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...
I play it in G/u/w/r Enchantress in conjunction with Sprawls and Heartbeat of Spring ... it can be Copy Artifacted ... and the Copy Artifact is still an enchantment ... which can be Copy Enchantmented. The mana production gets out of hand pretty quickly.
It would see more play if people owned them.
A few years back I had some success with it in Spring Tide.
"Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job."
"Politicians are like diapers. They should be changed often and for the same reason."
"Governing is too important to be left to people as silly as politicians."
"Politicians were mostly people who'd had too little morals and ethics to stay lawyers."
There's an old thread for Tide-Candelabra storm combo.Originally Posted by Finn
http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/showthread.php?7599-[Deck]-Permanent-Waves
I would try this if I had the extra cash to piss away on four of a card I'd never use anywhere else.
Too lazy to check myself.. Is Candelabra on reserve list? Any chance of it seeing reprint?
Yup. It's on the reserved list.
Magus of the Candelabra on the other hand...
I am convinced that WotC is "dumbing" the game because of all the stupid posts they come across on MTG-related forums
I do wonder a little about it's potential in concert with Amulet of Vigor, but there really doesn't seem to be a whole lot there except for (still slowly) cranking out lands with Thawing Glaciers. There really aren't many lands with tap abilities that are not mana, worthwhile, and usable more than once...Thawing Glaciers is probably on the top of that list, and the ability is not strong enough for Legacy. As far as I can tell, the only land so far that comes into play tapped and is worth untapping is Shelldock Isle.
Just like High Tide,Bubbling Muck could work well with the Candelabra, but black doesn't offer the same alternative untap effects or cantrip suite as blue.
It seems a little odd to me that the usual 2-mana lands (City of Traitors and Ancient Tomb) didn't make the list of cards that might work with Candelabra. Admittedly, it's justper turn per 2-land, but it is colorless acceleration that might work in an affinity deck as Grim Monolith 5-8. Even then, there are competitors like Dark Ritual and Seething Song.
Regarding mana production: in order to be competitive with other acceleration available in the format, the Candelabra really needs to be in a setup where you expect to see X lands producing at least X+2 mana. Without that, cards like Chrome Mox,Lotus Petal, Grim Monolith or Simian Spirit Guide will outperform it.
Hi there, first post here on the source.
I was thinking perhaps it could find a place in a stax shell?
Allowing openings like:
City of Traitors
Candleabra
Untap City
Chalice of the Void set at 1
Why not just go
City of Traitors > Chalice of the Void set at 1?
I am convinced that WotC is "dumbing" the game because of all the stupid posts they come across on MTG-related forums
I want to be sure to mention that Candelabra of Tawnos is pretty much the nutz in 2hg, even crazier than Standstill.
"Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job."
"Politicians are like diapers. They should be changed often and for the same reason."
"Governing is too important to be left to people as silly as politicians."
"Politicians were mostly people who'd had too little morals and ethics to stay lawyers."
I remember when I first saw that card I put it into this combo deck with Teferi's isle. Remember this was during Mirage so I wasn't real smart about it and the cards were limited anyway. Long story short, I was using it to untap Teferi's Isle and Braingeyser people out. Funny thing was I won several tournaments before i ran into someone who actually knew what a mono-artifact was and told me it wasn't a two card infinite mana combo.
They reside in my Sorrow's Path/Giant Shark fun deck now. I've seen a 3 color Spring Tide deck from a couple of pros and it's fairly fast. Uses Green for Moment's Peace like the normal ones do that splash green, but adds Explore to jump that 1 turn it really needs vs Zoo and other really fast aggro. The Red, I didn't really see what the purpose was. I only saw it at a glance and had it explained some. So probably Pyroblast or sweepers like Firespout since you're already good vs control.
Although I intended this discussion to be about competitive uses of the card, I will add that I have a fun budget vintage deck where the card is used. Granted, it plays a minor role, I does exactly what I need it to do when I need it done. The deck features Myr Retriever/Junkdiver and basically dumps it's hand T1 through use of Helm of Awakening/Cloud Key/Locket of Yesterdays. It has Skullclamp, Sensei's Divining Top, Sol Ring, Voltaic Key, Grim Monolith, Tolarian Academy and Candelabra. It does some funny stuff with Tolarian Winds and generally wins by drawing/tutoring up Blasting Station or Altar of Dementia. I think there are a number of newer cards that I could put in but I haven't touched the deck in a couple years now.
At any rate, when Candelabra comes down, shit gets explosive. It's the ultimate glass cannon.
So now that this card is 250 and looking to go up I feel like the discussion of IS THIS CARD GOING TO BE BANNED? I was skeptic myself but at the end of Patrick Chapin last article he ended with this,
Patrick Chapin
"The Innovator"
P.S. If I heard a voice in my head, it might have said that Time Spiral in Legacy is the real deal, and people ought be careful in case of eventual format changes or whatever that might suddenly render their Candelabras worth much less (though that day is far off). Of course, I'm definitely not saying that I hear voices in my head.
Thoughts?
I don't think it's impossible to get banned eventually, but as of right now there is absolutely not enough evidence of it deserving a ban. Of the two recent solid deck finishes that included the card, I don't think Candelabra was the most powerful in either. It won't be banned due to price, at least not while Imperial Recruiter is still so ridiculous.
I think if anything that Spiral will get banned before Candelabra does. Drawing 7 cards, usually for free or a net gain of mana is a bigger issue than untapping lands.
Though it would be funny if they banned High Tide instead (though I doubt Sprial Tide will become a big enough problem to warrant any ban).
If it is seen as a problem in the future, merchant scroll would be a good ban, hindering Spiral's redundancy while getting rid of a tutor from the general legacy card pool.
psshh what are we talking about? why even begin discussing banning any of the pieces all of a sudden, the deck is terrible.
Candelabra of Tawnos
Time Spiral
Sure, he won. Big whoop. The card still shouldn't be this expensive, but it is. I didn't say it wouldn't spike, I just don't think it should.
You could also say the same thing about Legacy playable that does well. If Land Tax was never banned but suddenly did well, it'd spike too I'm sure. Maybe not $200, but still it'd jump.
As well, I'm sure if you showed up with a new deck that people really aren't prepared for at a SCG tournament you could win it too. Who knows, depending on your matchups, you could go all the way with Mono Red Burn.
Also, I'm pretty sure I was referring to 12-post Eldrazi when I said that.
-Matt
I'm sorry.
I have to admit, I didn't think the deck was that great. It's high tide again. It's not even all that different than the first time around. That said, I still don't think it's that great. It's still the same old High Tide deck of years past. It was a pain to beat back then and is fast, but it's no superdeck. There's been a lot of hate printed since then. Candelabra is a nice trick (makes me wonder why we never played it back then), but it's a one trick pony.
I can see perfectly how you could dominate a tournament full of people who have never seen that thing before. It wasn't a bad deck at all, in fact it was pretty damned amazing and I'm surprised the DCI let this one out of the bag again. It was a serious force the first time around. It's also quite ridiculous if you have never seen how it works and have no idea how to play against it. I expect this trend to continue since most people won't take the time to test against it and even if they do, it's going to be against crappy pilots as it requires some amount of familiarity to play properly.
Guess Quinn just got game again. Mono-W control Scroll Tax decks were the ones who put High Tide out of business the first time. Now just give us that damned Land Tax back! We need our Parfait!
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