Thopter

Thopter
Creature Type
(Subtype for creature/kindred cards)
Statistics	12 cards 8.3% 91.7%
Scryfall Search
type:"Thopter"

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

Predator Onnithopter

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

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

Ravnica

As head of the Azorius Senate, the planeswalker Dovin Baan introduced thopters for surveillance in Ravnica.

Etymology

Magic's ornithopters are based on the real world devices of the same name. The word "ornithopter" comes from the french "ornithoptère", itself constructed with the ancient Greek words "ornithos" (meaning "bird") and "pteron" (meaning "wing").

As artifact creatures didn't use to have creature types, "Thopter" became a shorthand for a small flying device; and later designers used it as a root word to graft epithet to. Only two fake words were created using the "thopter" basis (Roterothopter and Telethopter), before card names started referring to Thopters directly: Thopter Squadron was the first to solidify Thopter as the generic name for these devices.

Word	Origin	Etymology	Literal translation
Ornithopter	Greek	Ornithos + pteron	Bird wing
Roterothopter	Latin	Rotarius (lat.) + Thopter	Wheel-like thopter
Telethopter	Greek	Tele (gr.) + Thopter	Long-distance thopter

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