MTG tokens: Treasure, Food, Clue, Blood, Map and Gold explained
What every common artifact token does, how much it costs to use, and the token rules people get wrong: tokens that leave the battlefield vanish, and they're never cards.
, tap, sacrifice, gain 3 life. Clue: , sacrifice, draw a card. Blood: 
, tap, discard a card, sacrifice, draw a card. Map: , tap, sacrifice, a creature you control explores (sorcery speed only).In this article
Most modern Commander decks make some kind of artifact token: Treasure for ramp, Clues for cards, Food for life. They all work the same basic way, but the costs differ in small ways that matter when you’re about to crack five of them.
Every token at a glance
These are the predefined tokens from rule 111.10 of the Comprehensive Rules. When a card says “create a Treasure token,” this is exactly what you get:
| Token | Ability | Good for |
|---|---|---|
| Treasure |  , Sacrifice: Add one mana of any color | Ramp, fixing |
| Gold | Sacrifice: Add one mana of any color | Same, but no tap needed |
| Food | , , Sacrifice: You gain 3 life | Life, sacrifice fodder |
| Clue | , Sacrifice: Draw a card | Card draw |
| Blood | , , Discard a card, Sacrifice: Draw a card | Filtering your hand |
| Map | , , Sacrifice: Target creature you control explores. Sorcery speed only | Lands or +1/+1 counters |
All six are colorless artifact tokens. None of them is a creature.
The details that matter
Treasure vs Gold
Both give one mana of any color. Treasure needs to tap, Gold doesn’t. That means a Gold token still works after something has tapped it, and a Treasure doesn’t.
Clues don’t tap
A Clue costs and a sacrifice, no tap. With enough mana you can crack all your Clues in one go, at instant speed.
Blood needs a card in hand
Blood makes you discard as part of the cost. With an empty hand you can’t use it at all.
Map tokens explore
To explore, you reveal the top card of your library (rule 701.44a). If it’s a land, it goes to your hand. If not, the creature gets a +1/+1 counter and you choose whether the revealed card goes to your graveyard. Maps can only be used at sorcery speed, so on your own turn in a main phase with an empty stack.
“Investigate” means make a Clue
Rule 701.16a defines it in one line: investigate means create a Clue token.
Rules that apply to every token
- Tokens aren’t cards (rule 111.6). Even if you use a printed token card to represent one, the game treats it as a token.
- Tokens vanish when they leave the battlefield (rules 111.7 and 111.8). A bounced, exiled or destroyed token goes to the new zone just long enough for triggers, then ceases to exist. Flicker effects can’t bring it back.
- Artifact tokens can be used right away. Summoning sickness only stops creatures, so a Treasure can tap the turn it’s made.
- Whoever created it owns it (rule 111.2). If an effect makes a token for you, it enters under your control.
Cards that make the most tokens
- Smothering Tithe. Every time an opponent draws, they pay or you get a Treasure.
- Pitiless Plunderer. A Treasure every time another creature you control dies.
- Tireless Tracker. A Clue for every land drop, and it grows whenever you sacrifice a Clue.
- Gilded Goose. Makes Food and turns it into mana.
- Voldaren Epicure. One damage to each opponent and a Blood token for
. - Get Lost. Removal that gives the opponent two Map tokens as a consolation prize.
- Gild. Exiles a creature and gives you a Gold token.
Making more of them
- Academy Manufactor. Whenever you’d create a Clue, Food or Treasure, you create one of each instead.
- Doubling Season and Anointed Procession double every token you’d create.
- Chatterfang, Squirrel General adds a 1/1 Squirrel for every token you create.
Put a few of these together and one Smothering Tithe trigger turns into a small pile of artifacts.
Keeping track at the table
Token decks fill the table fast. Twelve Treasures, four Clues and a Food is a lot of dice, and it’s easy to lose count of which ones are already tapped.
Lotus has counters for Treasure, Gold, Food, Clue, Blood and Map that you can turn on per player. If you’re also counting +1/+1 and other counters, see our guide to proliferate.
