Thopter

Ornithopter. Art by Amy Weber.

Predator Onnithopter

Thopter is an artifact creature type used for cards depicting small flying devices.

The first creature to bear the type was Ornithopter in Antiquities (first printed with the type in Ninth Edition). Other examples include Roterothopter, Thopter Squadron and Drill-Skimmer.

Storyline

Dominaria

Thopters were among the first devices worked upon by the brothers Urza and Mishra. They started out as Thran devices salvaged by Tocasia's team, then the brothers worked on them to make them more efficient and deadly. Used as transport, they were used frequently in the earliest stages of the Brothers' War straight through to the end.

At the the time of the Phyrexian Invasion, ornithopters were employed on the flagship Predator.

Kaladesh

Æther-fueled thopters are fabricated and used in large quantities on Kaladesh, the home plane of Chandra Nalaar.

Thopter tokens

Token Name	Color	Type Line	P/T	Text Box	Source	Printings
Thopter	Blue	Artifact Creature — Thopter	1/1	Flying	Breya, Etherium Shaper Sharding Sphinx Thopter Foundry
	Colorless	Artifact Creature — Thopter	0/0	Flying	Intrude on the Mind
	Colorless	Artifact Creature — Thopter	1/1	Flying	Access Denied Aspiring Aeronaut Aviation Pioneer Barbed Spike Breya's Apprentice Deploy Dovin, Grand Arbiter Efficient Construction Etherium Spinner Experimental Aviator Fairgrounds Patrol Filigree Crawler Foundry of the Consuls Gadget Technician Ghirapur Gearcrafter Hangarback Walker Harried Dronesmith Inspired Sphinx Invasion of Kaladesh Launch Mishap Loyal Apprentice Maverick Thopterist Pia and Kiran Nalaar Pia Nalaar Pia Nalaar, Consul of Revival Retrofitter Foundry A-Saheeli, Filigree Master Saheeli, Filigree Master Sai, Master Thopterist Sweep the Skies Tezzeret, Artifice Master Thopter Assembly Thopter Engineer Thopter Mechanic Thopter Pie Network Thopter Shop Thopter Spy Network Thopter Squadron Whirler Rogue Whirler Virtuoso Whirlermaker
Ornithopter	Colorless	Artifact Creature — Thopter	0/2	Flying	Yotia Declares War

Etimology

The word "ornithopter" has a specific origin from Greek words, related to the word "helicopter". Later authors of "thopter" cards apparently ignored any etymology, and created new words with bizarre results.

Word	Origin	Etymology	Literal translation
Helicopter	Greek	Helikos + pteron	Spiral wing
Ornithopter	Greek	Ornithos + pteron	Bird wing
Roterothopter	Greek & Latin	Rota (lat.) + erotos (gr.) + pteron (gr.)	Wing of the erotic wheel
Telethopter	Greek & something	Tele (gr.) + tho (?) + pteron (gr.)	Distance wing of "tho"
Thopter	Greek & something	Tho (?) + pteron (gr.)	Wing of "tho"