All 20 Thopter Cards in Magic Ranked

Chris Reay 5 days ago Collecting, Deckbuilding, MTG Cards

Last updated on October 6, 2026

Reconstructed Thopter | Illustration by Dan Scott

Thopters are unusual in that they’re instantly iconic to pretty much any Magic player, but they aren’t really something we see in any other game or universe, and are pretty much exclusive to MTG in a way that’s only surpassed by planeswalkers.

But what exactly is a thopter? And what makes a good one? Let’s take to the skies and figure it out!

Table of Contents show

What Are Thopters in MTG?

Ornithopter of Paradise | Illustration by Raoul Vitale

Thopters are artifact creatures that have existed in some ways since the early days of MTG. They’re flying creatures that come in a variety of forms, and in the lore they can either be autonomous or have a crew (they existed before vehicles were a thing in MTG, otherwise their design and lore could well have been different).

“Thopter” is a somewhat generic term for any flying machine, whether it’s the Thran relics that Urza and Mishra worked on in the dig sites of Dominaria, the Aether-powered machines from the artifice world of Avishkar, or some other worlds’ version of a flying drone. They’re generally seen as simple, cheap machines, but bigger versions like Liberator, Urza's Battlethopter also exist.

#20. Flowstone Thopter

Thopters are an old creature type, and creatures, particularly artifact creatures, were generally not great in the early days of MTG. There’s some laughably bad cards by today’s standards, like Flowstone Thopter.

I doubt that this was even that good when first printed, but a 7-mana 4/4 that you then need to pay to give flying (and a power boost balanced out by a toughness loss) just doesn’t cut it in any format these days. Still, it’s a perfect example of just how far things have come in the last few decades.

#19. Telethopter

Telethopter is another unusual thopter that needs work to get it flying, which just seems odd. Tapping one of your other creatures to jump this is just way too much of a cost for all but the weakest of formats.

#18. Roterothopter

Coming in marginally higher than the bottom two is Roterothopter, with some of the same issues as we just discussed. The good news here is that instead of costing 7, it now only costs 1, but this time for a 0/2.

The pump ability is much better, and to be honest it’s not a horrendous card. It’s just never really going to make the cut either.

#17. Drill-Skimmer

I admit when I first read Drill-Skimmer, I thought it got hexproof when you had an artifact, making it a pretty good card for Voltron decks. Unfortunately it gets shroud instead, making it pretty useless if you want to target it with equip abilities and auras.

It’s an odd set of abilities looking through the eyes of modern Magic, but back in the day a 2/1 flier that you could protect was probably a real threat in the right deck. How times change!

#16. Reconstructed Thopter

Reconstructed Thopter from The Brothers’ War is a significant jump up from the previous cards as a cheap flier with unearth. Ultimately it’s a weak Wind Drake that can come back for a turn, which isn’t exactly flying high over the quality of creatures these days.

#15. Spined Thopter

Phyrexian mana is one of the most notorious mechanics in Magic history, delivering some powerful cards like Birthing Pod and Gitaxian Probe. Others are just “good”, and that’s what Spined Thopter is.

A colorless 2/1 flier for 2 is a pretty good rate, even if you have to pay 2 life for it. It’s likely not going to win a Legacy tournament any time soon, but it can still see a home occasionally.

#14. Aetherjacket

Aetherjacket’s just too overcosted on every metric to find a home pretty much anywhere, even Aetherdrift Limited. Actually, strike that. It’s got a cozy little home in someone’s bulk box.

#13. Spotter Thopter

The big thing that Spotter Thopter offers is flexibility. Well, that and a lot of card selection. Neither half of it is particularly amazing, but having the ability to choose either is certainly something. Blinking the prototyped version almost gets you into the realm of playability.

#12. Snare Thopter

The last in the line of “it’s just a fairly plain beater” thopters is Snare Thopter. The rate on this one isn’t bad, though. 3/2 fliers with haste are pretty on-rate below rare, and being colorless means it can fit into a number of decks.

This card has probably killed plenty of players the turn it’s come down in the past, and I can imagine myself getting sick of losing to it if it were ever in a random Draft format.

#11. Pilgrim’s Eye

A Limited player’s favorite is Pilgrim's Eye. Great for those multicolor soup decks, grabbing a basic out of your deck, and having a relevant, if small body on top of that. It’s well behind the power level of cards we’d expect to see in Commander these days, though it might still make appearances as a Limited playable.

#10. Skyscanner

It’s tough to decide between Skyscanner and Pilgrim's Eye. It’s like Coke or Pepsi, McDonald’s or Burger King. Phyrexians or Eldrazi, even! It’s just a question of what you like more: color fixing, or drawing cards.

#9. Chrome Courier

Chrome Courier follows the trend of 3-mana flying thopters that get a bit of card advantage, like Skyscanner. The card selection it offers is great, as is the lifegain you get from picking up an artifact. A fantastic role-player which I could definitely see sneaking into the right casual Commander deck.

#8. Hope of Ghirapur

Hope of Ghirapur is one of those cards that feels competitive, but it never really found a home. A 1/1 flier for 1 with an ability that matters, but it just doesn’t quite do enough. That said, it could still easily find a good home if the meta in Pioneer or even Modern shifts the right way.

#7. Ornithopter

The original 0-mana creature, Ornithopter was a real boundary-pusher at the time. It’s still a role-player, whether you’re trying to combo off with Song of Creation or just use it as a beater with Tempered Steel. It’s a super fun card that has seen play for three decades and is likely to see play for quite a while to come.

A pretty perfect card, if I’m honest!

#6. Thopter Assembly

Now we’re really getting into the good stuff. Thopter Assembly is really interesting: If it sticks, you can create an army of chump blockers or even better, practically infinite sacrifice fodder. Of course, you can also just use those bonus thopters to beat down in the air.

#5. Thopter Squadron

Thopter Squadron is a card that’s been full of potential for years. It’s just itching to be broken by something.

Yes, you can go infinite with Phyrexian Altar, but it feels like it can do so much more than that. I doubt a creature like this would be printed these days without some kind of safeguards on it to try and prevent silly things happening. But it exists, and even at 5 mana it’s great fun.

#4. Gold-Forged Thopteryx

Gold-Forged Thopteryx was easy to overlook as part of the maligned March of the Machine: The Aftermath, but it’s a nice utility creature for legendary-heavy decks, especially ones interested in artifacts. Lifelink adds a nice touch to the package. It’s also a nice, subtle bit of storytelling, combining Saheeli’s love of artifice with Huatli’s affinity for dinosaurs.

#3. Ornithopter of Paradise

Modern Horizons 2 brought lots of powerful cards to Magic. It’s a fine card, smashing together two independently favorite cards, Ornithopter and Birds of Paradise. It fills the roll of being a reliable mana dork in colors that don’t have an excess of 2-mana ramp already.

#2. Krenko’s Buzzcrusher

Power level aside, Krenko's Buzzcrusher is a deeply frustrating card design. The land destruction ability doesn’t target anything, so it gets around hexproof. The goal was to make a creature that could destroy Lotus Field in Pioneer, and the solution was to make a card that clearly targets without using the word “target” to make it work. That’s just really janky design, if you ask me.

Qualms aside, Buzzcrusher is a totally fine midrange thopter. Four-mana 4/4 flample’s on-rate, and downgrading nonbasics is usually pretty strong. It even scales up in Commander, where it can target each opponent, and even target yourself for an extra landfall trigger. This could probably be played more than it is.

#1. Liberator, Urza’s Battlethopter

It kind of feels right for Urza’s private flagship to come at the top of the thopter list. Liberator, Urza's Battlethopter is an aggressively-costed card, specifically designed to put a different spin on a colorless EDH deck.

Giving all your artifacts flash and growing itself is an unusual combination of abilities, but it’s clearly a combination that was designed to work nicely together.

Thopter Token-Makers

Thopters are a very common artifact token for cards to generate. They’re usually 1/1 colorless flying artifact tokens, but they’ve show up in other forms, too.

1/1 Colorless Thopter-Makers

Other Thopter-Makers

Best Thopter Payoffs

Thopter as a standalone creature type isn’t heavily supported, but there are some cards that explicitly call them out.

Master Trinketeer and Stridehangar Automaton are traditional typal lords that buff thopters, and both have abilities that produce extra thopter tokens.

The man, the myth, the legend himself, Leonardo da Vinci has a mass pump ability for thopters, and produces thopterized versions of artifacts you discard to its second ability. Oh that Leonardo, always inventing things and such.

Retrofitter Foundry needs no additional support, but you can skip the chain of command by producing thopters through other means and then sacrificing them to create 4/4 constructs with the Foundry’s last ability.

Emporium Thopterist is a digital-only Alchemy card, but an extremely busted one that far exceeds what you’d expect from an uncommon. It’s a 2-drop that just draws an extra card every turn, free of charge. Sure, that extra card is a conjured Ornithopter, but there are plenty of uses for extra free artifacts, and the Thopterist even buffs them, giving you a small army of 2/2 fliers just for sitting around.

Up, Up, and Away

Thopter Assembly | Illustration by Svetlin Velinov

Thopters are pretty uniquely iconic to Magic and have seen a bit of resurgence in the last few years. I wouldn’t be shocked if we see more playable ones in future sets, and they’ll likely also push the envelope of what’s possible in the same way as other modern designs.

Do you like thopters? Do they make you think of Magic when you hear about them? Are you an Ornithopter fan, or is it boring to you? Let me know in the comments down below, or over in the official Draftsim Discord. And check out The Daily Upkeep newsletter to stay up to date on all the latest MTG news.

I look forward to seeing you in the next one!

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Chris Reay

Chris is a passionate drafter who loves limited formats both online and (particularly) in person. He started his YouTube Channel, Pass Left Drafts MTG as a lockdown project and still loves putting out content for Magic players of all varieties.

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