Maze's End Turbo-Fog

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Happy Tuesday MTG peeps,

A few weeks ago we picked up from MTG Mint Card, our fourth and last card to complete a book set of Maze's End.  This fine rare land from Dragon's Maze offers a nice alternate win condition.  How a players wins a game of Magic: the Gathering is to reduce their opponent's life total from 20 (in standard constructed) to zero.  Currently, there are 4 cards in standard which provides an indirect or direct effect to win that game in a non-conventional means providing that the player fulfills a set of conditions.

Maze's end has been around for a while and we had not paid it much heed.  Then, recently there we had a match against one such deck at a Friday Night Magic event at OMG! Games here in Barrie.  Know what?  We got our butt handed to us - it was completely frustrating.  We did not have an Encroaching Wastes, Bramblecrush or Pithing Needle (to affect the Maze's third ability).  It would even have been nice to have a Burning Earth.  Yep - irritating as all heck which is why we became interested in this - and not having a lot of cash for cardboard, this fit our budget perfectly.  Anywhoos - let's have a looky-loo at how to build this -
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Obviously, you will need four Maze's End and at least two of each Guildgate.  Where you go from here with your mana base is dictated by your spells.

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Time is critical and you will want to get to the Maze's End finish line as soon as you can before your opponent grinds you out.  To this end, we suggest you may want to consider 'Into the Wilds' or 'Urban Evolution' to get additional gates onto the battlefield.  Also, 'Gatecreeper Vine' will allow you to 'tutor' a gate you haven't pulled yet.

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As you are assembling your Maze's End win condition, your opponent will be attempting to bash you.  Negate any combat damage with Fog, Druid's Deliverance and Defend the Hearth.  Riot Control also works wonders and allows you to gain life which could be rather important if you opponent has a few burn spells to chuck at your head.

Speaking of life, some Maze's End players like Saruli Gatekeepers which provides a nice blocker and an almost guaranteed life gain of seven.  Since we want to pack a parachute should Maze's End goes off the rails, we like 'Crackling Perimeter' to shoot damage.

Lastly, to add some control elements we consider the robust 'Detention Sphere' to neutralize threats, and 'Supreme Verdict' to board-wipe.  Negate and Dissolve offers some counter-magic while 'Fade into Antiquity' answers any of the new Theros gods or troublesome enchantments.

Some players may want a plan 'B' to include a milling effect while others may wish heavier life-gain.  Season to taste as you wish.  Drop us a line if you have a Maze's End or other alternate win deck.
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Standard Slivers

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Happy Wednesday MTG peeps,

If you've been reading our posts to the MTG Realm blog over the last five years, then you know we are all about playing 'non-standard' standard constructed.  We love to brew up fun Magic: the Gathering builds which would likely never see any play on the Pro Tour circuit.  To this end, we had a match a few weeks ago at a Friday Night Magic event at OMG! Games here in Barrie, Ontario with a gamer who had a Slivers deck.  Although we were running a fairly robust G/W Aggro strategy, we had our butt handed to us and we realised just how fun standard constructed Slivers could be - especially post-Theros Sliver.  We picked up a few very reasonably costed singles at MTG Mint Card and made this fun thing - Let's have a look.
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Bow of Nylea has FIVE different abilities tacked onto this legendary enchantment artifact - a solid utility.  The one ability which interests us most was the effect of giving deathtouch to all your attacking creatures.  Thorncaster Sliver gives all your attacking Slivers an upgrade pinging 1 damage to target creature or player.  Yep - that's one damage of deathtouch which means you now have the ability to wipe the board of any defenders your opponents may have as soon as you declare attackers and have the possibility of swinging on in.

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We were going for a red / green build and decided to go whole hog in with all five colours (which may be rather difficult in today's standard).  Our tech is to get Elvish Mystic dropped on turn one followed up with Manaweft Sliver on turn two which allows any of your Slivers to tap for any colour mana.

Since a big part of the deck is the deathtouch with Bow of Nylea, we've invited the one-drop Striking Sliver - because having an attacking first strike creature with deathtouch is simply sweet.  As we wanted all five colours, we also have Galerider Sliver giving all our Slivers flying.
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The other two-drop is Predatory Sliver giving your Sliver dudes a +1/+1 pump.  Other three cmc critters are Blur Sliver which is rather important as the Slivers now have haste - and can potentially tap for mana after Manaweft is out.  Hive Stirrings produces a few blockers if needed and Syphon Sliver provides lifelink which is rather handy against more aggressive match-ups.

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Rounding your stack 'o' sixty out is Megantic Sliver which can pump your Sliver army up another +3/+3.  To get all these threats into your hand is Garruk, Caller of Beasts.  We are more interested in his +1 ability to float any creatures off the top five of our deck into our hand.

All in all it doesn't look that bad and most certainly looks like it will deliver a truckload of fun.  Have you tried something similar or played against something similar - drop us a line below.
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