Tutors – Cardboard Keeper

There is no getting around it, MTG Black tutors are some of my favorite tutors to play within Magic The Gathering. Black tutors in MTG often embody the phrase "victory at any cost" - and who doesn't like winning? If you are thinking about putting together a new MTG deck and want to fill out some spots with cards that will absolutely make your deck more consistent to play, check out this list of some of the best black tutors you can play. 1. Vampiric Tutor Recommended Formats:Commander, Vintage Pros Cons Instant SpeedPlaces card on top of the deckOnly 1 manaCosts Life Let’s start off our list with one of the most powerful tutors, Vampiric Tutor. For 1 mana and 2 life, this card will get you the best card in your deck. Now granted, you’ll have to put it on the top of your deck and not in your hand, but that can be solved by playing it at your opponent's end step. If you were looking for proof of this card’s power, look no further than its several top 8’s in 2019’s Eternal Weekend Asia and 2022’s Playing with Power cEDH tournaments. The flexibility that is gained from Vampiric tutor being instant speed means you’ll never be without the best card for any situation. 2. Demonic Tutor Recommended Formats:Commander, Vintage Search your library for a card, put that card into your hand, then shuffle. Pros Cons Puts card into your handSorcery speedDoesn't cost lifeCosts 2 Mana Now on to Demonic Tutor. With its first printing being in the Alpha Set, this was the first-ever tutor and became the namesake of this type of card. What this card lacks in speed and mana cost, it makes up for by being able to put that card right into your hand. Need a board wipe or you’re gonna die? Have your winning combo piece in your hand and you need it to resolve? Demonic Tutor replaces itself with whatever the best card is for a given situation. It’s not uncommon to see this alongside Vampiric Tutor, giving it the same prestige. With just the fact that it can only be played at sorcery speed keeping it from being the outright superior black tutor card, this is a great tutor for any deck. 3. Diabolic Intent Recommended Formats:Commander Pros Cons Puts card into your handRequires you sacrifice a creatureSorcery speed So you need to tutor but want something that will synergize with the sacrifice theme of your deck? Diabolic Intent might just be the card for you. For 2 mana and the additional cost of sacrificing a creature you get yourself a copy of Demonic Tutor. While sacrificing a creature might seem like a drawback at first, in a black deck death is only the beginning. Sacrifice a Gray Merchant of Asphodel, then tutor for a Reanimate and pull good ol’ Gary right back out of the graveyard to drain the table again. Part of the fun of playing Magic is finding those “Big Brain Plays”, when you find an interesting interaction that maybe wasn’t evident when the card was made. Diabolic Intent allows for those types of plays. Since the sacrifice of the creature is part of the casting cost, your opponent can’t respond to it. If you find yourself in a situation where you have a winning sacrifice combo on board and just need a way to start it without being interrupted, the downside quickly becomes a huge upside. 4. Wishclaw Talisman Recommended Formats:Commander, Historic, Legacy Pros Cons Can be used to barter in CommanderCosts 3 mana to tutorSynergy with ArtifactsGives opponents a tutor an effect Now you might be looking at Wishclaw Talisman and saying “there’s no way this is of the best black tutors in Magic.” And to that I say, look a little closer. For a total of 3 mana, we get another copy of Demonic Tutor. The fact that you have to give it to another player isn’t as bad as it seems. In Commander, offering it as part of a deal is a great way to make a friend at the table. In legacy or historic, since the talisman can only be activated on its controller's turn, if you win on the turn you activate it your opponent never gets the chance to use it. This relatively cheap card has seen several 1st place wins in Historic, a top 8 in Stay City Games Commander Celebration, and has even popped up in Legacy. When looking for tutors for your deck, make sure not to sleep on this one. 5. Entomb Recommended Formats:Commander, Legacy Pros Cons Costs 1 ManaInstant speedGreat for reanimation decksWeak to graveyard hate We have an interesting tutor in Entomb. Instead of looking for any card and putting it either on top of your deck or into your hand, Entomb lets you search your library for any creature and put it into your graveyard. Why would you want to take your best creature and put it into your graveyard? When you’re playing a black deck, think of your graveyard as an extension of your hand. Cheating an expensive creature into play at the cost of a reanimation spell and Entomb is pretty powerful. This combo can be seen in legacy to cheat an 8 mana value Griselbrand onto the battlefield for as cheaply as 2 mana. Entomb has racked up 26 top 8’s since its release in 2001 and shows no signs of stopping with its most recent top in 2022 with the Playing with Power cEDH tournament. 6. Imperial Seal Recommended Formats:Commander, Vintage Pros Cons Cost 1 manaPlaces card on top of the deckCosts 2 lifeSorcery speed Coming in at number 6 on our list we have Imperial Seal, the sorcery speed version of Vampiric Tutor. If you’re looking for another "cheap" tutor to go into your Vintage or cEDH deck and money is no object, this $1,700 card could be just what you’re looking for. Without a doubt this is a powerful card, when comparing it to the instant speed of Vampiric Tutor or the lack of drawbacks from Demonic Tutor, the kinks in the armor start to show a bit. If you want to get the most of this card make sure you have some sort of “top of the deck” synergies or some card draw to go along with it. 7. Final Parting Recommended Formats:Commander, Penny Dreadful, Historic Pros Cons Tutors for 2 cardsCosts 5 manaCombo enablerSorcery speed Final Parting takes Entomb and Demonic Tutor and for 5 mana combines them into this sleeper of a card. While 5 mana might seem like a lot, black has a surprising number of ways of making extra mana in cards like Crypt Ghast and Cabal Coffers. With a little work, you’ll find that this relatively cheap-to-buy card by itself is a combo enabler. Take the combo we talked about with Entomb, with Final Parting you can not only search for the Griselbrand to put into your graveyard but also the reanimation spell to get it back out. Keep it in mind next time you’re looking for tutors for your Commander deck. 8. Shred Memory Recommended Formats:Commander, Penny Dreadful, Pauper Pros Cons Can't be counteredOnly tutors for cards that are 3 manaCan also be used as graveyard hate. Sorcery speed In our next spot, we have a card that does way more than it should for its cost both in mana value and in price. Coming in at less than $1, Shred Memory has an interesting mechanic in transmute. For 3 mana we can tutor for a card that has the same mana value as the card that cast it, in this case, 2. This might seem like a huge drawback but there is a certain amount of protection that comes with transmuting a card. Since we are not casting the card but instead using an ability, we get around the most common counterspells and really only have to worry about ones like Stifle that can count abilities. Adding to the fact that if we don’t need to tutor we have instant speed graveyard hate, it becomes clear how this overperforming card made it onto our list. 9. Scheming Symmetry Recommended Formats: Commander, Modern Pros Cons Only 1 manaSorcery speedCan be used to barter in CommanderOpponents also get to tutor Can’t afford a Vampiric Tutor? Want to make a friend while tutoring for whatever card you might need? Scheming Symmetry is the card for you. While giving an opponent the chance to tutor might seem like something you want to avoid, it’s not always the worst thing in the world. And hey, maybe you throw down an Opposition Agent, and instead of your opponent getting to search their deck, you get to tutor from your deck and theirs. This card has made its way into a few cEDH decks and even saw play in smaller Modern tournaments. All in all, this is a great political card and deserves more love than it gets. 10. Diabolic Tutor Recommended Formats:Commander Pros Cons Puts card into your handCosts 4 manaSorcery speed Probably the most budget-friendly general tutor, Diabolic Tutor is basically a 4 mana Demonic Tutor and hey, there’s nothing wrong with that. For around $1 you get all the tutoring power you could ever need. While Diabolic Tutor has seen some play in Penny Dreadful, this is mainly a Commander card. So throw it in your next Commander deck that runs black and never look back. Vampiric Tutor vs Demonic Tutor - Which is better? After looking through our list, you might be asking yourself this question. To start it off if you have both, well then play both. But if you have to choose, my vote is for Vampiric Tutor. The instant speed is much more flexible. When it comes to playing against someone that is tutoring, the general rule of thumb is to counter the card that was tutored for, not the tutor. I tend to disagree that you should follow this rule 100% of the time. There are a lot of different reasons the card they tutor for might be uncounterable. Because of that I always think it is safer to counter the tutor. Vampiric Tutors’ instant speed helps you get around that and lets you wait for the best moment to tutor for that game-winning card.