Token

Game terms · beginner

A token is a permanent that no card represents. It exists only on the battlefield and stops existing anywhere else.

A token is a marker used to represent a permanent that isn't represented by a card. [111.1] The player who creates it owns it, and it enters under that player's control. [111.2]
The spell or ability that creates a token defines its characteristics, and that definition is the token's text. A token has no characteristic the creating effect didn't give it. [111.3]
The creating effect sets both name and subtypes. If it doesn't name the token, the name is its subtypes plus the word "Token." [111.4]
Some effects create a predefined token such as Treasure, Clue or Food, whose characteristics come from the rules rather than the card. [111.10] An effect that creates a token by name that isn't predefined uses the Oracle card of that name. [111.11]

A token isn't a card, even when a physical card is used to represent it. Anything that cares about cards does not care about tokens. [111.6]
A token in any zone other than the battlefield ceases to exist as a state-based action. Triggers that cared about it changing zones still trigger first. [111.7]
A token that has left the battlefield can't come back; if something would move it again, it stays where it is and ceases to exist. [111.8]
If a rule or effect stops a permanent with one of the token's characteristics from entering the battlefield, the token is never created at all. [111.5]
A copy of a permanent spell becomes a token as it resolves, but it is not "created," so triggers that watch for creating tokens do not fire. [111.13]
"Create [name], a legendary ..." is just an instruction to create a token with those characteristics and that name. [111.9]

[111.1] [111.2] [111.3] [111.4] [111.5] [111.6] [111.7] [111.8] [111.9] [111.10] [111.11] [111.13]

Comprehensive Rules