Bat

Bat is a creature type used for cards that depict nocturnal flying mammals with wings formed from four elongated digits of the forelimb covered by a cutaneous membrane and that may have echolocating skills.
==Description==
Associated primarily with black mana, Magic's bats originally tended to be fearsome and dangerous, a stark contrast to the harmless tiny insect-eating flyers from our world (although those do exist on the Multiverse, such as <c>Dakmor Bat</c>). More often than not they were associated with Vampires. They appear often at common rarity as a weak flier, with 4 or less combined power and toughness. Their play pattern is intermixed with gaining and spending life. Before Lost Caverns of Ixalan, the only non-Black bat was the silver-bordered with its bizarre selection of creature types (alongside Wombat and Chameleon). Since then, bats have been occasionally associated with white, likely due to synergy with vampires and due to their social habits.
The first card to bear the creature type Bat was <c>Vampire Bats</c> in Legends. Bloomburrow was the first set to feature Bat-typal.
==Storyline==
===Bloomburrow===
Bats are one of the animalfolk of Bloomburrow. They are known for their clerics and astronomers who read the movements of celestial objects. Nocturnal creatures, they use the moon and stars to determine their choices and fuel their magic. Fortune-telling and star reading are popular batfolk hobbies. The Cosmos contains spiritual wisdom passed on by the batfolk of past generations who have joined their ancestors in the night sky.
At their best, batfolk are dependable and loyal protectors with strong ties to their compatriots. At their worst, batfolk are obtuse, adhering overly rigidly to hierarchies and order. Batfolk are deeply protective of their community, occasionally superstitious, and focused on maintaining the balance between all things: light and darkness, life and death, day and night. As a result of being awake when others are asleep, they serve as silent guardians of the vulnerable creatures of Valley.Magic: The Gathering Arena Tooltips They have three clawed fingers on their wings, which they use to grasp objects.
Batfolk community consists of rigid roles and deﬁned hierarchies. One of their primary roles is the establishment of large-scale projects with their communal organization and resources. Aside from organizers, batfolk can be found as clerics and musicians, often taking the night shift. Batfolk who are more inclined toward adventure are called Drifting Stars and are regarded with a mixture of fascination and frustration by the community at large. Batfolk magic is related to the stars and night sky that they worship, and they can channel the life force of other animals into blasts of light and sound.Flavor text of <c>Sonar Strike</c> Batfolk sing as a part of the casting, which can cause auditory damage as they chant. Batfolk sometimes dabble in minor augury.
At the end of each of the four moon phases, batfolk across Valley host a celebration known as a Lunar Paean. Other animalfolk who were born during the same lunar pattern as when the ritual is held often join the festivities. Fortunes are performed for those present, and children born during the current phase are assigned star charts, while their parents are given guidance to help raise them. The celebration concludes with a moon-watching ceremony where families can look out into the ﬁrmament and assign stars to recently deceased loved ones or ﬁnd the stars of their ancestors.
Twice a day, mirrors reﬂect light from the sun and moon into a massive opaline gem embedded in the center of the Lighttrap Spires. There, an elder batfolk trades their sight for vision of the realms beyond Valley. Their eyes are subsequently ﬁlled with a unique nebula-like pattern that marks their ascension to the upper ranks of the priesthood.
One of their kin, Zoraline, assisted Mabel in her quest to stop the Calamity Beasts.
===Innistrad===
On Innistrad, <c title="vampires">Stalking Vampire</c> can change into <c title="bats">Screeching Bat</c> which have such clarity of hearing that simple sounds become symphonies.
Stensia is pestered by undead <c>Marrow Bats</c>.
===Ixalan===
On Ixalan, the bat god Aclazotz is the enemy of the sun god and ruler of the night. Local imps and demons are rather bat-like (and, at least in the case of the former, they are bat-imp hybrids).
The Oltecs living in Ixalan's Core fly on giant bats.
===Mirrodin===
<c>Grimclaw Bats</c> patrolled the Mephidross. Once Mirrodin became Phyrexia, they were <c title="compleated">Dementia Bat</c>.
===Ravnica===
Bats in Ravnica are primarily associated with the Orzhov Syndicate. Unlike other bats, which are primarily black, these bats, especially the <c>Blind Hunter</c>s, are mostly equally white mana as well. They are used as assassins and messengers.
Giant bats are also used as mounts by the Golgari Swarm, particularly by the guild's hunters.
In the Return to Ravnica block, and especially Gatecrash, the Dimir seem to have acquired bat-motifs, such as in the architecture and the design of their Horrors. However, the <c>Basilica Screecher</c> is still attached to the Orzhov guild.
===Ulgrotha===
<c>Sengir Bats</c> accompany the infamous Baron Sengir, the vampire lord who rules the Dark Barony from Castle Sengir.
===Vampire bats===
The classical <c>Vampire Bats</c> are titanic flying creatures that may be used as steeds, for example by <c>Kulrath Knight</c>s. They occur in Dominaria and Shadowmoor, as well as in a few other planes.
==Notable Bats==
;Bloomburrow
*Zoraline
;Ixalan
*Aclazotz
;Un-iverse
*
==Trivia==
*Bloomburrow's batfolk have extra fingers to give them better dexterity for holding objects.
==Tokens==
==References==