Well when you print the words "As long as you control a Gideon Planeswalker you can't lose the game and your Opponents can't win the game" there's bound to be a deck that is basically 100% Gideon.
So here we have Gideon's Army of Gideon.
Gideon of the Trials (4) is your turn 3 WinCon setup. Play it, "Ultimate", then proceed to not lose the game. The rest of this card is basically useless towards winning the game, but the other 0 turns him into a creature which might get a hit or two in. The other Gideons actually create tokens which is how we aim to win the game.
Gideon, Ally of Zendikar has three awesome and very useful abilities. Making tokens is the main ability here to help you widen your forces, but his Emblem is pretty sweet too. He can also turn into an Indestructible Creature, but this one doesn't just die to Grasp of Darkness.
Gideon, Martial Paragon (2) is the finisher. Drop this guy and he gives you're creatures a nice buff while also pulling them out of any sort of tap down control and then swing like crazy. If you get to his Ultimate then that probably means you've got several creatures and this -10 becomes very relevant and will probably win the game.
Oath of Gideon is awesome. It's too bad it's Legendary, but that would have been foolish. This Oath allows Gideon, Ally of Zendikar to come down with enough Loyalty to Ultimate right away for the Emblem and not just die. That's huge. It is also nice that it gives you two tokens which makes it worth playing a second time even though it destroys the first.
Gideon is the Captain. He's the Quarterback. Gideon's Reporach, Soulder to Shoulder,
Smite the Monstrous
,
Inspired Charge
, and
Deft Dismissal
are the plays right out of his book. These answer the question of "What would Gideon do?". That. That's what Gideon did.
Call the Gatewatch and
Deploy the Gatewatch
are there for obvious reasons. Need a Gideon? Go get one. I would have just gone with 4 Calls, but Deploy puts it right onto the field which comes at a slight discount for Martial Paragon and it saves you a step. If Deploy get's countered it just goes away. If you use Call and then play Gideon your Opponent could just save the counter for Gideon. Perhaps not sound reasoning, but it made sense at the time and it can always be changed. It's too bad you can't have multiple of the same named Planeswalker, then it would be a completely different situation.
Captain's Claws
are usually best suited for an Ally ETB deck, but here it just helps you widen. You need tokens to win and you definitely need them to survive. It's neat that you can even attach them to Gideon if you make him a creature, it sucks that they fall off when he stops being a creature so you have to keep paying to equip them. These are best picked up by a token though to create more tokens.
Renewed Faith
allows you to either gain 6 life or draw a card and gain 2 life. I like the flexibility and it makes an appearance because of Gideon's handsome mug on the face of the card. It's pretty decent.
Retreat to Emeria
is another token generator. The other ability is only going to be used the turn you are going to swing out for the kill, so just keep growing that army until it's time to strike.
Stasis Snare
has been a solid trick for getting rid of nasty Eldrazi or other big threats for a long time. Gideon likes to use things that work.
Gideon's Resolve
is yet another board bump but it also gets a Martial Paragon back from the dead which is nice if you've had to discard one or lost it. Since Paragon is sort of a finisher this fits nicely as a value card. No need for more than one, it's kind of expensive. It does serve as a third copy of the Paragon for some consistency.
The Sideboard has some more answers like board wipes with Descend upon the Sinful and Fumigate, but also has a good build for Cataclysmic Gearhulk. You can choose to keep a Gideon, Himself, a Token (or other sideboarded creature), and an Oath. It really wouldn't mess up your board all that much.
Aven Mindcensor is there to disrupt Tutor effects and Fetch Land. As a Flyer he may get damage in above your Opponent's creatures, but there's no reason for a card to have that printing if there aren't an abundance of ways to search your library and it's mainly there to stop whatever that was going to be. Thalia, Heretic Cathar can be used also if her effect would disrupt your opponent even more. Authority of the Consuls pretty much does the same thing but cheaper and slightly harder to remove.
Sram's Expertise gives you creatures and there are many 3 cost cards that can be used for free with the followup ability. I like to think of the sideboard here as "Advice" from other Legendary characters, otherwise Sram's Expertise probably would have made the Mainboard. I'm too much of a "flavorist"(?) to do that any other way, lol.
Declaration in Stone is just more removal for the right matchup. You pretty much have to have this in your arsenal against fast decks and other token generators.
Lantern Scout
can help gain a massive amount of life since most of the tokens that drop are Allies. Keep that game going that you can't lose and you're opponent can't win :)
That pretty much sums it up. A simple yet effective deck that basically showcases everything Gideon from Standard. Who would of thought that all of these would play this well together? Wizards? Yeah, probably...
