Krenko’s Guide to Creature Types: Construct
What is a Construct (flavorfully)?
A Construct is any artificial creature, such as a catapult, a robot, a doll, a blimp, or a dragon, but not all artificial creatures, because sometimes they count as actual dragons or birds or dogs even though they’re entirely artificial.
What is a Construct (mechanically)?
In the old days of Magic: the Gathering, Artifact Creatures didn’t need creature types. Then, the Grand Creature Type Update came to fix this by giving a creature type to each and every Artifact creature. The type ‘construct’ was given to any without an obvious better option.
Constructs vary wildly in size and ability with no rhyme or reason, save that all but Slag Fiend are artifact creatures. How is Slag Fiend a construct but not an Artifact? I don’t know. I honestly don’t know.
Can I make a Construct deck?
There’s enough decent constructs that it should be entirely reasonable to make a construct deck for casual purposes, but there’s no real reward for doing so. Artifact creatures tend to be weaker than non-artifact creatures at the same mana costs, and while there are multiple constructs that can act as construct lords, Adaptive Automaton, Chief of the Foundry, and Steel Overseer are all completely apathetic to your creature type of choice, though you could use them together along with Metallic Mimic to make a Lord-Heavy artifact deck.
It’s certainly possible to make a deck that wins using Constructs. In standard alone, Electrostatic Pummeler, Metallurgic Summonings, and Karn, Scion of Urza are solid game-ending threats, but constructs are a subtheme of artifact creatures, and you’re going to do a lot better in any format making an artifact creatures matter deck than making a constructs matter deck.
In Commander, the only legendary construct is Traxos, who’s probably fine, but does nothing to support the rest of the type and is probably a lot better just loading up on Equipment. Daretti, Scrap Savant or Feldon work great with a lot of constructs, but once again, at this point you’re making an Artifact deck, not a Construct deck, and you have no rewards for creature type that matter. Any Construct deck is relying entirely on “choose a type” cards, or “Artifact matters” cards in its entirety.
Is Construct a good creature type?
Construct, like Beast, is an awful creature type that means nothing. Just as “Beast” means “Creature,” “Construct” means “Artifact.” And like with Beast, while I truly accept that some things, like Grapeshot Catapult, don’t have anything else they could be but a Construct, you can’t tell me that Dragon Engine and Ugin’s Construct are Constructs but then Ramos, Dragon Engine and Lotus Guardian are real dragons.
Unfortunately, unlike with Beasts, it’s a lot harder to fix construct taxonomy by trying to use actual taxonomy. There’s certainly some things I would change. I’d lean more toward living creature types over “Construct” for things like Dragon Engine and Traxos, which are designed to look like living creatures. I’d push a lot more of the humanoid constructs into Golem. I’d turn a lot of Phyrexian constructs into “Horror,” which seems to be a good go-to creature type for Phyrexians that isn’t too limiting. I’d definitely expand Assembly-Worker (possibly renaming it to Assembler or Worker) to absorb things like Hangarback Walker and Accomplished Automaton that make more artifact creatures. I might even give some the Artificer creature type.
A lot of things, though, can’t be reclassified without making a new creature type, and I’m trying to cut down on the number of those. Ultimately, Construct is boring and redundant, but has to exist because… Actually I’m not so sure why we can’t just have a bunch of artifact creatures without creature types. A Battering Ram doesn’t need a creature type. A Catapult doesn’t need a creature type. What sort of magical effect are you doing to give your Catapults +1/+1 for each Battering Ram you control?
So maybe I’d endorse going back to “artifact creatures don’t need a creature type, but should get one when relevant.” The idea that a truly mindless creature can’t benefit from any actual creature type buffs is starting to resonate with me. After all, Vehicles currently don’t have creature types and they’re doing fine.
