I’ve always thought about Maze’s End as a cool deck archetype since Dragon’s Maze was released. It has first appeared in RtR Block Constructed wherein it showed & proved to be one of the top decks in that format as per Pro Tour Dragon’s Maze.

With that in mind, I thought that the deck might also work in Standard. I partially believed it so because a fellow player here in our Iloilo community played this Maze’s End deck which got him a top 4 finish last Saturday Standard. I’ve checked for deck references and came up with a slightly similar list which we are about to discuss today.

Here it is:

It’s a Maze-ing by Mark Ian Alloso
Standard

Creatures
3 Augur of Bolas
3 Gatecreeper Vine
3 Huntmaster of the Fells

Spells
4 Fog
4 Druid’s Deliverance
4 Riot Control
4 Supreme Verdict
3 Think Twice
1 Blind Obedience
3 Terminus
3 Urban Evolution

Lands
2 Orzhov Guildgate
2 Rakdos Guildgate
2 Selesnya Guildgate
2 Simic Guildgate
2 Izzet Guildgate
4 Maze’s End
2 Gruul Guildgate
2 Boros Guildgate
3 Azorius Guildgate
2 Dimir Guildgate
2 Golgari Guildgate

Sideboard
4 Crackling Perimeter
2 Negate
1 Dispel
2 Pithing Needle
1 Elixir of Immortality
2 Golgari Charm
1 Witchbane Orb
1 Sphinx’s Revelation
1 Wear/Tear

The Creatures

Augur of Bolas digs up most of your fog spells and sweep sorceries and your early blockers for first-turn 2/2s. It also works well with setup of fog when opponents try to Bloodrush with Ghor-Clan Rampagers.

Gatecreeper Vine is a given in the deck, letting you complete your Guildgates faster and of course fixes mana. It can also chump block if needed to in case you tap out for Urban Evolution.

Huntmaster of the Fells is my personal choice of halting aggro decks as well as giving pressure to control decks while you set up your win condition. With lots of fog in the deck, you can just end your turn to flip into Ravager of the Fells without losing the turn value.

The Spells

The deck carries twelve fog-effects. Fog as its classic namesake, Druid’s Deliverance which is at higher cost but has a bonus effect with your Wolf tokens, and Riot Control which prevents and at the same time gains you life.

The sweepers I included are Supreme Verdict and Terminus. The former of course is the Wrath of God of choice in the current Standard and the latter is your answer for recurring critters like Strangleroot Geists and effects of Voice of Resurgence or Xathrid Necromancer.

Urban Evolution is the best card draw in the deck, and helps you play out your guildgates faster. Think Twice is also a standard inclusion for idle turns when you don’t need to fog.

The lone Blind Obedience is for the recently popular Hellrider decks. They setup mostly post-Supreme Verdict turns which will caught you tapped out. Of course you can always verdict and then leave mana open for fog but could cost you extra turns. The bonus Extort effect lets you mini drain life your opponent with your spells while assembling the gates.

The Sideboard

I can say this sb list in yet refined but I mainly based it on the recent popular decks in the metagame. For control & midrange decks, I included a pseudo-tech card in Crackling Perimeter. This changes your plan to dealing damage early on with your gates while they whittle their turns setting up counters for your spells or drawing their discard spells. You can just idly ping them to death. The Negates and the Dispel are also included in these types of matchups.

I have listed certain one of cards in the list for specific decks. Witchbane Orb is to protect you from discards as well as mill effects of Jace and Nephalia Drownyard and to avoid direct damage spells. Elixir of Immortality is your fail safe card in cases of long game scenario. The Sphinx’s Revelation is also your support long game card draw. I’ve chosen to add a copy of Wear/Tear to deal with auras as well as Pithing Needle if they’ve locked Maze’s End.

I haven’t found any M14 cards to support the deck, only the threat of Burning Earth. Good thing we have Golgari Charms to deal with that. You can also include the generic Oblivion Ring if needed (substitute to the elixir).

Let me know if you agree with the deck’s potential in the current Standard. If not, then I’d really like to hear your thoughts. Share and comment it below.

Until next post.