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Thopter Spy Network

Enchantment

At the beginning of your upkeep, if you control an artifact, create a 1/1 colorless Thopter artifact creature token with flying.
Whenever one or more artifact creatures you control deal combat damage to a player, draw a card.

CMC
4
Mana cost
{2}{U}{U}
Color identity
U
Rarity
rare
Set
March of the Machine Commander
Price
$0.94
EDHREC rank
#901
Buy on TCGplayer
Thopter Spy Network card art
Thopter Spy Network generates a 1/1 flying Thopter at the start of your upkeep and draws a card whenever one of your artifacts connects — both effects recurring, both free after the initial four mana. The cost is real: you need an artifact already in play to get the token, and four mana is a steep ask for an enchantment that does nothing the turn it enters. Run it because the engine compounds fast; skip it if your deck can't protect it past turn five or doesn't have Time Sieve or Gimbal, Gremlin Prodigy to exploit the token flood.

Best Commanders

Commanders with the highest synergy

01
Gimbal, Gremlin Prodigy

Gimbal, Gremlin Prodigy

77.8% of decks · synergy 0.74

Gimbal, Gremlin Prodigy turns every Thopter Spy Network token into fodder for his sacrifice triggers, and the Network's evasive fliers connect reliably to keep cards flowing into a hand that wants to churn through artifacts.

02
Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci

79.1% of decks · synergy 0.71

Leonardo da Vinci's ability to crew and copy artifact tokens makes the steady Thopter stream from Thopter Spy Network disproportionately explosive, and the flying bodies are natural connectors for the card-draw half of the enchantment.

03
Urza, Chief Artificer

Urza, Chief Artificer

69.9% of decks · synergy 0.65

Urza, Chief Artificer gives every artifact creature — including each Thopter Spy Network token — menace and a power boost, turning incremental aerial bodies into a credible combat threat that also draws cards on damage.

04
Kotori, Pilot Prodigy

Kotori, Pilot Prodigy

72.3% of decks · synergy 0.62

Kotori, Pilot Prodigy's crew synergies benefit directly from a steady supply of evasive pilots, and Thopter Spy Network reliably delivers one per upkeep while rewarding the combat-forward gameplan with card draw.

05

Soundwave, Sonic Spy

66.7% of decks · synergy 0.62

Soundwave, Sonic Spy rewards artifact creatures dealing combat damage, which slots perfectly with the flying Thopter tokens Thopter Spy Network produces — both halves of the enchantment feed directly into what Soundwave wants to do.

Format Analysis

Where it lives, where it can’t

FormatVerdict
commander legal
legacy legal
modern legal
pioneer legal
standard not legal
vintage legal
pauper not legal
oathbreaker legal

Commander is by far the primary home for Thopter Spy Network — the card is slow, incremental, and scales with a full table of blockers who are reluctant to trade with fliers. In Modern and Pioneer it has seen fringe play in dedicated artifact shells, but four mana for a do-nothing-now enchantment is a hard sell against faster threats, and it's rarely more than a one-of curiosity. Legacy and Vintage have access to free interaction and faster clocks that punish tapping out on turn four for a value engine with no immediate board impact. Oathbreaker can support it in the right artifact build, but the format's lower life totals and faster pace narrow the window considerably. Stick to Commander, where the repeated upkeep trigger and flying card-draw consistently outpace the investment.

Key Combos

Combo lines featuring this card

Price Context

Current price

$0.94 bulk tier

At $0.94, Thopter Spy Network sits firmly in bulk territory, which is accurate — it's a niche enchantment with a narrow best-case context. Bulk rares with genuine combo hooks tend to stay cheap until a deck breaks them, so don't expect price movement unless Time Sieve strategies spike in Commander popularity.

Explore

Sources

Mentioned

← All cards

Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.