Sanity Grinding MTG Card
| Mana cost | |
| Converted mana cost | 3 |
| Rarity | Rare |
| Type | Sorcery |
| Abilities | Chroma,Mill |
| Released | 2008-07-25 |
| Set symbol | |
| Set name | Eventide |
| Set code | EVE |
| Number | 29 |
| Frame | 2003 |
| Layout | Normal |
| Border | Black |
| Illustred by | Lars Grant-West |
Key Takeaways
- Sanity Grinding leverages blue decks’ card draw for significant milling, disrupting opponents’ libraries.
- Specifically requiring blue mana, it integrates less seamlessly into multicolored decks.
- Building your collection with it prepares you for mill-strategy meta shifts in MTG.
Text of card
Chroma Reveal the top ten cards of your library. For each blue mana symbol in the mana costs of the revealed cards, target opponent puts the top card of his or her library into his or her graveyard. Then put the cards you revealed this way on the bottom of your library in any order.
Card Pros
Card Advantage: Sanity Grinding shines in blue-centric decks that heavily utilize the color’s card-drawing capabilities. The potential to turn a substantial portion of your deck into a force of disruption can be the difference-maker, often digging deep and revealing multiple blue cards, thereby milling a significant number of cards from your opponent’s library.
Resource Acceleration: Though it doesn’t directly ramp your mana, the resource acceleration comes from hampering your opponent’s strategic resources. By milling key pieces of your opponent’s deck, you restrict their access to crucial cards, effectively accelerating your position in the game relative to theirs.
Instant Speed: Although Sanity Grinding is a sorcery, its impact on the game can be as immediate and disruptive as many instant-speed spells. The ability to cast it at a strategic point during your turn allows for well-timed interference with your opponent’s plans, especially when paired with cards that allow you to cast sorceries as though they had flash.
Card Cons
Discard Requirement: Sanity Grinding necessitates you having a sufficient number of blue cards in your hand to reveal, meaning if your hand is short on blue spells, its effect would be significantly weakened.
Specific Mana Cost: This card requires three blue mana, which may not easily fit into multicolored decks that cannot reliably generate that amount of blue mana consistently.
Comparatively High Mana Cost: Sanity Grinding calls for a substantial investment of three mana. Considering that it is an effect that heavily depends on the composition of your deck, other cards in the same mana range may yield a more guaranteed benefit or impact on the game.
Reasons to Include Sanity Grinding in Your Collection
Versatility: Sanity Grinding shines in any blue-centered deck that thrives on spell-casting. It works exceptionally well in decks that focus on manipulating the top of the library, ensuring that its Chroma ability maximizes its potential every time it’s played.
Combo Potential: With its ability to potentially reveal a high number of blue mana symbols, Sanity Grinding can serve as a setup for devastating combos in mill decks. Partner it with cards that capitalize on the number of cards in an opponent’s graveyard, and you’ve got a recipe for a swift victory.
Meta-Relevance: As mill strategies periodically ebb and flow in the meta, including Sanity Grinding in your collection ensures you’re ready when the tides turn. In a meta where slower, control-based play is prevalent, dropping this spell can disrupt your opponent’s rhythm and turn the game in your favor.
How to beat
Sanity Grinding is a unique blue spell that can create explosive turns for the caster by revealing a swath of their own library and potentially milling a significant portion of the opponent’s deck based on the converted mana cost of blue cards revealed. To effectively counter this strategy, the key lies in disruption and speed. Focus on incorporating cards that either disrupt the caster’s hand, like Thoughtseize or Duress, to remove Sanity Grinding before it can be played or utilize counter spells such as Negate or Cancel to ensure it never resolves.
Another approach is to employ graveyard-shuffling cards like Eldrazi titans or Gaea’s Blessing, which can mitigate the effects of milling by shuffling your graveyard back into your library, derailing the opponent’s milling strategy. Building a deck capable of winning quickly can also outpace a Sanity Grinding deck, as they often rely on setting up their combo, leaving them vulnerable in the early game. Enhancing your deck with cards that have a natural resilience to graveyard strategies, or including direct ways to shuffle your library can greatly increase your chances against a Sanity Grinding deck.
In the game of Magic: The Gathering, a well-tuned strategy with the right balance of disruption, speed, and resilience can be the key to prevailing over a deck centered around Sanity Grinding. Keeping these aspects in check will help maintain control over the game and ensure that your opponent’s plans grind to a halt instead of your deck.
Cards like Sanity Grinding
Sanity Grinding is an intriguing spell in MTG that stands out within the blue color’s repertoire of mill cards. It’s akin to cards like Mind Sculpt, which impacts the opponent’s deck by milling seven cards straightaway. Mind Sculpt, however, lacks the variability of Sanity Grinding, which hinges on the blue mana symbols in the controller’s revealed cards to determine the number of cards milled.
Glimpse the Unthinkable is yet another mill card to consider. It mills a hefty chunk of ten cards for just two mana. While it mills more consistently than Sanity Grinding, it does not leverage the controller’s deck composition to potentially mill for an even greater amount, showcasing a strategic layer unique to Sanity Grinding.
Breaking // Entering can also serve a similar purpose of disrupting your opponent’s strategy by milling cards, though it’s part of a split card with more flexibility. The ‘Breaking’ part mills for eight cards, slightly more than Mind Sculpt, but still doesn’t offer the scalability of Sanity Grinding. Highlighting these nuances helps players evaluate the potential of Sanity Grinding in a deck that’s built to harness its power to the fullest.
Cards similar to Sanity Grinding by color, type and mana cost
Where to buy
If you're looking to purchase Sanity Grinding MTG card by a specific set like Eventide, there are several reliable options to consider. One of the primary sources is your local game store, where you can often find booster packs, individual cards, and preconstructed decks from current and some past sets. They often offer the added benefit of a community where you can trade with other players.
For a broader inventory, particularly of older sets, online marketplaces like TCGPlayer, Card Kingdom and Card Market offer extensive selections and allow you to search for cards from specific sets. Larger e-commerce platforms like eBay and Amazon also have listings from various sellers, which can be a good place to look for sealed product and rare finds.
Additionally, Magic’s official site often has a store locator and retailer lists for finding Wizards of the Coast licensed products. Remember to check for authenticity and the condition of the cards when purchasing, especially from individual sellers on larger marketplaces.
Below is a list of some store websites where you can buy the Sanity Grinding and other MTG cards:
- eBay
- TCG Player
- Card Kingdom
- Card Market
- Star City Games
- CoolStuffInc
- MTG Mint Card
- Hareruya
- Troll and Toad
- ABU Games
- Card Hoarder Magic Online
- MTGO Traders Magic Online
See MTG Products
Legalities
Magic the Gathering formats where Sanity Grinding has restrictions
| Format | Legality |
|---|---|
| Commander | Legal |
| Legacy | Legal |
| Modern | Legal |
| Oathbreaker | Legal |
| Vintage | Legal |
| Duel | Legal |
| Predh | Legal |
| Penny | Legal |
Rules and information
The reference guide for Magic: The Gathering Sanity Grinding card rulings provides official rulings, any errata issued, as well as a record of all the functional modifications that have occurred.
| Date | Text |
|---|---|
| 2008-08-01 | Chroma abilities check only mana costs, which are found in a card’s upper right corner. They don’t count mana symbols that appear in a card’s text box. |
| 2008-08-01 | Chroma abilities count hybrid mana symbols of the appropriate color. For example, a card with mana cost {U/R}{U/R} has two red mana symbols in its mana cost. |
| 2008-08-01 | If there are fewer than ten cards in your library, reveal them all. For each blue mana symbol in those cards’ mana costs, the targeted opponent puts the top card of their library into their graveyard. Then you reorder your entire library as you choose. |
