Is Smuggler’s Copter the New Staple for Standard?

Hello, this is Luke, helping to fill in for the Orcs Head Magic blog, today I will be discussing a new card from the Kaladesh set.  Firstly, just by looking at ‘Smuggler’s Copter’, we can clearly see how impressive this card is. For only 2 mana, you can play a 3/3 artifact vehicle, with flying, which already has me intrigued. Furthermore, this vehicle only has crew 1, so anything from a 1 mana ‘Blisertpod’, to a 13 mana ‘Emrakul the Promised End’ can crew this amazing card. Finally ‘Smuggler’s Copter’ ability is certainly the icing on the cake. The fact that you can start drawing cards whenever this card attacks AND blocks, makes it an all-star staple in any deck which is running a decent amount of creatures.

 

 

 

 

 

Evidence of this cards early success in Standard can be seen from the Indianapolis ‘Star City Games’ Open Weekend (October 1^st-2^nd). As every deck in the top 8 deck ended up playing this card. What does this mean for the Kaladesh Pro Tour in Honolulu, Hawaii? I believe that this can go two ways. Either the majority of pro tour decks will be running this card, as seen in the Indianapolis Open, or the majority of decks will be running certain removal to counter and prevent this card from leading the meta game.

Lastly, I just wanted to quickly mention an amazing card which combos well with the Copter. Turn 2, play ‘Smuggler’s Copter’, turn 3, play ‘Fairground Warden’ to exile one of the opponents creatures. Lastly, use the ‘Fairground Warden’ to crew the ‘Smuggler’s Copter’ to attack in the air and then draw a card.

In conclusion, I believe that this card will have a massive impact in Standard during the next couple of months. As speculations and positive early Standard tournament results, have meant that the price of ‘Smuggler’s Copter’ has risen to 17 dollars each (at the time of typing this entry). Will the price of this card increase after the Pro Tour? We will yet to see…