Sanitation Automaton
Artifact Creature — Construct
When this creature enters, surveil 1. (Look at the top card of your library. You may put it into your graveyard.)
- CMC
- 2
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- C
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- Murders at Karlov Manor
- Price
- $0.07
- EDHREC rank
- #21482
Sanitation Automaton removes a counter from each creature you control when it enters — a narrow effect that rarely justifies a roster spot. Three mana for a 2/2 with no persistent upside is a bad rate in any format that isn't built around counter manipulation.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | legal |
| standard | legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Sanitation Automaton is legal everywhere but sees essentially no play outside of highly specific counter-matters builds in Commander. In Commander, the only shells that want this are Atraxa, Praetors' Voice or similar decks looking to reset -1/-1 counters placed by their own cards — a use case so narrow that better options almost always exist. In competitive formats like Modern or Pioneer, a 3-mana 2/2 with a conditional ETB trigger doesn't come close to the efficiency bar. Pauper is the one format where budget artifact creatures get second looks, but even there the effect doesn't map onto a coherent strategy.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.07 bulk tier
At $0.07, Sanitation Automaton is deep bulk — the kind of card that ends up in a common box and stays there. Don't expect that price to move; demand simply isn't there to push it.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.