Candelabra of Tawnos is a Mono Artifact that allows you to untap X lands for the cost of X colorless mana.  (A Mono Artifact is an obsolete term for an artifact that must be tapped in order to activate its ability; nowadays, the ability will be denoted with a “Tap” symbol.)

 

At first sight, this card might seem a bit pointless and redundant.  Who pays X mana to untap X lands that produce a total of X mana in the first place?  There’s no net gain of mana, right?  However, I can think of 2 situations that this card would add immense value (and there’s likely even more):

 

• When you’re playing a team game and have excess mana available to help untap a teammate’s lands.  Essentially, this allows you to “loan” your excess mana to your teammate.  Suppose your teammate has 4 lands and wants to cast something that requires 8 mana and you have 4 untapped lands: simply let X = 4 and untap your teammate’s 4 lands after he tapped them the first time around.

 

• When you’ve played a card that allows your lands to produce more than 1 mana per tap (i.e. Wild Growth or, preferably, a Mana Flare.)

 

Watch me use the Candelabra of Tawnos in a game:

 

My turns seemed numbered as I’ve accumulated several poison counters and I’d be wiped out in a few turns.  So I played a Mana Flare which doubled the mana output from my lands and used my Candelabra of Tawnos to put a ridiculous amount of mana into my mana pool to cast a Disintegrate (with an X = 9.)  Then I copied the Disintegrate using a Fork.

 

Total damage in 1 turn: 18.

 

Needless to say, I won shortly afterwards!

 

The Verdict?

 

You’ll only get the most value out of Candelabra of Tawnos if you can produce more than 1 mana per tap from your lands (using a Mana Flare, for example.)  It can also be somewhat useful in team games as well.  If either of these situations are relevant, then I recommend you check it out at Amazon.com by clicking the button below.