Bitterblossom, because it is harder to remove and produces 1/1 flying dudes that is very hard for your opp to deal with constantly.
Reason one is banned in modern, also the format really has impact on it as the cards they are facing changes dramatically and can easily sway one or the other to being considered better.
I'm going to say Dark Confidant. Bitterblossom is much slower before it begins to truly dominate a game, compare after two turns. Two cards vs. two 1/1s, I know what I would pick.
Also I believe the main reason it's banned in modern is that they didn't want faeries to be good.
Bob. Extra cards are almost never going to be useless, and he's easier to remove if his life loss starts to become a danger. Bitterblossom is good, but it's nowhere near as good as Bob. There's also the fact that the advantage Bob provides is pretty much universally beneficial, whereas Bitterblossom requires a specific type of deck to be good (either tribal synergy or good equipment to carry).
Bob by a mile. Bitterblossom sees virtually zero play in every format where Bob is legal, with the exception of EDH. If you're on the equipment plan, might as well go white for access to Lingering Souls, which gets you more bodies over a shorter period of time. If you're hell-bent on Faerie tribal...I suppose you could play Bitterblossom.
Bob by a mile. Bitterblossom sees virtually zero play in every format where Bob is legal, with the exception of EDH. If you're on the equipment plan, might as well go white for access to Lingering Souls, which gets you more bodies over a shorter period of time. If you're hell-bent on Faerie tribal...I suppose you could play Bitterblossom.
I'm still playing bitterblossom in my legacy deck
Although I do think bob is probably better in the grand scheme of things, bitter blossom can be way nastier in some decks.
Bitterblossom is a strong card, but the actual reason its "banned" in Modern is that it was in the faerie deck and they simply banned cards to make most of the decks that were known to be good, not viable from the start ; as the format would otherwise be just an pile of old T2 decks.
Bitterblossom works best in Faeries to pump them with the faerie lord and get some extra turns with Mistbind Clique ; also pretty strong with Spellshutter Sprite and just blocks the ground so your flyer wins the game (or they attack aswell if not blocking).
Its not a crazy OP card without this interactions its not good enough to see play in Legacy, and it most likely wouldnt be totally dominating Modern either, they just decided to bann it and probably will take quite some time to unbann it, if they ever think about it again (as the Faery deck would certainly be viable with it, just depends if thats dominating or not, as we have a lot of hate against faeries aswell, with Abrupt Decay a more flexible removal and many other cards that would work against it).
Dark Confidant however is just a strong card to win a game.
If you draw 2 extra cards with it, its more than worth its investment. if you draw more, especially lands and cheap spells, you are winning that game, as your opponent obvisious has no removal for the 2/1 and most likely wont recover from that card advantage.
Its a universal good card. Good decks play cheap spells, and bob is good in "good" decks and does what it needs to do.
Hating bob is also easy. Killing a 2/1 isnt hard, but the thing is, that you NEED to, if you cant kill it right away, by a bad draw, bob is going to replace itself and make it harder and harder for you to win, while smoothing some draws that otherwise would be unplayable (like starting with 2 lands and bob, more often than not, it will draw you into the lands you need).
They're both "build around me" cards, great at that. I'd prefer Bitterblossom since it has great synergy with Cloak and Dagger, and the one life you lose is usually negating a Tarmogoyf attack or eating removal.
Usually, Bob. Though if your deck focuses a lot on sacrifices (some sort of Stax deck, for instance), BB has its uses. (Then again, Bob's also useful in Stax.)
Notably, though, in EDH, that life loss can be far worse, simply because your mana curve is a lot higher.
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Card advantage is not the same thing as card draw. Something for 2B cannot be strictly worse than something for BBB or 3BB. If you're taking out Swords to Plowshares for Plummet, you're a fool. Stop doing these things!
Ignoring the obvious Apples VS Oranges answer.
In my opinion: Dark Confidant because cards are more likely to be better than 1/1s in my opinion.
Reason one is banned in modern, also the format really has impact on it as the cards they are facing changes dramatically and can easily sway one or the other to being considered better.
Also I believe the main reason it's banned in modern is that they didn't want faeries to be good.
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I'm still playing bitterblossom in my legacy deck
Although I do think bob is probably better in the grand scheme of things, bitter blossom can be way nastier in some decks.
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Bitterblossom works best in Faeries to pump them with the faerie lord and get some extra turns with Mistbind Clique ; also pretty strong with Spellshutter Sprite and just blocks the ground so your flyer wins the game (or they attack aswell if not blocking).
Its not a crazy OP card without this interactions its not good enough to see play in Legacy, and it most likely wouldnt be totally dominating Modern either, they just decided to bann it and probably will take quite some time to unbann it, if they ever think about it again (as the Faery deck would certainly be viable with it, just depends if thats dominating or not, as we have a lot of hate against faeries aswell, with Abrupt Decay a more flexible removal and many other cards that would work against it).
Dark Confidant however is just a strong card to win a game.
If you draw 2 extra cards with it, its more than worth its investment. if you draw more, especially lands and cheap spells, you are winning that game, as your opponent obvisious has no removal for the 2/1 and most likely wont recover from that card advantage.
Its a universal good card. Good decks play cheap spells, and bob is good in "good" decks and does what it needs to do.
Hating bob is also easy. Killing a 2/1 isnt hard, but the thing is, that you NEED to, if you cant kill it right away, by a bad draw, bob is going to replace itself and make it harder and harder for you to win, while smoothing some draws that otherwise would be unplayable (like starting with 2 lands and bob, more often than not, it will draw you into the lands you need).
In that regard:
Dark Confidant > Bitterblossom
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Notably, though, in EDH, that life loss can be far worse, simply because your mana curve is a lot higher.
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