Candelabra of Tawnos (Original Art)

Candelabra of Tawnos is one of the earliest combo-enabling artifacts ever printed. It was designed by Magic’s early R&D team as part of the Antiquities (1994) expansion, themed around the Brother’s War and the artificer Tawnos, Apprentice to Urza. The card embodies the idea of amplifying power through technology – a small artifact that turns limited resources (lands) into massive mana potential. Its design is deceptively simple but endlessly abusable, which has made it both a collectible treasure and a legendary combo piece for nearly three decades. Candelabra of Tawnos is primarily a Legacy combo card, most famously used in High Tide decks. This card was played together with other core cards like High Tide, Time Spiral, Blue Sun’s Zenith, and Brain Freeze. The gameplan was to cast High Tide to make all Islands tap for an extra blue mana, then use Candelabra of Tawnos to untap all those Islands, so you could generate exponential blue mana. This was followed up by refilling your hand with Time Spiral and keep drawing cards and chaining spells until you could cast Blue Sun’s Zenith for lethal or Brain Freeze your opponent’s deck. This one-mana artifact was the engine behind all of this, also allowing multiple High Tide’s to stack, creating some absurd mana loops. In recent years, it’s mostly seen in big mana ramp strategies, like Cloudpost “12-Post” and Mystic Forge decks in Legacy. These decks abuse the combo of Planar Nexus and Urza’s Tower to power out fast, big threats like The One Ring and Karn, the Great Creator. This card is on the Reserved List.