Mindstab
Sorcery
Target player discards three cards.
Suspend 4—
(Rather than cast this card from your hand, you may pay and exile it with four time counters on it. At the beginning of your upkeep, remove a time counter. When the last is removed, you may cast it without paying its mana cost.)
- CMC
- 6
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- The List
- Price
- $0.10
- EDHREC rank
- #23404
Mindstab makes an opponent discard three cards — a brutal effect that costs five mana on the surface but resolves for zero if you suspend it four turns out. The catch is four turns of telegraphing in a format where opponents have time to empty their hands, which blunts the payoff badly.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | not legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
In Commander, Mindstab is too slow and too narrow — targeted discard loses value in a four-player game where you're stripping one opponent's hand while the other two untouched players advance their boards. Legacy and Vintage have the fast, redundant discard suites that make suspend feel clunky by comparison; Thoughtseize and Hymn to Tourach simply do more for less. Pauper is where Mindstab has the most plausible home, since the card-quality ceiling is lower and the suspend payoff is an actual three-for-one — but even there, the four-turn delay is a real cost that keeps it fringe.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.10 bulk tier
At $0.10, Mindstab is deep bulk — you're not buying it for value, you're buying it because the effect is free at that price point. It's unlikely to move; the suspend mechanic and narrow application keep demand low across every format.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.