Midnight Clock

Description

Midnight Clock is a rare artifact card released in 2024 as part of the Modern Horizons 3 Commander subset for Magic: The Gathering. Designed by Alexander Forssberg, this card offers a distinct mechanical path that rewards patience and resource management. As a three-mana artifact, it provides a steady source of blue mana, allowing players to maintain tempo while building towards its secondary effect. The card’s defining feature is its hour counter system, which triggers automatically at the beginning of each upkeep. By spending additional mana, players can accelerate the placement of these counters, turning the artifact into a clock that ticks down to a powerful finish. When the twelfth hour counter is placed on Midnight Clock, it triggers a significant effect: the player shuffles their hand and graveyard back into their library and then draws seven new cards. This ability effectively refreshes the player's resources, making it a valuable tool for recovery or generating sudden board presence. In the context of the Commander format, where games can extend well past the early turns, the potential to trigger this effect multiple times makes it a compelling inclusion for decks that can support its mana cost. The card’s design encourages long-term planning, as players must balance the immediate utility of mana generation with the delayed gratification of the card draw engine. For collectors of the Modern Horizons 3 subset, Midnight Clock represents a key piece of the Commander expansion, offering both aesthetic appeal and functional depth. Its presence in the set highlights the creative approach to artifact design that defines this era of Magic: The Gathering, appealing to both competitive builders and those who appreciate intricate card mechanics.