pie chart

Maze Runner | Child of Alara [Budget Primer]

Commander / EDH Bracket 3 Combo Control Gate Lands Multiplayer Primer

Icaruskid

Upvote 0
0

Land (42)

Sorcery (28)

Enchantment (5)

Commander (1)

Commander: Child of Alara

Instant (17)

Creature (4)

Artifact (3)

Atomic Baby

Deckname: Maze Runner aka Boom Baby!

Description: Maze's Endfoil deck with an atomic bomb board wipe in the command zone and graveyard recursion subtheme.

Budget: $150.

"Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds" - Oppenheimer.

  • If combat damage is not possible due to blockers or control, there aren't many win conditions available to traditional creature decks to advance the game or that can target multiple opponents at once.
  • The most common combat damage strategy win conditions like Craterhoof Behemoth, Avenger of Zendikar, and Finale of Devastation can be generic as they are popular answers for any aggro deck. Having a win condition specific to a lands theme is interesting. Piloting this deck feels like being young Anakin Skywalker in a harrowing podrace!
  • The Maze's Endfoil combo here is fair in that it requires 10 lands on the battlefield and probably a few turns sacrificing Child of Alara making it fragile and open to disruption. Land destruction and Blood Moon effects also completely shut off the deck and must be answered to win. Finally, fast aggro decks can just attack and it's an honest race to see who can achieve their deck strategy fastest.

  1. You want to play something different with an interesting but fair win condition.
  2. You like playing your commander in every game.
  3. You enjoy explosive control decks that want to win all in one turn.

  1. You want to play traditional aggro or voltron rather than control.
  2. You don't want to play your commander in every game.
  3. Land destruction or Blood Moon are popular in your playgroups.

  1. Ramp into 9 of the 24 gates.
  2. Cast Child of Alara and sacrifice it to reset the board and slow opponents down.
  3. Use Regrowth effects to keep bringing back and sacrificing Child of Alara so the board stays clear until Maze's Endfoil goes off.

  1. Combo.
    Activate Maze's Endfoil with 9 gates under your control.

  2. Commander damage.
    Basilisk Gate and Kessig Wolf Run help accelerate lethal damage from a trampling Child of Alara as a last resort.

Regrowth vs Reanimate vs Undying
Regrowth effects have been chosen for this deck over Reanimate or Undying Evil effects primarily for greater modes of utility than just bringing back Child of Alara. While less mana efficient, this helps protect Maze's Endfoil should it get destroyed and also brings back ramp, mana fixing, draw, and sacrifice cards as needed, smoothing out how the deck plays. So we are trading mana efficient board wipes for resilience and reliability which aligns well for a budget combo deck on a humble mana base in more casual power level playgroups.

Blood for Bones and Footsteps of the Goryo are the two reanimate exceptions as they also include sacrifice effects.

Suggestions

Updates Add

Comments

Attention! Complete Comment Tutorial! This annoying message will go away once you do!

Become a supporter of TappedOut and hide ads for only $3/month!

Important! Formatting tips — Comment Tutorial — markdown syntax

Please login to comment

92% Casual

Competitive

Revision 37 See all

(40 minutes ago)

-1 Archdruid's Charm main