Dark Confidant

Why collectors notice it

It is remembered as a card that rewarded careful deck building. Players still talk about it as a model of a high-risk, high-reward design.

It built an entire set around two-color guild identities. Read more about Ravnica: City of Guilds.

A closer look

Reading this card

Dark Confidant is a Black creature with the subtypes Human and Wizard. The featured print is a Rare from Ravnica: City of Guilds, the 2005 set built around ten two-color guilds. Because it belongs to a mono-color card, you do not need a second color to cast it, even though the set around it celebrates pairs.

The key phrase in the trait chips is "card advantage with a cost." Card advantage means ending up with more cards than your opponent. Black is the color that accepts risk and sacrifice in exchange for power, and this creature is a neat picture of that rule. The price is life, and how much life depends on the mana value of what you reveal. Mana value is simply the total mana a card costs, which is why the same card can feel safe in one deck and painful in another. Reading a Rare from this set is a good lesson in how one card changes with the list around it.

How it compares

Serra Angel is a useful opposite. It is a White creature from the 1993 set whose keywords protect and attack. Dark Confidant has no flashy keyword at all, and its design is about the deck you build around it instead.

The Ravnica: City of Guilds page explains the guild idea that shaped this set.

Questions readers ask

Why does deck building matter so much for this card?

The life you lose follows the mana value of your cards, so cheaper cards make it safer.

What does mana value mean on this card?

Mana value is the total mana a card costs. Dark Confidant reveals cards, and the life you lose depends on that number. Our page on mana and the five colors explains the idea.

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