About a month ago, me and my friends were playing a big multiplayer casual game.
I was playing with a friend's Sliver Deck, and I played a Coat of Arms . Another guy was playing an Artifact Deck, and he played March of the Machines . He said that his artifacts (which were now Artifact Creatures) got +1/+1 for every other Artifact in play.
For some reason that didn't seem quite right to me, but everyone at the table agreed with him and insisted Artifact Creature was a Creature type as if it were an obvious rule (even my little brother who has hardly played at all and another guest who hasn't played in ages, but seems to know all the rules pretty well).
It wasn't worth arguing over at the time, so I just conceded that Coat of Arms would affect Artifact creatures as my opponent proceeded to attack me with mutliple 15/15 and 20/20 artifact creatures.
Artifact and creature are both on the same footing, they're card types. Artifact is not a creature subtype (sometimes called 'creature type'). Goblin is a creature subtype, and equipment is an artifact subtype.
This means that with Coat of Arms and March of the Machines in play, the Coat (now an artifact creature) will just be 5/5. It will not get a bonus for all other artifact creatures in play. This is because the Coat only cares if a creature shares a creature type with another creature, and artifact is not a creature type.
Also, keep in mind that the Coat does not count the number of creature types a creature shares with other creatures. It only counts the number of creatures it shares a type with (it doesn't care how many types are shared).
EDIT @ Soul_Shackle: Artifact is not a supertype, it's a card type. The supertypes are basic, snow, world and legendary. The types are instant, sorcery, creature, enchantment, artifact, land, planeswalker and tribal.
Artifact is a card type, just like Instant, Land, etc... It is not a creature type. Creature types are always listed after a long dash: “Creature — Human Soldier,”
For more proof notice the absence of Artifact in the Comp Rules' list of creature types:
Just curious, would it be possible to provide a link to the Rules on this? I believe you 100%, but some of my friends don't trust the "forums" because anyone can go around spouting out anything they want to say, whether it's true or not.
So if it comes up again, I would like to have some ruling that says it...even though I can see it's pretty obvious.
205.1. The card type (and subtype and supertype, if applicable) of a card is printed directly below the illustration. (See rule 212, “Card Type, Supertype, and Subtype.” 205.2. Card Types
205.2a The card types are artifact, creature, enchantment, instant, land, planeswalker, sorcery, and tribal.
205.2b Some objects have more than one card type (for example, an artifact creature). Such objects satisfy the criteria for any effect that applies to any of their card types.
205.3. Subtypes
205.3a A card can have one or more subtypes printed on its type line.
205.3b Subtypes are always single words and are listed after a long dash. Each word after the dash is a separate subtype.
205.3c Subtypes of a [card type] object are also called [card type] types. For example, creature subtypes are also called creature types. Objects may have multiple subtypes. Example: “Basic Land — Mountain” means the card is a land with the Mountain subtype. “Creature — Goblin Wizard” means the card is a creature with the subtypes Goblin and Wizard. “Artifact — Equipment” means the card is an artifact with the subtype Equipment.
205.3d Artifact, enchantment, land, and planeswalker each have their own unique set of possible subtypes. Instant and sorcery share their lists of subtypes; these subtypes are called spell types. Creature and tribal also share their lists of subtypes; these subtypes are called creature types. (You can find complete lists of subtypes in the glossary at the end of this document under “Creature Types,” “Land Types,” and so on.)
205.3e If a card with multiple card types has one or more subtypes, each subtype is correlated to its appropriate card type. Example: Dryad Arbor’s type line says “Land Creature — Forest Dryad.” Forest is a land type, and Dryad is a creature type.Supertypes (not directly relevant, but related)Show
205.4. Supertypes
205.4a A card can also have one or more supertypes. These are printed directly before its card types. If an object’s card types or subtypes change, any supertypes it has are kept, although they may not be relevant to the new card type.
205.4b Any land with the supertype “basic” is a basic land. Any land that doesn’t have this supertype is a nonbasic land. Example: Note that cards printed in sets prior to the Eighth Edition core set didn’t use the word “basic” to indicate a basic land. Cards from those sets with the following names are basic lands: Forest, Island, Mountain, Plains, Swamp, Snow-Covered Forest, Snow-Covered Island, Snow-Covered Mountain, Snow-Covered Plains, and Snow-Covered Swamp.
205.4c Any permanent with the supertype “legendary” is subject to the state-based effect for legendary permanents, also called the “legend rule” (see rule 420.5e).
205.4d Any permanent with the supertype “world” is subject to the state-based effect for world permanents, also called the “world rule” (see rule 420.5i).
205.4e Any permanent with the supertype “snow” is a snow permanent. Any permanent that doesn’t have this supertype is a nonsnow permanent, regardless of its name.
Plus there is the list of creature types which has already been quoted.
That's all good and well, and I agree, however, There are a TON of artifact creature cards that do not have creature subtypes. And then there are those instances that artifacts are turned into artifact creatures and are not given a precise creature type. Is there an automatic creature subtype for artifact creatures that are not given them on the card? and What would the creature subtype be for the artifacts that have been turned into creatures without designation as to what creature subtype? These two questions will reap answers that change 3 of my artifact creature decks because i may have been playing them incorrectly. Thanks for the insight in advance. TheBlueMuzzy
There was really no need to necro an ancient post like that.
Always use the Oracle text of a card, not what's printed on it. To my knowledge, Nameless Race is the only creature without a creature type. Every other creature card, and every card that can turn itself into a creature has at least one creature type.
There are also some cards that turn other things into creatures (e.g. March of the Machines ). In thoses cases, if no creature type is specified, the creatures have no creature type. There's no "default".
