Candelabra of Tawnos

Artifact, 1 (1)

{X}, {T}: Untap X target lands.

Tawnos learned quickly from Urza that utter simplicity often led to wondrous, yet subtle utility.

Illus. Douglas Shuler

Okay, I feel like there has already been a SCD thread for this card but a search turned up nothing. A little bit of hype for this card recently as it's been featured in the Turbodrazi deck and a Spring Tide variant. I think it's a long time coming and that the card has much untapped potential. I just wanted to break down some of the numbers in support of why this card can be a mana producing powerhouse.

I'll illustrate some numbers with the card alone and in conjunction with a couple others that are not fringe cards but see play independently from CoT.

First off, let's take a look at where the card pays for itself. Obviously this is primarily focused on mana production and not for other activated abilities (where it could also prove beneficial).

Urza's Saga lands:
Tolarian Academy (this card's not for legacy dummy)
Serra's Sanctum - (enchantments x 2) - 1 mana
Gaea's Cradle - (creatures x 2) - 1 mana

Urzatron lands:
Tower - 5 mana
others - 3 mana (not as impressive)
reality (you have urzatron active) - minimum 11 mana compared to 7

Locus lands:
formula is something like ((locus x cloudpost/vesuva) x 2) - cloudpost/vesuva = lots of mana

Two cards worth mentioning here are going to be Voltaic Key and Crop Rotation as they add a whole new element to the equation.

Voltaic Key says -1 mana, recalculate. Crop Rotation says -g, add X (whatever X happens to be).

My conclusion is that for 1 colorless mana, the card does what no other card can do. I certainly do not think it's limited in it's application. It allows you to do things that not only add tempo to your deck but also push you so far a head of your opponent that they will not be able to match your mana production.

Bonus section:

I'm interested to look into other control or aggro applications such as multiple activations of Blinkmoth pumps or Factory pumps, multiple activations of Maze of Ith, multiple activations of Rishidan Port, etc. It certainly makes sense to use this card in a more versatile way than simply ramping mana.

Discuss...