Mike Sigrist was the lone member of the Channel Fireball / Face to Face collaboration to finish in the Top Eight, but their record in Constructed with U/R Thopters appeared to be quite good. Multiple teams showed up with similar decks, including Stephen Berrios who also finished in the Top Eight, but Siggy was the person who it took the furthest. He eventually lost to Mono-Red Aggro, but he clinched Player of the Year in the process.
Their deck is base blue to take advantage of cards like Whirler Rogue and Stubborn Denial. Some versions got a little greedy by trying to play things like Pia and Kiran Nalaar, but I don’t even think that card is better than Whirler Rogue! Being able to throw excess Thopters at things is nice, but it’s not better than getting in for a bunch of points of unblockable damage. It might look worse on paper, but Whirler Rogue is the much better card and it even improves the manabase too.
This Thopter deck might look like it’s a pile of bad cards, but its synergies more than makes up for that. Many times over the course of the Pro Tour I watched people mulligan to four or five and still kill on turn four. With the format becoming more and more about being the best linear deck, people have a difficult time beating an Ensoul Artifact on an Ornithoper.
Similarly to the red decks, I expect a ton of hate to rise up in order to fight this Thopter menace. However, unlike the red decks, I don’t think this deck will do too well against a pile of hate. The coming weeks shall tell all!
Creatures (20)
Lands (21)
Spells (19)
- 4 Shrapnel Blast
- 3 Springleaf Drum
- 4 Ensoul Artifact
- 4 Ghostfire Blade
- 3 Stubborn Denial
- 1 Collateral Damage
Sideboard
