MTG Reprints Infamous $20 Commander Staple With Stunning Hobbit Art

Early in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit, Thorin Oakenshield’s company narrowly avoids a grisly demise at the hands of three ravenous trolls by baiting them into a bickering match until the sunrise turns them to stone. Plundering the monsters’ subterranean hoard, Bilbo Baggins acquires Sting—the iconic blade that radiates blue whenever orcs draw near—while Gandalf claims Glamdring and Thorin recovers Orcrist. When the party is subsequently ambushed and dragged before the Great Goblin in chapter four, the goblin monarch erupts into a murderous frenzy upon identifying Orcrist. Gandalf, having shadowed the captors unseen, abruptly snuffs out every torch in the cavern and dispatches the Goblin King in a single, incandescent strike.

“It burned with a rage that made it gleam if goblins were about,” Tolkien penned of Glamdring during the execution, “now it was bright as blue flame for delight in the killing of the great lord of the cave.”

This pivotal confrontation has been immortalized through striking new art by Septian Fajrianto for a Magic: The Gathering reprint of Diabolic Intent. Fajrianto illustrated the entirety of the “Desolation” bonus sheet for The Hobbit, a curated mini-drop packaged inside the wider A Marvelous Mathoms Secret Lair Superdrop.

The “Desolation” collection focuses on visceral, high-stakes violence rendered in stark black and white. Diabolic Intent depicts Gandalf impaling the Goblin King, though the lethal point of impact is swallowed by a dazzling burst of blinding light. From a financial perspective, Diabolic Intent represents the Superdrop’s premier reprint target, boasting a secondary-market floor of at least $16. By comparison, the vast majority of companion cards across the drop linger around $7 or less, with Imp’s Mischief serving as the next most valuable inclusion.

First printed in 2001’s Planeshift expansion, Diabolic Intent is a two-mana sorcery (costing one generic and one black mana) that permits players to search their library for any card and place it directly into their hand—a classic mechanic known as “tutoring.” The caveat requires sacrificing a creature as an additional casting cost. While strictly worse than the iconic Demonic Tutor, which performs the same search without demanding a sacrifice, that lack of drawback is precisely why Demonic Tutor remains banned or severely restricted across most constructed formats.

Unrestricted tutors in Magic remain premier strategic assets, ensuring their market value stays consistently high. Premium printings command substantial premiums; for instance, the Collector Booster variant from The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth, illustrating Saruman gazing into the Palantír, regularly commands roughly $95.

The strength of the card lies in its versatility, particularly in singleton formats like Commander where drawing specific answers or win conditions is inherently inconsistent. The freedom to fetch any card type—rather than being restricted to mere lands or creatures—makes it exceptionally potent. While forfeiting a creature is technically a loss of board presence, dedicated “aristocrats” archetypes actively exploit sacrifice triggers for immediate advantage. Furthermore, black mana suites possess extensive graveyard recursion, ensuring that sacrificed creatures rarely stay dead for long.

The A Marvelous Mathoms Superdrop is available for purchase on the official Secret Lair storefront while current allocations last.