Sinister Sabotage
Instant
Counter target spell.
Surveil 1. (Look at the top card of your library. You may put it into your graveyard.)
- CMC
- 3
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- U
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- Ravnica Remastered
- Price
- $0.16
- EDHREC rank
- #6126
Sinister Sabotage counters any spell and mills three cards — that second clause is why it outperforms a vanilla Cancel in any deck that cares about the graveyard. In Mirko, Obsessive Theorist lists it's not a counterspell with upside, it's a two-in-one that advances the game plan while stopping an opponent's.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Mirko, Obsessive Theorist
Mirko, Obsessive Theorist triggers off cards entering opponents' graveyards, so every Sinister Sabotage you resolve mills three and immediately feeds his ability — the counterspell and the mill engine are the same card. At nearly 40% inclusion across Mirko decks, it's close to an auto-include.
Gisa and Geralf
Gisa and Geralf cares about getting Zombies into the graveyard to replay them, and Sinister Sabotage does light self-mill work while keeping the board clear of threats — it's a two-for-one in a deck that wants cards in the yard. About a third of Gisa and Geralf lists run it for exactly that reason.
Baral, Chief of Compliance
Baral, Chief of Compliance reduces Sinister Sabotage to two mana and replaces the looting trigger on his ability when you counter something, making the mill three almost irrelevant — you're here for cheap interaction and the card-filtering Baral staples to every counterspell.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
In Commander, Sinister Sabotage is a staple in any blue deck that stocks the graveyard — the mill three is relevant often enough that it beats Cancel outright. In competitive formats like Modern and Legacy, it's too slow; three mana for a counterspell can't compete with Force of Negation or Counterspell itself, both of which are legal and strictly better. Pauper is the most interesting case: Counterspell is legal there too, so Sinister Sabotage only earns a slot in graveyard-synergy shells where the mill clause does real work. In Pioneer, where Counterspell is banned, Sinister Sabotage becomes one of the cleaner hard counters available, and the surveil-like mill occasionally matters in self-mill strategies.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.16 bulk tier
At $0.16, Sinister Sabotage is bulk — it costs less than a sleeve and holds no financial interest. Bulk rares rarely move on secondary market, so buy as many as you need and don't think twice about it.
Explore
Sources
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.