Struggle for Sanity
Sorcery
Target opponent reveals their hand. That player exiles a card from it, then you exile a card from it. Repeat this process until all cards in that hand have been exiled. That player returns the cards they exiled this way to their hand and puts the rest into their graveyard.
- CMC
- 4
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- uncommon
- Set
- Champions of Kamigawa
- Price
- $0.16
- EDHREC rank
- #25829
Struggle for Sanity forces an opponent to exile cards from their hand until they exile a land — a targeted hand-destruction effect that scales with how land-light their grip is. Two mana for that pressure is efficient, but the ceiling collapses in multiplayer where single-target discard rarely justifies a card slot.
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 | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
In Commander, Struggle for Sanity is a trap — three opponents means you're spending a card to kneecap one person's hand while the other two untouched players punish you for it. Legacy and Vintage have the raw disruption density to support it, but dedicated discard shells there already run Thoughtseize and Hymn to Tourach, which offer more control over what actually gets exiled. Modern's hand-attack decks have the same problem: precision beats randomness, and Struggle for Sanity can whiff badly if the opponent is holding a flood. It's legal in Oathbreaker, where the 1v1 structure finally makes targeted discard reasonable, but even there better two-mana options exist.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.16 bulk tier
At $0.16, Struggle for Sanity sits firmly in bulk — you're paying almost nothing for almost nothing. The low price accurately reflects demand, and there's no scenario where this card appreciates meaningfully given how rarely it makes competitive lists.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.