Leonardo da Vinci Commander Deck Guide

Last updated on July 8, 2024

Leonardo da Vinci | Illustration by Wangjie Li

In the world of Magic: The Gathering, building a deck that balances powerful combos, consistent card advantage, and fun gameplay can be a daunting task. Many artifact decks either lean too heavily on oppressive infinite combos or need help to maintain board presence and card draw without them. How do you create a potent and enjoyable deck for everyone at the table?

Enter Leonardo da Vinci, an ingenious commander from Assassin's Creed who offers a unique solution to this problem. Leonardo’s abilities provide robust card draw and artifact recursion, and turn your Thopter tokens into formidable threats. By harnessing da Vinci’s talents, you can create an artifact-centric deck that floods the battlefield with Thopters, leverages powerful synergies, and maintains a healthy balance between competitive and fun gameplay.

Of course, it has some infinite combos as well, but the deck doesn’t rely on them to win games at all; they’re just there for the extra power some boards require.

Intrigued about what this deck may look like? Worry not; this guide has everything you need to unlock the full potential of Leonardo da Vinci’s inventive prowess.

The Deck

Thought Monitor | Illustration by Martina Pilcerova

The Commander: Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci, one of the best commanders from the Assassin's Creed crossover, is a versatile blue commander who excels in artifact-centric decks. Their activated abilities provide card draw and the means to generate and enhance Thopter tokens. By paying , you can make Thopters you control have base power and toughness equal to the number of cards in your hand, turning them into significant threats. Additionally, Leonardo's ability allows you to draw a card, discard an artifact, and create a Thopter token copy of that artifact.

This ability is particularly powerful at cheating some of the more expensive artifacts into play with game-changing ETB abilities, as is the case with Portal to Phyrexia or The One Ring, just to mention a few.

The Creatures

First on the list is Ornithopter of Paradise, an artifact creature that provides essential mana ramp in the early game. It's also a Thopter, which fits into the deck’s theme, and at worst its flying body can also serve as an evasive attacker or chump-blocker when needed.

Next, we’ve got Etherium Sculptor, another critical piece in our artifact acceleration. It reduces the cost of all our artifact spells by 1, helping us flood the board with artifacts quickly, setting up our synergies and combos faster than our opponents can react.

Foundry Inspector works in tandem with Etherium Sculptor to further reduce our artifacts' costs.

Speaking of synergies, The Reality Chip offers card advantage and deck manipulation. When attached to a creature, it lets us play artifacts from the top of our library, ensuring we never run out of gas and consistently deploy threats and utility artifacts.

We’ll need tons of mana to cast these spells, and this makes Urza, Lord High Artificer the linchpin of our deck. It generates a powerful Construct token when it enters the battlefield and provides immense mana acceleration by turning our artifacts into mana sources. On top of that, the ability to cast spells for free from the top of our library can swing games in our favor, in case we don’t have our The Reality Chip engine already online.

We get some other unique effects from our creatures. Trinket Mage, for example, acts as a tutor for key low-cost artifacts in our deck.

On the other hand, Harbinger of the Seas can shut down other archetypes that tend to run many nonbasic lands, and it’ll turn them into islands, similar to a Blood Moon effect but for blue.

From there, we’ve got token makers, such as Whirler Rogue, Forensic Gadgeteer, and Sharding Sphinx, that trigger under different conditions

We have value artifacts like Thought Monitor, Solemn Simulacrum, and Phyrexian Metamorph, and utility ones like Padeem, Consul of Innovation and Meteor Golem to protect your artifacts and deal with opponents’ threats respectively.

Instant and Interactions

The following instants are crucial in protecting our board state, removing critical threats, and providing us with essential interaction. Let’s explore how each of these instants contributes to our strategy.

Efficient Removal: Pongify and Rapid Hybridization, two of the best removal spells, offer cheap and effective ways to deal with problematic creatures, keeping the board clear of threats at the cost of giving someone a 3/3 creature. Blue doesn’t have better ways to deal with resolved threats permanently.

Board Control: Surprising no one, Cyclonic Rift can reset the board state in our favor, while Access Denied counters spells and adds to our Thopter token count.

Counter-Magic: Speaking of counterspells, Counterspell, Mana Drain, and Fierce Guardianship ensure we have answers to key spells and threats, protecting our game plan and maintaining control over the board state.

Artifact Tutoring: Lastly, Whir of Invention allows us to find and deploy the exact artifacts we need at critical moments, either to survive or win the game.

Value Enchantments

Most of our enchantments provide a unique role, as is the case with Commander staple Rhystic Study, which is a powerful blue enchantment that taxes our opponents or provides unparalleled card draw.

Training Grounds is the second-best enchantment for the deck, as it reduces the cost of our creatures’ activated abilities by up to 2 mana. This is particularly valuable for creatures with repeatable abilities, such as Urza, Lord High Artificer, or our beloved commander.

From there, Efficient Construction and Thopter Spy Network continuously generate Thopter tokens, adding to our board presence and providing more resources for our artifact synergies, which pairs excellently with the likes of Kindred Discovery.

Value Spells

These spells are integral to our Thopter Assembly Line deck, providing the necessary card draw, tutoring, and recursion to maintain our strategy. By leveraging the synergies between artifact generation and powerful spell effects, we can keep our hand full, our board populated with Thopters, and our opponents struggling to keep up.

Tutoring and Fetching: Reshape and Fabricate ensure we can find our key artifacts quickly and effectively set up our combos and synergies.

Doubling and Drawing: March of Progress and Distant Melody help us scale our board presence and card draw, turning our Thopter tokens into a massive card advantage engine.

Powerful Draw Engines: One with the Machine and Sea Gate Restoration provide significant card draw in the late game, ensuring we have a steady flow of resources. In contrast, Thoughtcast offers cheap card draw in this deck, while Traverse Eternity is somewhat cheap, as it can easily refill your hand for a mere 4 mana.

The Key Artifacts

Now, let’s talk about the real kings of this deck: the artifacts.

These powerful artifacts and support cards provide the backbone of our Thopter Assembly Line deck, enhancing our artifact synergies and ensuring we have the resources to maintain our strategy throughout the game.

Mana Acceleration and Cost Reduction: Staple mana rocks like Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, Sapphire Medallion, Thought Vessel, Basalt Monolith, Cloud Key, and Forsaken Monument ensure we have the mana acceleration and cost reduction to cast our spells efficiently.

Card Draw and Deck Manipulation: Sensei's Divining Top, Mystic Forge, The Immortal Sun, Bident of Thassa, and The Magic Mirror provide consistent card draw and deck manipulation, keeping our hand full and our options open, either from our hand or from the top of our library.

Protection and Utility: Lightning Greaves excels at protecting our key creatures, while Unwinding Clock and Worldwalker Helm have additional utility effects that pair very well together or with other cards, as is the case with these last two artifacts.

Finishers and Win Conditions

Having clear paths to victory is essential for any deck. While the core of the deck leverages the power of artifacts to generate a steady stream of value, we need definitive ways to turn that advantage into a win. Here’s a deeper look at how these key cards help us achieve that.

Aetherflux Reservoir

Aetherflux Reservoir gains us life each time we cast a spell, with the amount of life gained increasing for each subsequent spell cast in a turn. This is particularly powerful in our deck because we can often cast multiple artifacts and spells in a single turn, rapidly increasing our life total. Casting several low-cost artifacts or spells in a turn can lead to gaining significant amounts of life, giving us a buffer against aggressive opponents.

The second ability of Aetherflux Reservoir is where its true finishing power lies. By paying 50 life, Aetherflux Reservoir deals 50 direct damage to any target. This can be used to eliminate an opponent directly. Given the lifegain we generate from casting our artifacts and spells, reaching 50 or more life is achievable, allowing us to use this ability to take out a player in one hit. This can be a game-changer in multiplayer formats, removing a key opponent or winning the game outright if we are the last player standing.

Portal to Phyrexia

Printed relatively recently in The Brothers' War, Portal to Phyrexia is an artifact that disrupts opponents while providing ongoing value. Each opponent sacrifices three creatures when it enters the battlefield. This effect can cripple opponents who rely on creature-based strategies, effectively resetting their board presence and giving us a significant advantage. However, its terrifying effect relies on its second triggered ability: At the beginning of our upkeep, Portal to Phyrexia allows us to put target creature cards from a graveyard onto the battlefield under our control. This means we can reanimate the best creatures that’s been sacrificed or otherwise ended up in the graveyard, including those of our opponents. Over time, this recurring reanimation can heavily turn the tide in our favor, providing threats and blockers when needed.

The One Ring

Last but not least is The One Ring: a legendary artifact from Lord of the Rings that grants protection from everything until our next turn when it enters the battlefield. More importantly, its second ability allows us to draw cards at any time based on its burden counters. The ability to draw multiple cards each turn can quickly overwhelm our opponents with card advantage, giving us access to more threats and answers than they can handle.

Unwinding Clock synergizes particularly well with The One Ring as it can now be activated on each of our opponents’ turns.

The Manabase

Despite being a mono-colored deck, some of these lands play a crucial role.

For example, Flooded Strand helps to thin your deck and also allows you to fetch a basic Island or lands with the type like Mystic Sanctuary, which serves as a crucial utility land that can recur an important instant or sorcery spell from your graveyard to the top of your library. Fetch lands let you do this at instant speed.

Reliquary Tower allows you to maintain a large hand size without having to discard excess cards, which is particularly beneficial in a deck that focuses on generating card advantage.

Mutavault functions uniquely by providing a land that can also become a 2/2 creature in addition to its land status. It won’t become an artifact, but it adds to the Thopter count of the deck.

Lastly, the unique ability of The Mycosynth Gardens to become a copy of any nontoken artifact you control adds versatility to the deck and pairs nicely with the ones that have a solid static ability on them.

The Strategy

In the early game, focus on setting up your mana base with ramp artifacts and reducing costs with cards like Sapphire Medallion and Etherium Sculptor.

You also need to deploy early Thopter generators such as Sai, Master Thopterist and Efficient Construction to get some board presence.

Additionally, you can utilize Leonardo da Vinci’s draw-and-discard ability to generate early Thopters and dig for key pieces.

In the mid-game, utilize card draw engines like Rhystic Study, Mystic Forge, and Thopter Spy Network to keep your hand full. Continue generating Thopters and deploying powerful artifacts. Use removal and countermagic to protect your board, disrupt opponents, and activate Leonardo’s Thopter enhancement ability to turn your Thopters into significant threats.

In the late game, the plan is to leverage our board state and card draw to find and deploy our finishers. As mentioned, Aetherflux Reservoir can end games quickly if we've gained enough life. Still, more often than not, you’ll win games with one of many different infinite combo interactions.

Combos and Interactions

Mystic Forge + Sensei's Divining Top + Cost Reducer

With Mystic Forge, Sensei's Divining Top, and either Etherium Sculptor or Foundry Inspector on the battlefield, the plan is to repeatedly tap Sensei's Divining Top to draw a card and put it on top of your library, then recast the Top for 0 mana thanks to the cost reduction.

This setup creates an infinite loop, allowing you to draw as many cards as possible and generate a near-infinite storm count. This pairs perfectly with cards like Aetherflux Reservoir, letting you potentially win the game by casting numerous spells in one turn.

The Reality Chip + Sensei's Divining Top + Cost Reducer

Similar to the previous combo, using The Reality Chip, Sensei's Divining Top, and Foundry Inspector on the battlefield, you can tap the Top to draw a card and place it back on top of your library, then recast it from the top for free due to Foundry Inspector.

Basalt Monolith + Forsaken Monument

When Basalt Monolith and Forsaken Monument are in play, you can tap Basalt Monolith for 4 colorless mana, then use 3 of that mana to untap the Monolith, effectively generating infinite colorless mana.

Urza, Lord High Artificer + Forensic Gadgeteer + Sensei's Divining Top + Cost Reducer

With Urza, Lord High Artificer, Forensic Gadgeteer, and Etherium Sculptor on the battlefield, plus Sensei's Divining Top in hand, you can cast the Top for free, creating a Clue token with Forensic Gadgeteer.

Then, tap the Clue with Urza’s ability for blue mana, tap the Top to draw a card and put it on top of your library, and pay 1 mana to sacrifice the Clue, drawing the Top again.

Basalt Monolith + Forensic Gadgeteer

Combining Basalt Monolith and Forensic Gadgeteer allows you to tap the Monolith for 3 colorless mana and then use 2 of that mana to untap it, repeating this process for infinite colorless mana.

Rule 0 Violations Check

Having a Rule 0 conversation with your playgroup is important. Discuss the infinite combos and powerful interactions included in your deck, such as those involving infinite mana, card draw, and storm counts. Ensure everyone is comfortable with the potential for these game-ending combos and agree on any house rules or restrictions to maintain a fun and balanced play experience for all participants.

Budget Options

As it happens with every new deck, budget constraints might make some of the more expensive cards challenging to acquire. Fortunately, many cheaper alternatives can still provide solid synergies and enhance your gameplay. Here are some budget-friendly replacements for key cards.

Mystic Forge can be replaced with Future Sight, offering similar benefits of playing cards from the top of your library.

Sensei's Divining Top can be replaced with Scroll Rack or Crystal Ball, providing alternative ways to manipulate the top of your library and ensure efficient card draw (at the cost of losing some infinite combo potential).

For counterspells, consider substituting Mana Drain with the likes of Arcane Denial or Deprive, which are effective and more budget-friendly options.

To “replace” The One Ring, look into Staff of Nin or Tamiyo's Journal, offering card draw and other beneficial effects at a lower price.

Finally, Basalt Monolith can be substituted with Hedron Archive or Dreamstone Hedron, both provide ramp and additional card draw options to support your strategy (again, giving up on infinite combo synergies).

These replacements maintain the deck's core functionality while being more budget-friendly.

Other Builds

By making strategic card changes, you can explore different directions for the deck.

For a more aggressive approach, focus on boosting your Thopter tokens' power with cards like Steel Overseer, Chief of the Foundry, and Adaptive Automaton. These cards enhance your Thopters' combat capabilities, turning them into potent attackers that can quickly overwhelm opponents.

To introduce more control elements, consider adding Nevinyrral's Disk, Oblivion Stone, and Ensnaring Bridge.

For a combo-focused build, incorporate cards like Karn, Silver Golem and Mycosynth Lattice, which can lead to a game-ending boardstate, like the ones involving Mirror of Fate and Thassa's Oracle, among others.

For a value-oriented strategy, include artifacts that generate consistent advantages, such as Treasure Map, Trading Post, and Ghirapur Orrery.

These are just some ideas, but exploring each different build allows you to tailor the deck to suit your preferred playstyle, whether you favor one or the other.

Wrap Up

Mystic Forge | Illustration by Titus Lunter

As you’ve seen, this deck centered around Leonardo da Vinci combines synergies and powerful artifact strategies to flood the battlefield with Thopter tokens and maximize some of the most potent game-breaking abilities on artifacts.

Did you find this deck tech insightful? What changes would you make to fit it to your preferences? Share your thoughts with us in the comments!

For more Magic: The Gathering strategies and updates, follow us on social media and join our Draftsim Discord community.

As always, thanks for reading and until next time, may your draws be favorable and your Thopters take flight!