A magnetic resonance imaging system and method are provided for improved phase-sensitive magnetic resonance imaging of tissues affected by cardiovascular pulsatile motion. A magnetically-prepared image dataset and corresponding reference image dataset (for phase sensitivity) are obtained within the duration of a single cardiac cycle. The paired datasets can be single-shot or segmented datasets and a navigator sequence can optionally be provided with each paired dataset. The system and method take advantage of the shape symmetry of the cardiac cycle to acquire the paired dataset in a shorter time interval, thereby reducing misregistration artifacts. The magnetic preparation can include inversion recovery pulses, FIDDLE sequences, other magnetic preparation sequences, or combinations thereof. The reference dataset can be acquired at a lower resolution than the corresponding magnetically-prepared dataset without compromising image quality.