I am brewing a standard deck for when Kaladesh hits, and I'll be using Saheeli and Saheeli's Artistry so I wanted to make some tokens of certain artifacts / creatures in the deck ( Decoction Module, Panharmonicon, and Whirler Virtuoso with the addition of the type ‘Artifact’ ).

But I noticed that tokens have the word ‘Token’ in the super types next to ‘Creature’, and was wondering is this an actual type? Does the token actually have that as an aspect of the object? Can this type be taken away, or granted to another permanent? If someone tried to, say, Populate the only Thopter Token in play and you remove the Token type would Populate fail? Is there any way a Token could have this type overwritten ( like ‘Becomes a _’ effects ).

Sorry for the flood of questions, but I didn't see anything in Da Rulez about it so I figured I'd ask here c:

EDIT:

To clarify, I know what a token definitively is and I've read the CR; it's an intangible ‘object’ usually created by a spell or ability. Tokens are permanents, an ‘object’ but not a card ( there are other intangible non-card ‘objects’ that are not tokens, such as copies of a spell or counters ). Spells or abilities that refer to ‘target creature card’ or ‘target artifact card’ will not effect tokens, same with any intangible ‘objects’.

I guess my question is… where the label ‘Token’? if not in the type line with the card types ( non-card ‘objects’ can still have card types, such as Artifact and Land ), then is it some innate aspect it has like a creature being Monstrous? Is the word ‘Token’ listed somewhere in the object itself ( not card ) like a Color Indicator?

Where would an ability that targets only a Token Creature look to make sure a Thopter Token is a valid target?

Edited Sal Cortez (Sept. 23, 2016 03:50:02 PM)

Hi,

No, token is not a card type, subtype, or supertype. Here is a complete list of card types and supertypes, for example:

300.1. The card types are artifact, conspiracy, creature, enchantment, instant, land, phenomenon, plane, planeswalker, scheme, sorcery, tribal, and vanguard.

205.4a A card can also have one or more supertypes. These are printed directly before its card types. The supertypes are basic, legendary, ongoing, snow, and world.

A token is just a marker used to represent a permanent that's not a card. “Token” is just put on the token cards in packs so players know that they're tokens and not actual Magic cards. It is technically not rules correct, but it's there for clarification for players. You cannot remove “tokenness' from something, and you cannot add ”tokenness" to a card. Casting a Clone card and copying a Thropter token means that your Clone is a copy of the token, but the Clone itself is not considered a token. The Clone Thropter is not a token, and cannot be populated, for instance.

Nathan Long
Magic Rules NetRep