"Copter" is shorthand for "helicopter" because people assume, somewhat reasonably, that the word helicopter is made of the roots "heli" which means flying and "copter" which is the thing that flies. Maybe you didn't assume that, but most people do. It's not until you learn that helicopter is made of the roots "helico" which means "spiral" and "pter" which means "one with wings" that words like Pterodactyl (or Pteromander) start to make more sense. Where mythical monsters get their name has always fascinated me and the story of the helicopter made me question a few of my assumptions. This week on reddit, I saw a post that said the Minotaur from Greek Mythology was so named because he was the bull (taur) of Minos and he had a name - Asterion. I was so charmed by this revelation that I got thinking about Mazes and how my journey from a spikey player to a much less competitive player has been framed by two different mazes and it made me want to make a deck with both of them.

If we're going to brew with Maze's End, how do we make it the most 75% deck it can be? Well, we're going to want to have the ability to win the game with Maze's End, although it will be tough to imagine anyone making that easy on us. Playing a bunch of extra lands a turn should help, so the deck will have a lot of Green in it. Green has spells that tutor for gates, anyway. In fact, a lot of cards from the Tatyova deck I'm taking apart will end up in the deck so it will be largely Simic, which makes me happy because I've finally found a Simic deck that isn't likely to bore me. Who knew all I needed to do was add 3 more colors?

Maze's End is a dumb, silly way to win but the deck needs to be competitive, too. In addition to just running good Simic cards to make sure we get out as many gates as we can as quickly as possible, we also can run a few more "You win the game" cards and since we're in five colors, that gives us access to a few I don't often run, such as Door to Nothingness. If I wanted to run Simic Ascendancy (I do, I do want to do that) would such a choice impact my choice of commander? It might if I realized how good it is paired with Ramos, Dragon Engine! Hellkite Tyrant and Revel in Riches are a must, and we might as well jam Mechanized Production if we have enough ways to make Treasure Tokens. With this many ways to instantly win the game, we can fill the rest of our deck with ways to steal their stuff and make sure we always have a way to defend ourselves. A little card draw, some countermagic to protect our fragile win conditions, and you've got a stew, baby!

As much as this deck will be base Green, we'll also want to be able to make as quickly as possible so we can play cards like Bringer of the Black Dawn (nothing like paying 2 life to go snag Orzhov Guildgate) and Conflux to keep our hands full of 'the bidness'. Mana rocks will help immeasurably, but in a deck like this, signets aren't much help (I'm not devoting 10 decks slots to them, certainly) so we'll need to figure something else out. Chromatic Lantern, Commander's Sphere, and Darksteel Ingot will all make an appearance but it's going to be lands that do a lot of the heavy lifting. Luckily spells like Circuitous Route and Hour of Promise go a long way toward helping us get the mana we need in addition to conveniently building toward our win condition of 10 guildgates and a Maze's End. With that in mind, I think we're ready to cobble this pile together and see if a deck emerges. At the very least this should be fun.

That's Mrs. McFadden to You | Commander | Jason Alt

• Commander (1)
• 1 Ramos, Dragon Engine

• Creatures (20)
• 1 Azusa, Lost but Seeking
• 1 Bringer of the Black Dawn
• 1 Courser of Kruphix
• 1 Eternal Witness
• 1 Gatecreeper Vine
• 1 Hellkite Charger
• 1 Knight of the Reliquary
• 1 Kynaios and Tiro of Meletis
• 1 Mina and Denn, Wildborn
• 1 Muldrotha, the Gravetide
• 1 Oracle of Mul Daya
• 1 Ramunap Excavator
• 1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
• 1 Sakura-Tribe Scout
• 1 Tatyova, Benthic Druid
• 1 Thada Adel, Acquisitor
• 1 The Gitrog Monster
• 1 Tireless Tracker
• 1 Ulvenwald Hydra
• 1 Wayward Swordtooth

• Planeswalkers (1)
• 1 Lord Windgrace

• Instants (4)
• 1 Crop Rotation
• 1 Cyclonic Rift
• 1 Desertion
• 1 Realms Uncharted

• Sorceries (16)
• 1 Acquire
• 1 Animist's Awakening
• 1 Bring to Light
• 1 Circuitous Route
• 1 Farseek
• 1 Hour of Promise
• 1 Kodama's Reach
• 1 Life from the Loam
• 1 Merciless Eviction
• 1 Praetor's Grasp
• 1 Reap and Sow
• 1 Scapeshift
• 1 Splendid Reclamation
• 1 Tempt with Discovery
• 1 Urban Evolution
• 1 Villainous Wealth

• Enchantments (10)
• 1 Burgeoning
• 1 Exploration
• 1 Guild Summit
• 1 Journey to Eternity
• 1 Mirari's Wake
• 1 Prismatic Omen
• 1 Revel in Riches
• 1 Rites of Flourishing
• 1 Simic Ascendancy
• 1 Smothering Tithe

• Artifacts (8)
• 1 Amulet of Vigor
• 1 Chromatic Lantern
• 1 Commander's Sphere
• 1 Crucible of Worlds
• 1 Door to Nothingness
• 1 Expedition Map
• 1 Horn of Greed
• 1 Sol Ring

• Lands (40)
• 1 Island
• 1 Mountain
• 1 Plains
• 1 Swamp
• 3 Forest
• 1 Azorius Guildgate
• 1 Blood Crypt
• 1 Bloodstained Mire
• 1 Boros Guildgate
• 1 Breeding Pool
• 1 City of Brass
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Dimir Guildgate
• 1 Exotic Orchard
• 1 Flooded Strand
• 1 Gateway Plaza
• 1 Godless Shrine
• 1 Golgari Guildgate
• 1 Gruul Guildgate
• 1 Hallowed Fountain
• 1 Izzet Guildgate
• 1 Mana Confluence
• 1 Maze of Ith
• 1 Maze's End
• 1 Misty Rainforest
• 1 Orzhov Guildgate
• 1 Overgrown Tomb
• 1 Polluted Delta
• 1 Rakdos Guildgate
• 1 Sacred Foundry
• 1 Selesnya Guildgate
• 1 Simic Guildgate
• 1 Steam Vents
• 1 Stomping Ground
• 1 Temple Garden
• 1 Watery Grave
• 1 Windswept Heath
• 1 Wooded Foothills

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One card I am going to jam a lot more in the future is Acquire. It's a very 75% card in that you are hitting them with an artifact they can deal with and scaling your deck's power level to theirs. Sometimes you deprive them of an annoying combo piece like Paradox Engine. Sometimes you can even use the combo piece you steal. Sometimes you get a Blightsteel Colossus and it's exactly a Bribery, but a Bribery that you can buy from Coolstuff for $3 (I like the $10 IDW promo more). You'll get a Gilded Lotus or Thran Dynamo or a Mana Vault or you'll get a Jitte or Batterskull or Blade of Selves. Acquire is something you can expect to see in a lot of Blue 75% lists moving forward.

What do we think? Is this too close to a stock list to say I did any work or do you appreciate all of the cards that say "You win the game" I managed to include? I couldn't work in Mechanized Production, really, but I think we'll win plenty of games with Maze's End and that's what I care about. Circuitous Route, District Guide, Open the Gates and other cards from the latest Ravnica block can make your build a lot smoother and we even have a new gate called Gateway Plaza to help you if you get a gate exiled and still want to get to 10. Ramos is a fun commander that can bank some mana for you and fix your colors and it's a nice Wombo Combo with Simic Ascendancy to boot. All in all, this deck should be a lot of fun to play and should help showcase some great 75% cards like Acquire, Praetors' Grasp, Bribery, Hellkite Tyrant and Thada Adel, Acquisitor. Not bad for a goofy bulk rare land! I even threw in a Maze of Ith for nostalgia purposes to remind me of my competitive roots. It's not even good in this deck and I don't even care. I'll be using Knight of the Reliquary to go find it just like in the old days. Until next time!