Jodah Reaches the End of the Maze

Commander / EDH Lands Scapeshift Theme/Gimmick

205cwood

Lands (37)

• 1x Arid Mesa
• 1x Azorius Guildgate
• 1x Bloodstained Mire
• 1x Boros Guildgate
• 1x Breeding Pool
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Dimir Guildgate
• 1x Exotic Orchard
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 1x Forest
• 1x Golgari Guildgate
• 1x Gruul Guildgate
• 1x Hinterland Harbor
• 1x Island
• 1x Izzet Guildgate
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 1x Mountain
• 1x Orzhov Guildgate
• 1x Overgrown Tomb
• 1x Plains
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Raffine's Tower
• 1x Rakdos Guildgate
• 1x Raugrin Triome
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Rootbound Crag
• 1x Savai Triome
• 1x Scalding Tarn
• 1x Selesnya Guildgate
• 1x Simic Guildgate
• 1x Stomping Ground
• 1x Sunpetal Grove
• 1x Swamp
• 1x Temple Garden
• 1x The World Tree
• 1x Woodland Cemetery
• 1x Xander's Lounge

Mo Mana Mo Problems for my Opponent (18)

• 1x Open the Gates
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Fellwar Stone
• 1x Kiora's Follower
• 1x Lotus Cobra
• 1x Chromatic Lantern
• 1x Faeburrow Elder
• 1x Realms Uncharted
• 1x Tireless Provisioner
• 1x Circuitous Route
• 1x Smothering Tithe
• 1x Stone-Seeder Hierophant
• 1x Tempt with Discovery
• 1x Wilderness Reclamation
• 1x Beledros Witherbloom
• 1x Chromatic Orrery
• 1x Nyxbloom Ancient

Winning the Game (10)

• 1x Maze's End
• 1x Urza's Saga
• 1x Amulet of Vigor
• 1x Crop Rotation
• 1x Elvish Reclaimer
• 1x Expedition Map
• 1x Sylvan Scrying
• 1x Trinket Mage
• 1x Scapeshift
• 1x Reshape the Earth

Removal (6)

• 1x Broken Bond
• 1x Windgrace's Judgment
• 1x Casualties of War
• 1x Duneblast
• 1x Necromantic Selection
• 1x In Garruk's Wake

Protection (4)

• 1x Field of the Dead
• 1x Ghostly Prison
• 1x Propaganda
• 1x Platinum Angel

Commander (1)

Card Draw & Utility (16)

• 1x Life from the Loam
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Courser of Kruphix
• 1x Crucible of Worlds
• 1x Fist of Suns
• 1x Ramunap Excavator
• 1x Retreat to Coralhelm
• 1x Rhystic Study
• 1x Omnath, Locus of Creation
• 1x Lord Windgrace
• 1x Seedborn Muse
• 1x Tatyova, Benthic Druid
• 1x Muldrotha, the Gravetide
• 1x Cultivator Colossus
• 1x Genesis Ultimatum
• 1x Nexus of Fate *list*

Extra Land Drops (7)

• 1x Exploration
• 1x Walking Atlas
• 1x Azusa, Lost but Seeking
• 1x Dryad of the Ilysian Grove
• 1x Oracle of Mul Daya
• 1x The Gitrog Monster
• 1x Aesi, Tyrant of Gyre Strait

Plan B (1)

• 1x Door to Nothingness

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Introduction

When I first made this decklist the Commander was Golos, Tireless Pilgrim which was banned (for good reason) shortly after I decided to build the deck. Despite this disappointing news I was set on making a deck centered around Maze's End. After considering a few 5 color alternatives I settled on Jodah, Archmage Eternal. To be honest I didn't look at that many other options so Jodah may not be the most ideal but with the right circumstances it can be a win on turn 5. Obviously this isn't a CEDH deck (I don't want it to be) but I made this to be a finely tuned deck with the capability to aggressively get the win with Maze's End. I'm in the process of physically building this deck so I don't know how it actually runs so let me know what you think.

Playing the Deck

Winning the Game

As previously stated in the introduction, the main wincon of this deck is Maze's End and I use cards like Crop Rotation, Elvish Reclaimer, Expedition Map, and Sylvan Scrying to tutor for it. One card that I believe is critical to making this deck perform is Amulet of Vigor which I have Trinket Mage and Urza's Saga to tutor for it. Two cards that can speed up this win is Reshape the Earth and Scapeshift. Of course things can always go wrong so I threw in Door to Nothingness just in case Maze's End or a Gate gets exiled or our plan is otherwise thrown off.

General Goals

Most of the deck is pretty straight forward, play lands, draw cards and win with Maze's end but there are a few combos and synergies that help make that happen.One of those is Walking Atlas + Retreat to Coralhelm which we can use to activate Maze's End several times a turn with enough mana and even win the game outright if we have a creature that can add 3 mana and be untapped with Retreat from the Gate that enters from the Maze's End ability, which could only happen if we also have Amulet of Vigor out as well. Many cards like Seedborn Muse, Beledros Witherbloom, Nyxbloom Ancient, and Wilderness Reclamation are great ways to provide more mana for Maze's End activations and of course for spells to help us get closer to getting all the Gates out.

Specific Goals

1. Graveyard Interaction
The problem with many decks that have their win tied up with a very specific set of cards is that once one of those cards become unaccessible then winning with the deck becomes nearly impossible, it is no different with this deck. So wile building this deck I wanted to make sure that Maze's End or any of the Gates getting into the graveyard would not be a problem. Five cards make land in my graveyard accessable to me, Crucible of Worlds, Life from the Loam, Lord Windgrace, Muldrotha, the Gravetide, and Ramunap Excavator which should be enough.
2. Lands
This a 5 color deck but over half of the cards are green so besides the Gates I focused my land base around green mana sources. In the deck are all the shock lands such as Stomping Ground and the check lands such as Woodland Cemetery that identify with Forests and each of the fetch lands that do not identify with Forests such as Arid Mesa. Of course the goal is to not run into any mana trouble and cards like The World Tree, Chromatic Lantern, and Chromatic Orrery help a lot with that too.
3. Jodah and the Big Spells
Most of the time Commander decks are built around the commander but this one is built around a card in the deck which is why Golos was such a good commander for this deck specifically because it could put the win condition on the board just by entering the battlefield. Alas that is no longer legally possible so Jodah, Archmage Eternal will have to do, but he is not a bad option. There's not that many big spells in the deck that take advantage of Jodah's effect but the spells that are there can make a really big difference and having the extra mana to do other things with can be game altering.
4. Living long enough to reach the end
The cards that help me survive are obviously the cards in the "Removal" and "Protection" sections. This is where I'm most worried about the deck at the moment. If people aren't expecting it then I believe this deck pull off a win pretty easily even after everyone learns that Maze's End is involved but once people know the gig I'm not sure if the deck will be successful when all of your opponents have it out for you from turn 1. However, just like with other commander decks once I learn the power level of the deck I will probably just save it until I'm up against decks with a similar power level.

Date added	3 years
Last updated	2 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	16 - 0 Mythic Rares 50 - 0 Rares 11 - 0 Uncommons 16 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.92
Tokens	Cat Warrior 2/2 G, Construct 0/0 C, Food, Pest 1/1 BG, Treasure, Zombie 2/2 B
Folders	Commander