Hey guys, when I got back into MTG it was during the Return to Ravnica block and Dragon's Maze was just released. I purchased a Selesnya event deck and a Dragon Maze fat pack. I saw the card Maze's End and instantly wanted to build a deck around it as a win condition, with a contingency plan if I could swing it.
I will say that I have put the cards up that I would like to keep in the deck, I'm just having a hard time finding that perfect brew for me and would love the assistance. I currently have it set at just the 24 lands(2 copies of each Guildgate and a full set of Maze's End) but will adjust the manabase depending on the colors run in the deck, spell and creature wise. I can add other lands if necessary(will take suggestions on that as well of course) and don't mind running more land since it's a land based deck.
I've tried Defenders, headlining Axebane Guardian and had Door to Nothingness as a backup. I've tried making it a Fog deck with many(12-15) instances of Fog and had some Wrath of Gods to wipe the opponents board. I've used pseudo ramp cards like
Rites of Flourishing
and Into the Wilds to help get lands onto the field ASAP and I also have a full set of Amulet of Vigor giving me access to mana as soon as I drop it(provided of course I actually have the Amulet on the field). I have gone through many iterations of this deck and it still does not seem to be as fun or competitive as I'd like. I would like any input and help available so I can make a competitive deck, if I could make it modern legal that would be cool but I'm not looking to win any PTQs, if I could put up a fight at the kitchen table or even possibly an FNM that would be great. Format doesn't matter as much to me since this is mainly for casual play, so no cards are off limits. I don't want to spend a terrible amount of money on this deck, but I don't mind dropping some money into as I quite like the card, and I also enjoy land-focused decks.
Any help would be greatly appreciated folks, thank you in advance.
EDIT: I have added some cards based on Firebones675's waffledevouror's, and Jagd_Tallgeese's suggestions as well as a few cards to the Maybeboard that I thought may be good in the deck.
EDIT 2: I plugged in some removal as well as some other suggested cards to make a 60 card deck to begin playtesting. Between the Paths and Bolts, its decent at dealing with problematic creatures, but I've noticed that creature heavy decks will have no problem swinging wide and taking me out prior to victory. The fastest I have been able to win so far was turn 6 and that was using Azusa, Lost but Seeking instead of Mina and Denn, Wildborn. I'm thinking that more disruption or stalling in place of extra land plays may help a bit, but I will update with that once I've given it a try.
EDIT 3: I have swapped around a few cards to give myself the full playset of
Rites of Flourishing
, Chromatic Star, Sylvan Scrying, and Flame Slash. I'm hoping if I focus a bit more on removal as a form of stalling because this deck isn't gonna be winning any earlier than turn 6, at least in my testing it hasn't. Although having multiple copies of Amulet of Vigor on the field can be quite useful because it can speed up some of my plays. Thanks again for all y'all's help so far!!
