The sands were by far the easiest part of the quest for me - I had 75 sands by the time I bought my 40th umbrite. I just did vilekin farming and blue crafter/gatherer scrip trading. The GC squad helped a lot with the latter since I get 200-2000 scrips daily from their chemistries.

Still, I was also a bit surprised they nerfed one and not the other.