

The final step was made with the Grand Creature Type Update, as part of the regular Oracle update for Lorwyn. In the end the decision was made in favor of having consistent creature types in the core set ( Ninth Edition). At that time, it was an open question whether creature types on existing cards should be changed. Along with the race/class model, the Human subtype was introduced. The race/class system was designed to help align Magic with many other fantasy-based games. Sometimes, it was merely a race other times, it was merely a class. Before that time, creatures had one creature type. It was concurrent with Mirrodin's design that the creative team managed to convince R&D that the race/class system needed to be adopted. The race/class model is the concept that each Magic card depicting a sapient being should have a creature class as well as a race subtype. The " Grand Creature Type Update" was a mass update of creature types, as part of the regular Oracle update for Lorwyn in October 2007. However, expansions and non-expansion sets continue to feature creature types for purposes other than flavor. įollowing Lorwyn–Shadowmoor block, only Rise of the Eldrazi would feature the tribal card type. Masques block revisited this, albeit with Spellshapers Odyssey block, with its pre-tribal tribal cards Onslaught block, with its tribal cards and Time Spiral block and Lorwyn–Shadowmoor block, with the tribal card type. The first block in which creature types mattered was Tempest, particularly via the Licids and Slivers, both of which creature types shared a mechanical identity among its creature cards. This was continued until Fallen Empires, when creatures types had in-game mechanical implications. Originally, in Alpha, creature types were largely for flavor-related reasons.
