Artifact creature

Artifact creatures are both artifacts and creatures and therefore the rules for both apply to them. In most settings they are colorless, but occasionally they are either colored or strongly affiliated with a color. In the beginning artifact creatures didn't have a creature type, but that slowly changed. The first artifact creatures to bear a subtype were Obsianus Golem and Lead Golem from Sixth Edition. With the Grand Creature Type Update an "every creature has a creature type" policy was adopted, so lots of artifact creatures gained subtypes at that moment.

By and large, most artifact creatures are robots of some sort, and were fashioned out of metal, glass or stone by other creatures or planeswalkers. As such, decks heavy on artifact creatures are often called "Robots" decks.

Rules

From the glossary of the Comprehensive Rules (June 7, 2024—Modern Horizons 3)

Artifact Creature

A combination of artifact and creature that’s subject to the rules for both. See rule 301, “Artifacts,” and rule 302, “Creatures.”

Creature types

A number of creature types are usually associated with artifact creatures.

Construct

A Construct is the Magic equivalent of a robot, a magically or mechanically animated device, usually with a pedal propulsion method. They come in a wide variety, but often imitate organical lifeforms.

Golem

A Golem is a magically or mechanically animated statue. The most well known Golem is Karn who has since his construction become a planeswalker.

Myr

The Myr are a race of small creatures with beak-like heads native to Mirrodin. They were created by Memnarch to act as spies.

Scarecrow

Scarecrows are artifact creatures native to Shadowmoor and lead by the Reaper King. Originally they were constructed by the Kithkin to help them with farming, but outlived the Kithkin and have taken lives for their own. Mechanically they often deal with colors and -1/-1 counters.

Thopter

A Thopter is a small flying device, Ornithopter being the most well known.

Other types

• Assembly-Worker
• Blinkmoth
• Chimera
• Dreadnought
• Gnome
• Juggernaut
• Masticore
• Servo
• Pest
• Prism
• Triskelavite, Tetravite and Pentavite
• Wall

Clockwork creatures

Clockwork creatures are usually imitations of organic lifeforms and need to be repeatedly wound up. Mechanically this is represented as the card entering the battlefield with a set amount of counters on them which they progressively lose when participating in combat; for example Clockwork Avian, Clockwork Steed and Clockwork Swarm.

Trivia

• In the Grand Creature Type Update, the subtype Twin for a token created by Gemini Engine was changed into a Construct token "named Twin".
• Master of Etherium is an artifact creature Lord.