Clockwork creature
| Clockwork Creature | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Characteristics | |
| Creator | Various |
| Status | Unknown |
Clockwork creatures are usually imitations of organic lifeforms and need to be repeatedly wound up.
Clockwork ability
Mechanically, this is represented as the card entering the battlefield with a set amount of counters on it, which they progressively lose when participating in combat.
The original set from Homelands and Antiquities used +1/+0 counters, which meant they eventually became 0-powered creatures. They could also be "rewound" by paying mana for more counters. These counters were later deprecated, so the Mirrodin ones used +1/+1 counters, which resulted in death after a certain threshold; not all of these could restore their counters.
Storyline
Brothers' War
Clockwork avians were airborne machines of war created during the Brothers' War. Urza created flocks of small clockwork birds to combat Mishra's dragon engines. They were able to tear the engines' skin and destroy them from the inside by igniting the internal fuel tanks used for the napalm-like fire breath.
2900 years later, a shattered, ancient clockwork avian was encountered by Groth Jonar and his orcs high atop a mountain peak in the Karplusan Mountains.[1]
One of the mechanical birds that survived was used centuries later by Ravidel to defend Castle Melmereth, and both were killed and destroyed by a Cockatrice.
Wizards' School on Ulgrotha
Clockwork gnomes were minute creations built by students beginning their education at Feroz's Wizards' School on Ulgrotha, used as servants on the Floating Isle.
Clockwork swarms are collections of these clockwork creatures. Originally built to drive vermin out of buildings, they frequently went awry: many of them were destroyed because they were too dangerous.[2]
Steel Island
Steel Island, one of the Burning Isles was also inhabited by Clockwork Gnomes.
Others
Clockwork Servant, Clockwork Percussionist and Clockwork Fox have no relation to the clockwork mechanic, hailing from Eldraine, Duskmourn and the Forgotten Realms, respectively. Losheel is an engineer from Strixhaven and is known for automating her research with clockwork helpers.
Clockwork Droid is a Universe Beyond card from the Doctor Who universe.
In-game references
- Represented in:
- Associated cards:
References
- ↑ Don Perrin - The Crucible of the Orcs, The Colors of Magic (1999), Wizards of the Coast
- ↑ Backstory for Magic the Gathering: Homelands