Tangle Wire

[Captain Caveman]

Hi all,

Since the release of Nemesis, I've been trying
to figure out how to use Tangle Wire. It seems
like a good stall card but I can't seem to
build a deck with it.

I haven't seen anyone use it in a deck yet, so
I thought I'd post this deck idea and hopefully
get some feedback.


Sof-loc Green

4 Blastoderm
4 Llanowar Elves
4 Yavimaya Elder
4 Priest of Titania
2 Multani, Maro-Sorcerer

4 Plow Under
4 Creeping Mold
3 Fallow Earth
1 Crop Rotation

4 Ring of Gix
4 Tangle Wire

18 Forest
3 Rishadan Port
1 Gaea's Cradle

The idea is to stall the game with Plows, Wires,
Rings and Ports. At the same time it should
help the Blastoderms and Multani get thought
the defenses. I'm hoping the inclusion of land
denial will force the opponent to tap his/her
creatures.

Its just an idea. I've been wanting to play
with Blastoderm and Tangle Wire and I thought
why not put them in the same deck.

Thanx,
Caveman

 

[Istanbul]

Why not use Tangle Wire in a LD deck? Your opponent won't have many permanents on the table, ideally, so Tangle Wire is like multiple Ports.

 

[Dune Echo]

Actually, I find Tangle Wire works best under these circumstances:

1) You have 2 or less permanents you don't worry about being tapped. You only need 2 because you can tap Tangle Wire itself. Usually, this means tapping artifacts that don't have a tap ability, such as Cursed Totem, Umbilicus, and Storage Matrix (Ew, that's a COMBO!)

2) You're opponent is focusing on playing lands more than anything. For example, against a Replenish deck that doesn't have a free spell in hand to untap lands, this card almost can act as a multiple turn Abeyance or even Time Walk if they can't put down fast lands or artifacts.

3) Finally, Tangle Wire is best when you have more permanents than your opponent in the late game. Picture a Living Death deck versus a Stompy around turn 4 or 5. If the Living Death player can pull off a Living Death and Tangle Wire, the opponent will have to tap a vast majority of their defense.

Well, I think I'm going to go make a Storage Matrix/Tangle Wire deck. See ya!

 

[Gizmo]

The best way to look at Tangle Wire is to consider it the new beatdown Winter Orb. Wherever you saw an aggressive deck using a Worb (Black Ice, Frozen Fish) you can make use of the Tangle Wire.
I am less convinced by any other arguments about the usefulness of Tangle Wire - I think it is basically 'Mana Short your next two turns' in the early game, but rapidly becomes waste in midgame - thus making it a better fit in pure aggro (ie Stampy, not LD). You can almost certainly make better use of Smokestack than Tangle Wire in all slower decks.

 

[Captain Caveman]

Dune,

Please post your Storage Matrix/Tangle Wire Deck
whenever you get it built. I wonder if SM would
be better in a Squirrel/Opposition deck. You
know tap it at the end of opponents turn to shut
it off. Then untap everything. That deck type
has a lot of permanents so maybe TW could work
better in that deck. (?)


Gizmo,

I got to thinking about what you said so I went
looking for a good Negator deck to winterize
and I found this one all-ready.

Suicide Black
,by Elliot Fertik (starcityccg)

4 Phyrexian Negator
4 Skittering Skirge
4 Lurking Evil
4 Hidden Horror
3 Flesh Reaver
4 Duress
4 Unmask
4 Dark Ritual
3 Twisted Experiment
4 Tangle Wire
4 Peat Bog
4 Rashidan Ports
14 Swamps

It looks pretty good to me. What do you think?
(Not really casual though.)

If anyone comes up with a Fish, Stompy or Sligh
Frozen variant, I'd love to see it.

Thanx,
Caveman

 

[Griffith_se]

Hi,

Can make some silly suggestions? OK.

-3 Flesh reavers
-4 Dark rituals
-1 Negator

+4 Unearth
+3 Ticking gnomes
+1 Massacre(sp?)

[me][/me]

 

[Gizmo]

Captain Caveman
One of the guys I design with over e-mail, Will Reifer, has come up with this.

BigRiver
3 Skulking Fugitive
4 Phyrexian Negator
4 Dark Ritual
4 Duress
3 Indentured Djinn
4 Rising Waters
4 Memory Lapse
4 Miscalculation
3 Daze
4 Tangle Wire
3 Saprazzan Skerry
4 Underground River
5 Swamp
7 Island
4 Rishadan Port

I`ve written back querying the Fugitive (I think Skittering Horror is better) and the Rituals (you can only spend the mana on Negators or Waters - it`s a dead card otherwise).

Looks fun, and he swears blind it works. I guess I can believe that, but I think it can be better yet.

 

[Captain Caveman]

Griffith_se,

I thought about going that route. I'll give it
a try over the next couple of days.

I appericate all suggestions. Btw, I don't
think they're silly.


Gizmo,

I saw Will's new decklist on the mailing list.
It looks a little better that his other one.
Asuming I get a chance over the next couple of
days, I'll give it a try too.

Btw, If you get a chance and its not to much
trouble could you post or email me your
Smokestack decklist, from a couple of months
ago. I seem to remember that deck was kind of
fun.


Thanx,
Caveman

 

[Dune Echo]

TAG GUARD

Caveman-dude: I'm sorry I never saw your post until just now. I'll think up something quick on the spot here. I'd encorporate the idea into Hermit-Opposition, but I don't have any experience with it nor the cards to make the deck.

"Tangle Matrix-Dueling Version"
Colors:
Description/Theme: Lock down permanents with Tangle Wire
Tournament Format: N/A

Artifacts:
4 Mana Vault (Bounce it with Umbilicus for faster mana, easier to get ahold of than Grim Monoliths)
1 Sol Ring (Anyone should be able to grab one of these from somewhere)
4 Storage Matrix
4 Tangle Wire
4 Umbilicus (Bounce the Tangle Wire)

Lands:
4 Mishra's Factory
4 Stalking Stones



"Tangle Matrix-Multiplayer version"
Colors:
Description/Theme: Lock down permanents with Tangle Wire
Tournament Format: N/A

Blue:
4 Force of Will (Good if you're tapped out)
4 Misdirection (Yes, I know I'm pushing the rare limit here, but I'm trying to make synergy)
4 Theft of Dreams

Artifacts:
4 Angel's Trumpet (If a player has to tap a creature, it can't attack. Free damage!)
4 Mana Vault (Bounce it with Umbilicus for faster mana and easier to get ahold of than Grim Monoliths. If you have any Mana Crypts, I recommend those instead.)
1 Sol Ring
4 Storage Matrix
4 Tangle Wire
4 Umbilicus (Bounce the Tangle Wire)


Right now, that's only the framework for what I have. I'll post this in another thread as well so everyone can throw in their ideas as well.

 

[Captain Caveman]

I went surfing tonight looking for some Regional
tech. Guess what I found. Ya, sure a lot of
Replentish but I also found Tangle Wire being
used in several top decks. Here are a couple
of them.

Lynn Miller

Green Beats
4 Tangle Wire
1 Masticore
4 Wild Dogs
4 Giant Growth
4 Rancor
3 Pouncing Jaguar
4 Llanowar Elves
2 Albino Troll
4 Vine Dryad
1 Hurricane
2 Blastoderm
4 River Boa

4 Rishadan Port
14 Forest
1 Gaea's Cradle
4 Treetop Village

Sideboard
2 Thran Lens
2 Blastoderm
4 Uktabi Orangutan
4 Elvish Lyrist
1 Dawnstrider
2 Masticore


Chris Ikerd

Tangle Negator

4 Phyrexian Negator
4 Lurking Evil
4 Flesh Reaver
4 Skittering Skirge
2 Masticore
4 Duress
4 Twisted Experiment
4 Tangle Wire
4 Snuff Out
4 Dark Ritual

2 Peat Bog
16 Swamp
4 Rishadan Port

Sideboard

4 Rain of Tears
3 Massacre
2 Perish
4 Rapid Decay
2 Planar Void


Dune,

Thanks for posting your Matrix/Wire decks. I'll
give them a try but Wire/Trumpet is gonna get
me out of the game real fast, when I through
Propaganda into the mix. Blah!

I don't play very much Squirrel/Prison but what
about this for a Matrix version?

4 Birds
4 Elves
4 Hermit
4 Granger
3 Lyrist
2 Morphling
1 Skyshroud Poacher

4 Opposition
4 Miscalculation
2 Worldly Tutor
2 Storage Matrix
1 Ring of Gix.....shuts off Matrix too

25 various lands

Just a thought.
Caveman

 

[Gizmo]

Notice how the two Regionals decks are basically exactly what I predicted.
Tangled Suicide (ie, Black Ice)
Tangled Stampy (ie, the original Stompy deck, with Quirion Ranger + Rogue Elephant)

Also of note, but so far going unnoticed, was that Nathaniel Bogan unveiled his new Bargain variant - Tangled Bargain. Exactly the same as Bargain but with 4 Wires in place of the Keys and a Tooth. I`ve been talking to him about it on e-mail and I might play it at the UK nationals so I`m keeping my fingers crossed nobody notices his report.

 

[Chaos Turtle]

There is a blue deck (not fish) that uses Tangle Wire with the Pirates (Rishadan Footpad and Cutpurse) to control the board by tapping your stuff, especially land as this make the Pirates very effective.

As said, Tangle Wire is versatile and goes into beatdown decks (stompy and Negator) as well as some board control decks (Pirates, landkill, etc), among others. It's a very good card that supports many strategies without being anywhere near broken.

I need 4.
Send me some.

 

[Gizmo]

The point is that it is SO similiar to Smokestack that I think people are making decks with Wire in that would be far better served using Smokestack instead.
Smokestack and Tangle Wire are very similar mechanics except that Tangle Wire is only good on turn 3-5 then becomes a dead card, and Smokestack is only good from turn 5 onwards.

If your deck won`t be seeing the sixth turn, play Wire, if it will, play Stack.

And I finally tracked down my SGSD decklist, for Captain Caveman. This is Pre-Nemesis so it might have a few Nemesis cards to add in. Probably in light of the current metagame I would make Desert Twister into Plow Under, and try to find space for a couple of Lyrists. Tempting to make use of more Hermits and a Skyshroud Poacher, but might need to add Cradles to do so.

SGSD
(Stupid Green Smokestack Deck)

3 Rancor
2 Wordly Tutor
4 Creeping Mold
3 Smokestack
2 Desert Twister

4 Birds Of Paradise
4 Vine Trellis
4 Albino Troll
2 Rofellos
4 Yavimaya Elder
3 Masticore
1 Deranged Hermit
1 Child Of Gaea

2 Treetop Village
4 Rishadan Port
17 Forest

And Now For Something Completely Different:
Want to see the deck that broke Caribou Range?
http://members.tripod.co.uk/candiman/archiven1.htm