deck more often plays a controllish role. But the fact that the deck has 4 Confidants gives the deck 4 turn-1 plays that are huge bombs in most matchups.

3. Is it really faster than a regular DrainGifts?

This is a hard one, since I often slowplayed (as in: took more turns) the deck for a little more security, but looking back the thing that surprised me is how easy you can pull out wins with a Random Tendrils. My game against Oath was a good example of this, confidant gave me a Bounce spell, and together with some artifacts mana, I was able to win the game with a Tendrils before he got a third turn.
Often you are able to win very early if you have to, but if I can choose I rather sit back and let my Confidants do the work.

Confidant and DSC in the same deck is a no-no

Not reading before posting is a no-no.
Being scared without good reasons is a no-no
etc.

I don't know, there's an awful lot of good, expensive cards in the deck...

4 Force of Will
1 Bargain
1 Mind's Desire
1 Memory Jar

and Sundering Titan and DSC in the board.  I hope that the pain you take isn't that much, but in a long drawn out match, you might end up taking too much pain and allowing Gifts to combo out with only storm of 3 or something.

The average damage a single Confidant does to you each turn is 1.5833 (95/60)
The average damage a single Confidant does to your opponent is 2.0000 each turn.

By the time Confidant comes close to killing you, it should already have killed your opponent, not to mention you will have drawn so many cards from it by then that it shouldnt be hard to resolve a Tendrils for whatever life your opponent has left.

Koen

[Fantaman]

Nice Nice Nice deck.

I only change some cards with our actually meta in ITALY:

TT Confident v1.1

Lands:
3 Polluted Delta
2 Flooded Strand
4 Underground Sea
2 Tundra - PROBABLY IS BETTER 1 MORE ISLAND AND ONLY 1 TUNDRA... OR AGAINST WASTELANDS YOU HAVE PROBLEMS THE FIRST MATCH. ( peraps 2 tundras are goods )
3 Island
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Library of Alexandria YES IS A WINNING CONDITION AGAINST CONTROLS DECK BUT SOMETIMES IS PROBLEM WITH WASTELANDS...

Artifacts:
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Emerald
1 Lotus Petal
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Black Lotus
1 Sensei, Divining Top
1 Memory Jar: ANOTHER BIG PROBLEM....BUT NOT ENOUGHT....BECAUSE WITH MANA DRAIN IS SIMPLE DO PLAY!
MY IDEA IS THAT YOU CAN PUT ANOTHER CARD LIKE THE SECOND SENSEI DIV. TOP....OR THE THIRD: THIRST FOR KNOWLEDGE FOR DRAW MORE.
1 Darksteel Colossus

Blue:
4 Brainstorm
4 Mana Drain
4 Force of Will
2 Rebuild: TWO REBUILDS ARE TOOO MUCH...YOU CAN CHANGE ONE OF THEM WITH RUSHING RIVER OR CHAIN OF VAPOR
2 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Tinker
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Hurkyl’s Recall: YES IS STRONG!!!  BETTER FOR ME A CUNNING WISH: WITH A LOT OF INSTANTS IN SIDE
1 Mind’s Desire

Black:
2 Duress
3 Dark Confidant
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Yawgmoth’s Will
1 Yawgmoth’s Bargain
2 Tendrils of Agony: HERE'S THE PROBLEM....TWO TENDRILS ARE TOO MUCH IN SOME CASE! ..IS NOT A BLUE CARD....AND PROBABLY THE FIRST TURN IS NOT REALLY A BOMB LIKE IN THE NORMAL TPS.... TRY TO CHANGE WITH ANOTHER SPELL LIKE CUNNING WISH...OR THE SECOND MERCHANT SCROLL.


Sideboard:
1 Darkblast
1 Engineered Plague
2 Shadow of Doubt
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Sundering Titan
2 Sacred Ground
1 Balace
2 Seal of Cleansing: YES IT'S A BIG BIG BIG CARD...BUT IF YOU CAN CHANGE THEM WITH TWO DISENCHANT ( IF YOU PUT THE SECOND WISH MAINDECK ) I SUPPOSE IT'S VERY VERY BROKEN AGAINST ARTIFACTS WITH TANGLE WIRE...!
2 Tormod’s Crypt
1 Echoing Truth
1 Blue Elemental Blast VERY IMPRESSIVE BUT IN THIS LIST CAN ONLY PLAYED WITH 2/3 MAIN DECK  C. WISH.... A MONO BLAST IS NOT A BIG ENGINE FOR THIS  DECK. TRY TO PUT A SWORDS TO PLOWSHER MORE STRONG !


Thanx a lot and excuse-me for CAPS but is the only method I've to explain my solution on this deck list.

Probably is not enought strong like a Gift deck but it has lots of evils cards inside...and DURESS MAIN DECK!

Thanx to U.s. guys

Fantaman - Italy

[mongrel12]

Question: Why have a third color splash at all? The only matchup it really makes a whole lot of sense in is the Oath matchup (against stax, rebuild is just so much better than undermining your mana for a white splash). It seems like a good option (especially if you are up against a lot of drains) is to just cut the Tundra's for Annul as suggested, and bring in more bounce from the SB. This deck seems a little bit like TPS, and one of the best features of TPS is the mana stability.

In addition, in my testing, Mind's Desire has been much less than optimal: the turn that i get 4-6 spells out is the turn i have set myself up to win with tendrils/will anyways, and without academy, desire is not as castable as i would like it to be. I rarely find myself "going for it" with this deck, I just set up and win when I have achieved massive card advantage and have counter backup. Minds Desire 90% of the time in this deck (I would speculate) reads "pitch to force of will." I would suggest cutting it for Vampiric Tutor, or a blue card such as Fact or Fiction, as with confidant on the table, the card disadvantage tutors become that much better.

Another thing that I have noticed while playing this deck is its fair amount of vulnerability to mana disruption. Would fitting 2 or 3 Pithing Needle in the board (for Uba Stax, Dragon, Oath, Stax) be effective? This deck already has massive amounts of game against drains, and if you cut the white from the board, you could fit these in rather easily.

[Fantaman]

Question: Why have a third color splash at all? The only matchup it really makes a whole lot of sense in is the Oath matchup (against stax, rebuild is just so much better than undermining your mana for a white splash). It seems like a good option (especially if you are up against a lot of drains) is to just cut the Tundra's for Annul as suggested, and bring in more bounce from the SB. This deck seems a little bit like TPS, and one of the best features of TPS is the mana stability.

Mhm yes probably the deck can be cutted on 2 colors and more bouncer on side. Otherwise 3 colors is not bad.

----

In addition, in my testing, Mind's Desire has been much less than optimal: the turn that i get 4-6 spells out is the turn i have set myself up to win with tendrils/will anyways, and without academy, desire is not as castable as i would like it to be. I rarely find myself "going for it" with this deck, I just set up and win when I have achieved massive card advantage and have counter backup. Minds Desire 90% of the time in this deck (I would speculate) reads "pitch to force of will." I would suggest cutting it for Vampiric Tutor, or a blue card such as Fact or Fiction, as with confidant on the table, the card disadvantage tutors become that much better.

Yes Desire I made mistake it's not soo strong withour any ritual or tolarian academy. Cool! Thanx! Fiction probably better.

----

Another thing that I have noticed while playing this deck is its fair amount of vulnerability to mana disruption. Would fitting 2 or 3 Pithing Needle in the board (for Uba Stax, Dragon, Oath, Stax) be effective? This deck already has massive amounts of game against drains, and if you cut the white from the board, you could fit these in rather easily.

Mhm needle 2 are great I forgot them. Yes we can opt for:

- 1 Mind desire: + 1 Thirst or 1 FoF or 1 Misdirection 

- 2 Sacred Ground Side: + 2 Pithing Needle... I suppose it's the only card better than sacred.

Ok that's all!

Byez

Fanta 2006!!!!

[Gabethebabe]

By the time Confidant comes close to killing you, it should already have killed your opponent, not to mention you will have drawn so many cards from it by then that it shouldnt be hard to resolve a Tendrils for whatever life your opponent has left.

Koen

I have seen a guy playing this deck being hit by a Charbelcher of 16 and survive (at least) six Confidant "hits" (attacking with one, then two, and finally killing with 3 Confidants)

[Fantaman]

Yes Dark conf is not weak! Draw and beat... this is a bigggggg great creature. Type 1 now has  black draw engine. ( after necro and bargain  :lol: )

[Cross]

This deck is amazing. I played it both days of waterbury. Day 1 I was 19th based on tiebreakers, because somehow there were a ridiculous amount of people in the x-2 bracket. Day 2 I made top 8 after pulling some amazing wins out of a field comprised of like all fish and oath. I played 6 Null rod or aggro control decks to get into top 8, and these are hands down the decks worst matchup.

I've changed a bunch of cards, and the sideboard is my business, but the skeleton remains.

Major thanks to Koen, this deck is incredible.

[Gaagooch]

I played Cross's list day two at waterbury started 2-0, drew with him in the third round, lost to hatcher in round four because he is lucky as sin, won round five and then lost to null rod aggro in rounds six promptly dropping...but the decklist he gave me is absolutely amazing, i have no problems with the deck at all, i really want to spend time on this deck perfecting it and making it work even better.  Major thanks to Cross for sharing the list with his buddies over at tps...

[Thug]

Gladd to hear about those results!
Care to share some thoughts on the deck,
for one, What did you change and why?

--

I've done some work on a revised decklist as well,
but I didn't want to post it before playing a tourney with it (and I missed 2 of those because of tentams :S)

Koen

[Cross]

This is my list, as it will be made public anyways via waterbury top 32, and top 8 lists.

// Lands
4  Island
2  Flooded Strand
4  Polluted Delta
1  Swamp
3  Underground Sea
1  Tolarian Academy
1  Library of Alexandria

// Creatures
4  Dark Confidant

// Spells
1  Mind's Desire
4  Mana Drain
4  Force of Will
2  Rebuild
1  Hurkyl's Recall
2  Thirst for Knowledge
1  Ancestral Recall
1  Time Walk
1  Mystical Tutor
3  Brainstorm
1  Demonic Tutor
1  Yawgmoth's Will
2  Tendrils of Agony
1  Black Lotus
1  Mox Pearl
1  Mox Ruby
1  Mox Sapphire
1  Mox Jet
1  Mox Emerald
1  Mana Crypt
1  Mana Vault
1  Sol Ring
1  Lotus Petal
2  Sensei's Divining Top
1  Vampiric Tutor
1  Chain of Vapor
1  Gush
1  Dark Ritual

Things I changed from the original:

Dropped all the traditional combo pieces (bargain, tinker, jar). I find these cards to be too many resources for an effect that may not win the game. Bargain IMO doesn't work with confidants well, and aggro-control decks already wreck combo decks so these were on the chopping block.

Went up to 6 fetches, with top and brainstorms the more shuffle effects you have the better. These win games.

Basic swamp, against a field of wastelands this card wins games. Having access to 4 fetches to get this is also key to the inclusion.  Also 4 basic islands and 6 fetches, is amazing against wastes.

Added gush, vamp and ritual -> Outlaw suggested gush over the frantic search I was testing, and I never looked back, this card is great at generating mana, and is easily the best "free" spell. Ritual makes mystical a mana source, and is often included in turn 1 or 2 wins.  I added vamp for the card selection ability and synergy with top/brainstorm/gush.

Chain of vapor, also not in the original list, is incredible, and is the best way to up storm for only 1 mana. This is probably the best storm generator in the deck, and the catch-all for hate.

Cards on the chopping block:
Desire - May go the way of bargain, and for the same reasons.
In a meta of aggro-control, confidant is questionable, as they run infinite ways to remove him, and he rarely sticks on the board against these decks. He's also dead against oath, which bothers me. I may play with the number of confidants mainboard vs sideboard. He's amazing against gifts, combo, stax, dragon and decent against slaver. I'm really torn about this card. It's definitely not the night's whisper people say it is, as if he stays for even just one extra card he's still 2 damage (one less storm), and has replaced himself for card advantage. Against gifts or combo decks, you can win by confidant beats, if you get him to stick. The card advantage is like a LOA that serves for 2, and the damage is about a mana crypt, or 0 if you have tops out. Other times, he's not necessary for going off.

This may just be the retarded metagame at waterbury day 2, causing me to want to change this, but I'm not sure.