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Main » Articles » Five Colors, Five Decks

Five Colors, Five Decks

Mike Likes
Posted on August 3, 2018
 Reddit

Mono-colored decks are a blast to play and you never need to fear that you won't be able to cast your spells because you drew the wrong color of mana. For that reason, there are usually a decent number of mono-colored decks that achieve success in Standard. This week, we'll be taking a look at five mono-colored decks, one for each color, that have all gone 5-0 in a Standard League on Magic Online (MTGO).

Mono-Green

Starting our journey through these mono-colored decks is the Mono-Green deck. This deck is often referred to as a Monsters deck or a Stompy deck. Let's take a look at it.

Steel Leaf Stompy | Magic 2019 Standard | TANNERBANANER, (5-0) MTGO

Dinosaurs have long been the subject of awe for many young children, and with good reason. These terrible lizards are both powerful and dangerous. And so is this deck. For being Mono-Green, it can get off to a fast start and quickly get out of hand.

Ideally, you'll start out by playing a Llanowar Elves on turn one. That allows you to play Rhonas the Indomitable or Steel Leaf Champion on turn two. For turn three, you can play Vine Mare or Ripjaw Raptor which will allow Ghalta to come out on turn four. As you can see, this deck has the possibility of getting out a lot of high-powered creatures quickly.

Mono-Red

Next up is our Mono-Red deck. For those of you who have been playing Standard for the past 6 months or more, it should come as no surprise to you that Mono-Red is a strong, aggressive deck. By combining some low-CMC (converted mana cost) creatures with some cheap burn spells, you create a deck that attacks fast and early but also has enough reach that it can do well in a longer game as well.

Mono-Red Flame of Keld | Magic 2019 Standard | RADIANTFORCE, (5-0) MTGO

To truly understand how fast this deck operates, all you need to do is look at the CMC of the cards in it. The highest converted mana cost is 3, so you should be able to play multiple threats each turn after turn three. That will definitely make it difficult for your opponent to keep up unless they have a board sweeper like Fumigate.

With The Flame of Keld, you'll want to make sure you've played out as many threats as possible and used all of your burn spells to either deal with your opponent's creatures or by sending that damage directly at their life total. That way you're not penalized by having to discard your hand when you place the first lore counter on it. It also gives you more possibilities to deal extra damage when the third lore counter is placed. Again, beware of sweepers; otherwise you'll need to hope you draw some burn spells to be able to take advantage of the extra damage The Flame of Keld provides.

Mono-Black

Mono-Black has a couple of configurations that have gone 5-0 on MTGO, but I'll save the discussion of the Mono-Black Zombies deck for an article where I showcase tribal decks. Instead, let's take a look at Mono-Black Aggro.

Mono-Black Aggro | Magic 2019 Standard | BLADWIG, (5-0) MTGO

While this deck doesn't go all-in on the zombie tribal synergies, it does have a few zombies in it that help fill out its mana curve. Diregraf Ghoul and Dread Wanderer aren't the best cards in the late game, but it's nice to have some cheap creatures that are able to fly your Aethersphere Harvesters. Diregraf Ghoul is also a nice target to exile when activating the ability of either Scrapheap Scrounger or Graveyard Marshal.

Two other cards worth mentioning are Vicious Conquistador and Ruin Raider. Vicious Conquistador can be a great way to deal those last few points of damage to your opponent, especially when it's paired with Supernatural Stamina. Ruin Raider allows you to draw additional cards simply for doing what you want to do with the deck anyway, attacking. The drawback of losing life for it is mitigated by using the lifelink that Aethersphere Harvester provides.

Mono-Blue

Next up is the Mono-Blue deck which is focusing on artifacts. Let's take a look at it.

Mono-Blue Artifacts| Magic 2019 Standard | JBUDDE, (5-0) MTGO

Sai, Master Thopterist has been putting in overtime ever since Magic 2019 was released. There have been a number of slightly different builds with him as the centerpiece that have been doing well online and in paper events. This build is the most unique take I've seen so far.

Metalwork Colossus is a card I've enjoyed playing ever since it was released in Aether Revolt. Its mana-reduction ability is unique in Standard, and it's fun to see just how quickly you're able to cast it. Even though Abrade is still in the format, I think it's still worth it to play this massive artifact creature. And since the Metalwork Colossus has the ability to return from the graveyard you have the possibility of running your opponent out of removal for it.

This deck also plays a full playset of Powerstone Shard. By itself, this little artifact that can tap for a single colorless mana is harmless enough. However, if you happen to get a second or third copy into play, suddenly you're able to generate a massive amount of mana each turn. And since much of the deck is artifacts, you'll likely have something in your hand to spend that mana on.

Another card worth mentioning is Paradox Engine, which allows you to keep pressure on your opponent by attacking each turn and then casting a spell in your post-combat main phase to untap all of your creatures so you can use them for defense. You also have One with the Machine, which allows you to draw a massive amount of cards when you have Metalwork Colossus on the battlefield. But don't be afraid to use it when the Metalwork Colossus is absent, as even drawing three, four, or five additional cards can provide you with quite an advantage.

Mono-White

The final deck I have for you this week is Mono-White and has a slight life gain plan. Let's have a look at it.

Mono-White Midrange | Magic 2019 Standard | CHA21, (5-0) MTGO

Those of you who have read my columns both here and at MTGDeckTechs.com know that I love Crested Sunmare. If I could, I would include this horse in every Standard set from here to eternity. With that being said, I'm not sure that a full playset of Crested Sunmare is the best choice for this deck. With only a couple of ways to possibly gain life (Diamond Mare and Leonin Vanguard) and one longshot way (Ajani, Adversary of Tyrants -7 loyalty ability to make Cat tokens with lifelink), getting any additional Horse tokens seems fairly unlikely to happen. The only benefit to playing the full playset is that if you manage to get two of them on the battlefield at the same time, they'll both become indestructible. In my opinion, I would exchange two copies of Crested Sunmare for two copies of Lyra Dawnbringer. That should allow the lifegain shenanigans to happen a little more often and having a 5/5 flyer helps protect you from threats from above.

Beyond the life gaining issue I have with this deck, I think the rest of it looks pretty good. Both Militia Bugler and Mentor of the Meek help you draw additional cards. History of Benalia is a little out of place in this deck since the only knight you're playing is Knight of Grace, but since it makes its own Knight tokens which it can boost later on, I won't complain about it too much. In case you didn't notice, the majority of creatures in this deck are soldiers, so hopefully once Guilds of Ravnica comes out, we'll get something to help out soldier tribal decks.

Wrapping Up

For the past few sets, Wizards of the Coast has done a good job of spreading out the power to all colors which has enabled mono-colored decks to be able to be successful. Which deck is your favorite? You can let me know by leaving a comment below or you can reply to me directly on Twitter (@mikelikesmtg), or email me directly at mikelikesmtg@gmail.com. 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

TAGS articles, metagame, constructed, analysis, standard, decklist, mike likes, magic 2019 standard, 08032018, mono-colored

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