Pioneer: Deckbuilding with Smuggler's Copter

It's official! One of the most controversial artifacts in recent Magic history, Smuggler's Copter, has been unbanned from Pioneer after four years. Known for its dominance in Standard, Kaladesh's vehicle returns to the competitive tables to prove whether power creep will be able to put it in check.

Since the announcement, players have been testing the Copter on almost every viable list in Pioneer leagues ahead of the Atlanta Regional Championship. And in this article, we will explore some lessons from past periods in which the artifact was present in competitive Magic to define: After all, what will be the best Smuggler's Copter deck?

Smuggler's Copter is not a new card. Released in the last quarter of 2016 in Kaladesh, the artifact soon became a staple of multiple archetypes in Standard where it was even compared to Umezawa's Jitte in terms of efficiency and Metagame share - eventually, the Copter was banned from the format alongside Reflector Mage and Emrakul, the Promised End.

Some of the main lists the vehicle played in were: Azorius Flash, Mardu Vehicles, Boros Aggro, Golgari Delirium and Rakdos Madness.

At that time, Smuggler's Copter was a Standard pillar. From Aggro to Midrange and Tempo, it just needed the list to use a decent amount of creatures to add to the filtering of dead cards in hand, while interacting directly or indirectly with the main themes of each archetype.

In Pioneer, Smuggler's Copter was banned in December 2019 due to its predominance in several aggressive archetypes, in an environment where other cards considered major design errors, such as Oko, Thief of Crowns and Once Upon a Time, were still legal.

The card stood out mainly in Mono Black Aggro, due to the deck's ability to take advantage of its discard to generate value with Bloodsoaked Champion and Dread Wanderer, but it was also present in several aggro strategies at the time.

In a direct comparison between the Standard and Pioneer lists from 2019, we can see some patterns in the deckbuilding and their methodology for using Smuggler's Copter to their advantage. For example, most of these strategies have a proactive proposal, but do not give up interaction. Most resort to one-drops to take advantage of it on the first turn followed by a copter on the second, and most of them are Aggro or at least creature-based archetypes.

However, 2023's Pioneer is a very different format with a higher, more robust power level, despite the lack of some of the most broken cards in the game's history - so how do we capitalize on Copter today?

In the last two days, the Pioneer Leagues have been flooded with Smuggler's Copter used by every deck category with a reasonable number of creatures. From Rakdos Midrange to Boros Convoke and Greasefang, players are testing the vehicle everywhere.

But most lists don't seem to consider essential points regarding capitalizing on the card in their lists, seeing it merely as a piece of great value to include in the deck. Let's go to the first point:

Hand Filtering is not Card Advantage

Smuggler's Copter does not stand out as a card advantage engine, but rather for its ability to recycle its controller's hand, removing useless pieces in exchange for more efficient cards.

Therefore, it is difficult to say that it is a direct replacement for Reckoner Bankbuster, because, while both are two-mana vehicles, the Neon Dynasty card works better in terms of Card Advantage, where its controller can use the untapped mana of the turn to draw a card.

While Smuggler's Copter is best in a vacuum, Reckoner Bankbuster works best in games where you need to accumulate resources and/or intend to go for attrition and not missing land drops is essential, and every piece of interaction and threat counts.

Optimizing the Vehicle's usage

There are three distinct cases for optimizing Smuggler's Copter in your deck. The first case is Mono Black Aggro, where we use other cards that make looting a way to generate value while forcing the opponent to respect its clock.

The other case is Simic Aggro, which used less efficient mana dorks to accelerate cards like Oko, Thief of Crowns and Steel Leaf Champion. In this case, Smuggler's Copter had the function of giving additional utility to the dorks by making them ideal pilots of the vehicle.

Finally, Azorius Flash used Smuggler's Copter as a means of filtering its draw and having a flying threat that dodged sweepers. It is important to note that Teferi, Time Raveler was present in the format at the time and made Instant-Speed removals impossible, which gave a free pass for a creature to crew the vehicle and attack without taking a removal in response.

In all three cases, there are elements in the deckbuilding of the archetypes that justify and value the inclusion of Copter in their lists. It's no use just having it in your deck and thinking that it will do the work alone, on the contrary, there are several situations where it can hinder the progress of your game because your list was not optimized to extract value from the card.

Whether it's creature recursion (but please don't put it on Izzet Phoenix), or interacting with its abilities, or turning your bad topdecks into threats, your list needs to get some value out of Smuggler's Copter to justify its use.

A curious case in this example is Greasefang, Okiba Boss. This creature stars in one of Pioneer's main combo decks today, where we aim to use it to reanimate Parhelion II and instantly attack with it.

In theory, the Greasefang variants would benefit most from Smuggler's Copter because it offers recurring discard and yet another vehicle to bring back. In practice, there are several players betting on worse cards in an attempt to make Smuggler's Copter a viable addition.

While the Mardu version was the first Greasefang variant to appear in the format, it became predictable and less popular than the current Abzan variant, where the archetype became a Midrange, with Esika's Chariot, Liliana of the Veil and Skysovereign, Consul Flagship, in addition to efficient card selection effects that interact directly with your game plan, such as Grisly Salvage, Vessel of Nascency and Traverse the Ulvenwald.

When you exchange these filtering and selection effects for less efficient pieces for the combo, such as Stitcher's Supplier and Voldaren Epicure, just to fit Smuggler's Copter and take advantage of it, added to the fact that Greasefang, Okiba Boss needs Parhelion II in the graveyard in the combat phase, you are clearly playing a worse version of the deck just to play the newly unbanned card.

Another example of a strategy that could include Smuggler's Copter, but doesn't need to, is Boros Convoke.

Although the card interacts well with a dozen pieces, Convoke lists are very synergistic and benefit from explosive turns to win the game. The inclusion of the Copter would serve to provide more efficient top filtering, but would greatly reduce the speed with which Convoke pressures its opponent - a key element capable of defining victory or defeat in most matches with this archetype.

Considering the points above, we can say that the following elements and criteria must be considered when including Smuggler's Copter in your list:

Be proactive

It seems obvious, but being proactive is a basic criterion for playing Smuggler's Copter. There's no point starting the game with Thoughtseize, casting the artifact on the second turn and spending the third with the mana untapped for a removal - you'd be better off playing with Reckoner Bankbuster in that case.

Smuggler's Copter is a great beatdown facilitator. Your dorks hit harder, any of your creatures can bypass blockers, and every attack guarantees that a bad card leaves your hand in exchange for another - turns that start with a creature followed by the artifact, or the artifact on the second turn in a row from a threat in the third, are capable of carrying matches on their own.

Give the card a purpose

Why are you playing Smuggler's Copter? What benefit does the card bring to your list? Do you use Llanowar Elves and need it to be more useful as the game progresses? Are you looking to take advantage of its trigger to put certain cards in your graveyard or trigger abilities from cards like Inti, Seneschal of the Sun? Or can you protect it and make sure it attacks every turn until you win the gamd?

Regardless of the list, it needs Smuggler's Copter to make sense in its mechanics and interact with the rest of the deck. Even Mono Red Aggro lists, when running it in 2019, took the opportunity to trigger Prowess from Monastery Swiftspear and Soul-Scar Mage.

Below are some lists that I intend to test in the coming days with Smuggler's Copter. Most of them are adapted versions of archetypes already established in the format.

Gruul Vehicles

With eight mana dorks and efficient creatures, but where most lack evasion, in addition to not having the means to filter the hand, Gruul Vehicles seems like one of the ideal homes for Smuggler's Copter, since the card adds a lot of value in everything the archetype needs.

Boros Inti Prowess

Inti, Seneschal of the Sun has an excellent interaction with Smuggler's Copter, where it turns the vehicle's discard into an impulse draw while increasing its power and toughness. Together, they guarantee three extra cards for the player each turn.

The Prowess core, with Soul-Scar Mage and Monastery Swiftspear is a known home of the artifact in the past, and today they interact with Pia Nalaar, Consul of Revival to establish its own archetype. This version makes some concessions to fit the above combo, such as increasing the density of creatures and removing some cards that sequence poorly with Copter.

Rakdos Sacrifice

Cauldron Familiar is an excellent pilot for Smuggler's Copter, and the artifact, in addition to being a valid target for Deadly Dispute if necessary, also helps with the topdeck problems that the archetype has. The vehicle also helps with one of Rakdos Sacrifice's inherent problems: The lack of a fast clock capable of carrying the game alone.

Rakdos Sacrifice is also one of the best strategies against other Smuggler's Copter decks in the format.

Humans

This is one of the lists where I'm most skeptical about playing the vehicle due to its bad interaction with Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, but it has so many one-drops and suffers so much against sweepers and topdecks that Smuggler's Copter might help more than it hinders, if included in the most flexible slots on the list.

Another highlight for Humans was the inclusion of Get Lost, capable of dealing with several problematic permanents, including Temporary Lockdown, whose popularity may increase due to the unban.

Azorius Flash

Finally, the insertion of the Copter in the Pioneer can take the Azorius Flash, a strategy I have been dedicated to in recent months, back to Tempo standards instead of focusing on the Midrange plan. The inherent elements of Azorius Control, such as Shark Typhoon and Teferi, Hero of Dominaria are gone, in favor of cheaper cards, such as Spyglass Siren and Tishana's Tidebinder.

Personally, I feel that this list requires more adjustments and suffers from the problem of using bad cards (Spyglass Siren and Thraben Inspector) to improve cards that are already good (Smuggler's Copter). Some adjustments will be necessary before arriving at a definitive version.

Pioneer Preliminary Decklists

Update. Last Tuesday (5), Dawnbreak Games released the results of the first Pioneer events after the unban. 56 copies of Smuggler's Copter were used across 15 decks. Below are some of the main lists which played the card.

That's all for today.

Smuggler's Copter will be put through its paces over the next few weekends, with its results showing in the Challenges and with the Atlanta Regional Championship approaching. Time will tell if the vehicle has reached the level of acceptable for Pioneer's power standards, or if it will become too predominant in the Metagame.

If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to leave a comment!

Thanks for reading!