Aaron’s Random Card Comment of the Day #44, 12/6/10
Clockwork Steed is one of ten artifact creatures with “Clockwork” in their title. Clockwork Gnomes from Homelands doesn’t really resemble the others, so I’ll talk about the nine that all share the lose-counters-then-wind-up functionality that Mr. Steed here has.
The first such creature, Clockwork Beast, appeared in the very first Magic set, Alpha, and from talking to people that were playing back then, the card was beloved. I can see why--the flavor is quite good, and you get a creature that starts out bigger than Craw Wurm for the same amount of mana in any color deck.
As with many Magic cards, when something is liked, it gets turned into more cards. Clockwork Avian showed up in Antiquities, and Homelands brought the Steed and its near-twin, Clockwork Swarm. The Steed and the Swarm have identical rules text, except one can’t be blocked by Walls and the other can’t be blocked by artifact creatures. I find that a bit weird--I don‘t usually think of a horse and a bunch of insects being the same size, and I think making them so similar was more confusing than cool.
In fact, by the time Homelands was done with them, most of the cool had been sucked out of Clockwork creatures. The Beast and the Avian were rare and offered decks size in ways most colored cards could not. But the Swarm and the Steed were merely common. They had a “been there, done that” feel and didn’t fit into the set mechanically.
For some reason, the bloated Fifth Edition Core Set contains almost thirty Homelands reprints, including this card. It appears that there was little rhyme or reasons to the choices, so I’m refrain from commenting on the reprinting.
Those initial four Clockwork creatures all had the same template: a bunch of +1/+0 counters that were removed after attacking or blocking, and an upkeep activated-ability that allows you to re-buy the counters up to the number they started with. While that’s fine flavor, and a reasonable story for a single card (maybe two) to tell, it is awfully clunky.
Ultimately, all these cards are kind of fun, relatively flavorful, but awfully fidgety and not very good. There is certainly room for cards like these in the game, but, as with anything, they can be over done.
M@tttyZ
★★★☆☆ (3.3/5.0)(5 votes)
I like the art on this one. Shame the artist put all that effort into a bland card for a white-bordered core set though..
willpell
★★☆☆☆ (2.5/5.0)(5 votes)
I loved the Clockwork creatures and believe that the first two along with Clockwork Swarm were perfectly executed. The Steed's immunity to artifact creatures makes no flavor sense but made the card an MVP for my Johnny purposes, making it unblockable with things like Thran Forge or just slapping Fear on it and sideboarding swampwalk against black.
Mirrodin's Clockwork creatures were all crap. Worst homage ever. If Wizards isn't willing to use +1/+0 counters anymore, then I'd just as soon they didn't try to make Clockwork dudes, as using +1/+1 counters for them feels all wrong. And the Condor was the absolute worst - it just dies after a few attacks, without even starting out oversized like the Beetle. I like the clockwork archetype, but it might be that Magic just can't do justice to it anymore under the "unified counter types" paradigm.
alextfish
★★★★☆ (4.8/5.0)(3 votes)
FWIW, I disagree with willpell. I thought the move from +1/+0 to +1/+1 counters was very sensible for the re-envisaging of Clockwork. willpell didn't even provide any reason why the simpler and far more common +1/+1 counters were worse than the +1/+0 counters except "it feels all wrong". I fear you're getting a bit blinded by your own subjective nostalgia there.
Admittedly most of the Mirrodin clockwork cards were bad; the only modern Clockworker I've used much has been Clockwork Hydra along with untappers, which was fun, and Clockwork Dragon which kept coming up in drafts. But the Mirrodin clockworkers were very, very far from "worst homage ever". Time Spiral has many candidates for that undesirable honour.
sdfkjgh
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
@MasterOfEtherium: & now I can't get those images outta my head! Ted Levine, u make me wanna puke; stupid sexy Jason Mewes.
DarthMetool
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Can the +1/+0 counters be increased by proliferate?
Comments (8)
Clockwork Steed is one of ten artifact creatures with “Clockwork” in their title. Clockwork Gnomes from Homelands doesn’t really resemble the others, so I’ll talk about the nine that all share the lose-counters-then-wind-up functionality that Mr. Steed here has.
The first such creature, Clockwork Beast, appeared in the very first Magic set, Alpha, and from talking to people that were playing back then, the card was beloved. I can see why--the flavor is quite good, and you get a creature that starts out bigger than Craw Wurm for the same amount of mana in any color deck.
As with many Magic cards, when something is liked, it gets turned into more cards. Clockwork Avian showed up in Antiquities, and Homelands brought the Steed and its near-twin, Clockwork Swarm. The Steed and the Swarm have identical rules text, except one can’t be blocked by Walls and the other can’t be blocked by artifact creatures. I find that a bit weird--I don‘t usually think of a horse and a bunch of insects being the same size, and I think making them so similar was more confusing than cool.
In fact, by the time Homelands was done with them, most of the cool had been sucked out of Clockwork creatures. The Beast and the Avian were rare and offered decks size in ways most colored cards could not. But the Swarm and the Steed were merely common. They had a “been there, done that” feel and didn’t fit into the set mechanically.
For some reason, the bloated Fifth Edition Core Set contains almost thirty Homelands reprints, including this card. It appears that there was little rhyme or reasons to the choices, so I’m refrain from commenting on the reprinting.
Those initial four Clockwork creatures all had the same template: a bunch of +1/+0 counters that were removed after attacking or blocking, and an upkeep activated-ability that allows you to re-buy the counters up to the number they started with. While that’s fine flavor, and a reasonable story for a single card (maybe two) to tell, it is awfully clunky.
The newer Clockwork creatures from Mirrodin (and Time Spiral’s Clockwork Hydra) cleaned up the text a bit, using +1/+1 counters and either letting you wind them up as much as you wanted (albeit slowly, like Clockwork Vorrac and Clockwork Dragon) or not at all (like Clockwork Beetle and Clockwork Condor).
Ultimately, all these cards are kind of fun, relatively flavorful, but awfully fidgety and not very good. There is certainly room for cards like these in the game, but, as with anything, they can be over done.
Mirrodin's Clockwork creatures were all crap. Worst homage ever. If Wizards isn't willing to use +1/+0 counters anymore, then I'd just as soon they didn't try to make Clockwork dudes, as using +1/+1 counters for them feels all wrong. And the Condor was the absolute worst - it just dies after a few attacks, without even starting out oversized like the Beetle. I like the clockwork archetype, but it might be that Magic just can't do justice to it anymore under the "unified counter types" paradigm.
Admittedly most of the Mirrodin clockwork cards were bad; the only modern Clockworker I've used much has been Clockwork Hydra along with untappers, which was fun, and Clockwork Dragon which kept coming up in drafts. But the Mirrodin clockworkers were very, very far from "worst homage ever". Time Spiral has many candidates for that undesirable honour.