Overencumbered – Fallout
Date Reviewed: March 19, 2024
Ratings:
Constructed: 2.37
Casual: 4.00
Limited: N/A
Multiplayer: 4.00
Commander [EDH]: 4.00
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is bad. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
This is another card that could have gone in pretty much any RPG crossover. I can’t count the number of times I found myself unable to move in Baldur’s Gate or Oblivion because my inventory was full of literal garbage. I actually feel that the card’s effect is rather clever, since the opponent has two incentives to use the tokens you give them (their effects, plus being able to attack) but then can’t use that mana on other things. It also randomly hoses decks involving Steel Overseer or Sharding Sphinx, and is better than it looks in Commander where color identity rules lead many decks to lean on artifacts. While Legacy might feel it has better options, it’s not out of the question that even they may feel a need for a card that does exactly this.
Constructed: 2.5
Casual: 4
Limited: N/A
Multiplayer: 4
Commander [EDH]: 4
When you’re exploring wastelands, grabbing every shiny thing can sometimes result in problems down the line for you. Overencumbered is a pretty good encapsulation of that, punishing opponents with all of the things (and giving them Things to encumber them). This isn’t without downside: you’re giving them conditional card draw, actual card draw, and life gain…only one of which can be popped for free, so they’ll usually have to pay to get out from under it, and it blocks all attacks if they don’t pay up.
This is an interesting sort of prison-style effect, though it doesn’t come without downsides. Still, there are some decks this will lock out impressively, and even artifact-light decks may find themselves mildly inconvenienced. It’s an interesting take on the effect, and it’s even affordable enough; I doubt this is a Legacy star, but it’ll do the job just fine at more casual tables, and I can even see it making things inconvenient for an unsuspecting opponent on occasion.
Constructed: 2.25
Casual: 4
Limited: N/A
Multiplayer: 4 (it blocks all attacks unless they pay a flat fee, which might make for fun politicking)
Commander [EDH]: 4
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