This is my maze's end deck that i have been working on for a long time. It is a control deck with combo finishes mostly revolving around Scapeshift. It is very fun to play, and has a few very different ways of winning the game that keeps the deck from being repetitive.
I am still looking for feedback on the deck, and will do my best to answer any questions about it.
Win Conditions
1) The primary way of winning the game in the deck is to get to 10 lands in play, and then cast Scapeshift for 9 guildgates and Maze's End. If Maze's End is in play already, you can win on the spot by tapping all other your lands for mana before casting scapeshift, putting 9 guildgates into play, and then activating Maze's End with the floating mana. Alternatively, having Amulet of Vigor in play will untap your Maze's End so you can activate it to win the game.
This is particularly effective the first time your opponents see this deck, because they likely wont be expecting an instant win.
2) Have Prismatic Omen in play, and Scapeshift for Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle and a bunch of lands (which are also mountains, thanks to Prismatic Omen) to get a bunch of valakut triggers and burn people out. Because Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle is not legendary, you can make additional copies of it using Vesuva and Thespian's Stage. note that if valakut is not in play when you cast Scapeshift, vesuva cannot come into play as a copy of valakut, but if valakut is already in play, vesuva can copy it as it comes in and still sees all the other lands come in off of Scapeshift and you get damage triggers for both copies for every land.
3) Door to Nothingness. Its not likely that you will kill an entire table with this card (though it has happened), it is very good at removing a winning player from the game, changing the outcome of certain attacks, or politicking the table. Academy Ruins can get it back for more activations.
4) Kessig Wolf Run. Attack people with Child of Alara and use kessig wolf run to hit for lethal. you can also use Kessig Wolf Run on your opponents creatures when they attack someone besides you to help influence the board, or give lethal.
5) cast a very large Villainous Wealth. Hitting a midrange deck with this card can get out a big enough board to win you the game, or at the very least buy you some time and maybe draw some cards.
General Gameplan
tl;dr: mulligan aggressively for cards that let you play extra lands and draw cards. the best possible opening hand for this deck is probably Burgeoning, Ad Nauseam, and 5 lands.
1) Early game
In the beginning, this deck wants to be getting as many lands into play as possible (this stays important at all points, but it is most important in the early game). When mulliganing, look for cards like Burgeoning, Exploration, Explore, Summer Bloom, and Oracle of Mul Daya alongside 4 or 5 lands. You will have to get some experience with the deck to learn what other types of hands are worth keeping, and against what other types of decks.
If one player is getting really far ahead with many permanents in play, you might consider dropping Child of Alara before playing your own permanents. Child of Alara does a great job of grinding down your opponents resources, while allowing you to get to a critical mass of lands to where you can start generating lots of value every turn, until you can win the game.
NOTE: child of alara has to go to the graveyard to get the destroy everything on death trigger, you can abuse this by putting it back in the command zone if the ability isnt valuable enough yet.
Glacial Chasm is also the main way to protect yourself from threats. try to get it out when you're at higher health if you need it, so you can keep it in play longer or sacrifice it when you still have high health.
2. Mid-to-late-game: The Value engine
Draw as many cards as possible, play as many permanents as possible, disrupt your opponents just enough to keep them from winning. Wit this deck you're looking to find a way to win as quickly as possible, especially since the longer the game goes the more chances your opponents have to remove your very specific win conditions. Having a guildgate, prismatic omen, and door to nothingness exiled leaves you with very few ways to win the game.
game plans vs specific strategies
vs creature decks - probably want to get Child of Alara out early to make them spend resources dealing with it. by the time they have developed a threatening board, hopefully you have found another sweeper, or Glacial Chasm to buy you enough time to combo off.
vs combo decks - if are a permanent based combo deck, having Child of Alara + High Market
in play at the right time to intervene is important. If that isn't going to work, you can try to set up a Crucible of Worlds + Strip Mine
lock to keep them off their combo. Careful doing this, as it can put you pretty far behind other players and make it hard to win, and its often better to just try and combo out first, even if its just valakut to kill only them or by using Door to Nothingness
Grinding people out of resources by using Child of Alara and recurring it is generally a solid plan. this can be accomplished with High Market + Volrath's Stronghold
Some quick notes on card choices:
Ad Nauseam - a cheap way to draw a lot of cards at instant speed. Lands cost 0, and they are over half of the deck. additionally, the highest cmc is 6 with Terminus, which means you can easily draw 7 cards with this to refill your hand, or dig deep for an answer or win condition. this card could reasonably be Phyrexian Arena instead.
Animist's Awakening - found it wasn't good enough when you weren't already ahead. was cut for farseek because it accelerates earlier
Tempt with Discovery - this gets you 4 lands and gets all of your opponents Strip Mine or other land destruction. was cut for Hour of Promise because even though it costs one more, it always gets two lands and doesn't help your opponents.
Zuran Orb - this card looks terrible, and in a normal deck it is. However, you will likely have an excess of lands in play and it is the only way to gain a significant amount of life. also, it enables Prismatic Omen + Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
combos with Splendid Reclamation. sac all your lands but valakut after tapping for mana, then return them all to play to valakut triggers.
Awakened Amalgam - used to play this card, but cut it in favour of Bring to Light because bring to light hits Scapeshift and Splendid Reclamation for winning the game. this card is really good for Kessig Wolf Running people to death, because it will always be huge due to all your lands being different. Its also a decent blocker and keeps you alive, while being able to threaten planeswalkers.
Boseiju, Who Shelters All - this card was in the deck at one point, but was taken out due to lack of blue in the meta. it is likely going back in now due to more counterspells being played.
Creeping Tar Pit - this and other manlands are not really what the deck wants to be doing. However, if monarch cards such as Queen Marchesa are in your local metagame its likely very good for making you the monarch and threatening planeswalkers. i am considering playing it myself.
Kiora, the Crashing Wave - has been cut for Tatyova, Benthic Druid for now, further testing needs to be done to see if this is right.
if people ask about other cards in the comments i'll add them to this list.
