One of the best things about the Commander format is the near-limitless creativity that it offers to players. That being said, no matter what theme or Commander you’re building around, games do need to end at some point. When it comes time for this, combos are one of the most effective ways to get the deed done.
While many combos aren’t as obvious as a clearly threatening board state, many are rather obvious. Thanks to this, it’s not uncommon for players to see them coming and prep removal in response. This makes forgotten and underplayed combo engines a godsend in the format, as they can win effectively out of the blue.
As if this wasn’t enough reason to get excited about Overburden in Commander, this MTG card isn’t a one-trick pony. On top of having game-ending potential, this long-forgotten card can completely shut down some strategies, too. It might not be that cheap, but there’s no question that Overburden is underplayed in Commander.
MTG Overburden
With Overburden in play, you and everyone else at the table have to really consider the creatures they play. If you don’t, and instead play too many creatures in one turn, you could end up setting yourself back massively. Naturally, this hoses decks that want to go wide, and even those that rely on flickering creatures for value.
While this is already pretty compelling, Overburden is ridiculously cheap for what it does. With a smidgen of ramp, you can easily land this enchantment on turn one. Realistically, everyone at the table just won’t be able to play any creatures for a couple of turns, at the very least.
Notably, while Overburden is a symmetrical effect, it’s entirely possible to build around it. Control-focused decks will naturally love this card, of course, and token-based decks can avoid the downside too. Realistically, any Commander deck that isn’t all in on creatures could use this card; however, it is especially potent in Landfall shells.
Since Overburden bounces lands back to your hand, you can easily replay them, ensuring you hit your land drop for turn. This works especially well with cards like Aesi, Tyrant of Gyre Strait that let you cast more than one land per turn. Even without that, however, bouncing lands with enters effects like Bojuka Bog is always a useful upside.
That being said, there is a non-zero chance that your opponents could also benefit from Overburden by exploiting these synergies. While this is a concern, thankfully, it is possible to come out on top thanks to this card’s combo potential. Alongside just a couple of other cards, you can easily set up multiple infinites, enabling easy wins.
Infinite Cards, Lands, and Storm Count
If you want to go infinite with Overburden, all you need is Chulane, Teller of Tales, Shrieking Drake, and a couple of lands. With Chulane and Overburden in play, casting Shrieking Drake will bounce a land, while Chulane puts one from your hand into play and draws you a card. After this, Drake can bounce itself, allowing you to recast it, starting the loop over again.
With this loop established, you can easily draw your entire deck using these three cards, setting up a multitude of win conditions. A Thassa’s Oracle is the usual choice; however, you’re also getting a ton of enters and landfall triggers. If nothing else, this can let Ruin Crab mill all of your opponents, but that’s the tip of the iceberg.
Technically, Overburden can also go infinite with Toph, the First Metalbender and a zero-cost artifact creature like Memnite. Annoyingly, you can’t do this with Toph as your Commander due to color identity rules, but it’s definitely worth making work in the 99. After all, since Overrun can bounce Mennite after you play it, you can get endless free enters and leaves the battlefield triggers.
Since Toph will have you in red, winning with Impact Tremors or the ever-reliable Altar of the Brood is easy. Similarly, this combo will also give you infinite Landfall triggers, as well as Storm Count, if you wanted to win via Grapeshot.
A Not So Budget Bomb
Despite having an insane amount of potential and utility in a variety of archetypes, Overburden is far from a Commander staple. According to EDHREC, this card only appears in around 7,700 decks right now, which feels like nothing. Of these lists, it’s mostly Chulane using it for combo shenanigans, so it certainly feels slept on right now.
Sadly, while Overburden is underplayed in the grand scheme of Commander, this MTG card isn’t very cheap. Because it was only printed once, way back in Prophecy 26 years ago, copies aren’t easy to come by. If you want to pick up a near-mint copy on TCGplayer, for instance, it’ll set you back over $12 right now.
While this means Overburden is hardly a budget MTG card, it’s still a good deal at its current price. After all, not only is this a very capable card, but it’ll be a surprise for most pods, too, which is a big plus.
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