The Joy(ra) of Thopters

Commander / EDH Artifact Counters Theme/Gimmick Tokens UR (Izzet)

avaerya

Creature (26)

• 1x Artificer's Assistant
• 1x Chief of the Foundry
• 1x Combustible Gearhulk
• 1x Etherium Sculptor
• 1x Feldon of the Third Path
• 1x Foundry Inspector
• 1x Goblin Welder
• 1x Hangarback Walker
• 1x Loyal Apprentice
• 1x Master of Etherium
• 1x Metallic Mimic
• 1x Metalwork Colossus
• 1x Padeem, Consul of Innovation
• 1x Pia and Kiran Nalaar
• 1x Pia Nalaar
• 1x Quicksmith Spy
• 1x Riddlesmith
• 1x Sai, Master Thopterist
• 1x Sharding Sphinx
• 1x Tawnos, Urza's Apprentice
• 1x Thopter Assembly
• 1x Thopter Engineer
• 1x Traxos, Scourge of Kroog
• 1x Trinket Mage
• 1x Walking Ballista
• 1x Whirler Rogue

Enchantment (4)

• 1x Efficient Construction
• 1x Storm the Vault  ^Flip
• 1x The Antiquities War
• 1x Thopter Spy Network

Planeswalker (3)

• 1x Daretti, Scrap Savant
• 1x Saheeli Rai
• 1x Saheeli, the Gifted

Land (36)

• 1x Buried Ruin
• 1x Cascade Bluffs
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Darksteel Citadel
• 1x Exotic Orchard
• 1x Foundry of the Consuls
• 1x Great Furnace
• 1x Highland Lake
• 1x Inventors' Fair
• 8x Island
• 1x Izzet Boilerworks
• 1x Mana Confluence
• 8x Mountain
• 1x Reflecting Pool
• 1x Seat of the Synod
• 1x Shivan Reef
• 1x Spire of Industry
• 1x Spirebluff Canal
• 1x Sulfur Falls
• 1x Swiftwater Cliffs
• 1x Temple of Epiphany
• 1x Temple of the False God

Instant (9)

• 1x Brainstorm
• 1x Commit / Memory
• 1x Counterspell
• 1x Disallow
• 1x Into the Roil
• 1x Negate
• 1x Opt
• 1x Spell Swindle
• 1x Whir of Invention

Commander (1)

Artifact (17)

• 1x Animation Module
• 1x Coalition Relic
• 1x Gilded Lotus
• 1x Izzet Signet
• 1x Mirage Mirror
• 1x Panharmonicon
• 1x Paradox Engine
• 1x Retrofitter Foundry
• 1x Sensei's Divining Top
• 1x Skullclamp
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Strionic Resonator
• 1x Thought Vessel
• 1x Thran Dynamo
• 1x Unwinding Clock
• 1x Weatherlight
• 1x Worn Powerstone

Sorcery (4)

• 1x Fabricate
• 1x River's Rebuke
• 1x Saheeli's Artistry
• 1x Saheeli's Directive

---

Maybeboard

Creature (4)

• 1x Hope of Ghirapur
• 1x Kuldotha Forgemaster
• 1x Mishra's Self-Replicator
• 1x Whirler Virtuoso

Artifact (3)

• 1x Coat of Arms
• 1x Staff of Domination
• 1x Whirlermaker

Land (1)

• 1x Academy Ruins

Enchantment (1)

• 1x Mechanized Production

---

The Joy(ra) of Thopters

My attempt at a Thopter/Servo/Construct theme deck, using Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain as the commander. This deck aims to just go as large as possible, both in terms of numbers of creatures and counters on them, and win through combat damage.

This deck is still very much a work in progress, so comments and ideas are appreciated!

Background

I first learned about thopters when Magic Origins came out. The mechanical and flavor combination of these technologically-advanced people creating little, beautifully crafted flying artifacts greatly appealed to the aeronautic and astronautic enthusiast within me. While blue wasn't my favorite color to play with, the undeniable strength of cards like Hangarback Walker, Pia and Kiran Nalaar, and Whirler Rogue were enough to drive me to create a standard deck at the time. Unfortunately my desires to create an army of flying drones went unrealized when I learned that Ensoul Artifact + Darksteel Citadel|scary scissors were just an easier way to win.

Around this time, I was introduced to Commander, a format that seemed perfect for my thopter-filled fantasies. Unfortunately, my small collection and the push by Wizards to put artifacts into the U/R pair meant I had little to work with, or even a suitable commander. I attempted artifacts as a general theme several times, but was just never able to capture the feeling (and board state) I was looking for. Thus, the idea got shelved, but with the hope that someday Wizards would create enough support for the adorable helicopters in the future.

As time passed and new sets came and went, I kept an eye out for a commander who could head my army, but nothing was able to quite grab me. That is, until we arrived at the home for all things thopters: Kaladesh! I eagerly gobbled up the spoilers, sifting through the mountains of servos, and was finally rewarded with... nothing. Wizards had instead printed an U/R artifact Planeswalker. Well, we still had another set on this plane, right? They certainly wouldn't forget again, right? Again, my (and many others') hopes were dashed when the commander of our dreams didn't show up.

We did receive a different prize, however, with the arrival of Breya, Etherium Shaper. This artifact-loving commander promised us not only U/R, but W and B as well! And she even came with her own thopters! Like many others, I rushed out to pick up my copy of her deck. But upon building, playing, and testing, my end results were... unsatisfactory. While she gave me access to all the colors I desired for artifacts, it ended up being too much. Too many colors meant her mana base was a wreck, and I ended up having to use precious slots for color fixing than for my adorable fliers. On top of that, Breya herself just felt ...clunky to me. It felt like her abilities, while powerful and versatile, were just tacked on. For such an elegant-looking character, her card read like a checklist of color abilities. No reason why her abilities had the numbers they did, no synergy to create the army of my dreams, no ability to grow with more additions. Thus, disappointed again, I shelved the deck, hoping again its time would come.

Surprisingly, a potential answer came not long after, with Magic's return to its original plane of Dominaria. While the set had legenedaries as its theme, nothing in the set prepared me to find a U/R commander that cared about artifacts! On top of that, her design was remarkably elegant, and had a cool vehicle to bring along to boot! So I gave her a shot. And the results have been wonderful. While she hasn't been perfect, I have found only one saga that synergizes, and I miss not having access to W and B for other cards, I feel that she's the best option I have. And she's certainly earned her keep.

Deck Overview

This deck looks like a typical U/R thopters deck, with some sprinkling in of servos and other artifact creatures. And, well, that's because it is. The way this deck differs is that the primary goal and "wincon" is not necessarily to brutally murder everyone else at the table. The point of the deck is to make thopters. Lots and lots of thopters. Big thopters. Small thopters. Thopters that make more thopters. Thopters that try to clamp skulls that they don't have. (There... might be a few bugs to still work out with them. To the scrap heap!) The side-effect of this is that I happen to get a bunch of creatures I can kill players with, but that's more just to show the superiority of my flying machines.

In the process of making these thopters, they happen to bring friends along, such as servos and constructs. While not thopters themselves, I consider them thopters in spirit, and thus am happy to play with them. (The amount of non-thopters in Kaladesh meant that I was probably going to end up with them regardless.)

The deck is U/R primarily because Wizards has been pushing this pair as the "artifact pair". While Kaladesh did feature artifacts of all colors, and Breya allowed one to work with most of those colors in commander, the recent printing of cards such as Jhoira and Sai, along with the Saheeli-themed precon deck shows that Wizards is putting most of their support for the archetype in these colors. It also has the nice benefit of having a much easier manabase compared to other commanders with more colors, while allowing enough room compared to mono-colored commanders.

Why Jhoira?

So why is Jhoira currently the best choice for this kind of deck? Compared to other potential commanders, I feel her design is elegant and powerful enough that even though she doesn't reward having thopters specifically, she rewards us enough that she's worthwhile playing. In comparison, I'll contrast her with other options I've considered to lead this deck, and why I feel she's better suited to these other options.

Mono-Colored

• Daretti, Scrap Savant, Arcum Dagsson, Muzzio, Visonary Architect - These commanders, while very powerful in their own right, tend to not care about thopters specifically, but about artifacts in general. Their abilities lend themselves more to quickly getting out large, powerful artifacts and taking over a board with the crazy value they can generate. Similar to my experiences with Origins standard, this is not the experience I'm particularly looking for. Thus, while they can be useful, I don't believe they make great commanders for this theme.
• Pia and Kiran Nalaar, Pia Nalaar, Sai, Master Thopterist - I have split these commanders out from the previous ones as they actually do have thopters as a theme. Both Pia and her partner Kiran create thopters on ETB, which they can sacrifice for their activated abilities. Sai especially is able to generate continuing value by casting artifacts, which rewards us with more thopters. Unfortunately, being mono-colored, the red commanders lose out on card draw and inability to retrigger their ETBS by bouncing/flickering/etc. Sai, while in the obvious color of card draw, means that I'd only have access to the objectively most annoying color, and I wouldn't be able to put up with that. So sadly these don't make the cut either.

Dual/Tri-Colored

• Jori En, Ruin Diver - A perfectly acceptable commander, as her triggered ability allows to gain general value off of casting spells, and certainly a good contender after Jhoira. Her design, allowing for many different styles of play, doesn't lead one specifically to play artifacts though, so ends up feeling like a more general "good stuff" commander rather than a themed one. Having an absolutely gorgeous promo though certainly doesn't hurt.

• Saheeli, the Gifted - She's a new addition, so I've honestly had very little time to try her out. While her abilities are powerful, she seems oddly balanced, with both servo generation and cost-reduction being priced the same. So for now she's being tested in the 99.

• Mishra, Artificer Prodigy - An interesting card, but unless you are performing shenanigans with Nether Void or Possibility Storm, it's hard to take advantage of his ability in a singleton format. At that point I'd just be running him for the colors, which feels wasteful to me.

• Sharuum the Hegemon - A fun card that gives access to the artifact colors of Esper, but again doesn't specifically care about thopters. The biggest issue with this card is that Wizards has been pushing more artifact cards in red these days, so her current growth feels somewhat limited. While that could change in the future, she currently doesn't feel like a good commander for this theme.

Quad-Colored

• Partner Commanders - Currently an interesting group of choices, but outside of Akiri, Line-Slinger, who wants to be more voltron/aggro, and Silas Renn, Seeker Adept, who looks like a smug bastard, the current options are somewhat limited. This can potentially change in the future, so we'll see.

• Breya, Etherium Shaper - The current bad girl on the block for artifact decks, she's a swiss army knife of power, dealing easily with both permanents and players. Giving access to all the traditional artifact colors, she even comes with two buddies in tow! For many players, she's the go-to for thopter decks, having the most deck-building flexibility. My issues with her come from not only her expensive mana base costs - building a strong four-color mana base is extremely hard otherwise - but her abilities just feel like a checklist for each of the colors: 3 damage for red, -4/-4 for black, 5 life for white, and blue... well, her thopters are blue. These abilities don't have any particular synergy with each other, and since the numbers are "hard-coded" in, her ability to change as the game matures feels limited. No matter how life totals change, or creatures grow in size, she'll only deal 3 damage to players, or give creatures -4/-4. Considering how easily she goes infinite, that's not an issue for many people. But for me, that's an annoyance that will not go away.

The Commander

• Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain - Jhoira is a commander that many have latched onto as a U/R artifact commander, since she plays very well with Wizards' current artifact focus. Her easier mana base compared to Breya also means she's still easily playable on a budget. One of her biggest benefits though, I think, is something that many other people consider a detriment: caring about historic permanents. It's important to realize when building a deck like this, that many of the producers of thopters available to us are actually not artifacts. Creatures like Pia and Kiran Nalaar and Sai, Master Thopterist, as well as now Planeswalkers like Tezzeret, Artifice Master can now provide benefits by triggering her historic ability. We can also take advantage of The Antiquities War in order to help filter through our deck, as well as hopefully pump our team for an explosive finish. Thus, while she might not be the absolute best leader for this kind of deck, I feel she's the best of the available options.

General Strategy

This deck is currently very low-power and durdly. But in being slow, we can hopefully accrue a lot of value by building our army. Thus, the deck plays quite slowly, but becomes more involved in later stages.

• Early game - We want to start the game with some mana rocks in hand. The earlier we get them out, the better, since we can generate more value off of them. Small cost-reducers like Etherium Sculpter can help get these down even earlier, so we'll look for them in our opening hand as well. In terms of creatures, value-generators such as Artificer's Assistant or Riddlesmith are great to help churn through our deck faster. They can also potentially make otherwise-mediocre hands better, since we can fix our draws with Artificer's Assistant, or potentially dump large things like Metalwork Colossus with Riddlesmith for reanimation later on. Slightly slower creatures like Sai, Master Thopterist can potentially be fine keeps as well, as the longer they stay out, the more value we can generate.

• Mid-Game - Here we want to start generating our tokens. We now want to start finding token generators like Retrofitter Foundry, Thopter Spy Network, and Pia and Kiran Nalaar. Once we can start generating tokens, Metallic Mimic can help increase the size of our board, as well as start providing fuel for Animation Module, to create servos, which we can turn into thopters with the Foundry again. Quicksmith Spy can also take advantage of otherwise idle tokens, turning them into further card draw. The biggest piece we'd like to get out though is Unwinding Clock, as it can help untap our mana rocks each turn, or Hangarback Walker to repeatedly create more tokens on all turns. To help protect our board, we can keep up mana for counterspells or use Padeem, Consul of Innovation. If we have the mana available, we can potentially use Saheeli's Artistry to create an artifact copy of Padeem, giving himself protection as well.

• Late Game - At this point we'd like to be sitting pretty nice with a token army, with the ability to really pump them out pretty consistently. Here, how we end the game really depends upon what our opponents have been doing do far. If we have our army with few blockers in the way, we can just get started swinging! Otherwise we can try some backup strategies. One is trying to use our little tokens with Daretti, Scrap Savant to hopefully dig up some juicy artifacts from our graveyard. Combustible Gearhulk can be a fun target, as well as Metalwork Colossus, who has the benefit of having its own reanimation ability. If we can stick Paradox Engine, Tawnos, Urza's Apprentice can go infinite with the proper mana rocks to give us mana to dump into Walking Ballista. (Finally a way to break Paradox Engine!)

Combos/Synergies

The combos and synergies in this deck are more about generating incremental value rather than trying to immediately kill someone. Outside of Paradox Engine + Tawnos, Urza's Apprentice , who doesn't have a direct outlet for the mana, there are no other really obvious infinite combos I am aware of in this deck. So instead, I'm going to highlight some of the nice synergies the deck features.

Hangarback Walker + Unwinding Clock , Retrofitter Foundry + Unwinding Clock - Really, Unwinding Clock + any artifact is pretty broken, but these play well with each other specifically for this deck. First, with Hangarback Walker, we can continually dump mana into it, while still leaving a blocker up each turn. This means more thopters at a quicker rate when it eventually pops. Retrofitter Foundry, however, lets us produce cheap servos each turn without having to pay the untap cost each turn.

Animation Module + Metallic Mimic - Usually we'll want to set Metallic Mimic on thopters, but there could be situations where setting it on servos is reasonable. Here, we each servo comes in with a +1/+1 counter on it. This triggers Animation Module, which we respond to, creating another servo with another +1/+1 counter, and so on. If we float a bunch of mana for this, we can potentially create quite a few servos.

Padeem, Consul of Innovation + Saheeli's Artistry - Somewhat expensive, but if we target Padeem, Consul of Innovation with Saheeli's Artistry's second ability, the copy is an artifact as well, giving itself hexproof. Legend rule does come into play, but we can sacrifice the original, leaving us with the artifact copy.

Card Discussions

There have been several concious choices throughout the building of this deck, and I'll be explaining some of them here.

Why no Myr?/Brudiclad would love this deck! - I agree Myr are quite adorable, but for this deck I was wanting to focus on artifact creatures that felt more "constructed" than the livibg beings of Myr. On top of that, I wasn't playing during any of the Mirrodin blocks, so my exposure to an "artifact plane" has only been through Kaladesh. This might change in the future, with the inevitable return to Mirrodin/New Phyrexia, but currently I just feel they are out of place.

- purohoros, god of the forge , Reckless Fireweaver - Fireweaver typically flies more under-the-radar compared to Big Purph, but in this deck they're effectively performing the same job. It can easily use either, or both, of them, but I've found my meta can get a little whiny/salty about it, especially with Purphoros. On top of it, it's a pretty easy wincon in this deck, so I've currently taken it out for some variety.

• Hope of Ghirapur - It is a thopter, but its real power lies in its ability to potentially lock someone out. Since our reanimation is not particularly good, and we have no way to abuse its effect otherwise, I've currently put it aside for this reason, but it can ceetainly be revisited in the future.

• Renegade Thopterist, Whirler Virtuoso - Renegade Thopterist's Improvise ability could be quite useful to make him extremely cheap in our deck. Unfortunately, outside of that, he's essentially vanilla, and I feel we can do better with Pia and Kiran Nalaar. Whirler Virtuoso is more interesting, however. If we can find a good source of Energy with the deck, he'd probably be an all-star. Currently, though, none of the Energy-producers have found a good fit in this deck, so he's sitting by the wayside until we return to it.

• Whirlermaker - Retrofitter Foundry just seems like a stronger overall artifact, with the ability to untap itself and being able to turn meh servos into awesome thopters.

• Artifact-relevant reserved list cards - The reserved list has quite a few powerful artifact-relevant cards, including Metalworker, Mishra's Workshop, and Power Artifact would be very strong in this deck. I just happen to not enjoy playing with reserved list cards, in terms of costs, conditions, and counterfeits. I'm not playing this deck at a high competitive level, so I'd rather just wait until they (hopefully) reprint reserved list cards.

Enhancements

This deck is still in work, both in terms of ability and budgetary constraints. Here are some cards and concepts I've already thought of, as well my reasons for wanting to include them.

Mana rocks - Obviously faster/more powerful mana rocks would be fantastic. Mana Crypt, Mana Vault, and Mox Opal can power out our plays even quicker. It would be interesting to take a look, though, at how they interact with Metalwork Colossus's cost-reduction ability to see if he's still worth running.

Steel Overseer - Probably the most desired card for this deck, it's not in here because I just haven't found one for a good price/for trade yet. Being able to continuously pump our team each turn is too good to pass up.

Arcbound Ravager - A premier threat in Modern Affinity, I think it can do great work in this deck as well. While not a thopter itself (or sadly even a construct), we can potentially have so much fodder for it we can really pump it up. And if it dies, we can move its counters onto something else, even something fun like Hangarback Walker.

Master Transmuter - Bounce a thopter to plop down Paradox Engine or Unwinding Clock? Yes please!

Karn, Scion of Urza - Only being able to draw the worse card can be annoying (and in singleton formats the second ability probably won't see much use), but the third ability can potentially be a really cheap threat producer in this deck.

Cyclonic Rift - It's a blue deck, duh.

Timetwister-style effects - Always useful in Commander, it might be interesting to look at Day's Undoing as a substitute.

Date added	6 years
Last updated	6 years
Key combos	Animation Module + Metallic Mimic Paradox Engine + Tawnos, Urza's Apprentice Hangarback Walker + Unwinding Clock Retrofitter Foundry + Unwinding Clock Padeem, Consul of Innovation + Saheeli's Artistry
Legality	This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	9 - 0 Mythic Rares 45 - 0 Rares 19 - 0 Uncommons 10 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.27
Tokens	Construct 4/4 C, Copy Clone, Emblem Daretti, Scrap Savant, Servo 1/1 C, Thopter 1/1 C, Thopter 1/1 U, Treasure
Folders	Jhoira, Maybe Decks, montar