Artifact

Artifacts are permanents that represent magical items, animated constructs, pieces of equipment, or other objects and devices. Artifact, the card type, is broader than the normal definition. Natural items can be a Magic “artifact”.

History
Up until the introduction of the colorless, non-artifact Eldrazi cards in the Rise of the Eldrazi set, artifacts were distinct from other card types in that they were the only existing cards that had wholly generic mana costs (meaning they can be cast using any type of mana), excluding certain cards which cost.

"Artifacts matter" has been a major mechanical theme of several sets and blocks. These include Antiquities, the Urza's block (Artifacts Cycle), the Mirrodin block, the Esper shard of the Alara block, the Scars of Mirrodin block, the Kaladesh block, and the historic mechanic from Dominaria.

Variations
Many artifacts are also creatures. They can attack and defend like other creatures and are affected by anything that affects creatures (or artifacts).

Mirrodin introduced colored activation costs for artifacts.

Colored artifacts have colored mana costs. The Dissension expansion introduced the concept of colored artifacts with Transguild Courier, which did not yet require colored mana to cast. The Future Sight expansion's Sarcomite Myr was the first and only artifact card at the time of the set's release to require colored mana for its casting cost. The Shadowmoor expansion's Reaper King was the first artifact card with a hybrid mana cost that contained colored mana symbols, but which enabled players to not have to pay any colored mana to cast the card due to the specifics of the card's hybrid mana cost.

The use of colored artifacts as a game concept was taken even further in Esper shard theme of Shards of Alara, which was the first expansion to contain many artifacts that require specific colors of mana to cast, and the entire Alara block prominently features colored artifacts that require colored mana to cast. Colored artifacts returned in New Phyrexia and in a minor capacity in the third Artifact block, Kaladesh. By Core Set 2020 they had become deciduous.

Friendly to artifacts
Blue loves artifacts and, as such, is the primary color that interacts the most with them. White's interaction is mostly with Equipment, while red often likes to use artifacts as a resource.

Unfriendly to artifacts
Artifact destruction most frequently occurs in Green or Red, and occasionally in white. Green is also the color which receives protection from artifacts. Green rarely interacts with artifacts positively. Red tends to be the color to gain benefit from sacrificing artifacts. Of the five colors, black generally has the fewest cards that interact on any level with artifacts, with almost all of those cards coming in "artifacts matter" sets.

Subtypes
The subtype for artifacts is called artifact type and is exclusive to artifacts.

Obsolete Terminology
Mono, Poly, and Continuous are terms found on the type lines of artifact cards printed prior to Revised, also known as Third Edition. They served to identify how often and whether artifacts could be activated.

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Tokens
Artifact tokens without subtype.