Blood Scrivener

[Onslaught]

Any time you see something with a low casting cost that can draw multiple cards, it's worth considering for Vintage play. I'd be inclined to try him in something with Bazaar for sure. Maybe an aggro deck with Bloodghasts, Blood Scriveners, Bob, Bazaars, etc...

[tito del monte]

Yup I like this card from a design standpoint - a nice riff on Dark Confidant at a playable casting cost.

Could possibly see him as extra copies of Bob in aggro-control decks running Liliana, or maybe instead of Bob in a mono-black build running Tombstalkers.

Also, if there is a Whispering Madness deck out there, it probably runs four of this little guy...

[evouga]

When is this card better than Bob? I can think of three situations:

1. Your deck has too high average CMC to safely run Bob;
2. You plan on abusing the Scrivener to draw multiple cards per turn (off e.g. Night's Whispers);
3. You need to "draw" cards instead of putting them in your hand (for triggers like Dredge).

I could see Scrivener finding a place in a B/R shell, where the plan is to unload cheap creatures and disruption at the opponent, while drawing multiple Scrivener cards per turn with spells like Night's Whispers and Dangerous Wager.

[xouman]

I like it a lot, but I can't say it's vintage playable. It asks for a very aggresive play, maybe zombie infestation?

Seems dangerous for dredge (2 dredges without bazaar!), but not broken.


What happens if you have no cards in hand and you have to draw 2 or more cards? you would draw x+1?

[msg67183]

Dawn of the Dead 2013 just found a dude!

[StanleyAugust]

Looks fun with Sylvan Library and Zombie Infestation! Heck, it's even pretty damn awesome with just a Bazaar: You can use Bazaar to empty your hand and then Bazaar reads "Draw 4 cards, then discard 3 cards. Lose two life."

[PETER FLUGZEUG]

hm. I suppose you'd only draw 3 cards and lose 1 life off bazaar. As i recall it, each draw takes place seperately.

[msg67183]

This has anti-symmetry with Bob, just thought I'd point that out.

[StanleyAugust]

hm. I suppose you'd only draw 3 cards and lose 1 life off bazaar. As i recall it, each draw takes place seperately.

Hmm, that might be true. So no 6 card Ancestral Recall?

[mmcgeach]

Could be really good with stuff that gives you discards and draws at the same time:

faithless looting
frantic search
izzet charm

although, really, it'd be better with cards that had you discard first, then draw.  Like, cycling.  Although I don't think there's too many playable cycling cards.  Or the draw-7's.  Which have been mentioned.

[tito del monte]

Could be really good with stuff that gives you discards and draws at the same time:

faithless looting
frantic search
izzet charm

although, really, it'd be better with cards that had you discard first, then draw.  Like, cycling.  Although I don't think there's too many playable cycling cards.  Or the draw-7's.  Which have been mentioned.

Dangerous Wager is the kind of thing you're looking for - and I guess could be a fairly tasty draw engine in an aggro or burn deck along with this guy. That does seem all a bit too 'fair' for Vintage though. Jamming him with Zombie Infestation (and Whispering Madness in same deck?) seems promising though.

[KrauserKrauser]

Maybe it would work in a Dark Times shell with some Zombie Infestation for flavor

4 Dark Ritual
4 Dark Confidant
4 Thoughtsieze
4 Cabal Therapy

4 Bloodghast
4 Blood Scrivener
4 Zombie Infestation

4 Vampire Hexmage

1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Yawgmoths Will

3 Urborg
3 Dark Depths
4 Bazaar of Baghdad

Seems somewhat underpowered and I dont know how much better it would be than Vanilla Dark Times.

[boggyb]

Yar, the only viable deck this can work in is Dark Times, as by turn 4-5 it will almost always have depleted its hand. Seems far too situational to work in that deck, though I will be trying it out as a 1- or 2-of.

[StanleyAugust]

So I quickly threw together a Dawn of the Dead list and goldfished a bit. Basically, Blood Scrivener has just replaced Dark Confidant here.

Lands:

4 Bazaar of Baghdad

3 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine

3 Bloodstained Mire
2 Badlands
2 Bayou
2 Taiga
1 Swamp

Mana:

1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Emerald

Creatures:

4 Blood Scrivener
4 Tarmogoyf
3 Bloodghast

4 Squee, Goblin Nabob

Disruption:

3 Duress
3 Cabal Therapy
1 Thoughtseize

3 Liliana of the Veil

3 Ancient Grudge
3 Lightning Bolt
1 Darkblast

Other:

2 Zombie Infestation
1 Life from the Loam
1 Demonic Tutor

It's very fun to play and once "the engine" gets going, Blood Scrivener is really good. However, I'm not convinced that Confidant isn't just better.

[Wagner]

So I quickly threw together a Dawn of the Dead list and goldfished a bit. Basically, Blood Scrivener has just replaced Dark Confidant here.

Lands:

4 Bazaar of Baghdad

3 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine

3 Bloodstained Mire
2 Badlands
2 Bayou
2 Taiga
1 Swamp

Mana:

1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Emerald

Creatures:

4 Blood Scrivener
4 Tarmogoyf
3 Bloodghast

4 Squee, Goblin Nabob

Disruption:

3 Duress
3 Cabal Therapy
1 Thoughtseize

3 Liliana of the Veil

3 Ancient Grudge
3 Lightning Bolt
1 Darkblast

Other:

2 Zombie Infestation
1 Life from the Loam
1 Demonic Tutor

It's very fun to play and once "the engine" gets going, Blood Scrivener is really good. However, I'm not convinced that Confidant isn't just better.

Seems pretty antisynergic with Squee if you don't have an Infestation out. You need to not return Squee at upkeep to use Scrivener, even with Bazaar out.

[hvndr3d y34r h3x]

I feel like vintage decks never want to be hellbent. At least ones above tier 4.

[vaughnbros]

I feel like vintage decks never want to be hellbent. At least ones above tier 4.

Decks playing multiple Lilliana make both players hellbent early and often.  So this guy does have quite a bit of synergy with her.

This has anti-symmetry with Bob, just thought I'd point that out.

This is the major issue here.  If they played nice this card would actually be pretty good, but they don't and I really can't see how Bob isn't superior in every deck.

[credmond]

Seems good in a BR Bazaar Stacks list. Those lists played confidant before, but he was always potentially suicidal. This guy is strictly better when the cmc is high and Bazaar Stacks is a deck that can be hellbent and vintage viable.

Also, this card has interesting interactions with cards like Words of War, Uba Mask, Grafted Skullcap, and Null Brooch.

[PETER FLUGZEUG]

this card could find a home in a deck with dark confidant. you just need to have a bunch of instans, so that chances are high you can play the confidanted card in your upkeep (or just tap sensei in response to the confidant trigger to draw a card and the sensei and the bob's card and the one for your draw step), play with dangerous wager etc.
This, a lot of lilianas, discard, burn, etc. could work.

Just because the two cards are per se antisynergistic doesn't mean they're not good in the same deck. you can sac either to cabal therapy or skullclamp. With skullclamp you also don't run the risk to get stuck with an empty hand often. You can go hellbent, then activate which can't be countered (can be bolted) as a response.
The broken thing is that you can draw multiple cards a turn with the scrivener. This is what you have to try. deplete your hand multiple times a turn and refill it cheaply and efficiently. Not just tossing it into a dark times shell and replacing confidant (aka the all star).

I'd go as far as saying it's the most promising card of this set so far.

[davidasmatthews]

With this guy in play and no cards in hand would a bazaar activation allow you to dredge 4 times? Even if it did I dont think he fits quite yet, but its something to think about in the future.

[hvndr3d y34r h3x]

I feel like vintage decks never want to be hellbent. At least ones above tier 4.

Decks playing multiple Lilliana make both players hellbent early and often.  So this guy does have quite a bit of synergy with her.

This has anti-symmetry with Bob, just thought I'd point that out.

This is the major issue here.  If they played nice this card would actually be pretty good, but they don't and I really can't see how Bob isn't superior in every deck.

I've play tested 4x liliana a lot. I was rarely hellbent

[Wagner]

With this guy in play and no cards in hand would a bazaar activation allow you to dredge 4 times? Even if it did I dont think he fits quite yet, but its something to think about in the future.

Only 3 times, after the first bazaar draw/dredge, you will have 2 cards in hand, then you draw/dredge another from Bazaar and discard the 3 cards.

[PETER FLUGZEUG]

a deck with this would need many cheap spells which you can play quickly, in order to get hellbent.

Afterwards, sensei's top is a close friend of scrivener. With 2 scriveners in play, you can tap top to draw 4 cards for 2 life.

Just saying.

[orgcandman]

This card is really good. I think it will be played to much joy and success.

[mmcgeach]

Man.  This card is a ton of fun.  This list has no disruption, but you can try out something like this to get a feel for how this deck develops:

4 blood scrivener
4 whispering madness
4 dangerous wager
4 demigod of revenge
4 zombie infestation
4 dark ritual

2 cabal ritual
2 seething song
2 chrome mox
5 regular mox
1 sol ring
1 mana crypt
1 lotus
1 lion's eye diamond
1 lotus petal
4 fetch
3 badlands
2 underground sea

1 time walk
1 ancestral
1 yawgmoth's will
1 demonic tutor
1 vampiric tutor
1 gamble
1 wheel of fortune
1 windfall
1 tendrils of agony
1 demonic consultation
1 intuition

So far it plays like a dream.  Put down a scrivener and play a draw-7.  Put down two scriveners and play dangerous wager.  The demigod of revenge is about the best thing I could think of that had haste and evasion for ciphering whispering madness onto.  Plus it enables a pretty quick beatdown kill thats hard to disrupt.  I think if you want to abuse whispering madness you really want haste and evasion: maybe Nether Traitor, or Sedraxis Specter. 

Other thoughts: Zombie Infestation isn't that good here.  It'd be better if there was a better discard outlet.  Burning Wish is a strong possibility.  Moving yawgwill and the storm-kill to the sideboard might be the right call.

[gkraigher]

I think this is a card that just isn't ready yet.  They could easily print cards down the road that make this card great, and I expect that they will. 

[Saya]

IMO this guy is for combo(for example compulsion);confidant is a different matter

[TheWhiteDragon]

OMG - just picked up my playsets of One With Nothing!

[evouga]

I think this is a card that just isn't ready yet.  They could easily print cards down the road that make this card great, and I expect that they will. 

This comment is exactly on point. Unlike Confidant, the Scrivener is an engine card, and will shine when someone figures out how to abuse it to draw many cards per turn. The effect is very powerful, and at 1B the price is right; I would be surprised if this card never saw Vintage play.

[Samoht]

I could easily see this guy in Legacy with Lion's Eye Diamond and Flash Back cards.

Vintage? Not so much.