This is the very first entry in my Weird Things You Can Do in Magic: The Gathering series, where I chain rules interactions together to do something the game never intended.
The trick
I start with a noncreature artifact, Darksteel Ingot, and peel its identity away one layer at a time:
- March of the Machines turns it into an artifact creature.
- Humble strips its abilities and makes it a 0/1.
- Neurok Transmuter removes "artifact" from it. Since it is no longer an artifact, it stops being a creature too, leaving just a blue permanent.
- Thran Lens then removes even its colour.
The payoff
By the end it is not an artifact, not a creature, not even a colour. It is just a thing sitting on the battlefield, a permanent with no types at all. That is exactly the kind of daft, rules-bending corner of Magic I love to dig into, and it kicked off the whole series.