Homarid

A clockwork creature governed by its own metronome. The tide counter accumulates one per upkeep and cycles the body through a fixed phase pattern: a turn at one counter where the -1/-1 drags it down to a 1/1, a turn at two counters where it sits at its printed 2/2, a turn at three counters where the +1/+1 swells it to a 3/3, then a fourth turn where the counters all strip off and the cycle resets to zero. That reset is the only moment the player gets a clean slate, and it is fleeting: the upkeep immediately after the wipe stacks the first new counter, sending it straight back into the 1/1 trough. The controller has no hand on the dial; the rhythm is automatic and inescapable. This is Fallen Empires design at its most experimental: a body whose stats trace a sine wave, balanced not by a rate you pay for but by the fact that you cannot choose when it is strong. The friction is timing your aggression to the upswing, since the 3/3 window arrives on a schedule an opponent can read and plan around just as easily. The mechanic prefigures the set's broader obsession with counters and slow, self-managing engines, the sort of idea modern design has largely abandoned: a creature that fights its own controller for tempo rather than handing them a lever. The reward is small and the bookkeeping is constant, which is precisely what stamps it as a product of its era.