Magic: The Gathering has released new Secret Lair Drops themed around The Hobbit, with one particular card, Diabolic Intent, standing out due to its evocative new artwork. This art, created by Septian Fajrianto for the 'Desolation' drop within the larger 'A Marvelous Mathoms' Secret Lair, depicts a key moment from J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit.
The artwork illustrates the scene where Gandalf slays the Great Goblin after the wizard extinguishes the chamber's light. This dramatic event, described in the book as Glamdring "burning with a rage that made it gleam if goblins were about," is rendered in a stark black and white style characteristic of the 'Desolation' theme, which focuses on darker, often violent moments. The impact of Gandalf's blow is obscured by a flash of light, emphasizing the suddenness and power of the act.
Diabolic Intent, originally printed in Magic: The Gathering's 2001 Planeshift set, is a two-mana sorcery that allows a player to search their library for any card and add it to their hand, at the cost of sacrificing a creature. While functionally similar to the more powerful Demonic Tutor, the sacrifice cost makes it less universally dominant but still highly valuable in specific deck archetypes, particularly those that benefit from creature sacrifice or graveyard recursion.
This reprint is notable for its potential reprint value. Among the cards in The Hobbit's Superdrop, Diabolic Intent boasts the highest reprint value, estimated at $16, with most other cards valued around $7 or less. For context, other tutor cards in Magic can command significantly higher prices, such as a Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth Collector Booster exclusive version of a similar tutor card depicting Saruman, which is priced around $95.
The utility of tutor effects like Diabolic Intent is particularly appreciated in formats like Commander, where players construct decks with only one copy of each card. The ability to search for and retrieve any card, rather than a specific type like a creature or land, provides crucial flexibility. The inherent drawback of sacrificing a creature can even be turned into an advantage within "aristocrat" strategies that leverage creature death for beneficial effects, especially in black decks that often feature ways to return creatures from the graveyard.
The 'A Marvelous Mathoms' Secret Lair, which includes The Hobbit's 'Desolation' drop, is currently available for purchase on the Secret Lair website while supplies last.