Muzzio, a Leonardo da Vinci themed deck

Commander / EDH Mono-Blue Theme/Gimmick Vorthos

Alex7

Genius (14)

• 1x Brainstorm
• 1x Careful Study
• 1x Fabricate
• 1x Fact or Fiction
• 1x Glimmer of Genius
• 1x Inventor's Goggles
• 1x Inventors' Fair
• 1x Memorial to Genius
• 1x Mental Discipline
• 1x Merchant Scroll
• 1x Mystical Tutor
• 1x Overwhelming Intellect
• 1x Ponder
• 1x Stroke of Genius

Other inventions (7)

• 1x Eager Construct
• 1x Filigree Familiar
• 1x Magebane Armor
• 1x Manakin
• 1x Thran Dynamo
• 1x Thran Turbine
• 1x Urza's Armor

Paintings (4)

• 1x Empress Galina
• 1x Lady Sun
• 1x Meloku the Clouded Mirror
• 1x Rayne, Academy Chancellor

Catapult (2)

• 1x Acorn Catapult
• 1x Grapeshot Catapult

Cannon (1)

• 1x Elaborate Firecannon

Tank (9)

• 1x Arcbound Crusher
• 1x Energizer
• 1x Extruder
• 1x Galvanic Juggernaut
• 1x Juggernaut
• 1x Keldon Battlewagon
• 1x Mobile Fort
• 1x Otarian Juggernaut
• 1x Ramroller

Tools (9)

• 1x Glasses of Urza
• 1x Thran Foundry
• 1x Thran Lens
• 1x Urza's Blueprints
• 1x Urza's Engine
• 1x Urza's Factory
• 1x Urza's Mine
• 1x Urza's Power Plant
• 1x Urza's Tower

Travels (7)

• 1x Cultivator's Caravan
• 1x Navigator's Compass
• 1x Thaumatic Compass  ^Flip
• 1x Traveler's Amulet
• 1x Traveler's Cloak
• 1x Treasure Cruise
• 1x Wayfarer's Bauble

Basic lands (31)

• 31x Island

Commander (1)

Flying machine/ornithoper (8)

• 1x Cliffhaven Kitesail
• 1x Cobbled Wings
• 1x Journeyer's Kite
• 1x Kitesail
• 1x Ornithopter
• 1x Raven Wings
• 1x Whalebone Glider
• 1x Wings of Hubris

Books (4)

• 1x Jalum Tome
• 1x Jayemdae Tome
• 1x Mazemind Tome
• 1x Urza's Tome

Anatomy (3)

• 1x Fatestitcher
• 1x Remove Soul
• 1x Soul Separator

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I wanted to build a theme EDH deck, but I did not know about which theme to build around, until I had a revelation: Leonardo Da Vinci! So, who is Leonardo Da Vinci? For those few people who do not who Leonardo is, Leonardo Da Vinci was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who is widely considered one of the most diversely talented individuals ever to have lived. Leonardo is widely considered one of the greatest painters of all time. Leonardo is also revered for his technological ingenuity. He conceptualized flying machines, a type of armored fighting vehicle, concentrated solar power, an adding machine, and the double hull. Relatively few of his designs were constructed or even feasible during his lifetime, as the modern scientific approaches to metallurgy and engineering were only in their infancy during the Renaissance. Some of his smaller inventions, however, entered the world of manufacturing unheralded, such as an automated bobbin winder and a machine for testing the tensile strength of wire. He is also sometimes credited with the inventions of the parachute, helicopter, and tank. So which legend best suits the soul of Leonardo? Well, the answer was easier than I thought: Muzzio, Visionary Architect.

Inventions

Leonardo's most known inventions are his attempts of building a flying machine and a tank. There are also other inventions that

Flying Machine

In the history of Magic: the Gathering there are several cards that well represent this invention: Cliffhaven Kitesail, Cobbled Wings, Journeyer's Kite, Kitesail, Raven Wings, Whalebone Glider, Wings of Hubris, and one of the most iconic card Ornithopter

Tank

In MtG there are no cards that actually represent a tank, but there are creatures that I think are really really close, the Juggernauts, and with a big surprise I discovered there are several throughout the MtG history. I decided to ut in the deck the following: Arcbound Crusher, Energizer, Extruder, Galvanic Juggernaut, Juggernaut, Keldon Battlewagon, Otarian Juggernaut, and Ramroller. However the card that most represent the blueprint drawn by Leonardo is Mobile Fort.

Catapult

Unlike the tanks, catapult are not as much diffused and the few the are present are not in the right color, so I had to rely on the colorless ones: Acorn Catapult and Grapeshot Catapult

Cannon

Similar considerations can be done for cannons as well, plus I want the card to be as accurate as possible to the drawing of Leonardo, so the only relevant result was: Elaborate Firecannon

Other Inventions

One of the inventions that really fascinated me since when I was a child was this terrific mechanical lion. The type that best suit this invention is construct, however there are not arts figuring lions, but Eager Construct is a close one, and I added also Filigree Familiar because I really like the art. From Leonardo's genius several ideas were born, among these I put armors and some stuffs related to Urza

Paintings

This was the toughest part to add, it requires an almost perfect knowledge of the art in the MtG history, and I really want to increase the paintings.

Mona Lisa or Gioconda

The Mona Lisa is a half-length portrait painting by Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci. Considered an archetypal masterpiece of the Italian Renaissance, it has been described as "the best known, the most visited, the most written about, the most sung about, the most parodied work of art in the world". The painting's novel qualities include the subject's enigmatic expression, the monumentality of the composition, the subtle modelling of forms, and the atmospheric illusionism. The painting is probably of the Italian noblewoman Lisa Gherardini, the wife of Francesco del Giocondo, and is in oil on a white Lombardy poplar panel. The Mona Lisa bears a strong resemblance to many Renaissance depictions of the Virgin Mary, who was at that time seen as an ideal for womanhood. The woman sits markedly upright in a "pozzetto" armchair with her arms folded, a sign of her reserved posture. Her gaze is fixed on the observer. The woman appears alive to an unusual extent, which Leonardo achieved by his method of not drawing outlines (sfumato). The soft blending creates an ambiguous mood "mainly in two features: the corners of the mouth, and the corners of the eyes". (source: wikipedia) Unfortunately there is not a MtG cards that looks like very similar to this painting, the best solution my friends and I come up is Meloku the Clouded Mirror, who despite the different gender has the same enigmatic look of Mona Lisa.

The Lady with an Ermine

The portrait's subject is Cecilia Gallerani, painted at a time when she was the mistress of Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan, and Leonardo was in the Duke's service. The subject has been identified with reasonable certainty as Cecilia Gallerani, the mistress of Leonardo's employer, Ludovico Sforza.[12] Her gaze is directed neither straight ahead nor toward the viewer, but toward a "third party" beyond the picture's frame. Gallerani holds a small white-coated stoat, known as an ermine. Her dress is comparatively simple, revealing that she is not of noble birth or noble descent. Her coiffure, known as a coazone, confines her hair smoothly to her head with two bands of it bound on either side of her face and a long plait at the back. Her hair is held in place by a fine gauze veil with a woven border of gold-wound threads, a black band, and a sheath over the plait. (Source: wikipedia) The MtG card that I associated to this painting is Empress Galina. The subject is not as beautiful as Cecilia Gallerani, but the way how Galina looks and the way she holds the seal reminded me of Lady with an Ermie

Rayne

Rayne, Academy Chancellor does not resemble any of Leonardo's painting, but I really like the art and it gives me the idea of an old painting.

Madonna of the Carnation

The Madonna of the Carnation, also known as the Madonna with Vase, Madonna with Child or Virgin with Flower, is a Renaissance oil painting by Leonardo da Vinci created around 1478–1480. The central and centered motif is the young Virgin Mary seated with Baby Jesus on her lap. Depicted in sumptuous clothes and jewellery, with her left hand Mary holds a carnation (red, suggesting blood and the Passion). The faces are put into light while all other objects are darker, e.g. the flower is covered by a shadow. The child is looking up and the mother looking down, with no eye contact. The setting of the portrait is a room with two windows on each side of the figures. (Source Wikipedia) I think that the card that best suits these characteristics is Lady Sun

Anatomy

Leonardo also studied the human body and its anatomy. Finding blue MtG cards that represented these studies was a bit difficult, however, I managed to find 3 cards that may be quite representve: Fatestitcher looks like a body that was studied, Remove Soul and Soul Separator represent the studies on the human body.

Books

Leonardo during his life wrote several pages with his notes and are collected in books called codex. I decided to represent his work with the books present in MtG: Jalum Tome, Jayemdae Tome, Mazemind Tome, and Urza's Tome

Genius

Leonardo was without doubt one of the most brilliant minds of the Renaissance, and in this section I wanted to add all the cards that make justice to his genius, but also those cards that may remind the studio he conducted: Brainstorm, Careful Study, Fabricate, Fact or Fiction, Glimmer of Genius, Memorial to Genius, Mental Discipline, Merchant Scroll, Mystical Tutor, Ponder, and Stroke of Genius

Travels

Leonardo during his life travelled across the whole Italian territory, he stayed in Florence, Venice, Milan, and other cities. He also travelled abroad visiting France. This section want to provide all the useful tools a traveler may need during his travels.

Top Ranked	Achieved #9 position overall 3 years ago Achieved #7 position in Commander / EDH 3 years ago Achieved #1 position in Commander / EDH Mono-Blue 3 years ago Achieved #1 position in Commander / EDH Theme/Gimmick 3 years ago
Date added	3 years
Last updated	1 year
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	1 - 0 Mythic Rares 20 - 0 Rares 22 - 0 Uncommons 24 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.90
Tokens	Assembly-Worker 2/2 C, Copy Clone, Illusion 1/1 U w/ Flying, Squirrel 1/1 G
Folders	Vorthos, Deck Inspiration