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Overburden

Enchantment

Whenever a player puts a nontoken creature onto the battlefield, that player returns a land they control to its owner's hand.

CMC
2
Mana cost
{1}{U}
Color identity
U
Rarity
rare
Set
Prophecy
Price
$11.34
EDHREC rank
#11909
Buy on TCGplayer
Overburden card art
Overburden taxes every nontoken creature that enters the battlefield by bouncing one of its controller's lands — a punishing stax piece that compounds fast in creature-heavy pods. The catch is that you need a way to turn the land-bounce into a positive, which is exactly why Chulane, Teller of Tales runs it: Chulane draws a card and replays a land on every creature cast, so Overburden's downside becomes a free land-cycle engine.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

01
Chulane, Teller of Tales

Chulane, Teller of Tales

11.9% of decks · synergy 0.11

Chulane, Teller of Tales pairs with Overburden better than almost any other commander because Chulane's triggered ability replays the land that Overburden bounces, netting a free draw every time you cast a creature and turning the enchantment's punishment clause into pure upside for you while it drains your opponents.

Format Analysis

Where it lives, where it can’t

FormatVerdict
commander legal
legacy legal
modern not legal
pioneer not legal
standard not legal
vintage legal
pauper not legal
oathbreaker legal

Overburden is legal in Commander, Legacy, Vintage, and Oathbreaker — the formats where singleton rules or deep card pools give you the creature-centric synergies that make it worth a card slot. In Commander it's a legitimate stax piece in the right shell, particularly any deck that bounces or replays lands for value. Legacy and Vintage have faster, more reliable disruption available, so Overburden rarely competes there outside of dedicated creature-bounce engines. It's not legal in Modern, Pioneer, Standard, or Pauper, which cuts off the formats where budget-minded players would otherwise explore it most.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

Budget Alternatives

Cheaper options that do most of the same work

There's no direct budget replacement that replicates Overburden's land-bounce trigger, but Zo-Zu the Punisher and Manabarbs punish land play in adjacent ways for under $2 combined if you just want to make the table's mana development miserable. If the goal is specifically taxing creature-heavy opponents, Meekstone ($2–3) or Blind Obedience ($2) slow those boards down without requiring the same combo scaffolding that Overburden demands.

Price Context

Current price

$11.34 mid tier

At $11.34, Overburden sits in the mid tier — expensive enough to feel like a deliberate inclusion, not a throw-in. It's a Reserved List card with a narrow but loyal audience, so the price is unlikely to collapse, but the ceiling is also capped by the fact that only a handful of commanders genuinely want it.

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Sources

Mentioned

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Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.