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Recent updates to Clockwork Wings: (Generated at 2025-05-01 01:10:35)
It's a very good card, yes. It's like Oona's Prowler, but a lot harder to kill. I may need to watch the power level, but I don't think it's particularly stronger than many rares in a typical recent set.
It hasn't got Flying
Just making sure you noticed that if your opponent can't discard a card, you still have a 4/4 flyer. That makes it considerably better than the hypnospecter... I'm just saying.
Heh, the flavour text is awesome! I would definately run four of these in a discard theme deck.
change as per Camruth's suggestion
Hm. Nice suggestion. I like it, particularly since the flavour text can be used to bring out that flavour.
The Edict/Terror choice is interesting. In many situations this will be better: e.g. against a guy with Wilt-Leaf Liege, Rhys the Redeemed and a token swarm! Also, that kind of thing has been done before, to some extent. World Queller, The Abyss, Braids, Cabal Minion, Smokestack and so on. Whereas this targeted form - "That? That dies." - hasn't seen print like this.
Of course, this is secretly very similar to Visara the Dreadful and Avatar of Woe. But it looks different enough to be somewhat head-turning :)
But I'm happy to leave it as rare rather than mythic for the moment.
"get stuff when you hit a player" is indeed great flavour for sky pirates. And I agree "deals combat damage to a player" and "attacks and isn't blocked" whilst being somewhat similar do have a different feel to them both mechanically and flavourwise - especially if you make it "attacks and isn't blocked, do THIS instead of dealing damage.
Commented on Aristocrats' Oppression, it's OK but a Diabolic Edict like ability is even crueler as it can take out Prot Black/Indestructible/etc creatures - and it makes the controller choose which one to off (very Griefer). Still, there are other options. Like:
this as a 2/2 at same cost with "At the beginning of your upkeep, this gets +2/+2 UEoT unless any player discards a card at random." (It's such a horrifying horror that I wiped a part of my memory so that it wouldn't be so horrifying to remember) heheheheh - Kinda Hypnotic Specter on 'roids
This is an OK card but I don't think its Mythic first reaction to it was "oh, OK kill a creature a turn, nice but still doesn't deal with Prot Black, Indestructible, etc. Now if it was a Diabolic Edict every upkeep, then that would be kinda cool - especially in Multi-Player, Politics abound - as it can get the Prot Black and Indestructible creatures.
As in my comment on the Skyguard, I think I let how good this can be i a sac/reanimate deck colour my judgement. I wasn't saying this card itself is bad, I quite like it - just that the mechanic in general has to be very carefully costed/balnced on each card its on. Cool mechanic flavour too.
You're probably right,I think I got sidetracked by Black being predisposed to running sacrifice outlets and how good this can be in such a deck.
Many thanks for the suggestions. You're right that this is kindof halfway to having double strike. Perhaps you're right that I was being overly swayed by how awesome Baron's Grunt is. I'm sure this would be a perfectly serviceable common in limited.
The "unblocked" idea is very interesting. It is very similar to saboteur mechanics like we've seen in many sets before, but saboteur mechanics are fun. I don't think blue needs any more saboteur in this set - it's already got Airlane Bandit, Fluked Corsair, Buccaneer of the Air and Captivating Plunderer, because I decided "get stuff when you hit a player" was a good flavour for sky pirates.
But the distinction between "Whenever ~ deals combat damage to a player" and "Whenever ~ attacks and isn't blocked" may be enough to distinguish the flavour. And it'd be more interactions for the uncommon unblockability cards, Terrorcoil Gauntlets and Sightbending Scramblebike...
Yeah, the idea's growing on me. Thanks a lot.
Heh. That's quite fun, but it's very similar to one of my black rare noncreatures: RB06 Aristocrats' Oppression.
It's:
[~ gets +1/+1] for each [artifact card in a graveyard].
That Vault Skirge of yours that died. Is it an [artifact card in a graveyard]? Yes? Then it gives this +1/+1. My Pyrite Spellbomb after I've blown it up is also an [artifact card in a graveyard], so it also gives this +1/+1.
It's just like Airborne Aid is: [Draw a card] for each [Bird on the battlefield].
Or even closer, Ashen-Skin Zubera and friends. [Target opponent discards a card] for each [Zubera put into a graveyard from the battlefield this turn].
In playtesting this actually only proved to be OK. People just let it go unblocked. It's nowhere near as good as Vault Skirge or Mourning Thrull. It either plinks for 1 a turn, or sits there as a 3/1 flying defender, at which point it's less good than Oona's Gatewarden.
I'll certainly watch it in playtesting: if it becomes too scary with equipment, say, then I could increase the costs a bit. But at the moment I think it's okay.
This is a solid common guy that I'm always happy to see, sure. But I don't think it's excessively strong. If you're using this the way you describe then it's like a 4/2 with Defender, which doesn't seem over-strong for
. You could view this as a 4/2 with "Whenever ~ attacks and isn't blocked, it gets -2/-0 UEOT". That's a significant downside on a 4/2, and since black gets 4/2s at common for 
all the time, one with a drawback gets to have a 1 mana discount.
See Contagious Nim for another recent 2/2 for
with a very useful ability.
"In a graveyard"? Which one?
I have found that Avatar's can be easy to name as long as you are using the Avatar (or Hand, Overbeing, etc) of ????? convention. Just think of an appropriate descriptive/emotive word (they've used ones such as Hope, War, Justice, Awe, Pride, Calamity, Revenge, etc).
Elementals on the other hand can be a bit tricky as there are only so many ways of saying this is a fire based elemental, this an air based one, etc.
Why not just pump the cost up and reword it to "At the beginning of your Upkeep, targety player sacrifices a creature." Still very much in Black as an ability and has the drawback of your having to target yourself if you have the only creatures. Feels like it would fit right in with Deathtrap and such - just much more blatant about what it does.
To clarify, I like both Backstab and Deathtrap, indeed I like almost everything in this set, just trying to provide alternate views which can hopefully help make the set even more awesome than it already is.
This is kind-of a 2/1 creature AND a 1/1 First Strike creature rolled into the one package - almost pseudo double strike. It's a good card for early rushes, though I can understand why it looked Sad next to the Grunt (see my comment on Grunt).
Maybe Backstab could be reworked so that opponents are encouraged to block creatures with it something like Backstab - when this attacks and is unblocked, it deals 1 damage to defending player or a creature that player controls. Kinda like - heh, you didn't see me coming/couldn't stop me so now I strike with impunity wherever and however I wish!!!!! (Using this card specifically as an example).
If you did change Backstab to "unblocked attacker" you could have Red Backstab deal damage, Black backstab (I was going to go with Discard but that's already covered by the various Specters) AND you could also bleed Backstab into Blue as a mill effect.
As per my comment on Baron's Grunt what is effectively a 3/3 trampling flying creature the turn it dies for
is awesome. 
for a 1/1 flying creature is fair in Black but to add a Shock effect when it dies should cost at least 
if not 
more.
With Deathtrap 1 it would still be strong but not overly so.
This is very strong, blck anything up to a 4/4, die and then finish it off all for
. Deathtrap is a cool mechanic but one that needs to be aware of powercreep.
Hm. Avatars/Elementals are hard to name.
give it a name
All three black rare creatures currently blow up your own stuff! (RB02 Deranged Nihilist, RB03 Jarvis the Unstable) That's a bit too nihilistic even for a set with deathtrap. Move this to set 2 and create a new black rare fatty here.