Diabolic Tutor

Color of Diabolic Tutor

A weird color pie question: green can tutor for creatures and lands; white can tutor for enchantments, artifacts, and planeswalkers; and blue can tutor for artifacts, instants, and sorceries. Therefore, would Diabolic Tutor colorshifted into Bant be theoretically possible, or do unrestricted tutors *always* have to have black?

It could in theory.

Artifacts Bant Bant (W/U/G) Black Blue Color Pie Colors Creatures Diabolic Tutor Enchantments Green Instants Lands Planeswalkers Sorceries Tutoring White

Red Tutoring Issue

Me: “Tutor role call!” White: “enlighten tutor” Blue, “mystical tutor” Black, “vampiric, demonic, diabolic tutor, and razaketh’s rite” Green, “worldly tutor” Red, **sits quietly** Uh we have Uh....goblin tutor?” Me: “that’s an unglued card sorry not legal.” Red: **crying internally.** So yeah that’s my question, why doesn’t red have a mono color instant/sorcery tutor spell that searches for a card without a back fire like discard at random, life loss, specific tribe etcetera?

Red’s the color bad at planning ahead.

Black Blue Colors Diabolic Tutor Discard Goblin Goblin Tutor Green Instants Monocolor Mystical Tutor Red Sorceries Tutoring Tutoring Unglued White Worldly Tutor

Blue/Black Hybrid Card

Could diabolic tutor be a Blue/Black hybrid card?

We don’t let blue usually just tutor for any card.

Black Blue Diabolic Tutor Dimir (U/B) Hybrid Tutoring

Split Screen Tutor Rules

If I control Split Screen and cast Diabolic Tutor, could I search from one deck and shuffle another?

No.

Cast Diabolic Tutor Search Shuffle Split Screen Tutoring

Blue Diabolic Tutor

Would diabolic tutor in blue be more of an heavy bend or a straight up break?

Probably more heavy bend than break.

Bend / Break Blue Diabolic Tutor Tutoring

Blue Colorshifted Tutor

If tutoring is philosophically blue, what are the chances of a blue colorshifted Diabolic Tutor (or just any blue card with that effect)?

I was talking philosophically in a vacuum. The decision to push general tutors to black was decided long ago. Remember, execution of mechanics doesn’t always match up with philosophical ideal. There’s some wiggle room.

Black Blue Diabolic Tutor Mechanics Tutoring Tutoring

Card Power and Cost

I recently played against a guy who had a deck full of very very old, and very rare cards, and his cars were unbelievably powerful. He had 4 demonic tutors, as well as other cards I'd never even heard of that just walked over most of our cards (4 way play). Is there a reason the newer cards e.g diabolic tutor are so much more expensive manawise to play?

Some abilities were undercosted in the past and have since been raised in cost. Others were overcosted and have since been lowered.

Diabolic Tutor Rares Tutoring

Tutors & Game Variance

"Tutors ... take away the variance that helps Magic be so fun by having games play out differently." This may be somewhat true, but consider it from other perspectives. A competitive deck's goal is to MINIMIZE variance by playing consistently. This is a primary reason dual lands and draw spells are good; reduced variance at a cost (mana, life, etc.). Variance is just as important as being able to negate it. Just compare things like Concentrate, Divination, Diabolic Tutor, and Cruel Tutor.

You are correct, the tournament players work to minimize variance. That doesn’t mean we have to help them too much. : )

Competitive Play Cruel Tutor Diabolic Tutor Divination Dual Lands Dual Lands Gates Lands Mana Negate Primary Spells Tutoring

Diabolic Tutor Cost

Could you do Diabolic Tutor for 1BB, if it told you to reveal the card you searched for? How important is revealing information as a cost, in Magic?

It wouldn’t net you much savings manawise.

Diabolic Tutor Tutoring

Holiday Card Love

You were right, Mark. The new holiday card is amazing. I couldn't stop laughing! I love how it's the guy from Diabolic Tutor and everything!

It’s my favorite holiday card we’ve done so far. If you haven’t seen Naughty//Nice yet, check it out here: http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/arcana/1124

Diabolic Tutor Tutoring

Thoughts on Tutors

You said that you didn't like transmute so much because it encouraged repetitive gameplay; well, isn't this what ALL tutors do? Diabolic Tutor seems to be a staple, and with an artifact block came artifact tutors, and with the curse mechanic came curse tutors. How is transmute that different? Or do you actually not care for all tutors?

Yes, all tutors have this problem. That’s why we try to limit how many tutors we do in any particular set. Keeping that number low is difficult when your keyword mechanic does it.

Artifacts Diabolic Tutor Game Play Keywords Mechanics Transmute Tutoring