Hello everyone. The official release of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is upon us. Now that these cards will be available everywhere, you'll be able to begin brewing your own new decks. But while you're acquiring these new cards, you might want to have a deck already built to play against your friends or at a local tournament. That's exactly what this series of articles does prior to each new release.

While the format might be a little different than usual, you're still getting decks that you can play in the first few weeks of our new Standard environment. This week I have a Mono-Blue deck, an Orzhov () deck, and a Gruul () deck for you, so let's get started.

Mono-Blue Tempo

As is usual, I'll be starting off with a mono-colored deck for you. This time, I have a Mono-Blue deck that dictates the pace of the tempo of the match with fast, efficient creatures and disruptive spells. Let's take a look at the deck.

Mono-Blue Tempo | ECL Standard | MtgMalone, aetherhub.com user

• Creatures (19)
• 2 Flitterwing Nuisance
• 2 Glen Elendra Guardian
• 2 Hydro-Man, Fluid Felon
• 3 Enduring Curiosity
• 3 Spectral Sailor
• 3 Tishana's Tidebinder
• 4 Floodpits Drowner

• Instants (20)
• 2 Aetherize
• 2 Faebloom Trick
• 2 Phantom Interference
• 2 Spell Snare
• 2 Three Steps Ahead
• 3 Into the Flood Maw
• 3 Spider-Sense
• 4 Consult the Star Charts

• Lands (21)
• 19 Island
• 2 Demolition Field

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The goal with this deck is to counter or neutralize anything your opponent casts that will prevent you from chipping away at their life total. To do this effectively, you'll want to play a creature or two in the early stages of the game. Flitterwing Nuisance starts off small, but since it has flying, it can be difficult for your opponent to block. Later on, you can remove the -1/-1 counter from it in order to draw a card, giving you a bit of card advantage.

Hydro-Man, Fluid Felon is another creature I love. While it's your turn, Hydro-Man acts as a creature that gets a +1/+1 boost whenever you cast a Blue spell. On your opponent's turn, though, Hydro-Man will become a land that can tap for Blue mana. Since he's no longer a creature, your opponent might have difficulty removing him from play. Having him on the battlefield ramps your mana and allows you to counter your opponent's spells more easily or flash in your own creatures.

All of the Instant spells in this deck hinder your opponent in some way. Whether they return attacking creatures to their owner's hand, counter a spell or ability, or tap an opponent's creature, you'll want to keep some mana open during your opponent's turn to cast these spells. Or to bluff that you will cast these spells while choosing to flash in one or more creatures instead. Make your opponent sweat, and be sure to keep the pressure on as much as possible.

Orzhov Blood Angels

Next, I have an Orzhov deck that can quickly and efficiently defeat your opponent without even needing to attack. Let's take a look at the deck.

Orzhov Blood Angels | ECL Standard | JayVillain, aetherhub.com user

• Creatures (29)
• 2 Inspiring Overseer
• 3 Qarsi Revenant
• 4 Bloodthirsty Conqueror
• 4 Exemplar of Light
• 4 Giada, Font of Hope
• 4 Momo, Friendly Flier
• 4 Starscape Cleric
• 4 Youthful Valkyrie

• Instants (8)
• 4 Get Lost
• 4 Personify

• Lands (21)
• 4 Swamp
• 5 Plains
• 4 Bleachbone Verge
• 4 Concealed Courtyard
• 4 Godless Shrine

• Sideboard (6)
• 1 Enter the Avatar State
• 1 Restoration Magic
• 1 Requisition Raid
• 1 Strategic Betrayal
• 1 Authority of the Consuls
• 1 Nowhere to Run

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At its heart, this is a deck built around creatures with flying. And one of the most iconic creature types that has flying is Angels. As such, Giada, Font of Hope is a terrific early play for this deck. Not only does she ramp your mana when casting Angel spells, but she also adds +1/+1 counters to those Angels when they resolve. This makes them a bigger threat that your opponent will need to deal with.

Another notable creature with flying in this deck is Starscape Cleric. This purely offensive creature has an ability that causes your opponent to lose 1 life whenever you gain life. By combining this effect with Bloodthirsty Conqueror's ability that causes you to gain life whenever your opponent loses life, you get a combo that can defeat your opponent instantaneously.

With all of the flying creatures in this deck, it shouldn't be too difficult for you to deal damage, thus triggering your insta-win combo. However, if your opponent also has a ton of flying creatures, you could reach a stalemate. For those times, you can rely on Inspiring Overseer to save your bacon. When this Angel Cleric enters the battlefield, you'll gain 1 life (and draw a card), triggering the combo and ending your opponent.

Gruul Aggro

The final deck I have for you this week is a Gruul deck that benefits from having cards in its graveyard. Let's take a look at the deck.

Gruul Aggro | ECL Standard | AetherHub, aetherhub.com user

• Creatures (25)
• 1 Figure of Fable
• 1 Wildfire Wickerfolk
• 3 Tersa Lightshatter
• 4 Fear of Missing Out
• 4 Keen-Eyed Curator
• 4 Llanowar Elves
• 4 Ouroboroid
• 4 Patchwork Beastie

• Instants (6)
• 2 Violent Urge
• 4 Overprotect

• Sorceries (8)
• 4 Break Out
• 4 Bushwhack

• Lands (21)
• 1 Mountain
• 6 Forest
• 2 Valgavoth's Lair
• 4 Multiversal Passage
• 4 Stomping Ground
• 4 Thornspire Verge

• Sideboard (15)
• 3 Balustrade Wurm
• 4 Scrapshooter
• 2 Royal Treatment
• 2 Sear
• 4 Pyroclasm

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Patchwork Beastie, Wildfire Wickerfolk, and Fear of Missing Out all have abilities that benefit from you having four or more card types in your graveyard. Keen-Eyed Curator is similar, but it wants four or more card types exiled with its ability, but you'll usually want to exile those cards from your opponent's graveyard rather than from your own. Because of needing these different card types in your graveyard (or exiled), you might need to consider blocking with creatures that are also enchantments or artifacts to maximize your benefits.

Tersa Lightshatter also benefits from having cards in your graveyard, but Tersa only cares about the number of cards rather than their type. If you have seven or more cards in your graveyard when Tersa attacks, you'll exile a card at random from your graveyard and be able to play that card this turn. While this has the potential to affect the bonuses you'll get from those cards needing different types of cards in your graveyard, the benefit of playing something from your graveyard can be worth that loss.

This deck also includes a playset of Ouroboroid, which allows you the opportunity to place a fair amount of +1/+1 counters on your team throughout the game. This Plant Wurm pairs nicely with Overprotect, boosting Ouroboroid's power which in turn boosts the number of +1/+1 counters you'll add to each of your other creatures. Overprotect also provides trample, allowing you to deal damage to your opponent even when facing creatures that can block.

Wrapping Up

For the past few weeks, I've shown you 15 different decks that you can use in the early stages of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Standard. I'm excited to see what decks this new set brings, and look forward to bringing you more fun and interesting decks you can play against your friends or at your friendly local game store.

What do you think of these decks? Feel free to share this article with your friends anywhere on social media. And be sure to join me here again next week as I continue my search for innovative decks in Standard. I'll see you then!

- Mike Likes