Thopter

Thopter is a creature type used for cards depicting small flying devices. All Thopters are artifact creatures.
The first creature to bear the type was <c>Ornithopter</c> in Antiquities (first printed with the type in Ninth Edition). Other examples include <c>Roterothopter</c>, <c>Thopter Squadron</c>, and <c>Drill-Skimmer</c>.
==Storyline==
===Avishkar===
Aether-fueled thopters are fabricated and used in large quantities on Avishkar (formerly Kaladesh), the home plane of Chandra Nalaar.
===Dominaria===
Thopters were among the first devices worked upon by the brothers Urza and Mishra. They started as Thran devices salvaged by Tocasia's team, and then the brothers worked on them to make them more efficient and deadly. They were used as transport frequently in the earliest stages of the Brothers' War straight through to the end.
In 3245 AR, Xantcha remarked that Dominaria wasn't a world where large man-made objects routinely whizzed through the sky. Urza's ornithopters, like Urza himself, were remembered mostly for their wrongheadedness.Planeswalker (novel) by Lynn Abbey
At the time of the Phyrexian Invasion, ornithopters were employed on the flagship Predator.
===Fiora===
Ornithopters are a common form of clockwork artifact creature created by the Academy of Paliano. In particular, they are popular with young artificers attempting to grab the attention of Professor Muzzio.
===Ixalan===
The sole known thopter of Ixalan is a Mechanoquetzacama known as a Thopteryx. Its creator, Huatli, likely based it on Kaladeshi design principles learned from her partner Saheeli.
===Kamigawa===
Butterfly-like electronic thopters have been developed by the Saiba Futurists of Kamigawa and are now common in the skies around Otawara.
===Ravnica===
As head of the Azorius Senate, the planeswalker Dovin Baan introduced thopters for surveillance in Ravnica. After New Phyrexia's invasion of the plane, they filtered down into use by the Ravnican Agency of Magicological Investigations.
===Zendikar===
The kor of Zendikar are known to manufacture kite-based thopters known as to scout the plane's unstable terrain.
==Notable thopters==
;Dominaria
*Liberator
;Kaladesh
*Hope of Ghirapur
==Inspiration==
Magic's ornithopters are based on real-world devices of the same name.Wikipedia: Ornithopter
==Etymology==
The word "ornithopter" comes from the French "ornithoptère",Online Etymology Dictionary: ornithopter itself constructed with the ancient Greek words "ornithos" (meaning "bird") and "pteron" (meaning "wing"). "Thopter" is shorthand for the same word, and it has the same etymology. 
Originally, artifact creatures didn't have creature types; later, designers used it as a root word to graft epithet to. Only two fake words were created using the "thopter" basis (<c>Roterothopter</c> and <c>Telethopter</c>), before card names started referring to Thopters directly: <c>Thopter Squadron</c> was the first to solidify Thopter as the generic name for these devices.
Word 	Origin	Etymology 	Literal translation
<c>Ornithopter</c> 	Greek 	OrnithosOnline Etymology Dictionary: ornithos + pteronOnline Etymology Dictionary: pteron	Bird wing
<c>Roterothopter</c>	Latin 	Rotarius (lat.Online Etymology Dictionary: rotary) + (orni)tho + pter 	Wheel-like bird wing
<c>Telethopter</c> 	Greek 	TeleOnline Etymology Dictionary: tele + (orni)tho + pter 	Long-distance bird wing
==Tokens==
Tokens marked with are created by Acorn cards.
==Gallery==
File:ThopterConcepts.jpg|Thopter concepts by Anthony Scott Waters.
File:ThopterConcepts2.jpg|Thopter concepts by Anthony Scott Waters.
==References==