When Magic first hit the scene in 1993, fans were drawn by the creative, flavorful, and fun aspects of the game. I distinctly recall browsing my stepbrother's binder, in awe of all the colors, card variations, and attractive fantasy artwork as I turned each page. The creatures stood out as especially evocative in nature.

At the time, creatures were a core component to the game--some of the most desirable cards of my earliest recollection were Shivan Dragon, Serra Angel, Royal Assassin, and Nightmare. These creatures inspired the imagination, even without appreciating their power level in an actual game of Magic.

One flavorful facet to these fantastical creatures was the creature type line (e.g., "Summon Dragon). This identified the creature type and provided a little extra flavor to the game. The inclusion of the creature type was brilliant idea by Garfield. As more sets were released, and Wizards of the Coast wanted to use creature types to inspire certain strategies, the antiquated naming convention from the game's earliest sets became a bit cumbersome.

Creature Type Confusion Mounts

While it made perfect sense that Shivan Dragon was "Summon Dragon" and Serra Angel was "Summon Angel," handling some of the more obscure creature types of the 1990s became unnecessarily complicated. For example, how does a player think about creature type synergies if their creature is literally a one-off, such as "Summon Ali from Cairo" or "People of the Woods?"

Both of these creatures are clearly humans, but without explicitly identifying them as such on the cards, they are relegated to their own unique category of creature types. After dozens of such instances (e.g., Ambush-Party, Harlequin, Pixie Queen, Walking Dead, Wolves of the Hunt, etc.), it became clear that a more cohesive creature typing approach would help clean up the confusion caused by so many one-off creature types. What's more, aligning creature types could help promote creature-based synergies, which became a central theme in later sets. Lorwyn block was one such group of sets.

The Grand Creature Type Update

Lorwyn, released in 2007, showcased a significant creature-type theme--arguably larger than any previous set. To emphasize the importance of streamlined creature types, Wizards of the Coast announced a major Oracle update. This massive creature type overhaul realigned the creature types of 1197 cards in total, eliminating obsolete one-offs and harmonizing under more consistent and intuitive creature types.

Suddenly, Summon Ali from Cairo and Summon People of the Woods became the much more intuitive Summon Human. In total, 146 creature types were removed and became obsolete. A full list can be found on the MTG Wiki page here. Beyond this massive obsoletion, cards originally printed without a type, such as Legends and Artifact Creatures, were given types with this update. After the dust settled, the only creature that retained no named creature type was Nameless Race, for flavor reasons. Even to this day, Nameless Race is the only creature without a creature type.

These massive creature type changes were controversial at the time, with many discussion forums reacting negatively. This likely comes as no surprise to players nowadays, since players generally react negatively to any sudden, significant changes to Magic. The general consensus in 2007 was that the changes were unnecessary, and everyone had opinions about mistakes made with individual card adjustments.

Like with any massive change, a few mistakes were recognized and additional creature type modifications were made after 2007. In fact, 90 more cards were updated when Morningtide released. After that, minor adjustments were made regularly over the years as new creature types were introduced. Three such examples were changes made with Modern Horizons 3.

• Cephalid obsoleted, replaced with Octopus
• Naga obsoleted, replaced with Snake
• Viashino obsoleted, replaced with Lizard.

The full history of ongoing creature type evolution can be found on the Creature Type History MTG Wiki page.

Adjusting to the Changes

I spent years mourning the loss of the most obscure creature types in Magic. Being an older player who enjoyed the game's slightly messy nature at the time, I viewed the massive overhaul of creature types a little jarring at first. Who cared if there were no creature synergies for Will-O'-The-Wisps? I knew that Will-O'-The-Wisp was a "Summon Will-O'-The-Wisp" and that's all that mattered. Now it's a Spirit?

I admit there are far more Spirit synergies than there are Will-O'-The-Wisp synergies, but the casual teenage player in me didn't care about that.

Over the years, I've evolved in my thinking; I appreciate the creature type updates because they unlock interesting interactions involving older cards that otherwise wouldn't be enabled. For example, one of my favorite Homelands cards, Soraya the Falconer, is a lot more relevant now that her static ability pumps ALL birds...not just Falcons.

All those Viashino creatures from the 90s now enjoy Lizard synergies with Bloomburrow creatures of the same type. And of course, Ali from Cairo and People of the Woods can contribute to the rampant expansion of Human synergies in the game. While there was an adjustment period to these changes, I have come to appreciate how they have actually created novel synergies with my beloved, older cards.

A Few Loose Ends

I was ready to pour one out for my beloved, one-off, quirky creature types. As much as I appreciate creature type synergies, a small spot remains in my heart for the truly one-of-a-kind. You'd expect Wizards of the Coast to have virtually eliminated such creature types because they would lack synergy across the board.

Fortunately, that's not the case! Despite the massive changes over the years, there remain a handful of unique or nearly-unique creature types in Magic. Let's look at a few of my favorites--hopefully these remain untouched and special for years to come.

1. Creature - Skunk (1)

With the release of Bloomburrow, Magic introduced its first and only Skunk creature type! Given that it takes a certain kind of fantasy world for skunks to appear, Downwind Ambusher may remain one-of-a-kind for at least a couple years to come.

2. Hamster (1)

Since Bloomburrow is filled with adorable rodents, why not throw in a Hamster for good measure? That's exactly what Wizards of the Coast did, giving us Jolly Gerbils, the only Hamster creature as of today. While perhaps not as flavorful as "Ali From Cairo," this one-of creature's cuteness can't be beat.

3. Deserter (1 token creator)

In some cases, a unique creature type is so obscure that it doesn't even have its own creature card. Instead, there's a singe card that creates tokens of the given type! This is precisely the case for Deserter creature tokens, created by Kjeldoran Home Guard.

While there are exactly zero Deserter creature synergies, I still appreciate the creature type was maintained to reinforce the flavor of this card.

4. Prism (1 token creator)

Another example of a creature type that appears only on tokens created by a single card are Prism creature tokens. These can only be generated by Visions' Diamond Kaleidoscope.

I always found Prism tokens quite interesting--they are a bit like a cross between treasures and Eldrazi spawn. I don't know why Wizards of the Coast moved away from Prism tokens, but perhaps one day we'll see their glorious return!

5. Oyster (1)

Who's hungry? May I interest you in a Giant Oyster, large enough to feed a family of five all on its own?

Actually, who cares about the edible nature of oysters? Wouldn't it be amazing to grab a giant pearl out of said Giant Oyster? Whatever your end goal, the Giant Oyster is Magic's one and only Oyster creature, so if you're looking to battle with humongous bivalves, it's this or one of the game's silver-bordered Clams.

6. Reflection (1, plus a few token generators)

There are a few ways to generate a Reflection creature token, including Spirit Mirror, Pure Reflection, and Alirios, Enraptured. If you want a full-blown Reflection creature as a card, however, you have but one option: Cryptolith Fragment.

While the card itself begins as an artifact, it can be transformed into Aurora of Emrakul, a 1/4 flying, deathtouch creature with types: Eldrazi Reflection. That's all you get in the reflection department as of today.

Wrapping It Up

There are assuredly other one-of creature types remaining in the game, though not many. With something like 30,000 unique cards, it's surprisingly difficult to find one with a unique creature type that was never used before or since. I'm honestly amazed a few still exist today!

Since there are so many new sets being printed--some of which occur in a one-time universe such as Universes Beyond sets--we're bound to see unique creature types show up again in the future. It's inevitable, but I suspect it will also remain infrequent.

In the meantime, let's take a moment of silence to appreciate the 100+ obsoleted creature types from over the years, and welcome the newest class of unique creature types in Magic.