Diabolic Tutor

Diabolic Tutor was first introduced in the Scourge expansion in 2003, serving as a staple black card that allows a player to search their library for any card and place it into their hand. The Ninth Edition version, released in 2005, marked the return of the card to the core set. This iteration is notable for its transition to the modern card frame, which updated the aesthetic of the game's core collection to align with the visual standards established in the Eighth Edition.

The artwork for this specific printing was illustrated by Greg Staples, who moved away from the more fantastical, dark-fantasy tropes of earlier magic illustrations toward a more visceral, shadowed depiction of the titular tutor. The design reflects the card's function as a tool for consistency in deck-building, a mechanical role that has ensured its presence across numerous formats as a reliable, if mana-intensive, way to retrieve situational answers.