Sleight of Mind
Instant
Change the text of target spell or permanent by replacing all instances of one color word with another. (For example, you may change "target black spell" to "target blue spell." This effect lasts indefinitely.)
- CMC
- 1
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- U
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Fourth Edition Foreign Black Border
- Price
- $7.85
- EDHREC rank
- #18076
Sleight of Mind changes one color word on a permanent or spell to any color of your choice — for a single blue mana at instant speed. It's the format's sharpest tool for warping color-specific triggers, best known for redirecting Teysa, Orzhov Scion's token-generation clause to whatever color you happen to be sacrificing.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | not legal |
| pioneer | not legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Sleight of Mind is legal in Commander, Legacy, Vintage, and Oathbreaker, and that's the full extent of where it sees play. In Commander it earns a slot almost exclusively in decks built around color-word dependencies — commanders or enchantments that care specifically about creature color when entering, dying, or triggering. Legacy and Vintage have the card pool to run it, but competitive lists have almost no use for single-color-word manipulation at that level. Oathbreaker mirrors the Commander use case on a smaller scale, and it's the only other format where you'd seriously consider it.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Teysa, Orzhov ScionSleight of Mind
Exile all creatures opponents control; Infinite death triggers; Infinite ETB; Infinite LTB; Infinite sacrifice triggers
View on Commander Spellbook ↗Budget Alternatives
Cheaper options that do most of the same work
Sleight of Mind is essentially unique — no other card changes a color word on an existing permanent at instant speed for one mana, so there's no true budget replacement. Painter's Servant blankets all colors across the board rather than targeting a single word, which is a fundamentally different (and more powerful) effect, but it solves the same color-dependency problems if a sweeping change is acceptable rather than a surgical one.
Price Context
Current price
$7.85 mid tier
At $7.85, Sleight of Mind sits in the mid tier for a card with extremely narrow applications. Its price is driven almost entirely by Reserved List status and collector demand rather than volume of competitive play, so it holds value as a collectible but not because the effect is in high demand.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.