We seem to be missing both a Vigilance and a Lifelink creature in the white Commons. Could this be the spot for both?

not seeing creatures that get benefits from having counters. cards with abilities like "~ gains vigilance and lifelink as long as it has a +1/+1 counter on it" would go a long way towards making the windup archetype feel more integrated

That'd probably work, there is already an open spot in one of the twobrid slots. Problem is we'd have to open up one in (the other color with Windup)

I guess that slot would get freed up if we bump'd the mana dork to uncommon.

I like Kerflexxx's suggestion. We have two 2-drops and three 3-drops in white, with only one 4 and 5-drops. Should this be a 3/1, or something bigger like a 3/3? White does not normally get 4/2s, but I think we should make an exception here if we want to go with the 4-drop, as once activated, a 4/4 lifelink vigilance is brutal, especially so at common. What about 3/3 vigilance that gains likelink when it has counters?

Otherwise, we can split up the abilities for this to have only lifelink, and we find some way to put vigilance somewhere else, either in white or colourless

I'd be nervous about an artifact creature that starts with such a large body if it gains lifelink.

­Dawnstrike Paladin is the only common example I know of both of those abilities an it can't be buffed easily without committing another full card to the effort. I feel like we could probably get by with something small (1/1 or 2/2) that starts with one ability then gets the other once it has a counter.

I like keflexxx's suggestion. What about:

Unfinished Guardian

Artifact Creature - Soldier C

~ has vigilance as long as it has a +1/+1 counter on it.

0/4

The only 2-mana 0/4 common white ever got was Angelic wall. A 2 mana 0/4 has no value until it gets its +1/+1 counter. What about making it a 1/3?

But in this format an 0/4 actually DOES have value. Since it's an artifact it can tap for Windup and carry Components (it can still attack for 0 to trigger the effects). Plus if it does get the counter a 1/5 vigilance is pretty annoying.

IDK, I kind of like seeing horrible cards become marginally good in the right context.

Can it then at least gain vigilance and lifelink when it has a +1/+1 counter? So that it goes from unplayable to marginal-build-around-me-that-might-contribute-to-the-game-if-your-are-dedicated-enough?

But it doesn't actually seem that hard to get the counter. If this starts getting wound up and has lifelink it seems legitimately hard to stop, and it's not like Windup is a hard thing to get.

I think that vigilance alone is fine, if only because of the interactions with Windup. We do still need a common white creature with Lifelink I believe though, so where do we put it?

@Raptor: The lack of lifelink is why Clock In currently has it I believe

As proposed on Salvation, this should gain lifelink instead. Makes it less oppressive in the long run too.

We can try it with lifelink, but vigilance plays better with the windup mechanism