Stronghold Overseer
Creature — Demon
Flying
Shadow (This creature can block or be blocked by only creatures with shadow.)
: Creatures with shadow get +1/+0 until end of turn and creatures without shadow get -1/-0 until end of turn.
- CMC
- 6
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- Time Spiral
- Price
- $0.59
- EDHREC rank
- #23301
Stronghold Overseer lands as a 5/5 flier that immediately taxes every non-Swamp land your opponents control — and does it repeatedly, on demand, as long as you have mana. Six mana is a real ask, but the combination of evasion and a throttle on enemy resources makes Stronghold Overseer a genuine closer in black-heavy shells.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | not legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Stronghold Overseer is a Commander card through and through — the repeated tap activation scales with a longer game, and the Swamp-matters clause rewards the devotion-heavy mono-black builds that thrive in the format. In Legacy and Vintage, six mana is a non-starter against decks that win on turns one through three; the card is technically legal but never played. Modern is the same story — the rate is too slow for a format that punishes anything above four mana without an immediate game-ending effect. Commander is where Stronghold Overseer earns its slot: a 5/5 flier that can strand opponents on half their mana every turn is a legitimate threat, especially in metas where creature removal is stretched thin.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.59 bulk tier
At $0.59, Stronghold Overseer sits firmly in bulk rare territory — easy to acquire and easy to cut without regret if the slot needs to evolve. The price reflects its narrow home in mono-black Commander decks, and there's no meaningful reprint pressure or demand spike on the horizon to move it.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.