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Cracking the Gates: Building a cEDH Gate-Centric Commander Deck in Magic: The Gathering (Budget and Full-Power Versions)
Magic: The Gathering is full of iconic alternate win conditions, but few are as uniquely satisfying as winning with Maze’s End. Tapping a land to search for another, slowly building your network of Gates, and then declaring victory out of nowhere – it’s like playing a long con. This is not the type of game that ends in a flurry of infinite combos or one-turn kills. It’s a game of patience, of meticulous setup, of laying down bricks until the moment you point to your stack of lands, count ten, and say the words, “I win.”
Traditionally viewed as a casual, even meme-worthy strategy, Maze’s End has recently gotten a new lease on life through strong card support, increased access to five-color mana bases, and creative deckbuilding. But can you make a Gate-centric Commander deck work in competitive EDH (cEDH)? And if so, can you make it work on a $50 budget? Or do you need to go all-in with a fully optimized, no-holds-barred build using power staples and high-end lands? The community of deck builders offers a wealth of resources and strategies to help you achieve your goals, whether you're a DIY enthusiast or a seasoned pro.
In this article, we explore the answers to those questions. We’ll take a deep dive into two viable builds: a budget-friendly Gates deck that won’t break the bank but still showcases the thrill of victory through Maze’s End, and a cEDH-optimized powerhouse that takes full advantage of fast mana, precision tutoring, and alternate win-cons. For those considering material options, composite decking can be an excellent choice for building Gates decks, offering benefits like low maintenance and aesthetic versatility. If you’ve ever dreamed of cracking the Maze in a high-power pod or just want to win in style on a dime, this one’s for you.
Introduction to cEDH: Setting the Stage for Competitive Play
cEDH, or competitive Elder Dragon Highlander, is the pinnacle of strategic deck building and gameplay in Magic: The Gathering. This format pushes players to their limits, requiring meticulously crafted decks to maximize winning potential. Unlike casual play, cEDH is a battlefield where every card, every move, and every decision counts.
In cEDH, players compete with decks designed to be as efficient and powerful as possible. This high level of play demands a deep understanding of the game’s mechanics and strategies. It’s not just about having strong cards; it’s about how they interact and create victory opportunities.
The cEDH community is vibrant and active, with numerous online forums and resources dedicated to discussing deck builds and strategies. To get started, players need to familiarize themselves with the format’s rules and banned list, and learn about the various deck archetypes and strategies that dominate the meta.
CEDH is a fantastic way to challenge yourself and improve your skills. It requires strategic thinking, problem-solving, and a keen awareness of the game state. Moreover, it’s a great way to connect with other passionate players through online communities or local game store events and tournaments.
Whether you’re a seasoned Magic player or new to the game, cEDH offers a thrilling and rewarding experience that can elevate your gameplay to new heights.
Understanding Gate-Centric Decks: Thematic and Strategic Insights
Gate-centric decks in Magic: The Gathering are a unique and powerful archetype that revolves around the use of Gates—special lands that generate mana of different colors. These decks leverage the mana-fixing capabilities of Gates to fuel a variety of spells and abilities, creating a versatile and robust strategy.
A typical gate-centric deck features a high number of Gates, complemented by cards that capitalize on the mana they produce. This setup allows players to generate significant amounts of mana, enabling the casting of powerful spells that might otherwise be out of reach.
However, gate-centric decks are not without their challenges. They can be vulnerable to disruption, as opponents may target the Gates to hinder mana generation. To mitigate this, successful gate-centric decks must include strategies for protecting their mana base and recovering from setbacks.
Building a gate-centric deck requires careful consideration of card synergy and strategic planning. Players need to anticipate their opponents’ moves and adjust their strategy accordingly. Despite the potential hurdles, the rewards of playing a gate-centric deck are substantial, offering a unique and potent way to dominate the battlefield.
By understanding the thematic and strategic elements of gate-centric decks, players can craft more effective and competitive builds that harness the full power of Gates.
Choosing a Five-Color Commander: Who Leads the Maze?
Since Maze’s End and the Guildgate suite are spread across all five colors, any competitive version of the deck needs access to the full color pie. The commander is your deck’s cornerstone—your consistent access point—so the choice must support both the win condition and your ability to survive the early and mid-game. Proper design and visualization of your deck are crucial to ensure it meets these requirements.
A comprehensive plan for building your deck, including design considerations, material selection, and inspection timelines, is essential for a successful construction process.
Let’s walk through some candidates:
Kenrith, the Returned King: With five activated abilities that let you draw cards, reanimate creatures, gain life, give trample and haste, or place +1/+1 counters, Kenrith is an all-purpose toolbox. Most importantly, he provides you with late-game inevitability and access to infinite mana combos that can loop Gates or draw your deck.
Child of Alara: A budget-friendly alternative that resets the board when it dies, buying time for a long-term win via land-based inevitability. This is ideal if your playgroup is casual or mid-power and if you’re not investing heavily in power staples.
Sisay, Weatherlight Captain: Interesting for builds that rely heavily on legendary permanents like Baldur’s Gate, but too inconsistent and resource-hungry to be optimal in cEDH settings.
Nine-Fingers Keene: Beautifully thematic and mechanically tailored to Gates, but locked out of red and white. Still excellent in the 99.
Final Verdict: Kenrith is the gold standard for optimized play. Child of Alara shines on a budget or in more controlling metas.
Deck Building Fundamentals: Laying the Groundwork
Deck building is a cornerstone of Magic: The Gathering, allowing players to create customized decks that reflect their playstyle and strategy. To build a successful deck, starting with a solid foundation involves choosing a theme or archetype, selecting the right cards, and determining the deck’s overall strategy.
The first step in deck building is to choose a theme or archetype. This decision will guide the selection of cards and shape the deck’s strategy. Players should consider the format they’ll be playing in and their personal playstyle and preferences.
The next step is selecting cards once a theme or archetype is chosen. This process requires carefully considering how each card fits into the deck’s overall strategy. Players should evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of individual cards and how they interact with each other.
A crucial aspect of deck building is the mana curve, which refers to the distribution of mana costs among the cards in the deck. A well-balanced mana curve ensures that players can consistently play spells and abilities throughout the game, maintaining pressure on their opponents.
By laying the groundwork and thoughtfully selecting cards, players can build a strong foundation for their deck, setting themselves up for success in competitive play.
The Gate Package and Maze’s End: How the Win Condition Works
Maze’s End is a land with a simple yet powerful text box. It enters tapped and allows you to pay 3, tap it, and return it to your hand to search for a Gate and put it onto the battlefield. If you control ten Gates with different names, you win the game.
Core Gates (As of April 2025):
10 original Guildgates: Azorius, Golgari, Izzet, etc.
Gond Gate: Makes all Gates enter untapped and fixes your mana.
Baldur’s Gate: Scales with the number of Gates and generates tons of mana.
Citadel Gate, Heap Gate, Cliffgate: Additional utility Gates from Baldur’s Gate set.
Basilisk Gate: Can turn any creature into a combat threat.
Talon Gates of Madara, Thran Portal: Oddballs that still count.
You’ll want at least 11–12 Gates to ensure redundancy in case of removal or exile effects. Complement this with lands that support color fixing, recursion, and untap effects. A sturdy frame is essential for the longevity of your deck, ensuring it remains competitive and resilient.
Supporting Packages: Ramp, Tutors, Draw, and Recursion
Because Gates enter tapped and Maze’s End returns to hand each time you use it, your deck must accelerate ramp and ensure consistent access to all ten names, utilizing the tools for efficient ramp and land acceleration.
Additionally, selecting the right materials for your deck ensures durability and performance.
Ramp and Land Acceleration:
Circuitous Route, Explore the Underdark: Directly fetch Gates.
Farseek, Nature’s Lore, Three Visits, Cultivate: Early smoothing at the beginning of the ramp process.
Amulet of Vigor: A powerhouse in optimized lists that untaps your Gates.
Exploration, Wilderness Reclamation: Enable multiple plays and untap effects, optimizing space for land acceleration.
Tutors and Land Tutors:
Expedition Map, Sylvan Scrying, Crop Rotation: These cards provide clear instructions for finding specific lands and guide you through the process of using tutors effectively.
Knight of the Reliquary, Elvish Reclaimer: These creatures offer powerful land tutoring capabilities, and expert tips can help you maximize their potential.
Scapeshift and Reshape the Earth: Fetch all 10 Gates in one move.
Card Draw:
Guild Summit: Draw when Gates enter. For more comprehensive explanations and specifics regarding the card draw mechanics, looking further into these details can enhance your understanding and engagement with the content.
Rhystic Study, Mystic Remora, Sylvan Library
Kenrith (with infinite mana): Draw engine. Some players have shared comments about the effectiveness of card draw strategies, noting that these mechanics may appeal to a broader audience, even among those who typically dislike deck-building games.
Recursion:
Life from the Loam, Crucible of Worlds, Ramunap Excavator
Recursion is a powerful strategy that allows you to finish the process of reusing cards from your graveyard. These cards enable you to repeatedly bring back lands, ensuring you never run out of resources.
Finally, after setting up your recursion engine, you can focus on other strategies to dominate the game.
Win Conditions: The Path to Victory
Primary Win Condition (Both Versions):
Maze’s End: Build, protect, and activate with ten different Gates.
Budget Secondary Win Conditions:
Gatebreaker Ram, Gate Colossus, Crackling Perimeter
Approach of the Second Sun
Optimized Win Conditions:
Maze’s End with Scapeshift or Reshape the Earth
Thassa’s Oracle + Demonic Consultation/Tainted Pact
Kenrith + Infinite Mana via combos like Training Grounds + Wilderness Reclamation + Palinchron
Field of the Dead: Land-based token swarm
Advanced Strategies: Elevating Your Game
Once you’ve mastered the fundamentals of deck building and gameplay, it’s time to explore advanced strategies to elevate your game to the next level. One key advanced strategy focuses on synergy—the interaction between different cards and abilities in your deck.
By carefully selecting cards that work well together, you can create powerful combinations and strategies that give you a significant advantage over your opponents. This requires a deep understanding of how different cards interact and the ability to anticipate potential synergies.
Another advanced strategy is paying attention to the metagame—the current trends and popular decks in the format. Understanding the metagame allows you to predict your opponents’ moves and adjust your strategy accordingly. This knowledge allows you to tailor your deck to counter prevalent strategies and exploit common weaknesses.
Developing critical thinking and problem-solving skills is also essential for advanced play. These skills enable you to make strategic decisions during games, adapting to changing circumstances and finding the best path to victory.
Also, studying other players' strategies and deck builds can provide valuable insights. Watching videos and streams of competitive play can help you learn new techniques and refine your own strategies.
By incorporating these advanced strategies into your gameplay, you can enhance your skills and become more competitive in the world of Magic: The Gathering.
Budget Decklist: Maze on a Shoestring (Under $50)
Commander: Child of Alara (or Kenrith if already owned)
When building a budget deck, it's essential to strategically purchase budget-friendly cards that offer great value. Additionally, there are many free resources and cards available that can be used to enhance your budget deck without any cost.
Key Cards:
Maze’s End, 10 unique Guildgates
Gond Gate, Citadel Gate, Heap Gate, Basilisk Gate
Circuitous Route, Farseek, Rampant Growth
Guild Summit, Read the Bones, Beast Within, Mortify
Gatebreaker Ram, Gate Colossus, Crackling Perimeter, Approach of the Second Sun
Pros:
Surprisingly consistent
Extremely budget-friendly
Great for casual to mid-power pods
Cons:
Slow to set up
Weak to land destruction
Requires strong piloting and political awareness
Optimized Decklist: Kenrith’s Maze (Full cEDH Build)
Commander: Kenrith, the Returned King
This deck employs advanced strategies to maximize the potential of Kenrith, the Returned King. It is meticulously optimized for competitive play, ensuring that every card choice contributes to a cohesive and powerful game plan.
Key Cards:
Maze’s End, 12+ Gates including Gond Gate, Baldur’s Gate
Scapeshift, Reshape the Earth, Crop Rotation, Knight of the Reliquary
Amulet of Vigor, Chrome Mox, Exploration
Three Visits, Nature's Lore, Elvish Reclaimer
Rhystic Study, Mystic Remora, Sylvan Library
Thassa’s Oracle, Demonic Consultation, Tainted Pact
Kenrith, Training Grounds, Derevi, Empyrial Tactician, Palinchron, Wilderness Reclamation
Pros:
Can hang in any cEDH pod
Multiple powerful win conditions
Access to premium ramp, tutors, and counters
Cons:
Requires deep rules and stack interaction knowledge
Expensive—expect a $3k+ price tag
May draw hate early if opponents recognize your commander
Conclusion: Durdle with Purpose
Maze’s End decks are about the long game, but that doesn’t mean they’re weak. With the right commander, support cards, and a clear win strategy, even the slowest land deck can become a nightmare for the table. The budget version offers surprising power, making it ideal for players looking to experiment with five-color mana bases and alternate wins without breaking the bank. Meanwhile, the optimized build puts the entire table on a timer, mixing infinite mana engines, efficient tutors, and brutal win conditions into a well-oiled land-based machine.
Playing a Maze’s End deck is not just about strategy; it’s about the story unfolding as you navigate the game. The fun lies in the engaging mechanics and the thrill of outmaneuvering your opponents with a well-timed play.
Whether you’re sneaking a win through a forgotten Crackling Perimeter or slamming Reshape the Earth for ten Gates on turn five, the Maze is yours to master.
So build your Gates, lay your foundation, and when the moment is right, crack the Maze. Victory awaits.
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