Clockwork Avian
Artifact Creature — Bird
Flying
This creature enters with four +1/+0 counters on it.
At end of combat, if this creature attacked or blocked this combat, remove a +1/+0 counter from it.
, 
: Put up to X +1/+0 counters on this creature. This ability can't cause the total number of +1/+0 counters on this creature to be greater than four. Activate only during your upkeep.
- CMC
- 5
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- C
- Rarity
- uncommon
- Set
- Rinascimento
- Price
- —
- EDHREC rank
- #27795
Clockwork Avian enters as a 4/4 flyer for five mana, then shrinks by one counter every time it attacks — meaning it has a hard ceiling on combat usefulness before it becomes a 0/4 that can't attack at all. A flying body that self-destructs over a few turns is not a competitive rate in any current format.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | not legal |
| pioneer | not legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Clockwork Avian is legal in Commander, Legacy, Vintage, and Oathbreaker, but legal and playable are different things. In Commander, a five-mana artifact creature needs to either generate immediate value, combo off, or provide a persistent threat — Clockwork Avian does none of those, and the counter-drain mechanic means it stops being an attacker after four swings at best. Legacy and Vintage have access to every efficient threat ever printed, so there is no context in which Clockwork Avian sees play in those formats. It is a novelty card in the strictest sense: fine for a retro or themed build, irrelevant everywhere else.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
unknown tier
Pricing data for Clockwork Avian isn't currently available in our index, so check Scryfall or TCGPlayer for current market listings. Given that it sees no competitive play and exists primarily as a curio from early Magic, expect it to trade near bulk regardless of printing.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.