So when I first started my Maze's End build, I seen a lot of good different views on the deck, but they all had their faults. Simply put, they suck.
Luckily, if you're reading this, I've figured out most of the weaknesses with this deck.
Guildgates - Run one of each of the guild gates. The -ONLY- exception is Simic Guildgate. Run four of these. This is key to your victory.
Mana Base- This is key, because most of these cards rely on Blue (Some Double Blue) and Green mana to cast. 4 Simic Guildgates. 4 Temple of Mystery. 2 Breeding Pool. Only 3 Maze's End and One Mutavault. Mutavault provides a cheap and easy chump blocker or an untapped land to pop a Gatecreeper or Aetherize early enough. Do -not- run 4 Maze's End, you'll end up with two in hand way too often.
Like with any good TurboFog deck, you're looking at a tough time with the proper aggro deck. This deck addresses many of those issues.
Dicate of Kruphix <--- This card is too good. Gives the opponent more cards, but more importantly gives you more cards to pull your Fogs out. Plus, at the rate that you lay cards, you're rarely discarding.
Elixir of Immortality <--- Two of these cards help with both 5 points of life gain and recycling all of those Fogs and Aetherize back into your deck.
Lifegain ---
Blind Obedience -- Provides incremental life gain and stops hasty creatures.
Course of Kruphix -- Gives access to top deck information, incremental life gain, and deck filtering.
Land Grab Combos --
Gatecreeper Vine + Whelming Wave -- Go Fetch out a second land? Yes, sir!
Urban Evolution -- Draw three cards, extra land lay, and typically enables you to leave mana open for a Fog card.
Side Board --
Against Control decks
- 1 X Blind Obedience
- 3 X Defend the Hearth
- 4 X Aetherize
- 4 X Gainsay
- 2 X Dissolve
- 2 X Dispel
Against Aggro Decks
- 1 X Keranos, God of Storms
- 1 X Bow of Nylea
- 1 X Urban Evolution
- 1 X Whelming Wave
- 2 X Essence Scatter
May 9th, 2014 FNM.
Match 1 - Played an interesting take on Mono black aggro but with some 1 drop Triton Shorestalker. and Nightveil Specter. Seen the Nightveil Specter once (This card is trouble for my deck!!), but it was too late game. Stabilized at around 8-10 life and started the TurboFog. 2-0
Match 2 - Red Green Monsters. This deck was a little less expensive version of RG Monsters because it was lacking Domri. Keranos, unexpectedly, top decked at turn 7. From there, I took out his Xenagos, The Reveler, then proceeded to take his life all the way to 5 points before I popped the 10th guildgate and Maze's End. 2-0
Match 3 - Monoblack Devotion, splash green. This guy, surprisingly, splashed green for three cards. Abrupt Decay, Vraska, and Arbor of Colossus. Even though he used Turn 1 ThoughtSeize in both games, he couldn't out aggro me and never pulled a Gray Merchant. 2-0.
Match 4 - MonoBlue Devotion splash red. This deck gave mine ten kinds of trouble. Game 1 I lost the roll, but still started off really well. Got Mana flooded and couldn't seem to pull the Dictate of Kruphix or Temple of Mystery to scry away the mana. To add insult to injury, Nightveil Specter got damage in and exiled two of my guildgates. Lost Game 1. Game 2 went off like a charm. I pulled Dictate of Kruphix on turn 5, and the rest was easy coasting from there. Game 2 was -very- close. I played a Defend the Hearth a turn too late. Didn't stabilize on life until I was at 2. He resolved a Purphoros, God of Forge. Then, I had two of my Riot Controls, a gainsay, and a Fog in hand. He popped two Master of Waves over the next two turns. I counted the first, and the second turn I Riot Controlled my way into victory. Very intense matchup. 2-1.
At this point I'm debating on dropping the one of Bow of Nylea in favor of another Whelming Wave.
Any input or +1's are appreciated!
