Beast of Burden

Beast of Burden was first introduced in the Urza's Destiny expansion in 1999, designed as a rare artifact creature that scales in power based on the number of creatures on the battlefield. The card was brought into the Ninth Edition core set in 2005, serving as a staple utility creature that rewards players for maintaining a wide board presence. Its inclusion in the core set allowed it to reach a broader audience of players, standardizing its role in artifact-themed decks during the mid-2000s.

The artwork for this iteration was created by the illustrator Chippy, whose distinct, painterly style brought a sense of weight and ancient mechanical life to the card. Chippy’s design focuses on the creature as a lumbering, monolithic construct, emphasizing the card's nature as a mechanical beast that grows more formidable as the conflict escalates. Upon its release, the design was well-regarded for its mechanical synergy and its evocative representation of the artifact creature archetype.