Cybersix Thank you for the insight! Remember to tag cards and reference decks if you can!

I love the idea of Greater Gargadon. I have not thought of it's usefulness before and will definitely be considering it in the future!

No problem for the delayed response! Its all good, I didn't see the Maze's End for some reason. But I see your strategy, I was thinking more of a typical Child of Alara deck, but honestly this is probably better. The Lands do take quite a bit to activate and are quite easy to kill (Sadly), if it were me, I would still run them, but that's probably because I value cool synergies over actually winning. Love the deck and make sure not to let your job find out you play it! They might just fire you.

Why duals but bad lands like guildgates?

Darklord1135, for some reason the website won't allow me to tag you.

One of the win conditions is Maze's End! And it can be very powerful and difficult to disrupt in this deck. I'm running things like Crop Rotation and Scapeshift to make the combo happen quite quick! This is supported by a lot of ramp cards and things like Amulet of Vigor and Splendid Reclamation.

All of these cards I currently own and actively play with from my collection, and I've found that these dials contain my most important colours. So while not optimized, these work the best in slot while allowing enough room for the 11 cards needed for a Maze victory as well as basic lands for ramping cheaply, and a couple utility lands that help tremendously.

Hello, nice deck.But I have a question. How you deal wiht exile one of your Gates or Maze's End?Cars like a Strip Mine, Wasteland or Beast Within with exile cards like a Bojuka Bog and more? Do you rely on Disallow and Voidslime ?And what do you thing about replacement of Gift of Tusks for Sudden Spoiling? It can help you against hexproof generals like a Urin and Narset and also can safe your ass, if you are playing against mass token decks, like a Lotus God. + split second is badass on that.

And one more remark :) What about Kessig Wolf Run and Inkmoth Nexus ?Kessing can help you with commander damage (if you control Xenagos, the Reveler, it can be one attack = kill) And also are great together for another wincon... Pump your nexus with kessing for infect dmg.

correction * Xenagos, God of Revels

einee03 Thank you for taking a look at the deck! and thank you for the good question!

Dealing with exile is always a problem for most decks, as it means bye bye for those cards forever unless you're playing some eldrazi tribal I guess??? But absolutely you can lose the opportunity to combo off with a Maze's End if someone successfully exiles a gate or Maze itself. You have already recognized some of my counters that hit those activated and or triggered abilities, but if it is just going to the graveyard I am generally not that concerned because I run cards like Eternal Witness and Noxious Revival.

In the event that my combo is no longer accessible, Child of Alara is very strong and efficient! people don't realize how strong it can really be until it is happening to them. It is also very easy to bluff the Maze combo, and simply utilize it to get color whilst preparing for a very strong board lock with child. You can even kill the board in only 6 swings! Note, that sounds like a lot, but it goes by rather quickly if player's don't have anything they can do. And in EDH terms 6 turns is trivial at best.

I really really really like Sudden Spoiling! that is a very good alternative to Polymorphist's Jest, a card I've wanted to run but been hesitant because of the double color. Double black is much better thanks to Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth and my heavy reliance on black for many of my mechanics means I'm always on the lookout for black sources. And I am always looking for ways to deal with indestructibility in my deck, and this is excellent! Thank you for the great suggestion!

I have mentioned in conversations above my disinterest for creature based lands due to the tight mana base, however Kessig Wolf Run still directly synergizes (is that how it's spelled?) with Child, and only gets stronger with lots of mana, which I tend to have a lot of being partly a land based combo deck! Definitely going into the maybe pile! Thank you again for another good suggestion!

Thanks for your reaction. I think this deck is really cool (for you, not for your opponents), so I am still thinking about it. Thespian's Stage can help you fix the colour, if you target one of your duals and if it will be a gate, you are one gate close to victory. And if you put it in, there is good reason for Dark Depths as a combo with it. Yes, Dark depths is not good by the self, but Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth is helpful and 20/20 indistuctible, flying is huge. Just thinking... :) I know that basics are there for a good reason, but maybe one or two can be changed althoug Kessig Wolf Run is still better option.

I am sorry, gates needs to have a different name :-/

I like your take on Child and I thought I would share mine to maybe spark some ideas on your side. Child of Alara's Circus of Values

Forgive me if I missed it, but i didn't see these in your list, and they seem like valid suggestions:

Path to Exile

Swords to Plowshares

This deck aint cheap

This deck is missing Diamond Valley

Nevermind, I saw it under lands and not utility. Looks good!

They probably hate Alara because, without ever having heard of it until now or seen what else is in your deck, I can tell it would be a complete bummer to slog through a game against...

hey uh... I kinda see a lack of ways to deal with shroud and protection from colors. And is is very easy for white players to slap indestructible on things. Maybe add more options that give ability removal? Is there anything that takes a similar role to Sudden Spoiling that can be added?

EldritchAbomination thanks for the comment!

for the most part protection from xyz, and shroud are not as common as indestructible is these days, but are certainly still something to look out for. I've tested the deck quite seriously against an Avacyn angels deck, which if you've never played against a really strong one, they're about as oppressive as this deck can be so I have plenty of experience dealing with these effects.

I have spent basically all day so far thinking about how to address this, because anecdotally I have not had issues with protection or shroud or even indestructible. I've not been in a situation, nor can hardly imagine one where I am running this deck at a table and I get stuck where all 3 of those effects are a problem, because there aren't any single cards that have these 3 effects all at once.

with the amount of disruption in the deck I truly feel like it is doing alright. It's easy to consider maybe a Swords or Rift, but then what would you take out?

Genderfluidia Thank you so much for the kind words!

Shadowspear, Arcane Lighthouse, and Glaring Spotlight are all cheap options for dealing with hexproof/shroud/indestructible.

Shadowspear seems like it would work best with your grind game Child of Alara voltron wincon. It costs 1 generic mana, and can give Alara +1/+1, lifelink and trample, while also being able to remove hexproof and indestructible at instant speed for only 1 additional generic mana. You could possibly replace one of your least useful disruption spells for this.

If you can spare a land drop or land slot, arcane lighthouse can remove hexproof or shroud, and you can sacc it later to search your guildgates using Scapeshift. The one concern is that it taps for colorless mana. I don't know how much that would inconvenience you when you are building up your manabase in the early game. Overall I thought this should be less of a priority than Shadowspear, but it is immune to Alara's destruction effects so it might actually be more synergistic with your deck.

Glaring Spotlight seems to be the worst of the three options for your deck, but it could be considered as a side deck option.

borneuw thank you so much for the comment!

After looking over the 3 cards, I am not going to consider Glaring Spotlight because I don't really think it has a place in the deck. I agree that of the 3 it is the weakest.

Shadowspear and Arcane Lighthouse are really strong options. I love that Arcane Lighthouse enter's untapped and has good utility. I could very easily throw this card into the deck. Shadowspear makes me think about how I can utilize the card's effect more than once If I really have to. Since it will be destroyed by Child's death trigger, it feels like a tough sell compared to Arcane Lighthouse. Now, that being said I do think that Shadowspear is the best of the bunch because of it's ability to hit hexproof and indestructible at the same time while also providing some sustaining lifegain. Which can be incredibly important if we were behind in getting Child on the board. This in combination with Diamond Valley can net us a huge buffer when our opponents begin to see us as a threat. Not to mention just how brutal 7 commander damage is for our opponents.

I think at this point either card could easily replace maybe one of the neon dynasty lands with channel like Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire. I'm gonna add both to my maybe list to keep in mind if I find that I need more tech in that department.

I hate this deck and hope I never meet anyone twisted enough to build it... now I'm off to build it XD

-1/+1 from me.

Cowmmunist Thanks for the response!

borneuw seems to be right on the money when they suggested Arcane Lighthouse. I am glad my observations have been investigated upon. Also, yes, I was also playing against an Avacyn deck that was running a TON of indestructible and hexproof, and it was a pain... especially when you have a target on your back for playing the nuke baby.

No Command Tower or Path of Ancestry for fixing? Seem worth trimming basics for if you're willing to go down to 1 mountain and plains probably

ThoAlmighty Thanks for the considerations!

I honestly think I am pretty set on fixing, and I am not comfortable dropping below 2 of each basic land. Several of my ramp spells reference basic lands and I need to be able to react to effects like Ghost Quarter, Field of Ruin, Path to Exile, or opponents Tempt with Discovery and other effects like it. Really need that buffer so I can dish out my own basics, and not be down a land when I play against effects like these, and I think 10 is a good number right now.

For cards like Command Tower and Arcane Lighthouse to find a home here, I'd wonder what you might swap them out with? I'm still in the process of testing out the channel lands and so far I have not been a huge fan of Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire because it can only do 4 damage. Which has actually been a great way to deal with commanders, because it's an ability activated from the hand, not a cast spell. But 4 damage is pretty restrictive, and it has only really helped me in the early game while I am still collecting my colors. For instance it has kept me alive against Edgar Markov who is a very scary aggro deck, and absolutely can blitz down Child.