Tezzeret, Thopter Foundry

Legacy Artifact Artificer Control Infinite Combo Thopter Tokens WUB (Esper)

Zenterous

Land (22)

• 1x Inventors' Fair
• 4x Island
• 4x Mistvault Bridge
• 3x Seat of the Synod
• 3x Swamp
• 4x Temple of Deceit
• 3x Vault of Whispers

Instant (14)

• 3x Arcane Denial
• 3x Baleful Mastery
• 3x Counterspell
• 2x Evacuation
• 3x Infernal Grasp

Artifact (9)

• 3x Retrofitter Foundry
• 3x Sword of the Meek
• 3x Thopter Foundry

Creature (12)

• 3x Ornithopter
• 3x Ornithopter of Paradise
• 3x Sai, Master Thopterist
• 3x Urza, Lord High Artificer

Planeswalker (4)

• 2x Karn, the Great Creator
• 2x Tezzeret, Master of the Bridge

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Sideboard

Artifact (4)

• 2x Ashnod's Altar
• 1x Sword of the Meek
• 1x Thopter Foundry

Creature (3)

• 3x Ancestral Statue

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Synopsis

This deck is all about Thopter 1/1 C production. It has two infinite thopter loops each with win cons. It also has some removal in order to try to control the board while you put together your combos. It is probably my best thopter deck yet!

I know this is listed as an Esper deck but it is really just Dimir. The white comes from Thopter Foundry, which doesn't get used.

Win Conditions

The win conditions are to get one of the two infinite loops going.

Tezzeret+Karn+Sai Loop

The most surefire way to win is the Tezzeret, Master of the Bridge + Karn, the Great Creator + Sai, Master Thopterist + Ancestral Statue infinite loop. In order to get this to work you must have Sai out on the battlefield and then play Tezzeret. You can then play Karn for free if you have four artifacts due to Tezzeret's intrinsic affinity for artifacts ability. This shouldn't be difficult due to all the artifact lands, thopter production, and other artifacts in the deck. You then use Karn's minus two ability to grab an Ancestral Statue from your sideboard. You play Ancestral Statue for free which will create a thopter from Sai, and because of Ancestral Statue's etb ability, you grab Karn and put him into your hand. You then play Karn again for free, minus two him again, grab the other Ancestral Statue, play it for free, create a thopter from Sai, pick up the first Ancestral Statue, play that again, thopter from Sai, repeat until you have enough thopters to use Tezzeret's plus two to deal direct damage to your opponent.

Urza+Thopter Foundry+Sword of the Meek Loop

The other loop involves Urza, Lord High Artificer+Thopter Foundry+Sword of the Meek. You have to get all three out on the battlefield but it doesn't matter in what order. Because of Urza's ability to tap any artifact for {U} you can tap Sword of the Meek for one mana, then use that mana and sacrifice it to activate Thopter Foundry's ability and create a thopter and gain a life. Because a 1/1 creature came onto the battlefield you can return Sword of the Meek from your graveyard to the battlefield attached to the thopter. You can then tap Sword of the Meek again to create {U}, sacrifice it, and start the loop over again. You can do this an infinite amount of times to gain as much life as you want and create as many thopters as you want. If the construct created by Urza's etb ability is still on the battlefield it will also be huge. Since these abilities work at instant speed, you can start the loop either during or at the end of your opponent's turn to make sure you can swing in for lethal during your turn. As an added bonus this would work with Tezzeret if he is out there as another infinite artifact source to get enough to plus two him to deal the damage to your opponent. I also added Ashnod's Altar to the sideboard in case you can't get Urza and have a Karn instead. Ashnod's Altar works to create the mana for the loop, although you have to sacrifice the thopter you created to create the mana from Ashnod instead of just tapping Sword of the Meek. I have found this loop to be pretty easy to pull off.

If all else fails you should have a good deal of removal to control the board and be able to make enough thopters or turn them into Construct 4/4 C with Retrofitter Foundry to win the game. Tezzeret is also pretty powerful in this artifact-based deck, even without any infinite loops. I also put one of every artifact required for either loop in the sideboard so Karn can grab it if you're desperate.

Play Style

This deck mixes control with combo building. Since there are two combos, and the individual parts are pretty powerful on their own, you can slowly build up the combo as the game goes on. In the meantime use the removal cards to throw your opponent off and give yourself time to assemble your pieces. I added my favorite Dimir interaction cards but there are probably better ones. They can be swapped out with any of your favorite removal and counterspells.

Pros/Cons

It can be super rewarding seeing one of the infinite loops come into play to make a massive amount of thopters, gain a ton of life, and make a huge construct or any of the other silly things this deck can do. The removal helps ensure your opponent doesn't do anything too crazy, remember, you're the one trying to do crazy stuff! However as with any deck that relies heavily on a combo, if you don't get the correct pieces when you need them you could get screwed. And if your opponent is running a lot of artifact hate, there isn't much you can do since all the combos rely mostly on artifacts.

Format Explanation

In its current configuration, this deck is Legacy. The cards keeping it from being modern are the two artifact lands Seat of the Synod, Vault of Whispers, and Retrofitter Foundry. If you really want to make this deck modern you technically don't need them but they make it much better. Retrofitter Foundry is so powerful in any thopter deck and the artifact lands help make Tezzeret significantly more useful.

I Have an Unhealthy Obsession with Thopters

So I made a couple of thopter art pieces. These are to accompany my thopter decks because I'm extra like that. This is a thopter-based card sleeve design. It's based on the diagram art like in Ornithopter. If anyone wants to use it for anything you're more than welcome to. It could also probably work as a custom token if you want. If anyone is interested in using this as a token let me know and I can add "Thopter" to the top and "Flying" and "1/1" at the bottom.

The other thing I made is a 3D model of this thopter design. I used it to glue to a deck box but it can be used as a token or just have a thopter buddy chilling. Or whatever really.

3D Thopter Model

Date added	9 months
Last updated	3 months
Legality	This deck is Legacy legal.
Rarity (main - side)	7 - 0 Mythic Rares 19 - 1 Rares 6 - 3 Uncommons 22 - 3 Commons
Cards	61
Avg. CMC	2.62
Tokens	Construct 0/0 C, Construct 4/4 C, Servo 1/1 C, Thopter 1/1 C, Thopter 1/1 U