Diabolic Tutor

Sorcery

Search your library for a card and put that card into your hand. Then shuffle your library.

Discussion (51)

squadcarxmar on Alive and Dead

5 days ago

I don't know what your budget it is or how optimized you want this deck but immediate suggestions are a few tutors at the least. Diabolic Tutor is the cheap everyone goes for until they get better ones. Beseech the Queen isn't bad either. There's also Diabolic Intent , Demonic Tutor , Dark Petition , Vampiric Tutor , Diabolic Revelation , and more.

If you are playing with death triggers and things dying some good options are Debtors' Knell , Sheoldred, Whispering One , Black Market , and whatnot. Also, you have white! Use Swords to Plowshares ! I'd keep Merciless Eviction as it is a wonderful board wipe but also consider Hour of Revelation . Other good cards are like Anguished Unmaking , Utter End , and Vindicate .

SideBae on Sir Gwyn Historic Knights

6 days ago

Hey man! I got a few suggestions. Feel free to ignore any/all of them:

1. I kinda agree with PhaylogenX: Valiant Knight seems pretty good here (I see you've included it). Another pair of cards to consider for this type of role are Knight Exemplar and Kinsbaile Cavalier . They're like... good.

2. I think Wear / Tear is likely better than your Crush Contraband . It costs less to cast if you're only targeting one or the other, and it still costs less than Crush Contraband if you're using both halves. However, it IS destroy rather than exile; this is frequently not an issue, but if it is a meta call please do ignore me.

3. Since you're in black, you have access to the best tutors. Unfortunately, many of them are expensive: Things like Demonic Tutor , Vampiric Tutor and Imperial Seal are gonna set you back a lot. Consider running things like Dark Petition , Diabolic Tutor and Mastermind's Acquisition are all good cards.

4. Your rocks could use some work. I like the signets, but I like the talismans more. Talisman of Hierarchy , Talisman of Conviction and Talisman of Indulgence are all better than their respective signets.

5. You may want to consider some of the death and taxes staples. Mother of Runes and Giver of Runes are good ways to protect 'ya bois. Rest in Peace can hose a lot of decks, especially the ones I play. More generally, Stax and Hatebears can blow chunks on OPs. Winter Orb can slow down opponents from responding to your on-board pressure; Trinisphere is similar but expensive. Price of Glory can disincentivize counter-magic; Aura of Silence taxes one-sidedly in your favor.

6. You're running a lot of basic lands. Consider Blood Moon and/or Magus of the Moon to punish more expensive decks.

7. I think Cataclysm is probably better than Tragic Arrogance .

Right. That's all I got. Good luck!

squadcarxmar on Life is a Resource

1 week ago

No tutors? Depending on budgets/styles you can go with Diabolic Tutor , Diabolic Revelation , Demonic Tutor , Vampiric Tutor , Dark Petition , Increasing Ambition , Beseech the Queen and probably more. I use Revelation with two others and if I generate enough mana, I can Elixir of Immortality back my old tutors and use Revelation to search them back out along with the Elixir plus whatever else I want.

As for board wipes I'd recommend at least a Planar Cleansing or Hour of Revelation just to make sure you can wipe a board clean and nice. Also, Merciless Eviction is strong when someone starts making things indestructible or you need to remove a specific type of problem off the table.

Fun enchantments like Black Market can also fetch you quite a bit of mana.

SideBae on A Treasonous, Toxic Temptress Treasures Trinkets!

1 week ago

1. I agree with the previous comment: Llanowar Elves , Elves of Deep Shadow , Deathrite Shaman , Elvish Mystic , Fyndhorn Elves , Birds of Paradise and Arbor Elf are all good enough to run. I suggest running at least four of them, if not more.

2. Outside your enchantments, you seem rather light on card-draw. Including the Diabolic Intent from the Maybeboard would begin to solve this problem, as would running other tutors like Demonic Tutor , Diabolic Tutor , Dark Petition , etc. Other ways you can combat this are by running things like Night's Whisper , Sign in Blood and Sylvan Library . Thought that last one is expensive nowadays, you can combo it with Underrealm Lich and get three cards a turn (the replacement effect means you never actually 'draw' a card).

3. Veil of Summer is an excellent second-order counter to include in a green deck.

4. You may have luck with Pox / Smallpox killing your opponents' creatures. As far as I can tell, Smallpox is a lot better in that it doesn't decimate you the way Pox does (thus it's easier to build around), but Pox can be funny, too. Innocent Blood is similar.

5. Nature's Claim is a very efficient piece of spot removal you may want to run in addition to your Krosan Grip .

6. Depending on whether you want to be a dork (and how blue-heavy your meta is), consider Choke . Carpet of Flowers and Tsunami are similar.

7. Windgrace's Judgment and Casualties of War are good multi-for-ones.

Good luck!

lonesentinel on Yawgmoth Reanimation Combo

1 week ago

saw your post on reddit.

I would cut Apprentice Necromancer for Extraplanar Lens

might want to run Caged Sun too since you're creature heavy.

Swap Urborg for Cabal Stronghold , and add Expedition Map or Diabolic Tutor to get either Cabals. In this case I might take out Mana Vault too.

SideBae on Corrupt Aristocracy (Ertai)

1 week ago

So my first comment is that consistency issues are generally well-remedied by tutors, so including the Dark Petition and such should help.

Tidespout Tyrant was not meant as a combo piece. I meant it as an example of a stupid-good reanimation target, which you could use as a secondary win-condition in itself. Reanimating it can frequently swing the odds toward you.

The best way to find out what to cut in a deck is to playtest and see which cards rot in your hand while you wish they were something else. That being said, there is some a priori advice I can give you, and I'll try. Here goes:

1. Generally, you want your curve to taper off around 5-ish, with maybe a few cards above that (excluding alternate cost cards like Commandeer , if you're running those). I feel like running all three cavaliers is likely excessive, since they're high casting-cost and you're unlikely to need all too many of them.

2. You want to maximize the relevance of your spells. I've never liked Deathpact Angel , since there're likely better cards you can be running.

3. Including tutors means you can lower your level of redundancy. I would cut Butcher of Malakir , since you already have Grave Pact and you can just tutor for it with Diabolic Tutor when you need it. (Note the underlying principle here: Diabolic Tutor can fetch the Grave Pact if that's what you need, or anything else for that matter; thus, Diabolic Tutor acts as more efficiently as a source of redundancy than a second card with the same effect.)

4. I guess my advice can be summed up this way: Playtest the hell out of your deck, but if that's not enough, lower the curve and increase card-slot efficiency. Cards that represent a lot of effects (like tutors or modal spells) are generally better than rigid cards.

Good luck! I'm glad you found my first comment helpful.

Cypher35 on Corrupt Aristocracy (Ertai)

1 week ago

SideBae, Wow, this is immensely helpful! thank you tons! I do have a few questions/explanations/comments though;

I see your point about having too many combos/win conditions, the reason I bring it up is that I've been having some consistency issues, and I've been hoping to improve it from slightly janky to viable in my playgroup, once I get it assembled.

Tidespout Tyrant is a powerful card, but if you don't mind pointing out how it helps my combo?

Buried Alive is one that I hadn't been considering for some odd reason, so thanks! Dance of the Dead is another reanimation enchantment that I appreciate you bringing to my attention!

I agree about the tutor suite, and I like Dark Petition , Diabolic Tutor and Beseech the Queen !

I'll be sure to add some counterspells like Dovin's Veto as well!

One last overall question, what would you cut from the deck to make way for better cards you suggested?

All in all, though, I really appreciate everything! Esper is my favorite color combination in MTG, and I think with some modification, this deck could end up doing quite well!

SideBae on Corrupt Aristocracy (Ertai)

1 week ago

Hey man! I always like Esper. Here're some suggestions; feel free to ignore any or all of them:

1. In your description, you say you need help with win conditions. I think it's important to keep in mind, if you don't already, that too many win conditions will actually hinder your deck. This is because with more discrete combos, you raise the number of 'dead' draws in your deck; drawing half of two combos that don't go together makes Jac a sad boi. So while I do agree you could use more win conditions, I think only adding another one or (maybe) to is probably the best route.

2. In the spirit of (1), you may find that having a powerful reanimation package can be one of the secondary win cons you're looking for. Tidespout Tyrant used to be one of the top reanimation targets in legacy (maybe it still is -- I don't understand that format anymore), and running him will let you draw Animate Dead sans Leonin Relic-Warder and still have a good shot at winning.

3. To that end, you should run Entomb and Buried Alive . Tutoring to the 'yard not only puts your Leonin Relic-Warder right where you want him, but also your Sheoldred, Whispering One /any other reanimation targets you may want. There're some other reanimation spells to consider, some that work with Leonin Relic-Warder and some that don't. Consider: Reanimate , Exhume (if you wanna get spicy), Dance of the Dead and/or Unburial Rites . Unburial Rites is one of my favorite cards, especially since you can tutor it with Entomb .

4. I think Path to Exile is strictly worse, in EDH, than Swords to Plowshares . Ramping an opponent in a format where everyone is doing busted stuff is dangerous, but giving them six or more life points may be irrelevant, especially since this seems to be a combo deck.

5. Your Brainstorm is good, but it'd be better with more shuffle effects in your deck. While Prismatic Vista and the other generic fetches (see Marsh Flats , etc.) can be very expensive, slow fetches like Flood Plain and/or Bad River are fine alternatives.

6. In addition to your Brainstorm , I cannot recommend Ponder and it's lil' brother Preordain highly enough. These two may not look like much, but being able to dig to what you need and past what you don't for one mana is a pretty great feeling. I run them in all my blue decks, and (with very limited exceptions) always like drawing them.

7. You've got some pretty good rocks, but there're ways to improve your ramp base. I've been very impressed with the talismans ( Talisman of Dominance , Talisman of Hierarchy and Talisman of Progress ) as slightly-better signets, and it's important not to discount Thought Vessel , Everflowing Chalice or Mind Stone .

8. You have some very powerful artifacts: Bolas's Citadel , Thornbite Staff , and Lifeline all seem like game-changers in this deck. Consider running Whir of Invention to get them out when you have the mana. Reshape or, if you're rich, Transmute Artifact are also good. Non-to-battlefield tutors, like Demonic Tutor , Enlightened Tutor or Vampiric Tutor are good, but expensive; like with fetch lands, there're other, more accessible options. Consider Diabolic Tutor , Lim-Dul's Vault , Beseech the Queen and/or Dark Petition , which are all fine tutors in themselves.

9. If you don't have fundamental issues with counter-magic, you should run some -- it'll protect you and your combo. Gold-standard counters ( Force of Will and Mana Drain ) are expensive AF, but you can consider other perfectly powerful options as well. Counterspell is good, and I've been very impressed with Spell Snare (which counters an overload-ed Cyclonic Rift REALLY nicely). If you've got Ad Nauseam players like me in your play ground, Dispel can be a worthy inclusion; Dovin's Veto is another combo-breaker for high-power tables.

10. You may wish to have access to some more card-draw. Some cards to consider: Dig Through Time , Treasure Cruise , Fact or Fiction , Painful Truths , Phyrexian Arena , etc.

11. To return to (1-3), you may want Aetherflux Reservoir as another win condition since it combos so nicely with Bolas's Citadel . If you can get a Sensei's Divining Top in the mix, things get nutty pretty quick.

Right. That's all I got. Good luck!