Diabolic Intent MTG Card


Card setsReleased in 7 setsSee all
Mana cost
Converted mana cost2
RarityRare
TypeSorcery

Key Takeaways

  1. Tutors like Diabolic Intent enable fetching critical cards, significantly boosting strategic depth and options.
  2. It optimizes sacrificial tactics, accelerating board state while providing key cards in hand.
  3. Despite its power, the sacrifice requirement and specific mana cost can limit its versatility.

Text of card

As an additional cost to play Diabolic Intent, sacrifice a creature. Search your library for a card and put that card into your hand. Then shuffle your library.


Card Pros

Card Advantage: Diabolic Intent acts as a powerful tutor that enables you to search for any card in your deck, significantly increasing your access to key cards and boosting your strategic options.

Resource Acceleration: Although Diabolic Intent requires a sacrifice, this can be leveraged as an advantage in decks that benefit from sending their own creatures to the graveyard, ultimately accelerating your board state development.

Instant Speed: While Diabolic Intent is a sorcery, its ability to immediately fetch the perfect response or threat can set the tempo of the game, mirroring the impact of having an instant-speed interaction in your hand.


Card Cons

Discard Requirement: Playing Diabolic Intent demands sacrificing a creature, which can be a significant setback, especially if your board presence is sparse or if the creatures you control are of high value.

Specific Mana Cost: This card’s casting cost requires a combination of generic and black mana. The inclusion of black mana means that this spell is only suited for decks that can produce that color, potentially limiting its versatility in a multicolored deck.

Comparatively High Mana Cost: Although two mana might seem reasonable, the true cost of Diabolic Intent is not just the mana spent, but also the creature sacrificed. This makes it less attractive compared to other tutors that do not have an additional cost, particularly in situations where maintaining board presence is crucial.


Reasons to Include in Your Collection

Versatility: Diabolic Intent is a powerful tutor card that seamlessly integrates into various deck architectures, particularly those that exploit sacrificing creatures for strategic gains.

Combo Potential: As it allows searching for any card, its potential to set up game-winning combinations or fetch key pieces is unparalleled, making it a linchpin in combo decks.

Meta-Relevance: In an environment where having the right response or threat is crucial, Diabolic Intent provides the consistency needed to navigate through competitive matchups.


How to Beat Diabolic Intent

In the world of MTG, Diabolic Intent serves as a powerful tutor card, allowing you to sacrifice a creature to search your library for another card and put it into your hand. To effectively counteract this spell, it’s essential to anticipate and disrupt the sacrifice synergy. Cards that prevent creatures from being sacrificed, such as Angel of Jubilation, can nullify Diabolic Intent’s efficacy. Another strategy involves using instant spells that can remove creatures in response to the casting of Diabolic Intent, which can leave the opponent with neither creature nor the desired card from their library.

Graveyard hate cards like Rest in Peace can directly undermine Diabolic Intent by impacting the benefit of sacrificial synergy decks, which often rely on retrieving creatures from the graveyard. Moreover, holding up a counterspell specifically for pivotal tutor spells can be a game-deciding move in a match involving Diabolic Intent, making sure the key pieces your opponent is looking for never come into play. It’s often about timing and knowing when to play reactive cards to disrupt your opponent’s game plan when Diabolic Intent is on the table.


BurnMana Recommendations

Mastering Diabolic Intent requires finesse and a strategic mindset. It’s a card that can truly change the tide of a game with its powerful tutor ability. If you’re eager to refine your deck and harness the full potential of this influential card, delve deeper into our comprehensive insights. Embrace the synergy it brings to sacrificial strategies and explore its place among top-tier tournaments. With our guidance, you can navigate through its pros and cons and learn the nuances of deploying it effectively in your collection. Elevate your MTG knowledge and tactics with BurnMana and ensure your deck becomes a formidable force at the table.


Cards like Diabolic Intent

Diabolic Intent is a powerful tool for any Magic: The Gathering player looking to mimic the effectiveness of a staple card, Demonic Tutor. Both cards allow a player to search their library for a card of their choice, placing it squarely into their hand. While Diabolic Intent requires the additional sacrifice of a creature, in many decks, this cost is a well-calculated move that can be turned into an advantage, particularly in strategies that benefit from creatures hitting the graveyard.

Another parallel can be drawn with Vampiric Tutor. Unlike Diabolic Intent, Vampiric Tutor is an instant, offering increased flexibility in timing. However, the searched card goes on top of the library instead of into the hand, delaying immediate use. Additionally, Vampiric Tutor deals a loss of 2 life – a different kind of resource management from the creature sacrifice demanded by Diabolic Intent. The balance of instant-speed searching versus immediate hand access is a key strategic consideration for players.

Considering the landscape of tutor cards, Diabolic Intent has a firm place due to its combination of cost, immediate card access, and strategic depth provided by its creature sacrifice requirement. It offers a unique spin on classic tutoring mechanics, staking its claim in decks that capitalize on every resource.

Demonic Tutor - MTG Card versions
Vampiric Tutor - MTG Card versions
Demonic Tutor - MTG Card versions
Vampiric Tutor - MTG Card versions

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Macabre Waltz - MTG Card versions
Drain Life - MTG Card versions
Demonic Tutor - MTG Card versions
Sinkhole - MTG Card versions
Word of Binding - MTG Card versions
Soul Exchange - MTG Card versions
Dry Spell - MTG Card versions
Hymn to Tourach - MTG Card versions
Mind Knives - MTG Card versions
Shattered Crypt - MTG Card versions
Disturbed Burial - MTG Card versions
Death Stroke - MTG Card versions
Exhume - MTG Card versions
Imperial Edict - MTG Card versions
Decompose - MTG Card versions
Chainer's Edict - MTG Card versions
Walk the Plank - MTG Card versions
Nausea - MTG Card versions
Distress - MTG Card versions
Cruel Edict - MTG Card versions
Macabre Waltz - MTG Card versions

Where to buy

If you're looking to purchase Diabolic Intent MTG card by a specific set like Planeshift and Magic Online Promos, 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 Diabolic Intent and other MTG cards:

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Printings

The Diabolic Intent Magic the Gathering card was released in 6 different sets between 2001-02-05 and 2023-06-23. Illustrated by 6 different artists.

#ReleasedNameCodeSymbolNumberFrameLayoutBorderArtist
12001-02-05PlaneshiftPLS 421997NormalBlackDave Dorman
22002-06-24Magic Online PromosPRM 1057082015NormalBlackDan Scott
32017-04-28Amonkhet InvocationsMP2 222015NormalBorderlessJoseph Meehan
42018-06-08BattlebondBBD 1412015NormalBlackJosu Hernaiz
52022-11-18The Brothers' WarBRO 892015NormalBlackDan Scott
62022-11-18The Brothers' WarBRO 3242015NormalBlackDan Scott
72023-06-23Tales of Middle-earth CommanderLTC 5262015NormalBorderlessGreg Hildebrandt & Tim Hildebrandt

Legalities

Magic the Gathering formats where Diabolic Intent has restrictions

FormatLegality
StandardLegal
HistoricLegal
LegacyLegal
OathbreakerLegal
GladiatorLegal
AlchemyLegal
StandardbrawlLegal
PioneerLegal
CommanderLegal
ModernLegal
PremodernLegal
FutureLegal
VintageLegal
DuelLegal
ExplorerLegal
PredhLegal
BrawlLegal
TimelessLegal

Rules and information

The reference guide for Magic: The Gathering Diabolic Intent card rulings provides official rulings, any errata issued, as well as a record of all the functional modifications that have occurred.

Date Text
2004-10-04 You must choose a card if there are any in your library.
2013-04-15 Players can only respond once this spell has been cast and all its costs have been paid. No one can try to destroy the creature you sacrificed to prevent you from casting this spell.
2013-04-15 You must sacrifice exactly one creature to cast this spell; you cannot cast it without sacrificing a creature, and you cannot sacrifice additional creatures.

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