Tangle Wire
Artifact
Fading 4 (This artifact enters with four fade counters on it. At the beginning of your upkeep, remove a fade counter from it. If you can't, sacrifice it.)
At the beginning of each player's upkeep, that player taps an untapped artifact, creature, or land they control for each fade counter on this artifact.
- CMC
- 3
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- C
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- World Championship Decks 2000
- Price
- $9.67
- EDHREC rank
- #7780
Tangle Wire locks the table into tapping permanents on your opponents' upkeeps while you untap freely — the fading counters give it a built-in expiration date, but those three to four turns of asymmetric stax are often enough to win the game. It's the reason Magda, Brazen Outlaw runs it: Dwarves tapping to the Wire's trigger still generate treasure, so the cost that cripples everyone else is nearly free.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Magda, Brazen Outlaw
Magda, Brazen Outlaw turns the Wire's mandatory-tap clause into pure upside — every Dwarf you tap on an opponent's upkeep triggers Magda and banks another treasure toward a dragon or artifact tutor, meaning Tangle Wire effectively generates resources while it locks everyone else out.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | not legal |
| pioneer | not legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
In Commander, Tangle Wire is a stax piece that punches above its mana cost: three opponents each tapping permanents every upkeep adds up fast, and decks that tap for value rather than mana — token generators, Dwarf tribal, untap-matters builds — barely feel the symmetry. In Legacy and Vintage, it saw play in prison and Workshop strategies where fast artifact mana could deploy it on turn one and ignore the tap cost entirely; it's legal in both but largely outclassed there now by more format-specific tools. Oathbreaker can support it in the same stax shells that Commander does, just at a smaller table where its impact is more concentrated.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Budget Alternatives
Cheaper options that do most of the same work
Static Orb and Winter Orb cover similar ground for under $5 combined — they're permanent rather than fading, which is both stronger in a long game and easier for opponents to answer, so you trade Tangle Wire's guaranteed window of disruption for a slower, grindier lock. If you want the fading structure specifically, Smokestack fills an adjacent role by taxing permanents over time, though it requires more setup to break symmetry.
Price Context
Current price
$9.67 mid tier
At $9.67, Tangle Wire sits in the mid tier — expensive enough to notice but not a barrier for dedicated stax builds where it's often a core piece. It's a Reserved List card, so supply isn't increasing; the price reflects steady Commander demand rather than speculative movement.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.