Tangle

Tangle
[[File:{{#setmainimage:Tangle.jpg}}|250px]]
Information
Plane	New Phyrexia

The Tangle, a huge expanse of copper structures rising out of the metal ground, encased in green verdigris and mold, with wires and metal extensions serving as leaves and vines, was the closest thing to a forest on Mirrodin.

Description

An abundance of diverse, mutated organisms live in the Tangle, such as the vorrac , the fangren or the slagwurms. The elves make their dwellings in the tree-like metal spires here, under the guidance of the trolls, the keepers of Tel-Jilad. Sylvok druids also inhabit the Tangle.

In the heart of the Tangle, a circle of burnished copper one hundred feet across forms a clearing in the forest. This is the Radix, the green lacuna, a location sacred to the elves and Sylvok druids of the Tangle. No mold accumulates here, and the Radix is warm to the touch even at the black sun’s noon. The most remarkable thing about the Radix, however, is that anything left on its surface slowly vanishes in a matter of days. This is the place where the Viridian elves send their honored dead to the afterlife, and also where they banish the devices and machines they deem unnatural.

With the advance of Phyrexia, the Tangle is infected by the growth of lamina, a species of dark green, fleshy fungus. The floor has become spongy and mossy as the lamina contaminates the metal ground and inches up the trees. The ground seeps a substance like yellowish pus, which emits a rotting stench like overripe fruit. Only the largest beasts can navigate the rotting floor of the Tangle.

After the Phyrexians built nine layers on Mirrodin and wasted its former surface (now a barren wasteland called Mirrex), the Tangle was transplanted to the fourth layer, becoming the Hunter's Maze.

The Hunter Maze

The Hunter Maze is the green-aligned fourth sphere of New Phyrexia. The praetor Vorinclex, his lieutenant Glissa, and the Vicious Swarm reside here.

Trees made of oxidized metal and flesh flourish here and neither the sphere's floor nor ceiling is visible. Phyrexians traverse this sphere through these trees and use them to ambush unsuspecting prey. The layer is hot and humid, smelling strongly of rotten flesh. Rather than fog, the air is permeated by atomized acid. Green light pierces the canopy, the last layer where sunlight can reach, and metallic screeches can be heard throughout.

At the bottom of the Maze, the ground is riddled with water-swollen potholes, oily pools, and thick roots rendering it practically impassable. Pulsing veins transport black oil through the dense undergrowth and small suckers protrude from tree trunks, branches sprouting toward sunlight. Fungus-like tree platforms are coated with glowing patches of the green, lichen-like lamina and fern-like foliage. The ecosystem of the Maze is interconnected. Small eyeballs protrude from trees and mites scuttle about.

At the top of the canopy, the light is brighter, a hotter and richer buttery yellow color. The intertwining branches form a network of roads that life travels across. On the trees, leaves glimmer, fist-size stomata opening and closing as the trees breathe; large berries dangle in bunches; and flowers, pink and rank with the smell of flesh drip black oil.

Toward the center of the Maze, the underbrush and inhabitants give way as most life forms avoid the area around Vorinclex's chamber. Phyrexians near this area hear loud voices murmuring unintelligibly the deeper they enter, and the cilia lining the Maze's walls wave visitors inward. Inside Vorinclex's chamber, the cilia grow thicker, longer, and paler: a glistening, yellowy white. The floor depresses into a hole that resembles a starfish's mouth, and monstrous skulls hang from the ceiling.

In-game references

Represented in:

• Copperline Gorge
• The Hunter Maze
• Razorverge Thicket

Associated cards:

• Bellowing Tanglewurm
• Chancellor of the Tangle
• Liege of the Tangle
• Maze Skullbomb
• Maze's Mantle
• Migloz, Maze Crusher
• Pulse of the Hunter Maze
• Pulse of the Tangle
• Tangle Angler
• Tangle Asp
• Tanglebloom
• Tangle Golem
• Tangle Hulk
• Tangle Mantis
• Tangleroot
• Tangle Spider
• Tanglewalker
• Tangleweave Armor
• Wall of Tanglecord

Depicted in:

• Forest (Mirrodin, #303)
• Forest (Mirrodin, #304)
• Forest (Mirrodin, #305)
• Forest (Mirrodin, #306)
• Forest (Scars of Mirrodin, #246)
• Forest (Scars of Mirrodin, #247)
• Forest (Scars of Mirrodin, #248)
• Forest (Scars of Mirrodin, #249)
• Forest (New Phyrexia, #174)

Referred to:

• Ageless Entity
• Bladed Sentinel
• Bleak Coven Vampires
• Bloodscent
• Fangren Firstborn
• Fume Spitter
• Gyox, Brutal Carnivora
• Ichorspit Basilisk
• Koth's Courier
• Malachite Golem
• Mephidross Slime
• Molder Beast
• Needlebug
• Nourish
• Plated Slagwurm
• Rebuking Ceremony
• Ruthless Predation
• Tel-Jilad Archers
• Tel-Jilad Lifebreather
• Unnatural Predation
• Viridian Joiner

^† Scryfall does not record flavor text for digital cards. See Alchemy: Phyrexia/Flavor text