Phabine, Boss's Confidant MTG Card
2022-04-29 - Number 9
2022-04-29 - Number 108
2020-09-26 - Number NCC-9
| Card sets | Released in 3 setsSee all |
| Mana cost | |
| Converted mana cost | 6 |
| Rarity | Mythic |
| Type | Legendary Creature — Cat Advisor |
| Abilities | Parley |
| Power | 3 |
| Toughness | 6 |
Key Takeaways
- Provides card selection control, optimizing your hand and strategizing future plays each turn.
- Assists in mana strategy by allowing an extra land play, facilitating higher-cost spells sooner.
- Demands a card discard for its ability, which can be costly in the later game stages.
Text of card
Creature tokens you control have haste. Parley — At the beginning of combat on your turn, each player reveals the top card of their library. For each land card revealed this way, you create a 1/1 green and white Citizen creature token. Then creatures you control get +1/+1 until end of turn for each nonland card revealed this way. Then each player draws a card.
Card Pros
Card Advantage: Phabine, Boss’s Confidant shines in providing consistent card selection. By allowing you to peek at your deck’s top card each turn, you can plan your moves with greater precision, ensuring your hand is always prepped with answers or threats.
Resource Acceleration: As a resource accelerator, Phabine also assists in your mana strategy. By offering the chance to play an additional land during your turns, you’re not only speeding up your potential plays but consistently hitting your land drops ensures you’re always ready to cast spells of higher cost and impact.
Instant Speed: Phabine’s ability may not be activated at instant speed, but the card synergizes well with instant-speed spells. The knowledge gained by peeking at the top card of your deck enables you to make informed decisions about which instants to play and when, thereby optimizing your tactical plays and bluffs.
Card Cons
Discard Requirement: When playing Phabine, Boss’s Confidant, one of the immediate setbacks is its demand for you to discard a card as part of invoking its ability. This cost can backfire, particularly during the late game stages where every card in hand is valuable and the depletion of your options isn’t something you’d willingly choose.
Specific Mana Cost: Deck construction can be somewhat constrained owing to Phabine’s strict mana requirements. Its need for a distinct set of mana types could impede your ability to seamlessly integrate this card into multi-colored decks or ones that aren’t built around its mana profile. Hence, it might not be the go-to choice for every strategy.
Comparatively High Mana Cost: The mana investment needed to get Phabine onto the battlefield is not trivial. When evaluating cost against the benefits, this card’s mana expenditure may seem steep, especially when there are alternatives that can offer utility without the hefty price. Players often look for maximum efficiency in their plays, so a card that comes with a substantial cost must justify its place in a deck with equally substantial payoffs.
Reasons to Include Phabine, Boss’s Confidant in Your Collection
Versatility: As a flexible support card, Phabine, Boss’s Confidant offers value to a range of decks. This creature can seamlessly integrate into strategies that prioritize information advantage and calculated moves.
Combo Potential: With its ability to manipulate draws and graveyard resources, this card can become a linchpin in combos that revolve around hand manipulation or specific graveyard synergies.
Meta-Relevance: Given that certain metagames favor decks with a focus on incremental advantage and resilience, having Phabine, Boss’s Confidant can substantially bolster your capacity to stay ahead of the curve and maintain card quality.
How to beat
Phabine, Boss’s Confidant presents a unique challenge on the battlefield with its skill to amplify an opponent’s strategic moves in Magic: The Gathering. Tackling Phabine effectively requires a focused approach. Counterplay strategies often center around preemptively removing or disrupting your opponent’s creatures, especially ones with influential abilities like Phabine. Spot removal spells such as Swords to Plowshares or Abrupt Decay can eliminate Phabine before its advantage is firmly established.
Another strategy involves manipulating your own hand to ensure that Phabine’s ability is less beneficial to your opponent. This could be achieved by using instant-speed spells or abilities to reduce the number of cards in your hand when Phabine’s effect triggers. Additionally, incorporating graveyard recursion from cards like Eternal Witness allows you to recoup any lost value from discarding.
Understanding timing is crucial. If Phabine’s controller may draw a card due to the triggered ability, denying them that advantage or targeting Phabine during the upkeep phase prevents any additional card advantage for that turn. By considering these angles for counterplay, one can mitigate the edge that Phabine, Boss’s Confidant may provide to an opponent within MTG matches.
Cards like Phabine, Boss's Confidant
Phabine, Boss’s Confidant enters the field as an intriguing choice in the arena of creature cards with added benefits. It resembles Dark Confidant, another creature that also offers the advantage of card draw at the beginning of your upkeep. The significant difference lies in Phabine’s ability to allow you to play the first mana spell of the drawn card for free, contrasting Dark Confidant’s static life-costing effect for each card drawn.
Examining Whispering Specter unveils a creature with a similar mana cost, but it focuses on hand disruption over card advantage. Although it provides an infiltration tactic by discarding the opponent’s cards, it lacks Phabine’s strategic value of accelerating your own plays. Another comparable card is Baleful Strix, which provides card draw upon entry, yet it doesn’t have the recurring card advantage engine that Phabine flaunts every turn.
Ultimately, Phabine, Boss’s Confidant stands out due to its potential for repeatable card draw and the unique mana-saving ability, setting it apart from its counterparts and making it a potentially powerful ally in decks looking to capitalize on card advantage and tempo gains.
Cards similar to Phabine, Boss's Confidant by color, type and mana cost
Where to buy
If you're looking to purchase Phabine, Boss's Confidant MTG card by a specific set like The List and New Capenna Commander, there are several reliable options to consider. One of the primary sources is your local game store, where you can often find booster packs, individual cards, and preconstructed decks from current and some past sets. They often offer the added benefit of a community where you can trade with other players.
For a broader inventory, particularly of older sets, online marketplaces like TCGPlayer, Card Kingdom and Card Market offer extensive selections and allow you to search for cards from specific sets. Larger e-commerce platforms like eBay and Amazon also have listings from various sellers, which can be a good place to look for sealed product and rare finds.
Additionally, Magic’s official site often has a store locator and retailer lists for finding Wizards of the Coast licensed products. Remember to check for authenticity and the condition of the cards when purchasing, especially from individual sellers on larger marketplaces.
Below is a list of some store websites where you can buy the Phabine, Boss's Confidant and other MTG cards:
- eBay
- TCG Player
- Card Kingdom
- Card Market
- Star City Games
- CoolStuffInc
- MTG Mint Card
- Hareruya
- Troll and Toad
- ABU Games
- Card Hoarder Magic Online
- MTGO Traders Magic Online
See MTG Products
Printings
The Phabine, Boss's Confidant Magic the Gathering card was released in 2 different sets between 2022-04-29 and 2022-04-29. Illustrated by Ryan Pancoast.
| # | Released | Name | Code | Symbol | Number | Frame | Layout | Border | Artist |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The List | PLST | NCC-9 | 2015 | Normal | Black | Ryan Pancoast | ||
| 2 | 2022-04-29 | New Capenna Commander | NCC | 9 | 2015 | Normal | Black | Ryan Pancoast | |
| 3 | 2022-04-29 | New Capenna Commander | NCC | 108 | 2015 | Normal | Black | Ryan Pancoast |
Legalities
Magic the Gathering formats where Phabine, Boss's Confidant has restrictions
| Format | Legality |
|---|---|
| Commander | Legal |
| Legacy | Legal |
| Oathbreaker | Legal |
| Vintage | Legal |
| Duel | Legal |