{"ops":[{"insert":"The Necrobloom. A sentient plant that spawns humanoid servants, and feeds itself on new lands. Pod People, invading. \n\nBut really who doesn't want Field of the Dead in the command zone? Better than that, The Necrobloom also grants dredge to lands in your graveyard, so we have a ready way to select which lands we want to play. Maybe we get a Field of the Dead to stack up those token generating triggers, or maybe we go fishing for gates?\n\nThis deck has a two headed strategy, Blast in token creatures and give your opponents fits trying to deal with them. All the while grinding away; assembling 10 gates and Maze's end to win on the spot. Both heads of the strategy center around playing lands so there are 40 lands in the deck, and 13 ways to play extra lands, and 8 ways to tutor for a particular land. We also have ways to get cards into the graveyard for the purpose of dredging and recurring lands out of it.\n\n\nTOKEN GENERATORS\nThe Necrobloom- landfall ability makes plant tokens at first, and then zombie tokens once the condition is met\nAvenger of Zendikar- makes plants tokens, and then buffs plants when you play lands. The commander is a plant too.\nCurse of the Restless Dead- almost as good as another field of the dead. Enchant yourself and make zombies for every land, except they're decayed zombies.\nField of the Dead- landfall make a zombie as long as conditions are met\nGrismold, the Dreadsower- makes plant tokens, and gets bigger when tokens die. unchecked Grismold can we games with combat damage.\nInsidious Roots- makes plant tokens and buffs plants. your commander is a plant too.\nKhalni Garden- it makes a plant token on ETB\nMole Man, Moloid Master- play lands from graveyard, and make moloid tokens when playing lands.\nNissa, Voice of Zendikar- makes plant tokens as the +1 ability.\nOn Wings of Gold- buffs zombies. also makes zombies when cards leave your graveyard. ideally you will have lots of lands leaving the graveyard\nTurntimber Sower- makes plant tokens when lands enter the graveyard\n\nARISTOCRATS/BUFF\nRetreat to Hagra- landfall trigger that gains life and drains opponents\nWayward Servant- lifegain and drain when another zombie enters\nMaw of the Obzedat- buff all your other creatures by sacrificing one\n\nLANDS\nIn order to make sure the Necrobloom and Field of the dead start making zombies ASAP every land in the deck has a different name. There are only 6 basic lands. One each of forest, plains, and swamp along with snow-covered forest, snow-covered plains, and snow-covered swamp. This deck also has all 14 gates that are legal in Abzan colors, along with Maze's end. \n\nCommand Tower- perfect color fixing\nDeceptive Landscape- tutor for basic land, generates 2 landfall triggers\nField of the Dead- all star card. it comes in tapped and only makes colorless mana, but making zombies for each land that enters is powerfull\nForest- basic forest\nGolgari Rot Farm- This deck has lots of ways to play extra lands. bounce lands let you get two landfall triggers when you only have one land in hand\nIndatha Triome- color fixing. comes in tapped.\nKhalni Garden- makes a plant token when it enters. good target to bounce to hand, or sacrifice and then play from graveyard\nMidgar, City of Mako // Reactor Raid- send it on an adventure to draw some cards. then play as a land from exile later\nMosswort Bridge- good to get a creature card for free\nOrzhov Basilica- This deck has lots of ways to play extra lands. bounce lands let you get two landfall triggers when you only have one land in hand\nPlains- basic plains\nSelesnya Sanctuary- This deck has lots of ways to play extra lands. bounce lands let you get two landfall triggers when you only have one land in hand\nSnow-Covered Forest- basic forest\nSnow-Covered Plains- basic plains\nSnow-Covered Swamp- basic swamp\nSwamp- basic swamp\nTranquil Thicket- cycling is good when this land isn't\nVault of the Archangel- deathtouch and lifelink can swing the momentum of a game if you have a wide board\nMaze's end- enters tapped. activate it to return it to hand and search for a gate card, and then it checks if you have 10 differently named gates. If you do you win the game.\n\nGATES\nBaldur's Gate- once you have more than 3 gates Baldur's gate will make extra mana. makes it easy to cast the biggest spells in the deck\nBasilisk Gate- another differently named gate. only colourless mana, and the ability isn't relevant very often.\nBlack Dragon Gate- helps to color fix. black + any other color\nCitadel Gate- same as black dragon gate except the fixed color is white and the choice color is anything\nGateway Plaza- the worst gate. pay mana or sacrifice it when it enters. it does make any color mana\nGolgari Guildgate- black and green gate\nGond Gate- this gate lets all other gates enter untapped. very helpful to stay nimble\nHeap Gate- makes treasure tokens. lets you save up mana in the form of treasure tokens.\nManor Gate- fixed color is green, choose any other color\nOrzhov Guildgate- black and white gate\nSelesnya Guildgate- green and white and a gate\nTalon Gates of Madara- phases out a creature when it enters. pay 4 mana to put it on the battlefield at instant speed. It taps of colorless mana, or pay 1 to filter a mana to any color. Great target to bounce to hand or sacrifice and play from graveyard\nThe Black Gate- makes black mana. pay life to have it entered untapped.\nThran Portal- the worst land. It deals damage to when you use it, and it only taps for one color of mana. in the deck strictly because it is a differently named gate in the right color.\nVesuva- makes a copy of a land on the battlefield. Use Vesuva as an extra Maze's end to tutor out gates twice as fast. Or make an extra copy of field of the dead.\n\nPLAYING EXTRA LANDS- this deck tries to play several lands per turn, and there are lots of slots devoted to the effect. Critical to have a at least 1 or 2 to assemble the maze's end win on the earliest turn.\nAzusa, Lost but Seeking- premium extra lands. play two extra lands\nBurgeoning- play lands when the other players play a land. the best turn on play\nDryad of the Ilysian Grove- perfect color fixing, and play extra land each turn\nExploration- play an extra land each turn. awesome turn one play\nHedge Shredder- has the unique ability to put lands onto the battlefield if you mill them. very powerful with \nLoot, Exuberant Explorer- play an extra land, and has a tap ability that is like a limited cascade\nOracle of Mul Daya- play lands from the top of your library, but the downside is that everyone knows what is on top\nThalia and The Gitrog Monster- like having blind obedience, except that it lets you play an extra land each turn\nWorld Shaper- has a powerfull death trigger. \n\nLAND TUTOR\nFabled Passage- also a land, searches for a basic. nice way to get a landfall trigger when you need it\nMaze's End- comes in tapped. return to hand to search for a gate\nRealms Uncharted- gets 4 lands and lets an opponent put two into the graveyard. so its like tutoring 4 times.\nScapeshift- this is a game ender. sacrifice all your non-gate lands and search for mazes's end and all the gates you could ever want\nTempt with Discovery- guarantees searching for any land and putting it onto the field\nUrza's Cave- land that sacrifices itself to search for a land. great target to sacrifice and recur from graveyard\nTopiary Stomper- tutor for a basic land when it enters\nWayward Swordtooth- tutor for a basic land when it enters\nWight of the Reliquary- repeatable tutor for any land by sacrificing a creature. \n\n\nThe remainder of the deck fills the necessary functions of drawing card, defense, removal, self mill and reccursion.\n\nDRAW\nAugur of Autumn- peeking at the top card and being able to play it is better than regular card draw. \nDisciple of Freyalise // Garden of Freyalise- MDFC sacrifice a creature upon ETB to gain life and draw.\nHorn of Greed- all players draw a card when playing a land. This deck will play more lands than almost any other deck so you get more out of horn of greed than anyone else. \nIdol of Oblivion- tap to draw a card if you make a token. Nice repeatable card draw\nPriest of Forgotten Gods- sacrifice a creature to draw and make black mana\nRedrock Sentinel- sacrifice a land to draw a card and make a treasure. Sacrificing lands is not a very big downside in this deck\nSkullclamp- equip to disposable token to draw lots of cards\nThe Gitrog Monster- he makes you sacrifice land, but also play an extra land. drawing when a land hits the graveyard is great\nTraveling Chocobo- There aren't any other bird spells to cast from the top of your library, but playing lands from the top is awesome\nViridian Revel- the more support standardized token artifacts get i.e. food, treasure, clues, blood, mutagen etc. the better this card gets. \nVraska, Golgari Queen- +2 ability lets you draw. the -3 ability is nice removal\n\nREMOVAL\nAura Fracture- destroy as many enchantment as you have lands\nCollective Resistance- can act as targeted removal for artifact or enchantment, can also be deployed defensively \nDarksteel Mutation- lock down a creature that is hard to kill, or that you don't want entering the battlefield again\nFell the Profane // Fell Mire- MDFC removal or play as a land. can't be searched for as a land\nHagra Mauling // Hagra Broodpit- MDFC removal or play as a land. can't be searched for as a land\nHour of Reckoning- boardwipe that you can time to benefit from\nSoul-Guide Lantern- targeted removal upon entry. hold up as a threat to enemy graveyard strategies\nThraben Charm- versatile creature, enchantment or graveyard removal\n\nDEFENSE\nAngel of Suffering- this card prevents damage and turns it into mill instead. advances the gameplan while making you hard to kill\nBear Umbra- totem armour gives enchanted creature an extra life. untapping all your lands is pretty nice too\nDarkness- black fog\nFanatical Devotion- this deck makes disposable tokens. if a boardwipe gets played, sacrifice half your creatures to regenerate the other half\nFog- efficient damage prevention\nHoly Day- white fog\nKaya's Ghostform- gives enchanted creature a layer of protection against destruction or exile\nRevitalizing Repast // Old-Growth Grove- MDFC combat trick or response to removal\nStone of Erech- dry up opponent's graveyard strategies, and get rid of death triggers\nSylvan Safekeeper- Shroud your creatures as many times as you have lands. telegraphing this kind of interaction really re-directs targeted removal and targeted abilities onto other players\n\nRECURSION- with the amount of sacrificing this deck does, having a way to play from graveyard is vital\nAncient Greenwarden- play lands from graveyard, double landfall triggers \nConduit of Worlds- play lands from graveyard. useful activated ability if you don't have other plays to make\nLife // Death- the death half is almost as good as reanimate, and the life side of the card can be useful sometimes\nLife from the Loam- this card does half of what this deck is trying to do, get lands to hand, and lands to graveyard\nMole Man, Moloid Master- good token generator, play lands from graveyard\nPair o' Dice Lost- it doesn't matter what the dice roll comes out as. get all the lands from graveyard to hand\n\nSELF MILL- there are only a couple card dedicated to mill. This deck mostly mills as a happy bonus from doing other things.\nMesmeric Orb- everyone mills each time a permanent of theirs untaps. gets lots of cards to graveyard, and is a lightning rod for removal\nStitcher's Supplier- mills coming and going\n\nPLAY PATTERN\nA good opening hand will have all 3 colors of mana, and a way to play extra lands. Burgeoning will let you cast the commander on turn 2. Commander on turn 3 is also good. Commander on curve is a little slow. It is better to get the commander out before you meet the conditions to start making zombies with the Necrobloom. Making plant tokens doesn't invite urgent removal the way making zombie tokens does. After the commander is out, try to protect while hitting lots of landfall triggers. Playing 2 or 3 lands per turn empties your hand out; so card draw, and/or filling the graveyard with lands is the 3rd priority. \nNext start getting maze's end victory condition put together. Prioritize playing gate card over other lands. This strategy is hard to interact with. EDH doesn't have alot of land destruction, and even less land exile. \nLots of the cards will incrementally support either making token creatures, or putting gates out. The more you build up your board the more important it is to get defensive auras onto key creatures, and hold up mana for interaction.\nIf your maze's end gets neutralized somehow (exiled, or enchanted to have no abilites etc.) then attacking with token creatures, or Grismold becomes the optimal play.\nRegarding tutoring lands: If you have the opportunity to search for any land, then maze's end is usually the best one to search for. Gond gate is the best gate to search for first. Baldur's gate is better overall, but doesn't generate extra mana until you have your fourth gate. Field of the dead is a good search target too. If you have the means; then hold up the ability to search/put Talon Gates of Madara onto the battlefield at instant speed (i.e. wight of the reliquary, maze's end, talon gates itself etc.) it is a useful piece of defensive interaction.\n\nSTRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES\nThis deck performs well against mill strategies, and forced sacrifice. It goes toe-to-toe with other go wide strategies, and does reasonably well against other types of combat heavy decks.\nThis deck is quite resilient and will handle quite a few board wipes and targeted removal while still having a chance at winning.\n It has just enough life gain to be difficult for an incremental ping damage to win against it.\nTheft decks don't like to steal from this deck. They don't want lands that come in tapped, and taking control of token creatures isn't their top choice.\n\nThis deck is weak to a few common strategies:\n Combo decks as it has no counter spells, and not much offensive disruption.\n Non-basic land hate disrupts this deck.\n Forced exile- leyline of the void, dauthi voidwalker, nemata primeval warden etc. prevent cards from going to the graveyard. Cards that exile from library like etali primal conquerer or Ashiok dream render, umbris fear manifest etc. can be troublesome if they exile maze's end. Similarly losing a graveyard full of gates can stop the maze's end win i.e. bojuka bog, rest in peace etc.\n Flying, only two creatures can block flying in this deck. The creatures that synergize here just don't fly or reach.\n Punishment for milling such as syr konrad\n"}]}