Obelisk of Undoing
Artifact
, 
: Return target permanent you both own and control to your hand.
- CMC
- 1
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- C
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Antiquities
- Price
- $15.01
- EDHREC rank
- #26975
Obelisk of Undoing bounces any permanent you control back to your hand for eight mana — a steep activation that only pays off when you're deliberately exploiting enter-the-battlefield triggers or undoing a game-ending exile effect on something like Wormfang Manta. Outside of dedicated abuse, the cost is too high to justify the slot.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | not legal |
| pioneer | not legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Obelisk of Undoing is legal in Commander, Legacy, Vintage, and Oathbreaker, but it sees essentially no play in Legacy or Vintage — eight mana for a bounce effect is uncompetitive in those formats. Commander is the only context where it earns a slot, and even there it's narrow: you need a commander or engine that repeatedly rewards bouncing your own permanents to make the cost acceptable. In Oathbreaker the tighter 60-card list makes the opportunity cost even steeper, so expect it to appear only in highly targeted builds.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Budget Alternatives
Cheaper options that do most of the same work
Temur Sabertooth accomplishes a similar loop role — bouncing your own creatures repeatedly — at a fraction of the mana investment and with no artifact-speed restrictions. If the goal is specifically returning a permanent from the battlefield to hand as a one-shot effect, Erratic Portal offers the same trigger abuse as Obelisk of Undoing at a lower activation cost, though it requires opponent cooperation to bounce their own permanents instead.
Price Context
Current price
$15.01 mid tier
At $15.01, Obelisk of Undoing sits in mid-tier pricing driven almost entirely by its age and low reprint count rather than widespread demand. It's a niche card in a narrow role, so the price reflects collector scarcity more than competitive pressure — don't expect it to climb, but don't expect a reprint to crash it quickly either.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.