Sphinx's Thopters w/Black STD PPTQ

Standard Artifact Combo Competitive Control Mill Theme/Gimmick UB (Dimir)

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Buffs (6)

• 3x Chief of the Foundry
• 1x Drana, Liberator of Malakir
• 1x Ruination Guide
• 1x Tide Drifter

Draw (8)

• 1x Altar's Reap
• 1x Artificer's Epiphany
• 1x Dark Deal
• 1x Fascination
• 2x Monastery Siege
• 1x Read the Bones
• 1x Smothering Abomination

FieldControl (5)

• 1x Archfiend of Depravity
• 1x Bone Splinters
• 1x Dampening Pulse
• 1x Displacement Wave
• 1x Flaying Tendrils

IndirectMillEngine (4)

• 4x Sphinx's Tutelage

Land (23)

• 1x Dismal Backwater
• 9x Island
• 1x Mirrorpool
• 1x Ruins of Oran-Rief
• 1x Submerged Boneyard
• 2x Sunken Hollow
• 6x Swamp
• 2x Tomb of the Spirit Dragon

Multipurpose (3)

• 1x Alhammarret's Archive
• 1x Taigam's Scheming
• 1x Tainted Remedy

Planeswalker (3)

• 2x Jace, Vryn's Prodigy  ^Flip
• 1x Ugin, the Spirit Dragon

ThopterGen (8)

• 3x Hangarback Walker
• 2x Thopter Spy Network
• 3x Whirler Rogue

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Sideboard

Other (9)

• 1x Brutal Hordechief
• 1x Crush of Tentacles
• 2x Duress
• 2x Icy Blast
• 1x Languish
• 1x Murderous Cut
• 1x Sire of Stagnation

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Soon to be deprecated. Shadows Over Innistrad update to Esper, Sphinx's Thopters Esper SOI Redux.

PPTQ won = 2 0 left

This deck runs Artifacts, Blue, and Black. The goal is the same as the other Tutelage decks. Use Tutelage as an engine and pump out their deck, in this decks case I use Thopter's for field control and draw. I added black to make it easier to last until later game.

Playstyles

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Card types in this deck elaborated: Show

Draw

Draw in this deck is needed to pump the main engine that is Sphinx's Tutelage. Notable Draw / Draw buff cards:

• Alhammarret's Archive, allows for 2 times the draw.

• Thopter Spy Network, allows you to draw a card if an artifact, in specific, has dealt damage to player.

• Dark Deal when combo'd with Sphinx's Tutelage is basically a miniature win condition.

• Monastery Siege although you really want it for it's khans draw modal ability, it's Dragons can seriously protect your creature in the case you run into a pretty nasty white or blue based removal deck.

• Fascination, like Dark Deal, is a miniature win condition when combo'd with Sphinx's Tutelage as well, although it costs X which is more than Dark deal, it can be much more potent when you use Fascination for its "Each player Draws X cards."

• Read the Bones allows for early game fixing and provides draw as well, overall pretty useful.

• Artificer's Epiphany proves useful midgame giving you card advantage, hopefully you have an artifact out by the time you use this card.

• Altar's Reap although you must sacrifice a creature, we have thopter tokens for this anyways. overall this card is pretty good for a 2 drop.

• Smothering Abomination allows for turn by turn draw by sacrificing so be careful when you play him and you don't have both Thopter Spy Network's out generating faster than you sacrifice.

Colorless Buff

With the secondary playstyle of this deck being damage using card:Thopter token, we need them to be as big as possible. Thanks to certain Eldrazi cards that have specific card text "other colorless creatures" they are allowed to buff thopters and thopter generator Hangarback Walker. Notable Cards:

Chief of the Foundry +1/+1

Tide Drifter +0/+1

Ruination Guide +1/+0

Drana, Liberator of Malakir +1/+1 counter on each attacking creature

Thopter Generators

Generating thopters using the included Whirler Rogue, Hangarback Walker, and Thopter Spy Network, is a very simple task costing at most a turn and and an artifact on the field. Things to note with generation:

Sacrificing Thopter Tokens is OK.

Do not let Hangarback Walker hit 4 or more +1/+1 counters as it becomes to become harder to pop him.

It is generally worth keeping an artifact on the field for Thopter Spy Network and take damage than not have a set of blockers for the next turn.

Land

Land is really the only thing I have changed most recently in this decks evolution, of only a week or so.

Tomb of the Spirit Dragon is amazingly overpowered in this deck. Especially when combo'd with Alhammarret's Archive, say you have a Hangarback Walker that just died for 4 and you have a Thopter Spy Network that generated a thopter last turn and this turn, so you have 6 thopters and you tap Tomb of the Spirit Dragon for life gain.

Ruins of Oran-Rief combo: is amazing for a turn 3 Hangarback Walker at 2, then immediately following with 4 counters on turn 4. Do note you can only use it the turn a creature comes in. It's amazing with Thopter Spy Network, each thopter has the potential to be a 2/2, not including buffs.

Mirrorpool is useful when you cast a draw spell as you can copy it, the same goes for creatures such as buffs. Do note that Mirrorpool will not copy Hangarback Walker's counters.

Multipurpose

I have a number of multipurpose cards that I have thrown in to counteract the meta in Standard right now. Notable cards:

• Alhammarret's Archive 2 times draw and life gain.

• Taigam's Scheming, a good turn two will help for mana fixing and / or creature draw. Basically can save you early game.

• Tainted Remedy really decimates certain Abzan and life gain decks.

Planeswalker

Planeswalkers in this deck are quite literally win condition cards if you can get 'em out.

I have included Ugin, the Spirit Dragon as per my friends request Jburk777 and my GOD, does it just crap on the field if you can get him out. He has sooo much synergy with colorless, draw and life gain that this deck should be called Ugin's Thopter's. More on Ugin and playstyles and tips in a later segment.

Jace, Vryn's Prodigy  , is good for draw even in his creature flip.

Field Control

Now this category is a little tricky to place and describe as it includes sweepers that hit your own field as well.Field control can stop card combo's like Stoneforge Masterwork or Veteran Warleader.

Lets start this with the sacrifice cards card.Bone Splinters cost requires you to sacrifice a creature, this is ok since you can sac thopters.

• Dampening Pulse is very useful to survive to late game, reducing creatures opponents control by -1/-0. It also gives your thopters a slightly more fair fight when blocking.

• Archfiend of Depravity is a massive hit to decks that run ally's and decks that create tokens such as those from Nissa, Voice of Zendikar or Gideon, Ally of Zendikar (PS They can sac gideon lol).

• Displacement Wave, now this is a total X nonland sweeper, so be sure to use it wisely.

• Flaying Tendrils, although its only -2/-2 this really counts for your opponent blocking buffed thopters. This will definitely stop your thopter generation unless you have something like Chief of the Foundry 2/3.

• Ugin, the Spirit Dragon, now this may be a bit odd to you, it was to me when it hit me, Ugin's -X actually hits colored permanents leaving thopters and the like on your field.

ENGINE

Sphinx's Tutelage is the engine of this deck, without it you are extremely unlikely to win. Although with that said, you are extremely unlikely not to draw into at least 1 using the playstyle provided.

Previous Successful Deck

Sphinx's Thopter's

Thanks to Jburk777 for the help xO

Date added	8 years
Last updated	8 years
Splash colors	B
Legality	This deck is not Standard legal.
Rarity (main - side)	6 - 3 Mythic Rares 14 - 3 Rares 19 - 1 Uncommons 5 - 2 Commons
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	2.95
Tokens	Copy Clone, Emblem Jace, Vryn's Prodigy, Octopus 8/8 U, Thopter 1/1 C
Folders	Tutelage