Grindy Artifact Spikes 101% After Success in Modern Combo Decks

Last updated on February 17, 2025

Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student | Illustration by Magali Villeneuve

Modern‘s rekindled interest in Grinding Station decks has pushed the Fifth Dawn artifact to skyrocket in value, climbing over 100% in just a week according to MTGStocks.

Source: MTGStocks – Grinding Station

One of Magic's best mill cards that sees play in several Magic formats, this price spike makes Grinding Station one of the most expensive uncommons ever printed.

Why Is Grinding Station's Price Spiking?

Grinding Station | Illustration by Greg Staples

On the supply side, the reason is clear: Although technically an uncommon MTG card, Grinding Station has been printed only twice: originally in Fifth Down, and last year in Mystery Booster 2, itself a fairly rare supplemental set.

On the demand side, Underworld Breach decks are the hottest brews right now in Modern, and Grinding Station is such a crucial part of the deck to the point that some players refer to this variant as literally “Grinding Station” decks.

Just this week:

• On January 19, KingHairy took a Grinding Breach deck to the top spot in the MTGO Challenge 64, with another Breach deck making it to the Top 4.
• On January 20, two Grinding Breach decks reached the top 4 in the MTGO Qualifier.
• The same feat was repeated yesterday, with two Grinding Breach decks securing a top 4 finish in the MTGO Challenge 64.

And, in Magic, power breeds popularity: Grinding Station decks now claim 15% of the Modern metagame according to MTGTop8, sharing with aggressive Boros Energy decks the #1 spot as the most played decks in this MTG format.

But, why? Grinding Station decks have been a thing in Modern since the colorless artifact met the red enchantment in Theros Beyond Death. The card spiked over $40 in January 2023, with top players recognizing it as one of the strongest combos in the format, but then the price dropped to around $10-12 as the meta shifted. And Breach decks certainly didn't dominate the Modern metagame for most of 2024. What makes them leap to the forefront now? Follow the money for that answer!

The Prodigal Cheerio Returns

As seen on TCGplayer, Grinding Station‘s price has steadily climbed since mid-December, where there was a huge spike in interest as seen in the number of copies traded those days:

Source: TCGplayer – Grinding Station (5DN)

Mid-December happened to be when we had one of the most telegraphed bans in Magic's history, with The One Ring becoming unplayable in Modern…

… but for Grinding Breach decks, what matters is what was un-banned:

Grinding Station‘s thing is to sacrifice an artifact to mill yourself for three cards. Three cards in the graveyard is the extra cost you need to pay to escape a card with Underworld Breach… and if that escaped card happens to be a 0-cost artifact, you'll untap Grinding Station and get to repeat this loop to dig through your whole deck.

Mox Opal’s unbanning in December was a game-changer for Grinding Station decks. They already packed Mox Amber and Mishra's Bauble; a third (and powerful!) 0-cost artifact gave them a huge boost.

Will Grinding Station's Price Increase?

Underworld Breach | Illustration by Lie Setiawan

The market is already punching down this latest spike, and at the time of writing TCGplayer is trading near-mint Grinding Stations for around $20 – a lot more expensive than pre-unbans, but much lower than the $30 spike seen yesterday.

Source: TCGplayer – Grinding Station (5DN)

Will the price go up or down, though?

With the usual caveat that this is not investment advice (doing your own research is priceless, folks!), most factors seems to point upwards:

• Although it's an uncommon, it's quite rare: Grinding Station was only printed in a very old Magic set (Fifth Dawn) and a supplemental set (Mystery Booster 2) – in fact, the MB2 print is currently more expensive than Fifth Dawn‘s!
• Grinding Station has proven to be able to spike above $40, which it did when it was, like now, killing it in the Modern format,
• The artifact ain't too shabby in cEDH, putting in some work at top-tier tournaments.  

Looks like it's time to get on the grind!

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