Based on the fantastic donkey tribal decks by GaryofGen4 and especially Lord_Europa!!! Thank you both!!!!
The primary game plan is to steal other player's shit using Assquatch, Staying Power, and lots of cheap changeling creatures. Many cards also boost all donkeys' power too, most notably the Door of Destinies artifact.
I know it's probably sacrilegious of me to nix any of our few precious donkeys from this deck, but let's face it - Dumb Ass sucks and Fat Ass is stupid and expensive and there are other ways to play donkeys, clearly! My card choices make sure we are still eligible to get a Coalition Victory uh, victory, should the opportunity arise. With the Gate secondary win condition in play, through the full set of Maze's Ends I'm running, the deck is constantly being shuffled. Even though I only have one copy of CV in the deck as of now, I feel like there's a good chance I draw it sometime - by which time I will have the mana to cast it as well.
Deck is missing card draw and removal, but whatever at this point lolz. Unless there's a card that would make sense to run in this deck but I have somehow never seen before, I think it's fine? I welcome any advice or suggestions from anyone!!!
UPDATE #1 (3/4/24):
I've been playtesting this deck and seeing how Maze's End decks work in general and to start with I've decided to nix the Coalition Victory wincon. Makes me sad but I think it'll be for the best!
I've decided to shift strategy to drawing lands towards Maze's End. My playgroup is casual, we play big games in groups that tend to be very long. If I pull all of my lands out of the deck and onto the battlefield through other card effects, as the game goes longer, most or all of my natural card draws will tend towards being playable creatures. Most notably, I've added Circuitous Route to get more lands out of my deck and onto the battlefield. I am unsure as to my choice of land play/draw cards. There are so many! I will keep thinking about it, and I would welcome any advice.
Getting rid of the Coalition Victory goal has also led me to nix most of the black donkeys in the deck. Changeling Outcast is good, though, it can stay. Having so few black cards makes me want to try to figure out which of the guildgates that have black on them I could possibly switch out for others, to try to maximize the amount of green I have since I've added so much green draw, but it's all so inextricable from each other, and I need unique gates anyway. I'm just keeping them all at this point.
Speaking of gates, it took me a little while to realize there were more gates than the guildgates! Maybe an embarrassing amount of time honestly! I am remedying the issue though! I was most excited to add Gond Gate because after I play it my gates won't ETB tapped anymore and I can play faster!
I know I'm over 60 cards, which makes this deck perhaps not as effective as it could be. Looking at my deck list, maybe I could also cut Cheap Ass. It's very slow to produce value since you need two of them to discount your cards by 1 mana. That's 4 mana altogether to reduce cost by 1 on each subsequent spell - if they even last on the battlefield. Not efficient. I still need white mana for Staying Power but perhaps I can cut that extra Plains. I think that would bring me to 60 cards...watch this space to see if I actually do it lolz.
As always, I would appreciate any comments or suggestions you have!!!! I am honestly really psyched about this deck, Maze's End is cool and the donkeys are so fun!!!!
Update #2 (3/5/24):
Been thinking about this more, went f it and took out all the black. Tried to bring myself to replace one of the guildgates with Thran Portal, couldn't. I hate paying life for shit. I have like 12 unique gates anyway. That's left me with 56 cards!!! How wonderful!!! Four whole empty slots!!!! I wonder how I should fill them... With more card draw, probably. Also I'm not drawing the Staying Power as consistently as I want early, I should probably add that fourth copy back in. Maybe.
We shall see!!! What do you think???
Update #3 (3/16/24):
I realized I was being an idiot and took out the Maze's Ends! I don't need an alternate wincon in the deck!!! But I do love the Gates' synergy with each other, the mana flexibility, and the potential of some crazy turns with Baldur's Gate.
As you can see on my Maybeboard, I'm starting to look into using those now 10 empty card slots(!!!) on green counterspell effects. My combo is expensive and difficult to pull off. I want to be able to protect the pieces as I go. Some of the best ones are a little expensive, though. This is a casual deck built around an Unset card. I'm not about to go crazy on it.
Currently have those 10 spots filled with basic Forests. It is not playtesting well at all. The Gates do make the deck's manabase a little wonky. I'm not sure how to fix it. Any suggestions?
