Some of the Kaladesh spoilers have me thinking that Thopter tribal could be an interesting build, and I don't yet have an Esper deck (I'm working towards one deck in each color combination, currently at 22 with 2 more that are missing less than 10 cards each, and Damia is in the process of being transformed into Leovold), and Thopter Foundry is Esper. It's not going to literally be Thopter tribal in the same sense of the requirements for unofficial tribal formats, which require some significant percentage of the creatures in the deck to be members of the given tribe; there simply aren't nearly enough Thopter creatures at all, playable or not. (Only 9 actual Thopters exist.)
One infinite combo (Thopter Foundry + Sword of the Meek + Krark-Clan Ironworks), which is still a strong synergy when Ironworks is not available. The combo is turned off by any of the lords/anthems, but Paradoxical Outcome can turn the combo back on again if need be, and some of the lords are artifacts which can be sacrificed by Foundry/Ironworks, while some of the others are creatures that can be sacrificed to High Market or Phyrexian Tower. 8 of the 10 tutors can get at least one piece of the combo.
Just Grand Architect + Basalt Monolith together is 2 colorless with an untapped Monolith (and a tapped Architect). Adding more blue creatures (or some nonblue artifact creatures and some blue mana) can produce a lot more colorless mana.
The main wincons are:
Make Thopter tokens, pump them with anthem effects, and smash face
Make Thopter tokens, ult Tezzeret Agent of Bolas
Make Thopter tokens, sacrifice them for mana, deck someone with Stroke/Zenith
While I'm building up to that, I have a little bit of control, including my general, who can sacrifice a Thopter token (or one of my noncreature nonartifact anthems to open up my Sword of the Meek combo) for a counterspell.
* Wincon-relevant
† Answers to existing board state
‡ Answers to cards in opponents' hands
Any comments? Should I pack in more spot removal/counterspells? More sweepers? Should I ditch the remaining Transmute cards? Does Ertai need another hasteboots badly? Any cards I may not have considered that I really ought to be running? Any cards in my list that I really shouldn't be running?
It might be less unique, but you may consider Sydri, Galvanic Genius as the commander instead. She costs significantly less to cast, can give you some chump blockers in a pinch, and make your thopters deadly. Ertai requires a lot of time and resources to just counter 1 spell.
Thopter Assembly is a fantastic card that should make its way in. Thopter Squadron isn't bad if you can find some simple ways to proliferate or add counters, but I probably wouldn't add it.
Shared Triumph is a good anthem. A high chance you'll be the only person with Thopters anyways.
Mirror Entity is technically a thopter and can make all your thopters super huge, not to mention it makes all your non-thopter creatures thopters, so they'll gain anthem effects as well.
You're missing Fabricate in your tutor package. Although, unless you're going cutthroat straight for Sword/Foundry win, I personally think you run too many tutors, at least for my taste. I also think you run too few lands. 31 even with 7 mana rocks is a bit low. If it were my deck, I would probably cut half the tutors and half the removal/countermagic for some more fun artifact shenanigans.
You could use some sort of recursion. Academy Ruins should be in there. Trading Post is never a bad card.
Overall, I love seeing atypical deck ideas, especially tribal ones. I would focus more on the artifact theme of thopters and cut a lot of the tutors and countermagic. Good luck!
Thopter Assembly is a fantastic card that should make its way in.
I initially cut Thopter Assembly, because it doesn't trigger if you control any other Thopters... and the whole point is that I'm controlling Thopters. Do you think it's worth sticking back in?
I also think you run too few lands. 31 even with 7 mana rocks is a bit low. If it were my deck, I would probably cut half the tutors and half the removal/countermagic for some more fun artifact shenanigans.
Well, 33 lands technically; Tolaria West and Foundry of the Consuls are listed in other categories than "Other Land". I would prefer to run a few more lands, but I always have a hard time figuring out what to cut
Overall, I love seeing atypical deck ideas, especially tribal ones. I would focus more on the artifact theme of thopters and cut a lot of the tutors and countermagic. Good luck!
Conspiracy and Xenograft makes all your creatures thopter. They're both in the Esper color pie as well.
Thopter Squadron wants to be in here. So does Thopter Assembly. Yet it seems that what holds you back is never taking Thopter Assembly to the next level because you'll have other thopters in play. Well, you can play with this thopter concept even further. Use a sac outlet like Krark-Clan Ironworks (which you already have) and/or Ashnod's Altar to get from your thopters, have your Thopter Assembly return to your hand, and then cast it with the mana produced from your sacrificed thopters. Of course, you'd need flash enablers to do this (having flash in any deck is always a good thing, anyways) so you may want to consider Vedalken Orrery (which you can always sac later to Krark-Clan Ironworks) and/or Leyline of Anticipation.
I see you don't fear using Sword of the Meek as an infinite combo generator with Thopter Foundry and Krark-Clan Ironworks. If you don't want to be so straight-forward with the combo and want a bit more fun (albeit much more convoluted) you could also add themoduletrio. That infinite combo makes infinite energy counters, infinite servos, and infinite +1/+1 counters, lol.
Seriously, though, I love the concept and I've never seen a thopter tribal before. So kudos!
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It was in the list as I was refining it, but a 5 mana 3/3 flier is pretty weak, and converting between +1/+1 counters and Thopters at sorcery speed (and not for free) doesn't seem like it's good enough. If the abilities could be used at instant speed, I'd be all over it. I'd probably still run it if the activation cost didn't include a mana payment.
Yet it seems that what holds you back is never taking Thopter Assembly to the next level because you'll have other thopters in play. Well, you can play with this thopter concept even further. Use a sac outlet like Krark-Clan Ironworks (which you already have) and/or Ashnod's Altar to get from your thopters, have your Thopter Assembly return to your hand, and then cast it with the mana produced from your sacrificed thopters.
That doesn't actually work. Thopter Assembly has an intervening if clause on the trigger, meaning it won't even be put on the stack if the condition isn't met at the beginning of your upkeep. You would have to sacrifice the other Thopters before your turn, and so the mana would empty from your pool unless you can store it somehow, for which there are few options outside Green.
Assembly can be strong if it's your only Thopter, but when I'm intending to flood the board with Thopters, it seems to become much weaker very quickly.
I see you don't fear using Sword of the Meek as an infinite combo generator with Thopter Foundry and Krark-Clan Ironworks. If you don't want to be so straight-forward with the combo and want a bit more fun (albeit much more convoluted) you could also add themoduletrio. That infinite combo makes infinite energy counters, infinite servos, and infinite +1/+1 counters, lol.
I'm not sold. You're talking about adding a second 3-card combo that doesn't overlap with the existing one or use my commander (or even an alternative to the commander I've currently got listed). They also seem weaker alone than the Foundry/Sword(/Ironworks) are without their companion combo pieces. Hangarback Walker is the only card currently in the list that would interact with Animation Module or benefit from Fabrication Module (beyond simply pumping a beater), and I've got nothing to spend energy on with Decoction/Fabrication Module. On the other hand, Ironworks still gets me colorless mana without Foundry/Sword; Foundry can still make emergency chump blockers without Ironworks/Sword; Sword can still be carried by a creature, and Sword can be destroyed without losing access to the combo, since the combo has the Sword self-recurring.
Honestly, I don't know what to cut for Phyrexian Arena and Necropotence (which really should go in) because you're at 35 lands. Even with the mana rocks I honestly feel that you should try and bump it up to at least 37 lands. You only have 2 spot removal that's destroying a creature (Murder and Go for the Throat) so I would cut those two for either 2 lands or Phyrexian Arena and Necropotence. I feel that there are better removal options in Commander than Murder and Go for the Throat. You don't really have any way to consistently reuse them.
In fact, better removal in your colors is Imprisoned in the Moon and Darksteel Mutation. They can get rid of commanders in a much better way than most removal can. It's a shame that Fowl Play is an un-card because that would be another (hilarious) removal along the same vein. So if you really want to have spot removal then at least use those instead of the other ones. They even have the same CMC as the ones I suggest cutting. Sure, they're sorcery speed because they're enchantments but still, much better removal in Commander than Murder and Go for the Throat.
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Cards I would consider cutting: Shred Memory - The only useful thing it can tutor up is another real tutor or Thopter Foundry, but it costs 3 mana and can only be used on your turn. Paradoxical Outcome - The majority of your thopters are tokens, so you get no card draw from them with this. There's better out there. Blue Sun's Zenith - UUU Is hard to come by reliably. There's better card draw out there. Pull From Eternity - I'm not sure why this is in here, actually. I mean it's good to get back something someone exiles and can be cute with Delay, but I don't think it deserves a spot. Delay - It's just a temporary counter. It doesn't actually stop anything. You'd be better off with a more situational 2 drop counterspell (ie negate, Essence Scatter) Duplicant - Fantastic card! But not on theme and you don't really have ways to abuse him all that much. Potential keeper, but not very Thoptery Murder - As DementedKirby said, there's better removal than this out there. I'll address it below. Path of Bravery - It might be good if you switched to Sydri as your commander since she can lifelink things, but you have little life gain to get the anthem part, and you only have 8 thopter sources currently, and only 2 of them actually can provide multiple thopters by themselves in a turn, so the attacking portion might not be that relevant. Angel of Invention - Not completely sure how I feel about this card. She creates tokens (not thopters, though) but she'll only be a 2/1 and for 5 mana. It's a bit hefty, but I'm on the fence with her.
Cards I would consider adding: Darksteel Forge - Should definitely not have been cut. This is a fantastic card. If you have trouble finding a spot for it, replace Akroma's Memorial with it. It's much better. Ashes to Ashes - Significantly better removal than Murder. 5 life in commander is a paltry cost to exile 2 creatures. Obelisk of Urd - Should prolly replace Kongming or the Angel, but it's a significant boost, and your thopters can help pay for it. Win/win. Thopter Assembly - With only 8 current sources for thopters, you have to imagine there will be times you have no thopters on the board for whatever reason. This guy is just amazing. Even if you do have thopters and this on the board, you can sac the others to the Iron Works before your turn, cast a nice Stroke of Genius, and then get 5 more thopters on your upkeep. It's just an auto include in my book. Plus you need more thopters. Recurring Insight - This is one of my go-to card draw cards. In a game where card advantage is a big deal, I have never drawn less than 10 cards from this, and it's spread out so you don't have to worry about discarding. Reliquary Tower - Speaking of discarding, this might come in useful. Trinket Mage - Should definitely be kept in. He can tutor up Sol Ring, Mana Vault, and especially Hangarback Walker. Chromatic Lantern - Should replace Dimir Signet. It is THE color fixer mana rock. Rite of Replication - It's fairly standard, but such a good card all around. This on a Sharding Sphinx or Whirler Rogue can be fun. Command Tower - Realized it's missing in the list. Dictate of Heliod - Might be a good replacement for the Angel. Same cost, flash, and bigger boost.
Just some food for thought. I'm almost starting to want to build my own Thopter 'tribal' list. Sounds like a lot of fun.
In fact, better removal in your colors is Imprisoned in the Moon and Darksteel Mutation. They can get rid of commanders in a much better way than most removal can.
Instant-speed removal is too important in my meta to be removing it for sorcery-speed removal. If I had more slots in the deck, they might go in (especially IitM), but I'm not going to replace instants with auras.
Cards I would consider cutting: Shred Memory - The only useful thing it can tutor up is another real tutor or Thopter Foundry, but it costs 3 mana and can only be used on your turn. Paradoxical Outcome - The majority of your thopters are tokens, so you get no card draw from them with this. There's better out there. Blue Sun's Zenith - UUU Is hard to come by reliably. There's better card draw out there. Pull From Eternity - I'm not sure why this is in here, actually. I mean it's good to get back something someone exiles and can be cute with Delay, but I don't think it deserves a spot. Delay - It's just a temporary counter. It doesn't actually stop anything. You'd be better off with a more situational 2 drop counterspell (ie negate, Essence Scatter) Duplicant - Fantastic card! But not on theme and you don't really have ways to abuse him all that much. Potential keeper, but not very Thoptery Murder - As DementedKirby said, there's better removal than this out there. I'll address it below. Path of Bravery - It might be good if you switched to Sydri as your commander since she can lifelink things, but you have little life gain to get the anthem part, and you only have 8 thopter sources currently, and only 2 of them actually can provide multiple thopters by themselves in a turn, so the attacking portion might not be that relevant. Angel of Invention - Not completely sure how I feel about this card. She creates tokens (not thopters, though) but she'll only be a 2/1 and for 5 mana. It's a bit hefty, but I'm on the fence with her.
Shred Memory is also instant-speed grave hate, but I see your point.
Paradoxical Outcome also saves my nontokens from sweepers, and can bounce anthems/lords to turn my combo on. The tokens themselves are expendable, and I don't care that I can't bounce them.
Blue Sun's Zenith is one of the designed wincons, and UUU isn't hard to get with this kind of mana base, especially not late game.
There are plenty of protection-from-X things in my meta. Colorless removal is very useful; Duplicant has saved my bacon way too many times in other decks to leave it out.
Cards I would consider adding: Darksteel Forge - Should definitely not have been cut. This is a fantastic card. If you have trouble finding a spot for it, replace Akroma's Memorial with it. It's much better. Ashes to Ashes - Significantly better removal than Murder. 5 life in commander is a paltry cost to exile 2 creatures. Obelisk of Urd - Should prolly replace Kongming or the Angel, but it's a significant boost, and your thopters can help pay for it. Win/win. Thopter Assembly - With only 8 current sources for thopters, you have to imagine there will be times you have no thopters on the board for whatever reason. This guy is just amazing. Even if you do have thopters and this on the board, you can sac the others to the Iron Works before your turn, cast a nice Stroke of Genius, and then get 5 more thopters on your upkeep. It's just an auto include in my book. Plus you need more thopters. Recurring Insight - This is one of my go-to card draw cards. In a game where card advantage is a big deal, I have never drawn less than 10 cards from this, and it's spread out so you don't have to worry about discarding. Reliquary Tower - Speaking of discarding, this might come in useful. Trinket Mage - Should definitely be kept in. He can tutor up Sol Ring, Mana Vault, and especially Hangarback Walker. Chromatic Lantern - Should replace Dimir Signet. It is THE color fixer mana rock. Rite of Replication - It's fairly standard, but such a good card all around. This on a Sharding Sphinx or Whirler Rogue can be fun. Command Tower - Realized it's missing in the list. Dictate of Heliod - Might be a good replacement for the Angel. Same cost, flash, and bigger boost.
Mass haste & vigilance > indestructible for my purposes. Especially with Ertai as my commander.
Ashes to Ashes is a sorcery, so I'm not going to replace Murder with it, as I said above. If I had more space, I might add it alongside Murder, but not instead of.
I run Recurring Insight in a couple other decks, and while it's not bad, I also rarely end up drawing more than 3-4 cards off of it each time (so 6-8 total). As a 6-mana sorcery, I'm also rarely able to use any of the cards I draw the first time on the same turn.
Chromatic Lantern and Dictate are definite possibilities if I can find more space.
As strong as Replication is, I'm just not a huge fan. I run it in my mono-blue theft deck and my Maelstrom Wanderer deck, but it's a bit boring.
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Here's the current version:
1 Ertai, the Corrupted
Thopters
1 Foundry of the Consuls
1 Hangarback Walker
1 Mirror Entity
1 Pilgrim's Eye
1 Sharding Sphinx
1 Thopter Assembly
1 Thopter Foundry
1 Thopter Spy Network
1 Whirler Rogue
Lords / Anthems
1 Adaptive Automaton
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1 Glorious Anthem
1 Grand Architect
1 Intangible Virtue
1 Kongming, "Sleeping Dragon"
1 Marshal's Anthem
1 Master of Etherium
1 Master Trinketeer (Kaladesh)
1 Obelisk of Urd
1 Shared Triumph
1 Spear of Heliod
1 Thunderclap Wyvern
Tutors
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Enlightened Tutor
1 Fabricate
1 Kuldotha Forgemaster
1 Muddle the Mixture
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Tezzeret the Seeker
1 Trinket Mage
1 Tolaria West
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Anguished Unmaking
1 Arcane Denial
1 Capsize
1 Cyclonic Rift
1 Damnation
1 Duplicant
1 Murder
1 Path to Exile
1 Return to Dust
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Toxic Deluge
1 Wrath of God
Mana Ramp
1 Azorius Signet
1 Basalt Monolith
1 Dimir Signet
1 Gilded Lotus
1 Krark-Clan Ironworks
1 Mana Vault
1 Orzhov Signet
1 Sol Ring
Card Draw
1 Blue Sun's Zenith
1 Consecrated Sphinx
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Paradoxical Outcome (Kaladesh)
1 Skullclamp
1 Stroke of Genius
1 Time Spiral
1 Akroma's Memorial
1 Lightning Greaves
1 Sun Titan
1 Sword of the Meek
1 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
1 Trading Post
Other Land
3 Fetch lands (Polluted Delta, etc.)
3 Shock lands (Hallowed Fountain, etc.)
2 Tango lands (Sunken Hollow, etc.)
4 Artifact lands (Seat of the Synod, etc.)
3 Check lands (Drowned Catacomb, etc.)
1 Academy Ruins
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Buried Ruin
1 Command Tower
1 High Market
1 Kor Haven
1 Phyrexian Tower
1 Reliquary Tower
1 Volrath's Stronghold
4 Island
3 Plains
3 Swamp
One infinite combo (Thopter Foundry + Sword of the Meek + Krark-Clan Ironworks), which is still a strong synergy when Ironworks is not available. The combo is turned off by any of the lords/anthems, but Paradoxical Outcome can turn the combo back on again if need be, and some of the lords are artifacts which can be sacrificed by Foundry/Ironworks, while some of the others are creatures that can be sacrificed to High Market or Phyrexian Tower. 8 of the 10 tutors can get at least one piece of the combo.
Just Grand Architect + Basalt Monolith together is 2 colorless with an untapped Monolith (and a tapped Architect). Adding more blue creatures (or some nonblue artifact creatures and some blue mana) can produce a lot more colorless mana.
The main wincons are:
Tolaria West can tutor for:
- Any land
- Hangarback Walker (*)
Muddle the Mixture‡ can tutor for:- Arcane Denial (‡)
- Azorius Signet
- Cyclonic Rift (†)
- Demonic Tutor
- Dimir Signet
- Intangible Virtue
- Lightning Greaves
- Orzhov Signet
- Shared Triumph (*)
- Sword of the Meek (*)
- Thopter Foundry (*)
* Wincon-relevant† Answers to existing board state
‡ Answers to cards in opponents' hands
Any comments? Should I pack in more spot removal/counterspells? More sweepers? Should I ditch the remaining Transmute cards? Does Ertai need another hasteboots badly? Any cards I may not have considered that I really ought to be running? Any cards in my list that I really shouldn't be running?
Removed:
- Clutch of the Undercity
- Darksteel Forge
- Dimir House Guard
- Dimir Infiltrator
- Netherborn Phalanx
- Rewind
- Scourglass
- Trinket Mage
Added:v3:
Removed:
- Angel of Invention
- Delay
- Go for the Throat
- Island
- Shred Memory
- Path of Bravery
- Pull from Eternity
Added:Two Score, Minus Two or: A Stargate Tail
(Image by totallynotabrony)
Thopter Assembly is a fantastic card that should make its way in. Thopter Squadron isn't bad if you can find some simple ways to proliferate or add counters, but I probably wouldn't add it.
Shared Triumph is a good anthem. A high chance you'll be the only person with Thopters anyways.
Mirror Entity is technically a thopter and can make all your thopters super huge, not to mention it makes all your non-thopter creatures thopters, so they'll gain anthem effects as well.
You're missing Fabricate in your tutor package. Although, unless you're going cutthroat straight for Sword/Foundry win, I personally think you run too many tutors, at least for my taste. I also think you run too few lands. 31 even with 7 mana rocks is a bit low. If it were my deck, I would probably cut half the tutors and half the removal/countermagic for some more fun artifact shenanigans.
You could use some sort of recursion. Academy Ruins should be in there. Trading Post is never a bad card.
Overall, I love seeing atypical deck ideas, especially tribal ones. I would focus more on the artifact theme of thopters and cut a lot of the tutors and countermagic. Good luck!
Well, 33 lands technically; Tolaria West and Foundry of the Consuls are listed in other categories than "Other Land". I would prefer to run a few more lands, but I always have a hard time figuring out what to cut
Thanks! Your post was helpful.
Two Score, Minus Two or: A Stargate Tail
(Image by totallynotabrony)
Thopter Squadron wants to be in here. So does Thopter Assembly. Yet it seems that what holds you back is never taking Thopter Assembly to the next level because you'll have other thopters in play. Well, you can play with this thopter concept even further. Use a sac outlet like Krark-Clan Ironworks (which you already have) and/or Ashnod's Altar to get from your thopters, have your Thopter Assembly return to your hand, and then cast it with the mana produced from your sacrificed thopters. Of course, you'd need flash enablers to do this (having flash in any deck is always a good thing, anyways) so you may want to consider Vedalken Orrery (which you can always sac later to Krark-Clan Ironworks) and/or Leyline of Anticipation.
I would add more consistent drawing enchantments like Necropotence and/or Phyrexian Arena. If you choose to use Sydri, Galvanic Genius (like Naja656 suggested) as your general, you can easily regain the life lost from Necropotence.
I see you don't fear using Sword of the Meek as an infinite combo generator with Thopter Foundry and Krark-Clan Ironworks. If you don't want to be so straight-forward with the combo and want a bit more fun (albeit much more convoluted) you could also add the module trio. That infinite combo makes infinite energy counters, infinite servos, and infinite +1/+1 counters, lol.
Seriously, though, I love the concept and I've never seen a thopter tribal before. So kudos!
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That doesn't actually work. Thopter Assembly has an intervening if clause on the trigger, meaning it won't even be put on the stack if the condition isn't met at the beginning of your upkeep. You would have to sacrifice the other Thopters before your turn, and so the mana would empty from your pool unless you can store it somehow, for which there are few options outside Green.
Assembly can be strong if it's your only Thopter, but when I'm intending to flood the board with Thopters, it seems to become much weaker very quickly.
Both great cards, but the problem becomes what to remove? Any suggestions?
I'm not sold. You're talking about adding a second 3-card combo that doesn't overlap with the existing one or use my commander (or even an alternative to the commander I've currently got listed). They also seem weaker alone than the Foundry/Sword(/Ironworks) are without their companion combo pieces. Hangarback Walker is the only card currently in the list that would interact with Animation Module or benefit from Fabrication Module (beyond simply pumping a beater), and I've got nothing to spend energy on with Decoction/Fabrication Module. On the other hand, Ironworks still gets me colorless mana without Foundry/Sword; Foundry can still make emergency chump blockers without Ironworks/Sword; Sword can still be carried by a creature, and Sword can be destroyed without losing access to the combo, since the combo has the Sword self-recurring.
Two Score, Minus Two or: A Stargate Tail
(Image by totallynotabrony)
It's a shame that Thopter Squadron is at sorcery speed. It's one of the reasons I may end up cutting it in my Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest deck. Now that you point it out, I see that Thopter Assembly's trigger is much like Ophiomancer's trigger. Oh well...
Honestly, I don't know what to cut for Phyrexian Arena and Necropotence (which really should go in) because you're at 35 lands. Even with the mana rocks I honestly feel that you should try and bump it up to at least 37 lands. You only have 2 spot removal that's destroying a creature (Murder and Go for the Throat) so I would cut those two for either 2 lands or Phyrexian Arena and Necropotence. I feel that there are better removal options in Commander than Murder and Go for the Throat. You don't really have any way to consistently reuse them.
In fact, better removal in your colors is Imprisoned in the Moon and Darksteel Mutation. They can get rid of commanders in a much better way than most removal can. It's a shame that Fowl Play is an un-card because that would be another (hilarious) removal along the same vein. So if you really want to have spot removal then at least use those instead of the other ones. They even have the same CMC as the ones I suggest cutting. Sure, they're sorcery speed because they're enchantments but still, much better removal in Commander than Murder and Go for the Throat.
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Shred Memory - The only useful thing it can tutor up is another real tutor or Thopter Foundry, but it costs 3 mana and can only be used on your turn.
Paradoxical Outcome - The majority of your thopters are tokens, so you get no card draw from them with this. There's better out there.
Blue Sun's Zenith - UUU Is hard to come by reliably. There's better card draw out there.
Pull From Eternity - I'm not sure why this is in here, actually. I mean it's good to get back something someone exiles and can be cute with Delay, but I don't think it deserves a spot.
Delay - It's just a temporary counter. It doesn't actually stop anything. You'd be better off with a more situational 2 drop counterspell (ie negate, Essence Scatter)
Duplicant - Fantastic card! But not on theme and you don't really have ways to abuse him all that much. Potential keeper, but not very Thoptery
Murder - As DementedKirby said, there's better removal than this out there. I'll address it below.
Path of Bravery - It might be good if you switched to Sydri as your commander since she can lifelink things, but you have little life gain to get the anthem part, and you only have 8 thopter sources currently, and only 2 of them actually can provide multiple thopters by themselves in a turn, so the attacking portion might not be that relevant.
Angel of Invention - Not completely sure how I feel about this card. She creates tokens (not thopters, though) but she'll only be a 2/1 and for 5 mana. It's a bit hefty, but I'm on the fence with her.
Cards I would consider adding:
Darksteel Forge - Should definitely not have been cut. This is a fantastic card. If you have trouble finding a spot for it, replace Akroma's Memorial with it. It's much better.
Ashes to Ashes - Significantly better removal than Murder. 5 life in commander is a paltry cost to exile 2 creatures.
Obelisk of Urd - Should prolly replace Kongming or the Angel, but it's a significant boost, and your thopters can help pay for it. Win/win.
Thopter Assembly - With only 8 current sources for thopters, you have to imagine there will be times you have no thopters on the board for whatever reason. This guy is just amazing. Even if you do have thopters and this on the board, you can sac the others to the Iron Works before your turn, cast a nice Stroke of Genius, and then get 5 more thopters on your upkeep. It's just an auto include in my book. Plus you need more thopters.
Recurring Insight - This is one of my go-to card draw cards. In a game where card advantage is a big deal, I have never drawn less than 10 cards from this, and it's spread out so you don't have to worry about discarding.
Reliquary Tower - Speaking of discarding, this might come in useful.
Trinket Mage - Should definitely be kept in. He can tutor up Sol Ring, Mana Vault, and especially Hangarback Walker.
Chromatic Lantern - Should replace Dimir Signet. It is THE color fixer mana rock.
Rite of Replication - It's fairly standard, but such a good card all around. This on a Sharding Sphinx or Whirler Rogue can be fun.
Command Tower - Realized it's missing in the list.
Dictate of Heliod - Might be a good replacement for the Angel. Same cost, flash, and bigger boost.
Just some food for thought. I'm almost starting to want to build my own Thopter 'tribal' list. Sounds like a lot of fun.
Good points on Unmaking and 'clamp.
Shred Memory is also instant-speed grave hate, but I see your point.
Paradoxical Outcome also saves my nontokens from sweepers, and can bounce anthems/lords to turn my combo on. The tokens themselves are expendable, and I don't care that I can't bounce them.
Blue Sun's Zenith is one of the designed wincons, and UUU isn't hard to get with this kind of mana base, especially not late game.
There are plenty of protection-from-X things in my meta. Colorless removal is very useful; Duplicant has saved my bacon way too many times in other decks to leave it out.
Mass haste & vigilance > indestructible for my purposes. Especially with Ertai as my commander.
Ashes to Ashes is a sorcery, so I'm not going to replace Murder with it, as I said above. If I had more space, I might add it alongside Murder, but not instead of.
I run Recurring Insight in a couple other decks, and while it's not bad, I also rarely end up drawing more than 3-4 cards off of it each time (so 6-8 total). As a 6-mana sorcery, I'm also rarely able to use any of the cards I draw the first time on the same turn.
Chromatic Lantern and Dictate are definite possibilities if I can find more space.
As strong as Replication is, I'm just not a huge fan. I run it in my mono-blue theft deck and my Maelstrom Wanderer deck, but it's a bit boring.
Thanks for your input, everyone!
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