Thopter Assembly
Artifact Creature — Thopter
Flying
At the beginning of your upkeep, if you control no Thopters other than this creature, return this creature to its owner's hand and create five 1/1 colorless Thopter artifact creature tokens with flying.
- CMC
- 6
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- C
- Rarity
- rare
- Set
- March of the Machine Commander
- Price
- $0.36
- EDHREC rank
- #4993
Thopter Assembly returns to your hand at your upkeep and drops five 1/1 fliers in its place — a repeating token factory stapled to a six-mana artifact body. The catch is that the bounce-and-replace only triggers if you control no other Thopters, which makes it a build-around rather than a value add; outside of a Time Sieve or The Capitoline Triad shell, that restriction punishes you for doing exactly what artifact token decks want to do.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
The Capitoline Triad
The Capitoline Triad is the premier home for Thopter Assembly because the Triad's untap triggers turn those five Thopter tokens into both a resource engine and fuel for the Time Sieve infinite-turns combo.
Graaz, Unstoppable Juggernaut
Graaz, Unstoppable Juggernaut turns every creature into a Juggernaut, so the five 1/1 Thopters that Thopter Assembly produces become a squadron of flying 5/3s that demand an immediate answer.
Saheeli, the Gifted
Saheeli, the Gifted's cost-reduction ability makes Thopter Assembly easier to replay after the bounce trigger, and the commander's artifact-centric synergies reward a repeating flood of Thopter tokens each turn cycle.
Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo da Vinci cares about artifacts and tokens, so Thopter Assembly's self-replacing loop fits naturally into a deck already built around generating and exploiting artifact creatures at scale.
Brudiclad, Telchor Engineer
Brudiclad, Telchor Engineer only needs one copy of a powerful token to matter, so the five Thopters that Thopter Assembly generates each upkeep become a wave of whatever the best token on the board happens to be.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | not legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Thopter Assembly is legal in Commander, Legacy, Modern, Vintage, and Oathbreaker, but the only format where it actually sees play is Commander. In Modern and Legacy, six mana for a do-nothing-until-next-upkeep artifact is unplayable — those formats kill you before the tokens arrive. Commander is the one context where the repeating token loop is worth the cost, specifically in artifact-combo shells where the Thopters feed a Time Sieve or a similar sacrifice outlet rather than sitting as mere blockers. Oathbreaker is theoretically legal but faces the same speed problem as the 60-card formats.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Prototype PortalGonti's Aether HeartThopter AssemblyKrark-Clan Ironworks
Infinite turns; Lock
View on Commander Spellbook ↗
Prototype PortalGonti's Aether HeartThopter AssemblyAshnod's Altar
Infinite turns; Lock
View on Commander Spellbook ↗Price Context
Current price
$0.36 bulk tier
Thopter Assembly sits at $0.36, firmly in bulk territory, which is accurate for a card that's a one-deck specialist — you want it badly in the right build and have almost no reason to own it otherwise. The price is stable; there's no reason to expect movement in either direction.
Explore
Sources
Mentioned
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.