Hold the Gates is a requirement for any deck that runs gates. Turns in your creatures into super blockers.

This is Mike. I read your email again and now I'm coming back to comment.

Species Gorger is a cool idea, but my first reaction is to be concerned that he won't have a friend often enough to be useful. Then again, there's only 2 of him, so in a game where you draw one creature it probably isn't him and in a game where you draw two creatures it's probably not both of him. If he turned out to be a problem in practice, I would probably replace him with Turn / Burn to add another piece of flexible removal.

Otherwise, looks great.

@Rhadamanthus

Thanks for the comment! I initially had my own concerns about Species Gorger and originally it was only him and the Gatekeepers but I realized how good Thragtusk is with him. I don't have a problem with 5 life and a 3/3 Beast every turn. In a pinch he is a 6/6 blocker for 5 mana which has given me that one extra activation of Maze's End . Again, thanks for the comment, I don't how much influence you have over the other dorks but if you could get Brian to glance at this I would most appreciated. This deck was born out of his article on The Mana Pool website.