Originally Posted by FakeSpam
I need to emphatically argue for Confidant's inclusion.
First of all, suicide sucks. You get one or two disruption spells, then attempt to ride one of your shitty men to victory. Once you've blown your load, that's pretty much it.
Confidant allows you to continually put pressure on your opponent, making it so they can't recover. I don't quite understand why confidant helping as a mid-game card is considered a strike against it.
Here is an example of a traditional game.
turn 1: land, duress. (5 cards in hand)
turn 2: land, ritual, sinkhole, hymn. (2 cards in hand)
turn 3: here it is, turn three. I would consider this mid-game. Considering that most decks in the format have a FT four. It's not early game (turns 1-2) and it's not late game (turns 5+) so it must be mid-game. You are generally looking at 3 cards in your hand. At this point in my example, an example that is pretty close to optimal, you have yet to cast any creature kill. That's fine unless you are playing goblins. Now, let's assume that of the three cards left in your hand one of them is removal, so we really only have two cards that are threats or potential threats. At this point we have to play a threat and ride it to victory with no card draw and no real reserves. The situation is worse if your threat costs three mana. At this point, a confidant here will either draw removal like any other creature you play or survive to refill your grip as you apply the pressure. What is better right now? Nantuko shade? It's a 4-power at best right now. Hypnotic? Dead or winning, just like confidant. Negator? One bolt and you are out of the game.
Confidant doesn't suck.
Next.