Token

Kithkin Soldier token.

A token is a permanent that is not represented by a regular card with a casting cost. Richard Garfield created tokens for Alpha, as opposed to counters, to make The Hive possible. Usually, but not always, tokens are creatures.

Normally tokens can exist only on the battlefield. If a token leaves the battlefield and goes to another game zone, it can't change zones again, and it will be there only briefly before ceasing to exist as a state-based effect.

History

There were so many cards in Fallen Empires that produced tokens and/or required counters that Wizards of the Coast issued a cardboard sheet of them in Duelist #4. Special token cards were first printed for Unglued. Unglued's tokens proved so popular they spawned the new tokens given away in the Magic Player Rewards program. Like for regular cards, the card frame for tokens was updated with Eighth Edition. "Token" now appeared in the type line, though it never became an official subtype. Since Tenth Edition they appear as marketing cards in booster packs. Unlike earlier tokens, the don't gave a regular card back, but feature advertisements instead. Starting with Magic 2015 "Token" changed from subtype to supertype in the typeline.

Because Magic Online needs to represent all the tokens in the game, art needs to be created for even the most insignificant tokens. And for some of that art, Magic Online is the only place it appears.

Examples and rules

• Teysa, Orzhov Scion has the ability: "Whenever another black creature you control dies, put a 1/1 white Spirit creature token with flying onto the battlefield." "Dies" means precisely "is put into a graveyard from the battlefield" (rule 700.6). If you have a black creature token that gets destroyed, it will go to the graveyard, trigger Teysa's ability and put it on the stack, then disappear.
• Momentary Blink reads in part: "Exile target creature you control, then return it to the battlefield under its owner's control." If this spell is used on a creature token, it will be exiled, but it cannot come back to the battlefield and so stays in the exile zone. It will cease to exist when state-based effects are next checked.

From the ()

Token specific creature types

Magic Player Reward 2001

Some creatures named in the legal subtype-list only appear on tokens.

• Camarid tokens are created by Homarid Spawning Bed and Sarpadian Empires, Vol. VII.
• Caribou tokens are created by Caribou Range.
• Citizen tokens are created by Icatian Crier, Icatian Town and Sarpadian Empires, Vol. VII.
• Deserter tokens are created by Kjeldoran Home Guard.
• Germ tokens are created by living weapons.
• Graveborn tokens are created by Balduvian Dead and Sek'Kuar, Deathkeeper. Graveborn Muse doesn't have the subtype Graveborn.
• Orb tokens are created by Phantasmal Sphere. Note that artifacts like Chaos Orb don't have the Orb subtype.
• Pentavite tokens are created by Pentavus.
• Pincher tokens are created by the Summoning Station. Pincher Beetles doesn't have the subtype.
• Prism tokens are created by Diamond Kaleidoscope, but not by Pentad Prism or Prismatic Circle.
• Reflection tokens are created by Pure Reflection and Spirit Mirror, but not by the Kami of Twisted Reflection.
• Sand (Warrior) tokens are created by Hazezon Tamar and Dune-Brood Nephilim , but for example not by Choking Sands or Sandstorm. Sand Golem is not a Sand Creature.
• Saproling are produced by many green-aligned fungus and/or plant-based cards.
• Serf tokens are produced by Sengir Autocrat.
• Splinter tokens are created by Splintering Wind, but not by Splinter, Splinter Twin or Bone Splinters.
• Survivor tokens are created by Varchild's War-Riders under opponent's control. Note that Auriok Survivors, Riptide Survivor and Survivor of the Unseen don't have the survivor subtype.
• Pink Giant Teddy Bear tokens are created by Water Gun Balloon Game.
• Tetravite tokens are created by Tetravus.
• Triskelavite tokens are created by Triskelavus.

Full list

Magic Player Reward 2003

Magic 2015 token

• Comprehensive Token Table - A comprehensive sortable table that lists every possible token that can be generated in Magic: the Gathering, the properties of those tokens, and the cards responsible for their creation (does not include tokens that copy other cards).

Trivia

• The first non-creature token was the enchantment token copies of Imperial Mask that can be given to your teammates.
• The second non-creature token was the Gold artifact token produced by Gild from Born of the Gods and King Macar, the Gold-Cursed from Journey into Nyx.
• The third non-creature token are the Land Mine artifact tokens produced by Goblin Kaboomist from Magic 2015 Core Set.
• Intangible Virtue is a Lord-type enchantment that gives +1/+1 and vigilance to creature tokens.
• Tokens were featured as rules card 4 of 9 in the Magic 2011 set.
• Saprolings are the token creature type most easily created, 63 unique cards are capable of specifically creating them.
• The first non-copy token with non-keyword rules text was the Tetravite token produced by Tetravus from Antiquities.
• The first non-copy token with an activated ability was the Skeleton token produced by Drudge Spell from Homelands.
• The first non-copy token that could produce another token was the Ooze token produced by Mitotic Slime from Magic 2011 Core Set.
• Mirrorworks and Prototype Portal both make artifact tokens that do not have to be creatures, and were the first cards to do so.

External links

• List of tokens on MagicCards.Info