Choking Tethers
Instant
Tap up to four target creatures.
Cycling 
(, Discard this card: Draw a card.)
When you cycle this card, you may tap target creature.
- CMC
- 4
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- U
- Rarity
- common
- Set
- Jumpstart: Historic Horizons
- Price
- —
- EDHREC rank
- #16267
Choking Tethers taps up to four target creatures at instant speed — relevant at any point in a combat step — and cycling it for a single blue mana means it's never a dead draw. The floor is a cantrip; the ceiling is a full board tap that ends a combat or steals a win.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | not legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Choking Tethers sees virtually no play in Legacy, Vintage, or Modern — those formats move too fast for a four-mana tap effect, and the cycling doesn't offset the tempo loss against combo or aggro. Pauper is where it has the strongest case outside Commander, since common-only pools are thinner on instant-speed interaction and the cycling gives it a real floor. In Commander, Choking Tethers earns its slot primarily in cycling-matters builds and in any deck that wants cheap, rebuyable interaction — the ability to neutralize an alpha strike from a creature-heavy board at four mana is genuinely useful at a 100-card table where one attack can end a player.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
unknown tier
Price data isn't available for Choking Tethers at the moment, but as a common with narrow competitive demand it typically sits well under a dollar. It's an easy pickup from a bulk bin rather than a deliberate purchase.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.