All 22 Artifact Subtypes in Magic Explained

Last updated on November 8, 2026

Treasure | Illustration by Dan Scott

Artifacts have been staple permanents in Magic since the very beginning. Over time, subtypes of artifacts have been introduced to tie together similar abilities and archetypes, and we now have a bunch of artifact types to consider when we build our decks.

You’re probably familiar with some of the most common, like equipment and vehicles, not to mention the predefined Treasure, Clue, Blood, or Food tokens, but I’ve got you covered for every artifact type in Magic: The Gathering.

What Are Artifact Types?

Clue | Illustration by John Avon

Artifact types are subtypes that appear only on artifact permanents. Artifact subtypes usually convey something about an artifact’s abilities. Food artifacts can be sacrificed to gain life, equipment attach to creatures, vehicles are only creatures when they’re crewed, etc. Many artifact subtypes are also predefined tokens.

These artifact types are listed in alphabetical order, and I’ve included subtypes from Un-sets.

The “scrap” subtype comes from a playtest card and isn’t included in the list proper. It’s the most obscure artifact type, reserved for a specific token created by The Crafter, from Unknown Event. Scrap tokens are colorless and have no abilities, and the only Scrap token that’s been printed is the one created by Farid, Enterprising Salvager, though it doesn’t yet list “scrap” as a subtype.

Attraction

Attraction is an artifact subtype from Unfinity that represent carnival and circus games, booths, and attractions. They have a nonstandard card back, and they exist in a separate attraction deck. The attraction deck must have at least 10 cards, it’s a singleton deck (only cards with different names), and it exists in the command zone.

Some cards like Deadbeat Attendant and Coming Attraction instruct you to open an attraction, which means that you put the top card of your attraction deck onto the battlefield face up. Each attraction has six attraction lights on the right-hand side, and different variants of the same attraction can have different light patterns (1 is never lit and 6 is always lit). You can’t use variants of the same attraction with different attraction lights.

At the beginning of your first main phase, you roll a six-sided die (d6). When you roll a number that matches a lit attraction light, that attraction’s visit ability triggers. Some are simple triggered abilities, like how Concession Stand creates a Food token. Others start a mini-game with the potential to claim the prize. If you claim the prize from an attraction, you also sacrifice the attraction and open another. Attractions that are sent to other zones like your library or exile don’t go back to the command zone, but instead go into a face-up pile known as your junkyard rather than back into your attraction deck.

Attraction cards are only playable in Commander, and some have acorn stamps that make them illegal even there. Cards that open an attraction are banned in Legacy, Vintage, Oathbreaker, and Pauper.

Blood

Blood artifacts are a predefined token originally associated with vampires, and they appear mainly in Rakdos colors (). Blood tokens give you a form of rummaging by discarding a card to draw a card. Of note, you discard the card as part of the cost to activate them.

Blood was introduced in Innistrad: Crimson Vow. Notable cards that interact with Blood tokens include Shilgengar, Sire of Famine, Olivia, Crimson Bride, and Strefan, Maurer Progenitor.

Bobblehead

The seven bobblehead artifacts are 3-mana rocks from Fallout. They all have activated abilities that care about the number of bobbleheads you control. The seven bobbleheads represent your S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stats from the Fallout games, and they are, respectively:

• Strength Bobblehead
• Perception Bobblehead
• Endurance Bobblehead
• Charisma Bobblehead
• Intelligence Bobblehead
• Agility Bobblehead
• Luck Bobblehead

Book

The book subtype was introduced in Secrets of Strixhaven, though it had no payoff in any of the surrounding sets. A mass errata of over 30 cards added the book subtype to a bunch of artifacts, with the assumption that we’d see some card(s) that interact with the subtype in the near future. The Darkhold from Darkhold Destiny uses the subtype, so perhaps that’ll be the first set to interact with it.

Clue

The Clue subtype first appeared in Shadows over Innistrad. It’s primarily used as a predefined Clue token that’s created by investigate abilities, but there are plenty of non-token cards with the clue subtype. Clues let you pay 2 mana and sacrifice them to draw a card.

Clues token generation used to be intrinsicly linked to the investigate mechanic, but as of Avatar: The Last Airbender, clue-making can exist independently of the keyword action.

Communicator

Communicator is a subtype that coexists with equipment and first appeared in Star Trek. It doesn’t currently have any specific rules interactions, and it mostly exists for the self-contained synergy present on Starfleet Communicator, though if we see additional communicators added to MTG, they’ll presumably work with one another.

Contraption

Contraption is a special artifact type first mentioned on Future Sight’s Steamflogger Boss and used on cards from Unstable. They go into a separate deck and have a unique card back. Your contraption deck must contain a minimum of 15 cards and is a singleton deck.

You need cards like Wrench-Rigger to assemble contraptions, which means that you put the top card of your contraption deck onto one of three sprockets, which are a subzone of the battlefield. You start the game with a CRANK! counter on the third sprocket, and you move the CRANK! counter across your sprockets (3 to 1, 1 to 2, 2 to 3, etc.) during each upkeep to track which contraption is active. You can also use reassemble abilities to move a contraption from one sprocket to another.

Contraptions have triggers when you crank them; for example, Inflation Station gives a creature a +3/+3 pump until end of turn when you crank it, while Pet Project reanimates a creature from an opponent’s graveyard under your control.

Equipment

Equipment are the most used and most known artifact subtype, and they first appeared in Mirrodin block. Equipment have equip abilities that allow you to attach them to creatures, and sometimes planeswalkers. Equipment usually provide additional abilities and/or power and toughness adjustments.

Examples of highly-played equipment cards include Lightning Greaves and Skullclamp. The Mirran swords (templated as “Sword of X and Y”), like Sword of Fire and Ice, are also well-known and widely-used equipment artifacts.

Food

Food artifacts, introduced in Throne of Eldraine, can be tapped and sacrificed for to gain 3 life. The food type usually appears on the predefined Food token, but food also appears as a subtype on non-token cards.

Notable food artifacts include Gingerbrute, Everything Pizza, and Bagel and Schmear.

Fortification

Fortification artifacts have fortify abilities that allow you to attach them to lands, basically like equipment for lands. Darksteel Garrison was the first fortification, appearing in Future Sight as a hint of a potential new mechanic. The subtype wasn’t used again until C.A.M.P. in Fallout.

Gold

Gold artifact tokens are a precursor to Treasure tokens that don’t need to be tapped to be sacrificed. They first appeared in Born of the Gods.

Only four cards in Magic create Gold tokens: King Macar, the Gold-Cursed, The First Iroan Games, Gild, and Curse of Opulence. Of these, only Curse of Opulence wasn’t originally printed in a set based on the plane of Theros.

Incubator

Incubator is a subtype that only appears on the dual-sided Incubator/Phyrexian tokens from March of the Machine. They are created by incubate abilities, which place +1/+1 counters onto an artifact token. You can then pay to transform the Incubator into a 0/0 Phyrexian, though it keeps the +1/+1 counters to determine its power and toughness.

It’s unclear when and if incubators will be used again, since they’re flavored around Phyrexians. They could very well get the “amass” treatment and receive errata to incubate different creature types (inclubate Phyrexian, incubate dinosaur, etc.)

Infinity

Infinity is one of two artifact types on the Marvel crossover Infinity Stones. “Infinity” and “stone” are two separate types on these cards. It also allows for a future card that represents the Infinity Gauntlet to be an “infinity equipment”, so a card for a character like Thanos could specifically tutor for it.

Junk

Junk artifacts are tokens made by multiple cards in the Fallout Commander decks. You can tap them and sacrifice them for an impulse draw, but only at sorcery speed.

Rose, Cutthroat Raider is one of the best Junk producers and payoffs since it turns every Junk token you sacrifice into red mana, regardless of whether you sac it to its own ability or another.

Lander

Lander tokens are found exclusively in Edge of Eternities and the accompanying Commander precons for now. It’s essentially Rampant Growth in token form, allowing you to pay , sac the Lander, and search your library for a basic land to put into play tapped.

Biotech Specialist and Horizon Explorer were the two most widely applicable cards that produce Landers.

Map

Map artifacts are a predefined token created mainly by cards from The Lost Caverns of Ixalan.

Maps let you pay 1 mana, tap them, and sacrifice them to have one of your creatures explore at sorcery speed. To explore, you reveal the top card of your library. It goes into your hand if it’s a land, but you either put it back on top of your library or into your graveyard if it isn’t. If you didn’t reveal a land, you also place a +1/+1 counter onto your creature. Note that explore targets, so you must have a creature in play to use a map token.

Mutagen

Mutagen is an artifact token introduced in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. They cost to tap and sacrifice, and put a +1/+1 counter on target creature. It’s an incredibly simple artifact type that fits tons of different strategies, like those involving counter synergies, or artifact/token payoffs.

Mutagens appeared on 19 cards in TMNT and its accompanying Commander precon. The token name is specific enough that it probably won’t be seen too often, but also generic enough that it can exist outside sets related to TMNT.

Powerstone

Powerstone is an artifact subtype introduced on Karn, Living Legacy in Dominaria United, and used more extensively in The Brothers’ War. It’s mainly found as a predefined Powerstone token that generates 1 colorless mana that can’t be spent to cast nonartifact spell, though that means the mana can be used to pay costs not associated with casting a spell. The Mightstone and Weakstone is also a powerstone artifact.

Spacecraft

Spacecraft are an evolution of the vehicle card type introduced in Edge of Eternities to fit that set’s space flavor. Spacecraft have station abilities that let you tap creatures at sorcery speed to add charge counters to them equal to those creatures’ power. You can unlock abilities when you reach a specified number of charge counters, and most spacecraft become creatures when you unlock all of their station abilities (there are exceptions like The Eternity Elevator and Deep Space 9 that have no power/toughness stat box).

Some of the most notable spacecraft include Dawnsire, Sunstar Dreadnought, Exploration Broodship, and Hearthhull, the Worldseed, alongside many more new spacecraft introduced in Star Trek.

Stone

Stone is another artifact subtype associated with the Infinity Stones, and has no inherent rules meaning, similar to infinity.

The Soul Stone received an alternate Through the Omenpaths reskin on MTG Arena, which was later reverted to its original printing. The alternate version can still be used, and replaces “stone” with “terminus”, though this term has been obsoleted from the game and was never used again outside the Arena version of Marvel’s Spider-Man.

Treasure

Treasure tokens are an evolution of Gold, to the point where Gold tokens have basically been obsoleted from new designs where Treasure could work instead. They tap and sacrifice to add any color of mana, and have been responsible for huge shifts in the way formats work, especially in Commander, since they provide ramp and mana fixing to all colors.

Treasure has also been used as a subtype on non-token cards such as Glittering Stockpile and Courier's Briefcase.

Vehicle

Vehicles are an artifact subtype introduced in Kaladesh. They’ve since become deciduous, or likely to return in sets that need them, and we’ve had an entire “vehicle set” with Aetherdrift.

Vehicles are artifacts with crew abilities, which lets you tap creatures with a certain total power to animate them until the end of that turn. Unlike spacecraft, you can crew vehicles at instant speed, which allows you to us them as blockers.

As of Edge of Eternities, legendary vehicles that have a power and toughness box can be your commander.

Some notable vehicles include Shorikai, Genesis Engine, Smuggler's Copter, and Parhelion II.

Can I Choose Artifact as a Creature Type?

No. Artifact is its own card type, like creature, land, enchantment, instant, sorcery, etc. Any ability that wants you to choose a creature type, like Vanquisher's Banner, asks for a creature subtype, like elf, soldier, rogue, or goblin.

Can You Play Contraptions in Commander?

No, not unless you have a Rule 0 discussion with your pod. Cards that assemble contraptions are all silver-bordered, so they aren’t legal for sanctioned play. The only Commander-legal card that interacts with contraptions is Steamflogger Boss, which doubles your riggers’ assemble abilities.

Wrap Up

Gold | Illustration by Richard Wright

Artifacts offer up a lot of different kinds of utility, and many artifact subtypes are even playable as their own archetypes. Regardless of which of the more popular subtypes you build around, there are plenty of artifact payoffs to support that playstyle. I really hope we see more fortifications in the future because that still feels like under-explored design space.

Which of these artifact types do you like to build around? Which ones make you groan and shake your head? Let me know in the comments below or over on the Draftsim Discord. And check out The Daily Upkeep newsletter to stay up to date on all the latest MTG news.

Until next time, stay safe!