Unnerving Grasp

Card text

Return up to one target nonland permanent to its owner's hand. Manifest dread. (Look at the top two cards of your library. Put one onto the battlefield face down as a 2/2 creature and the other into your graveyard. Turn it face up any time for its mana cost if it's a creature card.)

Market price

Latest aggregated market price for the normal finish of this printing: $0.19 (as of 2026-11-01).

The figure covers this printing only; other printings carry their own price on their own page.

Format legality

Legality of Unnerving Grasp by format. Formats in which it is not legal are not listed.

Official rulings

The 8 most recent official rulings for Unnerving Grasp, newest first.

• 2024-09-20 If something tries to turn a face-down instant or sorcery card on the battlefield face up, reveal that card to show all players it's an instant or sorcery card. The permanent remains on the battlefield face down. Abilities that trigger when a permanent turns face up won't trigger, because even though you revealed the card, it never turned face up.
• 2024-09-20 At any time, you can look at a face-down spell or permanent you control. You can't look at face-down permanents or spells you don't control unless an effect instructs or allows you to do so.
• 2024-09-20 Some cards in the Duskmourn release have abilities that trigger "whenever you manifest dread." In circumstances where you are instructed to manifest dread but can't perform some or all of the steps of manifesting dread (probably because your library has one or fewer cards in it), these abilities will still trigger.
• 2024-09-20 You must ensure that your face-down spells and permanents can be easily differentiated from each other. You're not allowed to mix up the cards that represent them on the battlefield to confuse other players. The order in which they entered should remain clear, as well as what ability caused them to be face down. (This includes manifest, disguise, cloak, morph, and a few older effects that turn cards face down.) Common methods for doing this include using markers or dice, or simply placing them in order on the battlefield.
• 2024-09-20 Unlike a face-down creature that was cast using a disguise or morph ability, a manifested creature may still be turned face up after it loses its abilities if it's a creature card.
• 2024-09-20 If a double-faced card is manifested, it will be put onto the battlefield face down. While face down, it can't transform. If the front face of the card is a creature card, you can turn it face up by paying its mana cost. If you do, its front face will be up.
• 2024-09-20 Turning a permanent face up or face down doesn't change whether that permanent is tapped or untapped.
• 2024-09-20 If the target nonland permanent is an illegal target when Unnerving Grasp tries to resolve, it won't resolve and none of its effects will happen. You won't manifest dread.

Similar cards

Other sorcery cards with a blue colour identity, ranked by how often they appear in Commander decks.

• Ponder
• Windfall