A Zedruu EDH deck that I've been wanting to make for a while now! So I'm going to try my best to explain all of the cards I put in here but I might forget some so if I do just leave a comment with what card you want explained and I'll reply to it.
Creatures:
Steel Golem and Grid Monitor are used to give to an opponent so they can't play creatures down. Bronze Bombshell is for some damage obviously. Gisela, Blade of Goldnight is in the deck because if we're giving our opponents creatures it would be helpful to prevent half of that damage while simultaneously making every opponent take doubler the damage even if it isn't from us. Michiko Konda, Truth Seeker is in the deck to discourage people from attacking us. Felidar Sovereign is a very easy to fulfill win condition. Bazaar Trader allows us to use Zedruu's ability for less and if he's already tapped. Windborn Muse makes it harder for our enemies to attack us. Wall of Omens allows us to draw a card quickly and then donate it to an opponent so we can start drawing more cards and gaining life. Vedalken Plotter is in the deck as both a possible troll and cool combo. We can take lands critical to our opponent such as Command Tower or if they only have one mountain for example you can take that depriving them of red mana. The combo with him is Exotic Orchard because it's like we never really lost the land. Urabrask the Hidden is in the deck to stop aggro EDH decks like Maelstrom Wanderer. Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite is there as a way to prevent some damage if need be while buffing our creatures although be careful when playing her down as you may accidentally kill off creatures that you gave to your opponent. Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur is in the deck to allow us a full hand while forcing our opponents to top deck. Fog Bank is a nice little shield in case we do get attacked. Gilded Drake as a nice little donation creature which we'll use to mostly gain control of Commanders. Psychosis Crawler is both a fantastic beater in our deck and a great win con via burn. The same goes for Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind. Oh yeah and before I forget, my favorite name for a card Grand Arbiter Augustin IV in the deck to allow is to play some spells down for less while making our opponents use more mana to cast spells which is also less mana for cards like Propaganda.
Enchantments:
Ghostly Prison makes it harder for our enemies to attack us. Celestial Dawn is mana fixing at it's finest. Copy Enchantment is a versatile card and depending on the situation on the field will determine what you copy. Delusions of Mediocrity is hysterical since we will gain 10 life, give it to an opponent and when it's destroyed that player will lose 10 life instead of us. Leyline of Anticipation allows us to cast spells on our opponent's turn whether it be a creature, enchantment, sorcery, etc. Idyllic Tutor is a good example of a card that we will flash because it will allow us to search for an enchantment and then the next turn play it down since we don't need to use that 3 mana to cast our tutor. Illusions of Grandeur same as Delusions of Mediocrity but more life/damage. Luminarch Ascension pretty easy to pull off in the deck while giving us a nice creature base that you can use as blockers, a win con via attacking, or if you really want to donations to an opponent. Puca's Mischief as another way to donate. Statecraft is there for protection. If you want to win by attacking just donate Statecraft to an opponent. Shared Fate recommended to me by Chahir is one of the best cards in this deck. Since Zedruu allows us to draw plenty of cards we instead get the ability to remove from play cards from our opponent's decks getting around Eldrazi lords such as Kozilek, Butcher of Truth and cards like Serra Avatar. In addition it makes our opponent not able to use cards suited for their deck. Finally, the best reason for the card, is it allows us to play spells that our opponent's control and with Celesital Dawn we'll be able to play any spell we want if we have the right amount of lands. Test of Endurance a very easy win con. Soul Snare we run a decent amount of planeswalkers so this is helpful if one of them is targeted not to mention if you're attacked. Curse of Exhaustion as a nice control card that will force one player into making very careful decisions and possibly make them lose the game if they're trying to win via a combo that they need to play multiple cards down for. Curse of Stalked Prey which I put in all my red EDH decks. This is a very political card. You place it on an opponent you want out of the game basically and every other opponent kind of wants to attack them to get counters on their creatures making it easier for them to win. Meanwhile you sit back with all of your taxes for attacking as your opponent's slaughter each other. Sphere of Safety it's like a mega Ghostly Prison in our deck. Nevermore calling cards that we know are in our opponent's decks that will make it hard to win or just their commander so they can't use it. Declaration of Naught is the exact same strategy. Words of War is an alternate win condition if we're drawing a good amount of cards with Zedruu. If you don't want to run this card take it out and add a basic land. Archmage Ascension which is pretty easy to pull off will allow us to control to a ridiculous amount. Arrest used mostly on commanders with activated abilities or any creature really for that matter. Spiritual Asylum because we don't have enough protection. Propaganda which if you've been reading all of this you basically can see that we're rarely going to be attacked.
Artifacts:
Jinxed Idol which if you can't figure out this card you should really read Zedruu the Greathearted. Howling Mine is in here for draw power. Now you might be wondering, but my enemies also draw cards. That's the point. You can donate Howling Mine to an opponent and you'll still be drawing cards from it. Sol Ring great for playing our commander down if he dies or for any spell really. Venser's Journal which allows us to keep a full hand of cards while gaining even more life. Fellwar Stone we can give our opponents our mana and still use it. Norn's Annex because well yeah you should know by now.
Sorceries:
Donate which I'm not going to explain. Cultural Exchange once again there's really no need to explain this card either. Idyllic Tutor as you can see we run a lot of enchantments. This allows you access to one that you might need. Storm Herd believe it or not is a win con. With our life gain we can have a nice supply of weenies that can be intimidating if we have Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite on the field. And you thought Pegasuses (or is it Pegasi?) weren't scary. Austere Command one of the best board sweeps in my opinion. A very versatile card that is great in any circumstance. Wrath of God another fantastic board sweep. Day of Judgment a watered down version of Wrath of God but still very good.
Planeswalkers:
Probably my favorite part because this is where things get crazy and fun. And you should be able to do all of these pretty easily with the protection we have. Venser, the Sojourner which allows us to flicker a card we gave to our opponent and put it back onto the field under our control with his +2. His -1 is awesome with Storm Herd or any creature for that matter. And if you get him to his -8 then you will have a very nice control going on as you get rid of all threats one by one. Gideon, Champion of Justice whose +1 can be amazing in this deck since we give our enemies creatures. His 0 should be used after his -15 and -15 should be used once he's gotten a hefty amount of counters on him because at that point he'll be your win con. Gideon Jura is in the deck because every white control deck I make he's in. His +2 makes sure that we don't take damage for a turn but be aware that if you have cards like Propaganda on the field your opponent doesn't have to pay the two mana to attack. I believe that in that case they get to attack for free or they just don't attack. If it's the latter do the +2. His -2 is great when combined with Tamiyo, the Moon Sage or with his own +2. His 0 we won't really use unless we're certain it will kill an opponent that turn. Tamiyo, the Moon Sage whose +1 combined with Gideon Jura's -2 kills creatures and even if you don't have Gideon you can use it as a control move. Her -2 can really be helpful if our opponent has a lot of tapped creatures because we always wnat to draw cards so we can get our win cons faster and so we can gain life possibly from Venser's Journal. If you get her -8 then congratulations, your opponent might concede. At this point you can use any control card you want as many times as you want as long as you have the mana to do it. Jace, Architect of Thought his +1 makes sure that if a creature tries to attack (anyone not just us) it won't deal nearly as much damage as it normally would. His -2 allows us to cycle through our deck so we can get to our win cons faster and to draw more control cards. Really political if one of your opponents is about to lose via combat damage and you use the -2 and make that player pick the piles for you as they will normally give you a board sweep. -8 if you get Jace this high good for you, it really isn't too necessary although it can be helpful by getting rid of certain win cons or playing down creatures and then giving them to different opponents.
Lands:
Most of these I'm not going to explain because they're here for mana curve. Some are not though. Maze of Ith one of the best lands you can run in EDH it allows for damage prevention which you want to use against combat based commanders that rely on doing commander damage to win. Vesuva which we can use to copy a land critical to our mana base or a land which we can use for other purposes (like another Maze of Ith!) Kher Keep so we can give our opponent's some creatures. Sprinjack Pasture same reasoning! Exotic Orchard which is helpful when it comes to donating lands to our enemies. Karakas a big middle finger to the player of your choice or if Zedruu costs too much put him in your hand, his mana cost in your hand goes back down to four. No alternate costs need to be payed. Rainbow Vale because of Zedruu this card will let us draw and gain life and we might eventually get it back. Reflecting Pool I really want to emphasize on because you don't have to pay costs, for example, if you use Reflecting Pool with Cascade Bluffs you don't need to pay the R/U to add RR, UU, or RU to your mana pool, instead you can just tap it to add RR, UU, or RU to your mana pool.
So that's my deck, I'm sure I forgot a card or two and if you want the Maybeboard explained just let me know and I will reply to you.
