Tangle WireHow it works & interactions with other cards

How Fading and Tapping Work

Tangle Wire enters the battlefield with four fade counters. It features two distinct triggered abilities that happen during the upkeep phase. The first is the Fading keyword, which requires you to remove a counter from it at the start of your upkeep. The second is its unique symmetrical effect: at the start of every player's upkeep, that player must tap an untapped artifact, creature, or land for each fade counter currently on Tangle Wire.

Step-by-Step Resolution

On your own turn, both the Fading trigger and the tapping trigger will fire at the beginning of your upkeep. Since you control both, you choose the order they go on the stack. Typically, you should put the Fading trigger on the stack last so it resolves first. This removes a counter before the tapping ability checks the count, meaning you tap one fewer permanent than your opponents did on their previous turns.

Choosing Your Targets

The ability does not target specific permanents; instead, the active player chooses which untapped artifacts, creatures, or lands to tap as the ability resolves. If a player controls fewer untapped permanents of those types than there are fade counters, they simply tap everything they can. Note that Tangle Wire itself is an artifact, so you can choose to tap Tangle Wire to satisfy its own requirement.

Strategy and Timing

Tangle Wire is most effective when you have a board state that allows you to tap non-essential permanents while your opponent is forced to tap their only lands or creatures. Because it checks the number of counters upon resolution, any effect that adds or removes counters in response to the trigger will change how many permanents must be tapped.

Interaction examples

Utilizing Utility Artifacts

Arcane Signet

If you have Tangle Wire and Arcane Signet on the battlefield during your upkeep, you can stack the triggers to remove a fade counter first. If three counters remain, you can choose to tap Arcane Signet and Tangle Wire itself as two of your three required permanents, leaving your lands untapped for your main phase.

Protecting Assets

Swiftfoot Boots

Tangle Wire's ability does not use the word 'target,' which means keywords like hexproof provided by Swiftfoot Boots do not prevent a creature from being tapped. If your opponent must tap four permanents and only has four, they must tap the creature wearing the boots even though it has hexproof.