Diabolic Intent

Sorcery

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.

Discussion (47)

MrKillStar on Syn Konrad EDH

1 month ago

Lhurgyof - I would personally keep those cards away from Syr Konrad and use them in deck with K'rrik, Son of Yawgmoth, Vilis, Broker of Blood, etc... also from the new set: Profane Transfusion (I know this is few months old comment, so you probably know about it already).

nieds - I see you already got a lot of really good cards, I'll just type some of them that I cut out since they're kinda meh in this kind of deck below. Anyway, you can check my Syr Konrad's deck here: For the Void. Im still switching few cards, explaining why I chose every card in the deck description, etc. I decided to go with mix of reanimator+aristocrats with several infinite combos. So I would welcome any feedback aswell and you might get some inspiration right there! :)

Some cards I would cut and why:

1) Loxodon Warhammer - is good in voltron / attack based decks, but here it looks like a random card that can gives you some life back (which black/other artifacts can do just better than lifelink artifact), but for 6 mana its meh. You could replace it with Shadowspear, which is three times mana cheaper and provides you with another utility ability. Or simply Bontu's Monument as another pseudo mana rock that also gives you a bit of life.
2) Sensei's Divining Top - I know SDT is amazing on its own, but I wouldnt personally bother with it, unless you would go for the Aetherflux Reservoir + Bolas's Citadel + Sensei's Divining Top combo. I would switch it for either Viscera Seer (as another free sac outlet), or my choice for my deck was Shadows of the Past (with any infinite creature generator+sac and Bolas's Citadel, you can just "tutor" and cast whatever you want from top of your deck - think I explained it in my deck's description already or I add it sometime later).
3) Painful Quandary - Again, good card, just doesnt fit that well in my opinion. Goes well with Mindcrank and Archfiend of Despair but thats probably about it. I would rather put it in some discard focused deck. Instead of this, card like Morality Shift would be really cool for sure. Or cards like Forever Young / Gravepurge / Death Denied to proc Syr Konrad's ability and recast them with Bolas's Citadel + another card draw sources. Or you could also stick to enchantments liie Mortuary/Haunted Crossroads (parts of my infinite combos).
4) From planeswalkers I would personally keep only Liliana of the Dark Realms (to help with land drops and deck thining) and Tevesh Szat, Doom of Fools (creates more tokens than Lilianas, decent card-draw and punish opponents for letting you -10 him). Other Lilianas are not bad for sure, just either slow or not that fascinating as they seems to be. Karns are just out of place.

Cards I would put in for sure:

1) Tortured Existence - even on its own, it triggers Syr Konrad's ability twice and only for everytime! As you might already know, I use it with Phyrexian Altar and Desecrated Tomb to make infinite etb/die/sac triggers.
2) Bog Witch - discarding (creature) cards to trigger Syr Konrad's ability; is basically Dark Ritual on a stick which you could use to Reanimate/Animate Dead/Victimize right after. Also is 1/1, so another target for your Skullclamp.
3) Doom Whisperer - big good stuff with ability to filter your deck and put creatures directly from your library into the graveyard.
4) Haunted Crossroads - even on its own, its great way to get your creatures back (on top of library for Bolas's Citadel), next to Phyrexian Reclamation.
5) Emergence Zone - simply to give your spells Flash when you would need them, really nice utility land (similar is Winding Canyons but only for creatures, so eh).
6) Malakir Rebirth  ^Flip - cheap way to "protect" your creature, triggering Syr Konrad's ability or another land if needed.
7) Tainted Strike - absolute game winning beast card with Syr Konrad and either any creature/sac generator, boardwipe with 10+ creatures on board, or discard/mill cards.
8) Diabolic Intent - you got plenty of token generators, so this is just mana-cheap tutor.
9) Feed the Swarm - more ways to deal with enchantments and creatures.

I hope some of this will help and you like some of those cards! :)

Mortlocke on All hail...The Overlord

1 month ago

"Mana Drain in - Counterflux out Vampiric Tutor in - Diabolic Intent out"

I think those are solid changes, the only reservation I have is that Counterflux is virtually uncounterable - but Mana Drain grants ramp and denies a player a spell, which is more useful in my opinion. Vampiric Tutor is leagues better than Diabolic Intent in this context, so I think that's just a solid upgrade.

When it comes to what cards I wish to include in my decks I always ask myself - how do I want to interact with my opponents when playing this deck? Do I want to be able to parley more often than not? Or am I just the Archenemy? Those questions usually help guide me when I feel like I can't make a decision. Congratulations on getting to open not one, but two boxes of Commander Legends! As well as getting some really awesome pulls. I definitely recommend keeping the Jeweled Lotus (unless it's foil - sell it and get another box!) for down the road when you select a mono-colored or large CMC commander.

HalbrechtHalbrecht on Ellie's Rats

2 months ago

Thanks for your help on my deck; I thought I'd return the favor!

First of all, +1 from me for rats! I've been working on a rats deck off and on for a while now, and I'll be taking some notes from your deck. ;)

Late-Game & Threat Protection

So I know you said you're avoiding the high-CMC dudes like Ogre Slumlord in this version... but are you suuuuuure you don't want 1x Marrow-Gnawer??? I just think in a deck like this that's dropping so many rats, it makes for a great late-game play. In the right matchups, just dropping it and giving your rats Fear might win the game (though obviously side it out against opponents playing black / lots of artifact creatures). But if it can stick around one turn and get back to you, man, that tap ability will seal your victory. Obviously the issue with that is it'll be a major target for removal (assuming they haven't already used up their removal on your Pack Rats / Pipers), but on that note, consider....

Counter magic. Yep, in black. I've been playing around with both Imp's Mischief and Dash Hopes, but I think in the case of protecting specific threats like Pack Rat or Gnawer, I'd go with the former. No one sees it coming in black, so it can make for great game 1 blowouts.

Recursion

Now, I love your Unearth find, and I'm thinking of trying it in my deck, but have you considered Call to the Netherworld as a discard target for Pack Rat? I know returning to play is better than to hand, usually, but hear me out:

• With Unearth: You discard creature 1 to Pack Rat, pay 1 mana for Unearth, then discard creature 2 for another Pack Rat.
• With Netherworld: You discard creature 1 to Pack Rat, discard Netherworld for another Pack Rat which you cast for free to return creature 1, and then you play creature 1 for 1-2 mana (you still have creature 2 in your hand).

The net result is that you pay the same or one more mana (depending on which creature you bring back), but you only use 2 cards to achieve two activations of Pack Rat plus an extra rat in play, rather than 3 cards. In other words, you have creature 1 in play and creature 2 in hand rather than creature 1 in play and creature 2 in the yard. I wouldn't recommend it if you had a lot of 3-CMC rats, but in your case, I think it's actually marginally better.

What I'm completely ignoring in that comparison is the Cycling on Unearth. Count how many times you actually cycle it instead of cast it, and consider that as well. Guess it might be matchup dependent.

Sac Outlet

In my deck, I haven't been keeping it format specific, so as my sac outlet, I'm using Diabolic Intent. It's perfect for getting the Pack Rat engine going, grabbing a late-game Merrow-Gnawer, searching up a removal spell, or just going for a big mana turn by tutoring a Cabal Coffers. Sadly, it's not Modern-legal!

Instead, I looked through all the free sac effects (either as an activation on a permanent or as an additional cost on a spell), and the best one I think is Village Rites. It's only 1 mana, it turns on BOTH Tragic Slip's Morbid and Fatal Push's Revolt, it's instant-speed so it pairs nicely with that removal, and it adds card draw to your deck, which is great in a deck where you empty out your hand quickly due to a low curve and discard effects.

The only other option I found is Fiend Artisan. Not a rat, unfortunately, but it's the closest thing to Diabolic Intent you can get in Modern. It not only provides a sac outlet, but it also tutors straight to the battlefield, and because of your low curve, you'll only ever be paying 2-3 mana.

Well, that about does it for me. I ended up writing quite a lot more than I originally thought I would, hence adding the accordion, so I hope at least something in all that rambling helped!

---

P.S. If you don't mind me prying, where do you live that Time Spiral cards are hard to come by? Feel free to ignore entirely if you'd rather keep your location private. :)

Color_pie14 on List of EDH Tutor Cards

2 months ago

What’s the difference between “Tutors for Tribal Cards” and “Tutors by Creature Type”? All the cards from the former are included in the latter, so why not just combine them into one or the other?
Also, I’d add the Harbingers, Boggart Harbinger, Elvish Harbinger, Faerie Harbinger, Flamekin Harbinger, Giant Harbinger, Kithkin Harbinger, Merrow Harbinger, and Treefolk Harbinger.
Also, my search for Harbingers turned up Nahiri, the Harbinger, which goes in “Notable For: Jumping Through Hoops,” and Yanling's Harbinger, which brings up the Planeswalker Deck tutors. Sure, people are unlikely to run them, but some might.
I’d also like to suggest a category: Combo Tutors. These are the ones that are part of a combo AND search for another one of the pieces. Ones that come to mind are Godo, Bandit Warlord and Forerunner of the Empire. Godo tutors for Helm of the Host, which he goes infinite with, and Forerunner tutors for Polyraptor, and from then you simply need to give Forerunner indestructible and then play Polyraptor to go infinite with.
Lastly, I’d suggest changing “Tutors to Graveyard” to “Tutors w/ Graveyard Synergies,” so you can include cards like Mausoleum Secrets, Fiend Artisan and Diabolic Intent, which interact with the grave while not tutoring TO the grave. Dimir House Guard would still go here, since his tutor effect merely discards him, he IS a sac outlet, and many graveyard deck will still desire him for it.

MrKillStar on Abandon All Hope | Ayara, First of Locthwain

2 months ago

I see a lot of shiny cards! Love the deck "intro" :D

Instead of typing all the cards I would suggest, I got a similar deck, just with Syr Konrad, the Grim: For the Void, the idea of the deck, just like with Ayara, is to get creatures, kills them, ping opponents to death.. with few bonuses. Maybe you'll like some cards, I would definitely suggest Tortured Existence (even if it doesnt like working with Necropotence, because of the discarding into exile), with Desecrated Tomb to make a 1/1 black bat token with flying for at instant speed and since Ayara loves black creatures, its would be really good :D Black itself offers a lot of card draw to replace Necropotence.
I also wrote an explanation why I use every single card in the deck, if you would wonder why some stuff are even in there. :D Also if you would decide to give some feedback aswell, I would appreaciate it :P

Anyway, about some cards I would probably replace here:

1) Ugin, the Ineffable - making colorless cards cheaper is definitely nice, but most cards here are already cheap enough with a decent mono-black ramp, which just make it less effective 6 drop. Making tokens into card draw when they die is alright, but again, black has tons of way to generate tokens and card draw (also less synergy with Ayara, since those tokens arent black). His permanent removal is a little bit better for mono-black decks, but since it takes 2 turns to use that ability again (and killing Ugin in process) is slow, cards like Meteor Golem would be probably much more effective as a permanent removal, since it just targets any permanent no matter the color AND is a creature, so sac Meteor Golem and reanimate later. Also, Feed the Swarm.
2) Cemetery Reaper - there is only 5 other Zombie creatures (if I dont count tokens from Grave Titan,Army of the Damned and Open the Graves). Even with some zombies on board, +1/+1 is pretty small buff and Cemetery Reaper is just slow token generator.
3) Beseech the Queen - even for , you are forced to reveal the tutored card, which makes it pretty bad tutor and in my personal opinion, one of the worst tutors in mono-black. As much as I love BtQ art, its a big no from me. Just for , there is budget Diabolic Tutor that wont make you reveal the card you tutored for. Or, a bit more expensive, but mana cheaper and great in token decks: Diabolic Intent. BsQ also limits you by the number of lands you control, so its less effective in the early game.
4) Caged Sun - I know how the mana doubling is nice, but since it costs to get out, then wait a turn to get value out of it might be slow. I think tutoring for Cabal Coffers/Cabal Stronghold might be just faster and more effective. Similar problem with Gauntlet of Power, even if it costs less, it affects lands of the chosen color your opponents control too, which just might lead to some ugly moments :D Probably something like Mirage Mirror would be a good replacement, so you can make an additional copy of Cabal Coffers. Another one could be Pawn of Ulamog, since you have plenty of creatures and those 0/1 Eldrazi tokens could help you with ramp.

Some more cards that could be nice:

1) Piper of the Swarm - cheap creature that buffs some of your other rats and can make rat tokens for cheap aswell, with mind control effect too. There are some really cool Ayara decks with rat tribal aswell.
2) Clackbridge Troll - I pretty like this card since I first saw it... its big ugly troll that does a lot of stuff, forcing your opponent to sac a creature to give you 3 life and 1 card, ooorrrr you the troll hits them! :D
3) Songs of the Damned/Bubbling Muck - both are pretty good to give you a lot of mana to cast a some big stuff during a single turn.
4) Malakir Rebirth  ^Flip - this is definitely a cool card from the last set, giving either Ayara or any other creature important at the moment "protection" or just use it as a land if needed. With Vilis on board, it also draws you 2 cards for at instant speed.

MrKillStar on Mana Avalanche

2 months ago

Hmmhmmm, I would most likey cut Arbor Elf - just because it only untaps Forest, which you have only basic and some duals, which I think isnt so worth it, any other mana dork would be better if you think you even need more of them :D Also, there already is several cards that untap all your lands/permanents, so something thats focused only on Forest is kinda uneffective, unless you get all those mana-doubling enchantments on board, which again, mana dork would do the same work, probably even better?

And second cut would probably be 1x Forest, since you have 37 lands in total (+1mdfc) and several mana dorks, etc. :D

Next thing could probably be replacing some black tutors with better tutors. Diabolic Tutor for Diabolic Intent whenever you wouldnt need any cheap mana dork, or just sac anything else with Malakir Rebirth  ^Flip casted on it after that creature being killed. Or just any tutor you would become liking more.

When I think about some cards I run in my mono-R deck, Tectonic Reformation is pretty decent later on when you dont need that many lands anymore. Burning Earth with enough mana dorks/artifacts, but probably not in this deck, since there is a lot of non-basic lands.
Anger just to sac it (maybe to Diabolic Intent) or just let it die/discard so your mana dorks and Yurlok have Haste right away.

Spirits on Kaalia, Mirror Breaker cEDH

3 months ago

Hi LordKunai,

Ok i've been thinking, Open the Armory (fetches: Animate Dead or Dance of the Dead) is better than Steelshaper's Gift (only Lightning Greaves), the issue is CMC2, for that I get Demonic Tutor or Tainted Pact or Diabolic Intent.

Steelshaper's Gift really only makes the cut because it is T1, and it can enable a T1 Lightning Greaves with Mana Crypt. It's likely to get cut.

I dunno if you follow the Kaalia discord, but Kaalia of the Vast finished in the top-4 of 118 player cEDH tourney, Okoberfest, there's a decklist in the article (moxfield). I'm going to run a side-by-side differential, but notably it runs Ad Nauseam and Dualcaster Mage combos instead of like Dockside Extortionist combos (which I feel Corpse Dance isn't good until mid-range gameplay).

RNR_Gaming on Slivers

3 months ago

Demonic Tutor, Imperial Seal, Diabolic Intent, Mox Diamond, Chrome Mox, Swords to Plowshares, Force of Will, Mystic Remora, Smothering Tithe, and Dockside Extortionist are some cards to look into =)