Yeah I don't think anyone is understanding the role of Frost Walker in this deck.

It is there for opportunistic attacks, when there are no other Opponent blockers on the field, or to answer bigger attacking Opponent Creatures.

Just because everyone is wetting themselves over Hangarback Walker doesn't mean it automatically works in every deck. If you want to play it in this deck, go right ahead. I do not.

I will no longer respond to comments about Hangarback Walker.

I do not require more targets for Ensoul Artifact. In fact, there are much better targets for it in this deck than Bronze Sable, which would potentially mean that it would be sitting on the field or in my hand doing nothing.

Claustrophobia is so good for bigger threats and to stop some Planeswalkers evolving.

I do take on board your comments about aggro, and AEtherspouts is an excellent and HELPFUL suggestion. I've thought for a while that Reduce in Stature is not a really good Sideboard option, so I'll substitute AEtherspouts for it.

Aqueous Form I've addressed earlier in these comments. Silumgar's Scorn would be a better option than stubborn denial.

This is not a speed deck. I want all the lands for more chances of early play, and to make sure that I don't end up with too many lands I can't tap for Blue in hand. If you wish to take out lands and sub other stuff to play this deck, go right ahead.

I will no longer respond to comments about lands in this deck.

I do appreciate the time people have taken to think about and comment on this deck, even if I haven't agreed with the ideas put forward.

OK I've play tested the hell out of this thing, but did another one then just to make sure.

I played against a burn deck.

I was able to get three lands on the field by the third turn. Playing with speed decks in the past which had only twenty two lands in them or less, that would NEVER happen.

That meant I could get Chief of the Foundry out on the third turn. He gave a buff to my Ornithopter, which was already buffed with Ghostfire Blade.

Gudul Lurker was out as well. That meant the burn spells had to choose between three targets. My Creatures and me. They even had a Satyr Firedancer out.

I had already dropped another Ornithopter and I played Ensoul Artifact on it. One more target, and one that was also too big for Stoke the Flames to hit. My other Ornithopter was 5 toughness as well due to Ghostfire Blade and Chief of the Foundry.

Needless to say, the whole thing was over for the Opposition very quickly.

I think where people are getting confused is that this is NOT a speed deck.

It just feels that way because it can get very fast and has a low overall mana cost.

If you wish to speed up the deck you can actually do that post-sideboard.

Then it would something like this:

4x Chief of the Foundry
4x Clash of Wills
4x Darksteel Citadel
4x Ensoul Artifact
3x Frost Walker
3x Ghostfire Blade
3x Gudul Lurker
19x Island
4x Negate
3x Nullify
4x Ornithopter
2x Thopter Spy Network
3x Whirler Rogue

Remember too that once Darksteel Citadel becomes a Creature you are unlikely to tap it for land.

Well it looks like you got it all figured out. Good luck dude.

Argeaux I had a thought, with the whole unblockable subtheme and the curve issue people keep bringing up, and the artificer's ephiphany... thoughts on Bident of Thassa ? It gives you draw, its a 4 drop and you can force attackers so you can alpha strike next turn. What do you think?

And im not sure if Day's Undoing is something you might want? I mean you do it in the second main phase obviously but what do you think?

thanks for commenting on my deck too btw!

I can't see that Bident of Thassa would work better in this deck than Thopter Spy Network, which would be the card to swap for it seeing that they are both Enchantments costing the same manner.

I will think about Day's Undoing for the Sideboard, although this deck works very well by building everything up, so I'm not sure that having to reconstruct the board would be that helpful.

Thanks for the ideas, though.

My personal preference for a counter spell, at least until rotation, is Dissolve. The only time Clash of Wills is really better is if your opponent has no mana available, because if they have even 1, you're paying the same or more and not getting to Scry.

Yeah I know about Dissolve. It's easily still one of the best counter spells.

It's just a bit too slow. Things tend to be over fairly quickly with this deck so Clash of Wills is meant to shut down potential threats VERY early game.

It usually counters their counter.

I like what you've got here. I kinda wanna playtest it. I do have one other thought: a couple of Sword of the Animists could provide some more artifacts/targets for Ensoul, with all your unblockable and elusive creatures you'd have no problems with land, and +1/+1 doesn't hurt. Food for thought. +1 from me.

Thanks Tanis44.

With this deck feel free to playtest it, copy it, modify it, add it to a folder - do whatever you'd like with it.

I must admit that I'm not going to modify it any more as I'm happy with how it works.

Thanks for the idea, though.

Encrust is just straight up better than Claustrophobia, use it while you can.

KennEH: Encrust is great and all but it doesn't actually tap the threat which can be a problem in some games. The number of things with activated abilities that can trigger them without tapping are relatively low at this time in comparison.

Argeaux: Hangarback Walker will do you better in competitive play because if they wipe the board, it retains some value. It's also good against decks with lots of creature-kill and/or burn as again it only comes back and in many ways better. I don't think you are considering the heavy red that will probably appear in decks after pro-tour. Frost Walker dies to any targeted ability. They could literally target it with Rogue's Passage and it dies. It's also just a 1 in toughness. It can't be targeted by Ensoul Artifact. It costs 3 to equip it with Ghostfire Blade. It's value in this deck outside of casual play is minimal. It can't even be made unblockable as explained earlier. It's just bad. I'm not saying it couldn't win a game but it's just not as valuable as you are making it out to be.

@wombatman880 Triggered abilities are a pain, but allowing someone's artifacts (legendary's, lands and creatures are all in rotation) to tap just once is pretty huge against certain decks. The only decks I see that this card would be worse at is one where the triggered ability/attack is game changing.

I didn't even see the artifact benefit. Thanks for opening my eyes to that. I honestly still think both are roughly equally good but being able to slow or stop Ensoul Artifact is a pretty big value and I'll agree to that. If only either could stop planeswalkers.

I'm pretty sure that equipping Frost Walker with Ghostfire Blade kills it. If not, you've given me one more reason to love it!!

I want more than just Thopters on the field because Bile Blight is a thing.

What you are both not taking into consideration with Claustrophobia is the card Archangel of Tithes.

It is HUGE in my local meta.

Left untapped that thing shuts you down because you have to choose whether or not to play spells or keep your mana for attacks and blocks.

I already tried Encrust with it and the results were woeful.

Just saw an article on TCG that said Tomb of the Spirit Dragon is good for Thopter decks to at least have in their sideboard as defense against Red Decks (both burn & aggro) and figured I'd pass it on to you.

Thanks for that, Tanis44.

I've thinking about making a Sideboard adjustment for a while and that is an EXCELLENT suggestion.

+1 for you as a person, for being so helpful!

Frost Walker has little value in your deck. It's only good if someone doesn't interact with it at all. You are correct, you lose it if you target it with anything. They can target it, run into it, block it and it just dies. Bile Blight is a thing but noone is suggesting run only thopters. It might be good to run better blue things though. Mizzium Meddler works against Bile Blight, can take a hit to your face away, gives a solid 1/4 blocker that can flash against tiny aggro red things. Stratus Dancer is a good side board for control , counters an instant or sorcery, megamorphs as a flying 3/2, and is just fun.

I personally agree with Claustrophobia. It's probably still better value in my meta too. The artifact condition on Encrust could be useful elsewhere.

if Mizzium Meddler was a 2 drop it would be perfect.

It is not.

I don't care if the Opposition wastes a card or something else getting rid of Frost Walker, or tries to get rid of it by hitting me with a measly 1/1 etc.

It means another card won't be the target of that spell later, or they have left an opening for Frosty to attack for more damage.

Stratus Dancer is an interesting suggestion. I'll have a muck around with that.

Tomb of the spirit dragon is nice if you have a bunch of thopters out and need some health. It saved my bacon a few times.

Stratus dancer is another card that finds its way back into my mono blue decks. She is a solid, solid two drop.

Yeah renopants I've got Tomb of the Spirit Dragon in my Sideboard.

I'm thinking about Stratus Dancer. TBH I have cards to deal with Control in both my Main and Sideboards, and my spells cost so little that I can easily wait until they stack, then play a few at a time. That's quite tricky for Control to deal with.

After a bit more thought Harbinger of the Tides is going into my Sideboard.

I will switch it for Frost Walker against an Opponent with Ensoul Artifact.

I have copies of Negate in there already that I can swap for a couple of the Claustrophobia.

Hi i finaly made a Thopter deck based in yours, take a look http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/monou-thopter