Armageddon Clock

Artifact

At the beginning of your upkeep, put a doom counter on Armageddon Clock.

At the beginning of your draw step, Armageddon Clock deals damage to each player equal to the number of doom counters on it.

{4}: Remove a doom counter from Armageddon Clock. Any player may play this ability but only during any upkeep step.

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Big Apple Highlander	Legal
Block Constructed	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Freeform	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Oldschool 93/94	Legal
Planar Constructed	Legal
Planechase	Legal
PreDH	Legal
Premodern	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (26)

Guse0 on Need Help: Does anyone have …

6 months ago

Okay, there's a lot more here since last I checked, and honestly, thank you guys so much for your responses and time, I took notes on everything here that I could/need to consider when editing my design, so I'm grateful you all took your time to help me, seriously! I do want to respond, so I'll do so chronologically, sorry if this is lengthy by the end.

Crow_Umbra

I do see a lot of what you're saying, as of the moment. I think I was just scared to make it too useful, since it's my first time with custom card creation. If I had cut back on anything (from what I've gathered here), it seems I need to cut back on Mana costs, since it seems like Skelly (thank you for the nickname, legendofa. I love it.) doesn't (A) get out soon enough to be worth the ramp, and (B) the activation cost makes it way too much of a sacrifice to invest in, really. Even if you do get a good number of counters on him, it feels a little steep. I will look into that, aspect of the design, especially after reconsidering it's effects, so thank you!

SaberTech

So, just to start of here, Skelly's additional cost was intended as a thematic thing; his story is about sacrificing people to get into his position, and realizing that, as a noble and king, he has to sacrifice people in a kingdom already suffering decline. Reading out what you said, I do think I could still maintain this thematic purpose with the ETB effect now that I think about it, but I was being more direct in my design than I needed to be, so thank you for that suggestion! It would also help turn Skelly into a better source of mana, since his activated effect cost seems steep. It would still make 4 mana expensive, but I think it would balance it out a little. Maybe. I'll see on that end of things!

As for why I was concerned, it's my first time trying to design a card, and I'm worried a LOT about balancing it so that I can use it in an actual game without being overbearing. Of course, I'm going to ask everyone if they're okay with it and all, but I was being overly cautious, since I'm really invested into the themes and ideas of this deck, and don't want the power scale to be off. Again, thank you for your input!

legendofa

Thank you for the suggested revision! t'll definitely help when I end up tweaking the design later (hopefully today). As for my plans, it's supposed to be a big creatures, big swings sort of deal, and since the theme of Culling is more about eliminating the weaker things from your board. In fact, Culling Scales is what inspired this idea! Which also leads me to the idea that I could add a similar activated ability to him, if I see the need to.

Oh, and thank you for the better wording! I did try to find a reference for it, but only really came up with Burnt Offering, and I only used it slightly. Also, Skelly is perfect, I love it!

Crow_Umbra

I do think I get what you're saying about the effect being redundant when sacrificing creatures can already give you mana itself, so I will certainly look into whether or not a pivot to another sort of activated ability is more worth it. I did say this with legendofa, but a massive inspiration for this theme is Culling Scales, so I could pivot the design over to something more similar to that. Not sure how it would tie into conviction counters just yet, but I'll think of something, if I decide to do so. As for your suggested change of his ability, I think a pivot over to creature destruction would be really interesting, both thematically and mechanically! The only thing I can't say for certain would be how I would feel playing that effect, but it's definitely something to keep in mind.

SaberTech

I probably should've been more clear on the themes involved, sorry about that! I did explain in the previous address to you, but still, probably should have given that right off the bat.

As for the ability, I do think it has an interesting spin on what the card sets out to do, even if it changes a lot of things narratively and mechanically. I think, while I would rather keep conviction counters in place for this card, another one featuring the character with that ability instead would be really cool, so thank you for the inspiration! I will still consider changing the activated effect to something similar though, because, while I think I have something good here, it may not turn out the way I want it to, so we'll see!

FormOverFunction

I... actually really love that idea. Not sure how to fit it in mechanically, since the ideas I currently have right now could bloat the card in terms of mechanics, but I'll certainly think about it! Thank you! (Also, really odd note, but I think I've seen your Antique Shop deck a few times, when I tried brewing around similar mechanics to Armageddon Clock. I don't think I ever got the time to look too deeply into it before now, but I loved the idea!) Again, thank all of you for taking some time to give me advice and ideas! I really appreciate it, and I took notes on everything suggested, so I can make sure I really get this card to a good place! I really didn't expect this much of a response, but I'm glad I got so much from this. I'll see what I can do with it, and update this after. Again, thank you guys so much, and I hope I answered sufficiently!

SirFowler on Possible new EDH Format: Hot …

2 years ago

I do like adding randomness into the equation because it feels more like the game it originated from, but I do see what you're saying. There have been times when someone somehow gets targeted over and over again.

Maybe I could get a collection of Armageddon Clock like cards into a pile and before the game begins, we start with one of those chosen at random. Kind of like Planeschase, so maybe we could also roll to move to a different card? Idk.

FormOverFunction on Possible new EDH Format: Hot …

2 years ago

I think this sort of modulation of magic is super fun and want you to keep doing it. Having said that, do you need the randomness? With a few bad die rolls one person could feel pretty put out, and there are a ton of Armageddon Clock cards that you can mess around with (everyone starts with one in play, or, there’s a semi-emblem one in play that can’t be removed... or whatever). Now for my sales pitch: you may really enjoy putting some of this stuff in your decks. I think the most understandable hate for cards like Jinxed Choker, Copper Tablet, and Rug of Smothering comes from when they’re accompanied to some degree by a total spell or land lock-out. My “Torture!” And “Haunted House!” decks both have a ton of these incremental cards, which shorten the game without actually PREVENTING anyone from casting their spells or drawing cards. Be the change you want to see in the world! Throw a Havoc Festival for everyone! Hand out some Jinxed Rings for Halloween! Mulligan repeatedly until you have Ankh of Mishra in your opening hand each game... okay well don’t do that one... but you know what I mean. Take this as a challenge to build a fun weird deck! There is a TON out there.

FormOverFunction on Favorite EDH Cards

2 years ago

Just a fun Friday post. What are some of your favorite pet-cards? Not necessarily key pieces or staples, just cards that you at least want to include in whatever deck you’re working on. I’m going to toss a couple out, though I’ll probably remember more later (and I hope you all do too). Whipkeeper is weird, and heavily reliant on circumstances, but when you have it on hand and those circumstances arise it’s really fun! Walking Sponge is another similar critter. That’s red and blue, and now I think I’ll shoot for one of each color. I’ve touted my love for Xenic Poltergeist often enough that you’re probably tired of it, but I’m always happy to draw it. I don’t play a ton of green, but Dense Canopy is something that’s had a special flavor for me. I love the idea of stealing a little of the power from flying, which is a pretty significant strength for a basic evergreen ability. In white I’ll pick Confessor as it’s a neat effect with a solid flavor. Mechanically I’m not a big fan of what lifegain decks have become, because of the sort of game state that you can end up with in a casual format, but I’m not totally negative on them. For an artifact, as a bonus, I’ll say Armageddon Clock because it’s a fun, symmetrical, way to move the game ahead while still giving people an extra out to regulate it some. What are some of your favorite cards, even if they aren’t particularly high-end?

FormOverFunction on Need a little help with …

3 years ago

If you’re going to be waiting for everyone else to fight it out I would strongly recommend something like Armageddon Clock to keep things moving! Everyone loves clocks!

GodzSoldier on Biblically Accurate Angels, Abzan Edt.

3 years ago

What about Armageddon Clock haha. I assume you have a little bit of lifelink

Shaddaran on

3 years ago

This deck is not legal : Warping Wurm is of Simic Identity, Tsunami is of Green Identity, Spatial Binding is of Dimmir Identity and that deck is of Jeskai Identity.

That being said, the core mecanic of it seems to be a waiting game toying with phasing while stuff goes boom (Armageddon Clock, Time Bomb...), pushing opponents to forfeit by ruining their manabase or to voltron-ish out with Ishai, Ojutai Dragonspeaker (Also, since phasing is neither a cast nor an ETB trigger, Commander's Insignia seems of poor value here).

There is a bunch of stuff that seems to have no interest whatsoever to further this deck agenda (such as Thran Lens, the Sphere of Duty and the other spheres, etc...) which could hold fairly more interesting cards instead. There is no particular synergy between the commander(s) and the deck in itself, questioning why those in specific.

It feels like the deck hopes to be annoying enough to get you to victory... I mean it's not illegal... (some even jackoff on that)... but then if that's the flavor of it, there is fairly better way to achieve that goal, so I'm wondering what's the core mecanic you intended ?

On a building note, I have a hard time believing a 3 colors deck working well with basic lands only, but I'm a heavy user of none basic, so... this deck feels like it never has been built, feels really theorical and not actually functional.

There is a bunch of stample of the phasing mecanic you missed, such as Teferi's Protection, Teferi's Isle, Out of Time... that could get great value... the combo from Hexi180 with Balancing Act if a clear finisher, since it doesn't exclude lands...

I don't comment often, I hope this will be taken in a way that helps you to possibly improve it, this has no intention to seems harsh but I know how written wordings can be. I've a good list of worked on deck and I wanted to help, I tend to try to give some "flavor" to them rather than just piling on powerful card... If you wanna chat about it and discuss more feel free to.

Triton on Wrapping Up a Deck!

4 years ago

Thank you FormOverFunction! The Johnny in me absolutely loves Armageddon Clock, it will at least be in the Maybeboard!