Urborg
Legendary Land
: Add 
.: Target creature loses first strike or swampwalk until end of turn.
- CMC
- 0
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- uncommon
- Set
- Legends
- Price
- $17.84
- EDHREC rank
- #9002
Urborg enters the battlefield and immediately turns every land on the table into a Swamp — yours, your opponents', all of them — without costing you a card or a mana to activate. That free symmetrical effect is exactly what Horobi, Death's Wail wants, since targeting any creature on the board becomes trivially easy once black mana is everywhere.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Horobi, Death's Wail
Horobi, Death's Wail turns every targeting effect into a kill spell, and Urborg ensures every player can produce black mana — which means opposing activations that incidentally target creatures become lethal the moment Horobi is in play.
Shanid, Sleepers' Scourge
Shanid, Sleepers' Scourge rewards legendary-heavy builds, and those decks often run three or four colors with spotty black fixing; Urborg papers over every off-color land in the 99 and lets Shanid's life-payment ability fire without a second thought.
Marchesa, Dealer of Death
Marchesa, Dealer of Death operates across Mardu colors where black pips compete with red and white, and Urborg converts every Mountain and Plains into a Swamp on the side — smoothing the curve without occupying a flex 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 |
Commander is where Urborg earns its keep: three and four-color black decks frequently run non-Swamp lands that can't produce black mana, and Urborg fixes that across the whole board for free. The symmetry rarely matters in a pod where you're the only one leaning on black mana density. In Legacy and Vintage it sees fringe play in Swamp-matters shells or alongside Cabal Coffers, but dedicated fixer slots usually go to fetchlands or duals. Urborg is not legal in Modern, Pioneer, Standard, or Pauper, so the Commander application is essentially the whole story.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Budget Alternatives
Cheaper options that do most of the same work
There is no direct replacement for what Urborg does — no other card blanket-types every land as a Swamp for free — but if the goal is simply fixing black mana in a multicolor deck, Chromatic Lantern covers all colors at the cost of a mana rock slot and three mana up front. For mono-black or heavily black builds that want the Cabal Coffers synergy specifically, a basic Swamp is already doing most of the work; Urborg only pulls ahead when you're running nonbasics that would otherwise miss on black.
Price Context
Current price
$17.84 mid tier
At $17.84, Urborg sits in the mid tier — expensive enough to feel like a deliberate include but not a format staple you'd hesitate to sleeve. The price is largely driven by Commander demand and the Cabal Coffers pairing; Urborg has held this range steadily, making it a reasonable purchase if your deck genuinely needs the fixing rather than a luxury add.
Explore
Sources
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.