Hello everyone. While it's about time for us to blast off into space, Edge of Eternities isn't quite here yet. That's good, because I'm not finished looking at decks that are all focused around a specific color for Final Fantasy Standard. I only have 2 weeks to go, and this week I'm looking at decks focused on Blue mana. Let's get started.

Mono-Blue Gogo Mill

We'll start things off this week with a deck that features one of my favorite alternate methods of winning, milling out an opponent's deck. Let's first take a look at the deck.

Mono-Blue Gogo Mill | FIN Standard | Hael, aetherhub.com user

• Creatures (7)
• 3 Gogo, Master of Mimicry
• 4 Omen Hawker

• Planeswalkers (4)
• 4 Jace, the Perfected Mind

• Instants (8)
• 4 Aetherize
• 4 Into the Flood Maw

• Sorceries (2)
• 2 Stock Up

• Artifacts (15)
• 3 The Water Crystal
• 4 Collector's Vault
• 4 Riverchurn Monument
• 4 The Enigma Jewel

• Lands (24)
• 17 Island
• 1 Blast Zone
• 2 Demolition Field
• 2 Fountainport
• 2 Jidoor, Aristocratic Capital

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Riverchurn Monument is one of the best ways to mill out your opponent currently in Standard. Each turn, you can activate it to mill two cards from your opponent's deck. Even if that's the only way you find to mill cards from your opponent's deck, by keeping track of the number of cards your opponent has milled and the number of cards they've played, you can figure out the best time to activate the exhaust ability of Riverchurn Monument. This will definitely take less time if you manage to find a copy of Jace, the Perfected Mind to play.

Helping reduce the mana cost of nearly every card in this deck is The Water Crystal. This legendary artifact also helps you mill your opponent's deck faster in a couple of ways. It has a static ability that increases the number of cards an opponent would mill from any effect by an additional four cards. It also has an activated ability which allows you to mill your opponent an amount equal to the number of cards in your hand. Remember that this amount is increased by four cards due to The Water Crystal's static ability.

Azorius Enchantments

Next, I have an Azorius deck that is rotation proof. Let's take a look at the deck.

Azorius Enchantments | FIN Standard | MTG_Barbieri, aetherhub.com user

• Creatures (20)
• 2 Enduring Innocence
• 2 Entity Tracker
• 4 Gremlin Tamer
• 4 Inquisitive Glimmer
• 4 Optimistic Scavenger
• 4 Silent Hallcreeper

• Enchantments (18)
• 2 Cooped Up
• 2 Surgical Suite // Hospital Room
• 2 Underwater Tunnel // Slimy Aquarium
• 4 Ethereal Armor
• 4 Shardmage's Rescue
• 4 Sheltered by Ghosts

• Lands (22)
• 4 Island
• 7 Plains
• 1 Restless Anchorage
• 2 Floodfarm Verge
• 4 Starting Town
• 4 Valgavoth's Lair

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In a deck like this, Inquisitive Glimmer is an all-star. While it's on the battlefield, your enchantment spells and unlock costs both cost one less mana. While it might make you want to keep Inquisitive Glimmer safe and sound as far from combat as possible, there are plenty of ways to protect it in this deck. These include Shardmage's Rescue and Sheltered by Ghosts. You can also return it to the battlefield with Surgical Suite if it does happen to die.

You can gain quite a number of advantages when you have an enchantment enter the battlefield or when you unlock a Room. Optimistic Scavenger is perhaps the most-played card that benefits from these effects, giving a +1/+1 counter to a creature when triggered. However, since this deck is Blue & White in colors, there are a couple of other creatures that benefit from these events. Gremlin Tamer creates a 1/1 Gremlin creature token, while Entity Tracker allows you to draw a card. With this amount of synergy, you're bound to gain an advantage over your opponent.

Dimir Mindsplice Mill

The next deck I have for you is another mill deck, this time in Dimir colors. It's much different from the Mono-Blue mill deck from before. Let's take a look at the deck.

Dimir Mindsplice Mill | FIN Standard | SwayzeMTG, aetherhub.com user

• Instants (19)
• 1 Outrageous Robbery
• 3 Sheoldred's Edict
• 3 Three Steps Ahead
• 4 Cut Down
• 4 Rakshasa's Bargain
• 4 Syncopate

• Sorceries (13)
• 1 Finale of Revelation
• 3 Deadly Cover-Up
• 3 Duress
• 3 Memories Returning
• 3 Strategic Betrayal

• Artifacts (4)
• 4 Mindsplice Apparatus

• Lands (24)
• 1 Island
• 5 Swamp
• 2 Gloomlake Verge
• 2 Mistrise Village
• 2 Undercity Sewers
• 4 Darkslick Shores
• 4 Jidoor, Aristocratic Capital
• 4 Underground River

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As you can see, this deck doesn't include any planeswalkers or creatures. Its main route to milling out your opponent's deck is with Jidoor, Aristocratic Capital, or more specifically, with the adventure side of this land, Overture. This 6-mana sorcery will mill half of your opponent's deck. Do this a couple of times and then you're ready to finish your opponent off with Outrageous Robbery.

Since Overture costs six mana and Outrageous Robbery wants as much mana as you can pump into it, you'll need some way to help with the casting costs of these spells. It's Mindsplice Apparatus to the rescue. While you have this artifact in play, it will accumulate an oil counter each turn. You'll then receive a discount in the generic mana cost of any instant or sorcery spell you cast equal to the number of oil counters on Mindsplice Apparatus. You'll be able to cast multiple spells with ease each turn, quickly gaining a victory over your opponent.

Izzet Vivi Prowess

The next deck I have for you might be low on creatures, but it's high on dealing damage. Let's check it out.

Izzet Vivi Prowess | FIN Standard | Celandro, aetherhub.com user

• Creatures (10)
• 2 Vivi Ornitier
• 4 Monastery Swiftspear
• 4 Slickshot Show-Off

• Instants (14)
• 2 Might of the Meek
• 4 Burst Lightning
• 4 Into the Flood Maw
• 4 Opt

• Sorceries (12)
• 4 Sleight of Hand
• 4 Wild Ride
• 4 Wrenn's Resolve

• Enchantments (4)
• 4 Stormchaser's Talent

• Lands (20)
• 3 Island
• 5 Mountain
• 4 Riverpyre Verge
• 4 Shivan Reef
• 4 Spirebluff Canal

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Shore Up
• 3 Bounce Off
• 4 Spell Pierce
• 4 Torch the Tower
• 2 Lithomantic Barrage

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Monastery Swiftspear and Slickshot Show-Off are two of the best creatures currently in Red. With prowess and pseudo-prowess abilities, you'll be able to pump the power of both of these creatures high enough so that your opponent will have to block them or lose a huge chunk of their life total. Helping you cast additional spells each turn is Vivi Ornitier, who can be activated to provide you with additional mana once per turn. Vivi also gains a +1/+1 counter and deals 1 point of damage to your opponent whenever you cast a noncreature spell, making this Wizard a must-kill creature.

All of the noncreature spells in this deck cost only a single mana to cast, with the exception of Wrenn's Resolve, which costs two mana. By stringing together spells like Opt and Sleight of Hand, which both provide you with additional cards, you'll be able to keep playing one spell after another, pumping up your creatures and dealing direct damage with Vivi's static ability.

Simic +1/+1 Counters

The final deck I have for you features a Hydra that not only gains +1/+1 counters for itself, but it also shares them with others. Let's take a look at the deck.

Simic +1/+1 Counters | FIN Standard | HelloGoodGame, aetherhub.com user

• Creatures (26)
• 3 Agonasaur Rex
• 3 Naga Fleshcrafter
• 4 Ingenious Prodigy
• 4 Llanowar Elves
• 4 Silent Hallcreeper
• 4 Twitching Doll
• 4 Warden of the Grove

• Instants (8)
• 4 Into the Flood Maw
• 4 Repulsive Mutation

• Enchantments (4)
• 4 Hunter's Talent

• Lands (22)
• 6 Forest
• 6 Island
• 2 Botanical Sanctum
• 2 Fabled Passage
• 2 Restless Vinestalk
• 4 Willowrush Verge

• Sideboard (3)
• 1 Pawpatch Recruit
• 1 Railway Brawler
• 1 Steamcore Scholar

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The Hydra I alluded to before the decklist is none other than Warden of the Grove. It starts off as a mere 2/2 creature, but it will gain a +1/+1 counter at the beginning of your end step. This allows it to quickly grow large enough to avoid being destroyed by most direct damage spells. It also has an ability that will either create X 1/1 Spirit creature tokens or X +1/+1 counters to another nontoken creature you have entering the battlefield, where X is equal to the number of counters on Warden of the Grove. While you'll usually want to add the +1/+1 counters, there might be times you'll want to go wide instead of going big.

Since +1/+1 counters are what this deck is about, it shouldn't be surprising that many of the creatures in this deck come with their own +1/+1 counters. Silent Hallcreeper can gain 2 +1/+1 counters one time per game when it deals combat damage to your opponent. Ingenious Prodigy comes in with a variable number of +1/+1 counters when you cast it. Agonasaur Rex can be cycled to provide a pair of +1/+1 counters. There's even Naga Fleshcrafter, which enters the battlefield as a copy of another creature, which could be best utilized by choosing Warden of the Grove.

Wrapping Up

While I can't say that Blue decks are typically my favorite decks to play, the fact that there are two mill decks in this batch makes me want to try these decks out. Plus, by pairing Blue with the other colors, I'm able to find things like +1/+1 counters and prowess that I enjoy.

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