Mono-colored decks are a great starting place whenever a new set is released. They allow you to continue playing during the time you might still be acquiring cards from the newest release. They're also perfect for newer players, as they offer all the fun that can be found while playing Magic, but with fewer of the complications that you can encounter with multi-colored decks.

Mono-Colored Hobbit Decks

Each color in Magic has its own strengths and weaknesses, so mono-colored decks offer very different play experiences. So, let's take a look at some Standard mono-colored decks from each of Magic's colors that are both innovative and fun to play.

Mono-White Lifegain

We'll start things off by looking at an aggressive Mono-White deck that wins matches by casting lots of cheap Enchantments in order to grow small Creatures into massive threats. White is well-suited to this strategy because it can combine efficient Creatures with effects that reward you for gaining life, allowing you to build your board while also making it more difficult for your opponent to race you to 0.

Mono-White Lifegain | Standard | MTGA-Assistant-Meta, AetherHub.com User

• Creatures (31)
• 4 Ajani's Pridemate
• 4 Essence Channeler
• 2 Exemplar of Light
• 4 Haliya, Guided by Light
• 4 Healer's Hawk
• 4 Hinterland Sanctifier
• 4 Leonin Vanguard
• 1 Linden, the Steadfast Queen
• 4 Ruin-Lurker Bat

• Enchantments (10)
• 2 Banishing Light
• 4 Leyline of Hope
• 4 Sheltered by Ghosts

• Lands (19)
• 19 Plains

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This deck is built around the premise of gaining life. Many of your Creatures have Lifelink or provide you with one point of life whenever other Creatures enter the battlefield. This life gain serves two purposes. The first is that it naturally makes you harder to defeat. Having more life means that your opponent has to work harder to defeat you.

The other benefit of gaining life is that Ajani's Pridemate, Essence Channeler, and Exemplar of Light all gain +1/+1 Counters when you gain life, making them bigger, tougher threats. Each of these Creatures will gain a +1/+1 Counter whenever you gain life, so you could be gaining multiple counters on them each turn.

Since this is a White deck, you have access to a couple of the best removal spells currently in Standard. Both Banishing Light and Sheltered by Ghosts Exile a nonland permanent your opponent controls for as long as these Enchantments remain in play. Sheltered by Ghosts even provides a handful of bonuses to the Creature it Enchants, including Lifelink, furthering this deck's game plan.

Mono-Blue Tempo

Next, we have a Mono-Blue deck that uses cost-reducing effects to gain an advantage over your opponents. This type of deck is all about maintaining control over the pace of the game while gradually building toward a decisive finish. Rather than trying to overwhelm your opponent with a large board right away, you'll want to make efficient plays that let you get more value from each pip of mana you spend.

Mono-Blue Tempo | Standard | MTGA-Assistant-Meta, AetherHub.com User

• Creatures (15)
• 4 Eddymurk Crab
• 3 Eluge, the Shoreless Sea
• 4 Hydro-Man, Fluid Felon
• 4 Sunderflock

• Instants (12)
• 3 Into the Flood Maw
• 2 Negate
• 3 Opt
• 4 Three Steps Ahead

• Sorceries (12)
• 4 Flow State
• 4 Sleight of Hand
• 4 Stock Up

• Lands (21)
• 18 Island
• 1 Agna Qel'a
• 1 Cavern of Souls
• 1 Demolition Field

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You'll want to begin the game by playing some of your cheap Instant spells such as Opt or Sleight of Hand. You can even counter your opponent's spells with Three Steps Ahead and Negate. Doing this will allow you to build up the number of Instant and Sorcery spells in your graveyard.

Once you have enough mana and Instants and Sorceries in your graveyard, you can cast Eddymurk Crab. Typically, you'll want to Flash it into play so it can act as a surprise blocker and doing this also has the added benefit of keeping your mana open on your opponent's turn to indicate that you might have a counterspell in your hand.

Additionally, having Eddymurk Crab in play makes casting Sunderflock a breeze, which will provide you with a board wipe in most cases.

Ultimately, you'll want to get Eluge, the Shoreless Sea into play. When Eluge enters the battlefield or attacks, you'll put a Flood Counter on a target Land, turning that Land into an Island. You'll then be able to cast your first Instant or Sorcery each turn more easily, as Eluge provides a discount to the cost equal to the number of Lands you control with a Flood Counter on it.

Mono-Black Control

The next deck uses early game removal and disruption to buy you time to ramp up to devastating late game threats. This is a classic Control strategy that focuses on slowing your opponent down rather than trying to win the game quickly. By carefully managing the battlefield and limiting your opponent's resources, you can survive the early stages of the game while preparing for a much stronger late game.

Mono-Black Control | Standard | MTG_Barbieri, AetherHub.com User

• Creatures (3)
• 1 Doctor Doom
• 2 The Vision

• Planeswalkers (3)
• 3 Ugin, Eye of the Storms

• Instants (5)
• 2 Bitter Triumph
• 3 Requiting Hex

• Sorceries (9)
• 3 Ancient Vendetta
• 4 Deadly Cover-Up
• 2 Duress

• Enchantments (7)
• 2 Nowhere to Run
• 1 The Rise of Sozin
• 4 Unholy Annex

• Artifacts (9)
• 4 Firdoch Core
• 3 Hedron Archive
• 1 The Irencrag
• 1 Weather Maker

• Lands (24)
• 20 Swamp
• 2 Castle Doom
• 2 Demolition Field

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In the early stages of the game, you'll want to cast Duress to remove a critical noncreature spell from your opponent's hand. This also gives you the knowledge of what other cards are in their hand, so you can begin formulating a plan of attack. Use spells like Bitter Triumph, Ancient Vendetta, and Requiting Hex to deal with individual threats. If things start to get out of hand, cast Deadly Cover-Up to clear the battlefield.

This deck also includes a variety of cards to help ramp your mana production. Firdoch Core, Hedron Archive, and The Irencrag can all be tapped to provide you with extra mana. By getting more and more of these cards into play, you'll be set for the endgame.

A combination of Doctor Doom and Castle Doom act as the grand finisher for this deck. As long as you control an Artifact Creature, Doctor Doom has Indestructible. With the help of his lackey, The Vision, who also has an ability that can provide him with Indestructible, you can rule both the land and sky. Adding Ugin, Eye of the Storms to the mix hastens the end for your opponent, allowing Doom to reign supreme.

Mono-Red Aggro

Next, we have a Mono-Red deck that utilizes Haste to great effect. Red is one of the best colors for aggro strategies, allowing you to put pressure on your opponent from the very beginning of the game. Instead of waiting to build up a large board, this deck aims to deal damage quickly and force your opponent to react.

Mono-Red Aggro | Standard | austin4ou, AetherHub.com User

• Creatures (15)
• 4 Clockwork Percussionist
• 3 Emberheart Challenger
• 2 Fleeting Effigy
• 3 Reckless Lackey
• 3 Slickshot Show-Off

• Instants (12)
• 4 Blazing Crescendo
• 2 Bulk Up
• 4 Burst Lightning
• 2 Flashback

• Sorceries (8)
• 4 Ancestral Anger
• 4 Channeled Dragonfire

• Enchantments (6)
• 4 Death to Our Enemies
• 2 Reverberating Summons

• Lands (19)
• 19 Mountain

• Sideboard (2)
• 2 Tome Blast

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Since every Creature in this deck has Haste, your opponent will never know what to expect during combat on your turn. To make things even more difficult for them, there are a number of spells that boost your own Creatures or deal direct damage to your opponent. Because of these, you'll be able to achieve victory out of the blue with this deck.

Both Emberheart Challenger and Slickshot Show-Off can get massive due to having Prowess or a Prowess-like ability, in the case of Slickshot Show-Off. Targeting either of these Creatures with boost spells like Ancestral Anger or Blazing Crescendo is always beneficial, but each of them will still get some benefit if you target one of your other Creatures instead.

Death to Our Enemies is another card that gives you a benefit from casting noncreature spells. While it is in play, whenever you cast a noncreature spell, you'll create a Treasure token and Death to Our Enemies will gain a Plan Counter.

When the fourth Plan Counter is placed on Death to Our Enemies, you'll sacrifice it to deal seven points of damage which can be divided up among up to two targets. It's usually a solid move to direct this damage straight at your opponent.

Mono-Green Landfall

The final deck is a Mono-Green deck that benefits from having Lands enter play. Landfall is a natural fit for Green, as the color has plenty of ways to ramp your mana and put additional Lands onto the battlefield. This allows you to trigger your abilities more frequently while developing your board.

Mono-Green Landfall | Standard | Neyessko, AetherHub.com User

• Creatures (24)
• 2 Bristly Bill, Spine Sower
• 4 Icetill Explorer
• 4 Llanowar Elves
• 4 Mightform Harmonizer
• 4 Mossborn Hydra
• 4 Sazh's Chocobo
• 2 Tifa Lockhart

• Sorceries (3)
• 2 Esper Origins
• 1 Planar Engineering

• Enchantments (6)
• 4 Earthbender Ascension
• 2 Sapling Nursery

• Artifacts (2)
• 2 Lumbering Worldwagon

• Lands (25)
• 15 Forest
• 2 Ba Sing Se
• 4 Escape Tunnel
• 4 Fabled Passage

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Landfall is the name of the game with this deck, as nearly every Creature benefits in some way from having a Landfall ability. Icetill Explorer is the perfect Creature for a Landfall deck. With this Insect Scout in play, you can play an additional Land each turn, triggering your Landfall abilities multiple times.

You can also play Lands from your graveyard, which is important due to Icetill Explorer's own Landfall ability which causes you to mill a card when you trigger Landfall.

A lot of the Landfall triggers your Creatures have will provide them with +1/+1 Counters. Sazh's Chocobo gains a +1/+1 Counter when Landfall happens, while Mossborn Hydra doubles the number of +1/+1 Counters on it. Bristly Bill, Spine Sower adds a +1/+1 Counter to any Creature when you have a Land enter play.

All these effects will grow your Creatures in size throughout the game, forcing your opponent to deal with them before they grow out of control.

Cards like Ba Sing Se and Earthbender Ascension also utilize Earthbending to turn your Lands into Creatures with +1/+1 Counters on them. These Land Creatures are almost disposable, to a point, as they will return to the battlefield as a normal Land if they die. Use them to block attacks from your opponent's large Creatures and benefit from the additional Landfall triggers as they return to play.

Wrapping Up

Even though mono-colored decks are often seen as decks for beginning players, experienced players can learn a lot from playing them. By focusing on a single color of mana, you're able to see the strengths and weaknesses of that color more easily. This helps a lot when you are creating decks, as you can more easily figure out which colors complement each other the best.