All 308 Creature Types in Magic, and: Which is the Best?

Last updated on November 5, 2025

Volrath, the Shapestealer | Illustration by Heonhwa Choe

Creature types in MTG started as a mere detail in the card’s layout. But today one of the first things you look at when you see a new card is probably the creature type.

Maybe the card is a zombie that goes your my Modern Zombies deck, or perhaps this cat goes into your Arahbo EDH deck. Today I dive deep into the different creature types in Magic.

What colors is each type most present in? What’s the most powerful creature type? Let’s find out!

How Many Creature Types are in MTG?

Dack's Duplicate | Illustration by Karl Kopinski

There are a massive 308 different creature types in Magic. This does not count creature types exclusive to Un-sets.

What Are the Most Common Creature Types in MTG?

Humans are the most common creature type with more than 4,200 cards. Other very abundant types are soldiers, wizards, warriors, zombies, elementals, and spirits with more than 600 cards each.

The Big List of MTG Creature Types

History of Creature Types

Alpha and Original Rules

In MTG’s first set, Alpha, creature types were used for flavor-related reasons and rarely impacted the game. The first cards to care about the type of creature were lords like Lord of Atlantis. But those interactions were few and far between.

After the printing of cards cards like Icatian Lieutenant, Dwarven Soldier, and Goblin Chirurgeon in the Fallen Empires set, players realized that there was another factor that mattered besides the color of the card and the mana cost. That factor was the creature type.

The sliver creature type was later introduced in the Tempest block. Slivers are creatures that give abilities to all other slivers. Sliver decks were all the rage back in the Tempest block, but funnily enough, if you were playing slivers you didn’t want to see any on the other side of the table because your opponent would also benefit from your abilities.

According to WotC’s article on the creature type update, there was a debate about issuing an errata on creature types because it would create a lot of confusion concerning old cards. For example, let’s say I play Samite Healer from Fifth Edition, whose creature type is “summon cleric.” But my deck has human typal synergies, so I need to explain to my opponent that Samite Healer is now also a human.

On the other hand this was a tipping point for creature types. The Lorwyn block was already being designed, and that set had cards that cared about creature types and subtypes. So the policy was defined to “update the creature card type whenever the card was reprinted.”

The Grand Creature Type Update

Wizards published the Grand Creature Type update in 2007 to inform and update players on the criteria and considerations to define the new creature types on MTG cards. The main items are detailed down below, quoted from WotC’s official article:

1. “Creatures without creature types got some creature types.” Some artifact creature cards just said “summon artifact” and some legendary creature cards said “summon legend.” For example, the first printing of Rorix Bladewing was a “Creature – Dragon Legend,” but this was changed to “Legendary Creature – Dragon.”
2. “Creatures that lacked races got a race.” Samite Healer was a cleric but is now a human cleric. In fact, creatures that were clearly human in the art got the human subtype added.
3. “Creatures that lacked an obvious class got a class.” Cards that only had a race, like Elvish Archers, got an appropriate class subtype added. In this case it was “archer.”
4. “Obsolete creature types were eliminated.” Cards that look like birds are considered birds (but not vultures), cards that look like beasts are considered beasts, etc.

Overall, this was a huge project. A total of 1,197 cards changed in the creature type update. 146 creature types were eliminated, and eight were added, to leave the final list at 216 creature types.

WotC

Almost every set after the great 2007 update introduces new creature types.

New Creature Types in Each Set/Block

• Lorwyn: Noggle
• Magic 2010: Siren
• Zendikar: Ally, Surrakar, Eldrazi
• Scars of Mirrodin: Hippogriff, Germ, Praetor
• Innistrad: Werewolf
• Theros: God, Sable, Lamia, Nymph
• Khans of Tarkir: Naga
• Battle for Zendikar: Scion, Processor
• Shadows over Innistrad: Mole
• Kaladesh: Aetherborn, Pilot, Servo, Monkey
• Amonkhet: Jackal
• Ixalan: Trilobite, Dinosaur
• Battlebond: Azra
• Core Set 2019: Egg
• War of the Spark: Army
• Commander 2019: Sculpture
• Throne of Eldraine: Mouse, Peasant, Warlock, Noble
• Theros Beyond Death: Demigod, Tentacle
• Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths: Otter, Shark
• Core Set 2021: Dog
• Kaldheim: Phyrexian
• Strixhaven: School of Mages: Inkling, Fractal
• Modern Horizons 2: Ranger, Phyrexian creature type update
• Dungeons & Dragons: Adventures in the Forgotten Realms: Bard, Beholder, Gnoll, Halfling, Hamster Tiefling
• The Lost Caverns of Ixalan: Capybara, Llama, Snail
• Outlaws of Thunder Junction: Armadillo, Mount, Coyote, Porcupine, Possum, Varmint
• Bloomburrow: Skunk, Weasel
• Duskmourn: House of Horror: Glimmer, Toy,
• Final Fantasy: Moogle, Qu,
• Edge of Eternities: Drix, Lobster
• Spider-Man: Symbiote, Villain
• Universes Beyond: Echidna, Hero

Some creature types have also been removed over the years. For example, anteater has been completely removed while hounds are now considered dogs.

Periodic Table of Creature Types in MTG

Source

This table by Reddit user Not_Quite_Vertical is too awesome not to include. It covers only legal black-bordered cards from 2023, so cards from recent sets, Un-sets, and silver-bordered cards aren’t included.

Have fun analyzing this table as much as I did! It shows the type of creatures by card count, average mana values, and in which color each creature type is most represented.

What’s the Best Creature Type?

The best creature type is hard to define, but some metrics can be used to narrow it down:

• If you’re looking for creature types that make good creature-focused (i.e., typal) decks then you probably want goblins, humans, or elves. You can definitely find decks with these creature types in lots of competitive formats like Pioneer, Modern, and Legacy.
• If you’re looking for creature types that have the most individual powerful cards then dragons, wurms, angels, demons, and sphinxes are good choices. These are usually printed at the highest rarities.
• If you’re looking for creature types that have the most creature type synergy, you can’t go wrong with allies, slivers, and vampires.
• If you’re looking for big creatures, then your best choices are dinosaurs, hydras, giants/titans, or beasts.

What Are Some Weird Creature Types?

Qu

Creature types that are present on only one card are usually the weirdest. Elder Spawn is the only “spawn” type creature. The “trilobite” card type is also very weird. The fractal type is found on just two cards. There are a handful of creature types like Fifth Dawn‘s “bringer,” that show up on one cycle of cards.

Other cards like Quina, Qu Gourmet and Knuckles the Echidna are from Universes Beyond properties and unlikely to have any other cards with the same creature type.

Are Shapeshifters All Creature Types?

Not all shapeshifters are all creature types, just the ones that are also changelings. This ability states that the creature is all creature types at once. All cards printed with the changeling ability are shapeshifters but there are lots of shapeshifters that aren’t changelings, like Aetherling and Altered Ego.

Is Legendary a Creature Type?

No, legendary is actually a “supertype,” not a creature type or subtype.

Are All Creature Types One Word?

Almost, there is one exception to creature types, which are otherwise all one word. Doctor Who introduced the “Time Lord” subtype. Susan Foreman has just one creature type, time lord.

Creature Type Bonus Trivia: Did You Know Magic Has Worms and Wurms?

MTG has worms and wurms. I don't know of any lore that backs up my take on this, but the “u” makes them bigger or the “o” means they are smaller.

Then there's always one person that corrects you, “Well actually… there's Purple Worm and Teething Wurmlet.” OK, let's wrap up.

Wrap Up

Realmwalker | Illustration by Zack Stella

Well, that’s a lot to process! Ever since the introduction of creature types in Magic’s rules, decks that focus on a specific creature type have been incredibly popular. There are lots of typal Commander decks too, from Edgar Markov’s vampires to Krenko, Mob Boss’ goblins.

If your favorite MTG creature type is badly represented or doesn’t have enough good cards to make a typal deck, don’t worry! Changelings can always be used to fill up the ranks, and there’s bound to be a future set on the release schedule that’ll provide more cards at some point.

What are some of your favorite creature types? Are there any that you hope get some more support soon, or even an entirely new creature type you’d like to see printed? Let me know in the comments or tweet at us.

Stay safe, take your medicine as the doctor ordered, and I’ll see you in the next one!