Steel Sabotage
Instant
Choose one —
• Counter target artifact spell.
• Return target artifact to its owner's hand.
- CMC
- 1
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- U
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- Mirrodin Besieged
- Price
- $0.27
- EDHREC rank
- #19229
Steel Sabotage counters an artifact spell or bounces an artifact already on the battlefield — two modes for one blue mana is a genuine deal. It's narrow by design, but in artifact-heavy metas it pulls more weight than most one-mana interaction.
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, Steel Sabotage earns its slot in blue artifact decks that need cheap interaction — think Breya, Esper Artifact builds, or anything battling Sol Ring and Thran Dynamo across the table. The bounce mode doubles as a reset for your own artifacts with enter-the-battlefield triggers, which pushes it past pure counterspell status. In Pauper it's a legitimate sideboard piece against Affinity and artifact-heavy combo shells. Legacy and Vintage have better options, but Steel Sabotage can sneak into budget builds or sideboards targeting Mishra's Workshop strategies.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.27 bulk tier
At $0.27, Steel Sabotage is deep bulk — you're paying almost nothing for real flexibility. The price is unlikely to move meaningfully given the reprint availability, so grab copies freely without any concern about timing.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.