Deck Overview

This is a five color lands deck for the Gladiator format based around using Maze's End as an uninteractable win condition. I started playing Magic during Dragon's Maze, and Maze's End has been my favorite card since the beginning. I've been working to make a deck featuring Maze's End in many formats, and Gladiator is finally the format where it feels like more than just a pipe dream. This deck has gone through several iterations; the first version was the Field of the Dead version that was mostly just a lands deck with a cute Scapeshift package; the second was the realization that with Field of the Dead banned, there was no reason to play so few basic lands and I could up the deck's explosive potential by adding the four mana double ramp spells; the third and current iteration of the deck is an evolution of the second that includes a second combo package. There are several packages within this deck detailed below, but the primary plan of the deck is to have Maze's End with 9 other lands in play, float mana from all of your lands (except Maze's End), cast Scapeshift sacrificing every non-Maze's End, non-Gate land you have in play, put as many Gates as necessary in, then activate Maze's End with your floating mana to get the 10th Gate and with the game.

Ramp Pacakge

Ramp cards like Emergent Sequence, Migration Path, and Grow from the Ashes, cards that put lands into play from your hand like Zimone, Quandrix Prodigy, Gretchen Titchwillow, and Growth Spiral, and additional land drop cards like The Gitrog Monster, Druid Class, and Dryad of the Ilysian Grove allow the deck to put its 48 lands  into play as quickly as possible. Circuitous Route, Hour of Promise, and Cartographer's Survey (kind of) are particularly important ramp cards, because they can both put Guildgates into play, and Hour of Promise can even put in Maze's End or Plaza of Harmony for the win condition and some extra life.

Recursion Pacakge

Land recursion cards like Ramunap Excavator and Ancient Greenwarden allow you to replay triomes after you've cycled them, or consitently make land drops with Fabled Passage. Other recursive cards like Nissa of Shadowed Boughs, Dryad's Revival and Muldrotha, the Gravetide allow the deck to rebuy powerful effects and board wipes like Settle the Wreckage to slow down opposing aggression without losing steam.

Landfall Pacakge

Landfall card draw like Tatyova, Benthic Druid and Omnath, Locus of the Roil allow the deck to continually have action spells in hand while drawing almost 50% lands. Other landfall abilities like Omnath, Locus of Creation, Druid Class, and Phylath, World Sculptor generate other forms of value to allow you to attack the game from multiple angles. Tireless Provisioner is a particularly potent landfall effect, allowing you to turbo-charge with the Treasure tokens (especially when you have some Exploration and Horn of Greed style effects in play), or draw out a game against a more aggesive opponent with a steady supply of Food tokens.

Tutor Package

The tutor package exists almost exclusively to find Scapeshift when you're ready to win the game, but it can also be used to find a wrath when that is more imminently necessary. The best of the universal tutors are Demonic Tutor, Wishclaw Talisman, and Solve the Equation. There are also several less effecient tutors in the deck, which wither cost either more mana than the best ones, such as the Cleave mode of Dig Up or more life in the case of Grim Tutor. The deck also includes two creature tutoring effects, Finale of Devestation and Ecological Appretiation, both of which are largely value pieces, but can put creatures into play that find Maze's End when you need it in play. Demonic Bargain is an interesting one, it seemed bad at first when I added it, but the recent addition of the second combo package (see "Additional Combo Package") below it doesn't kill you as often on cast. In order for the exile rider to kill you, you need to exile Scapeshift or more than one Gate, and The Gitrog Monster, Underrealm Lich, or Thassa's Oracle, and Ugin, the Spirit Dragon won't be able to command the game enough to win on its own (or it gets exiled).

Maze's End Synnergy Package

Maze's End is the core of the deck, and there are numerous ways to ensure it's always available to you. Golos, Tireless Pilgrim, Ulvenwald Hydra, and Hour of Promise can all be used to put it directly into play. Having landfall effects in play with Maze's End is always good, but the most effective is Omnath, Locus of Creation allowing you to activate Maze's end and replay it to generate 4 mana, effectively making the activation free. Scapeshift is a very powerful way to either find Maze's End and a lot of Gates, or to get all of the Gates and activate Maze's End to win the game.

Additional Combo Package

A new addition to the deck is a combo suggested to me by another prominent player in the format (thanks WreckDeck!) in the form of another combo using The Gitrog Monster and Underrealm Lich to deck myself and find Thassa's Oracle for an alternate A + B + C wincon. The Gitrog Monster was obviously already in the list, and Underrealm Lich is a strong and resilient value engine on its own that holds up on power level to make up for its lack of synergy. Thassa's Oracle is really the outlier card here, but if the other two are in play it's winning the game so that scenario works out pretty well. The plan for a hand that draw's Thassa's Oracle early is to play it out as an early speed bump, then grab Finale of Devastation to pull the Thassa's Oracle out of the graveyard for the combo kill.