Maze's End is deemed a bad card. And it probably is. So I took up the challenge of building a functional deck for it. Tried out a few strategies, including Scapeshift, defenders and multiple land plays, but felt that the Sphere of Safety enchantment shell was the best option. Hold the enemy back. Deny them any openings. Solve the Maze unchallenged. This is the result.
EDIT 1/10/13:
-1 Supreme Verdict
-1 Urban Evolution
-4 Forced Worship
+2 Heliod, God of the Sun
+3 Pacifism
+1 Detention Sphere
--CORE--
Maze's End is the inspiration and the card I want to work, but Sphere of Safety is the central piece that makes the deck tick. Naturally, the deck needs a lot of enchantments, and needs to slow the game down to reach turn 5 at a minimum in order to play it. Oblivion Ring and Detention Sphere handle most permanents brilliantly, while Forced Worship is my Pacifism of choice, mostly because I can save it from a board wipe and reapply cheaply. SoS in multiples quickly becomes absolutely absurd, with only the most rampy of decks usually getting an opportunity to attack with even one creature.
Riot Control gets a special mention as, even though it's not an enchantment, it buys time by stopping ALL damage (rather than just combat damage) and gaining me life as well. Says a lot as I'm not usually a fan of Fog effects these days.
Supreme Verdict is there for board wiping shenanigans. If I can't contain the field with my enchantments alone, I'll bring back the vulnerable ones if I can spare the mana, or just fire the nuke and hope to replace the enchantments later. Depends on how bad the board state is. Either way, resetting it is almost always a great way of slowing down most decks.
--MANA--
Thanks to the tap effect, gate decks are usually always a turn behind every other deck. While I erred on using slots to overcome this weakness, I eventually bit the bullet and decided it was necessary to get SoS out as quickly as possible, so Amulet of Vigor makes the cut for a couple of slots. Abundant Growth is a good cantrip that fixes my early-game mana if I'm not drawing favourable gate colours, and is an enchantment to boot. Urban Evolution is useful if I can spare the turn for card draw, and the chance of an exta land play is always nice, even when it's not the focus.
Gatecreeper Vine is optional, depending on meta-game. I actually don't run it in mine because Memory's Journey is the more important card for me, but the Gatecreepers are a solid card for the average meta, and very replacable so you can bring in alternatives.
The mana base itself is skewed mostly towards green and white with moderate blue to increase the chance I'm playing gates of the colours of most of my cards. Black gets a large shunt as I have no main deck black cards.
--ALTERNATE WIN--
Would be rather sucky if Maze's End was my only win-con and it was stopped dead. Crackling Perimeter helps in that regard, and affecting each opponent makes it strong in multiplayer. If you're playing nice and discreetly, you'll be able to set up without much attention being drawn to you, drop the perimeter at the right moment, and end the game in a matter of turns with your gate nukes.
--SIDEBOARD--
An extra copy of Detention Sphere helps against those games where there's just too many permanents to keep locked and you want to maximise your draw chances.
Memory's Journey is largely to counteract mill decks by fetching out important gates or enchantments that may have been milled, but can also be used to effect against reanimator decks by plugging their key cards right back into their decks where they don't want them. And it has flashback. Nice.
Boros Charm helps against most enchantment/land destruction and can score that final damage if you need that extra reach, while Rakdos Charm hits anything relying on the graveyard, lots of creatures/tokens, and important artifacts hard.
Nevermore is to handle non-permanents that rip the deck apart (e.g. Slaughter Games, targetted discard, etc.). Can also be used on other troublesome targets as a pre-emptive measure.
The extra Crackling Perimeter is to help make more consistent use of Exquisite Blood, which is there for multiplayer games where you want to mix it up a little. Exquisite Blood turns Crackling Perimeter into pseudo-extort, transforming the deck into a functional drain deck. The black mana should still be handlable by the mana base with Abundant Growth support.