Hello everyone. While Magic's latest release, The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth has just released and is sure to shake things up in Modern and other eternal formats, the next release for Standard isn't for another two months. From now until then, I'll keep bringing you fun and innovative decks that you can use against your friends in person, or on Magic Arena. I've got three new decks for you this week, so let's get started.

Mono-Green Gorilla Stompy

We'll start this week off with a Mono-Green deck that features one of Standard's most amazing cards, Silverback Elder. Let's take a look at the deck.

Mono-Green Gorilla Stompy | MAT Standard | MtgMalone, aetherhub.com user

• Creatures (30)
• 2 Gwenna, Eyes of Gaea
• 3 Armored Scrapgorger
• 3 Gala Greeters
• 3 Llanowar Loamspeaker
• 3 Nissa, Resurgent Animist
• 3 Silverback Elder
• 3 Topiary Stomper
• 3 Tranquil Frillback
• 3 Vorinclex // The Grand Evolution
• 4 Quirion Beastcaller

• Planeswalkers (2)
• 2 Nissa, Ascended Animist

• Sorceries (2)
• 2 Animist's Might

• Enchantments (2)
• 2 Tribute to the World Tree

• Lands (24)
• 22 Forest
• 2 Boseiju, Who Endures

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Nissa, Resurgent Animist provides you with one mana of any color whenever a land enters the battlefield under your control. That ability pairs nicely with Topiary Stomper, who also puts a basic land card from your library onto the battlefield tapped when it enters play. Those tapped lands from Topiary Stomper and Silverback Elder can still provide mana to cast other spells while Nissa, Resurgent Animist is on the battlefield. Plus, if it's the second time you've triggered Nissa, Resurgent Animist's landfall ability, you can reveal cards until you reveal an Elf (there are no Elementals in this deck) to put into your hand.

All that extra land will come in very helpful once you reach the point where you have seven lands in play. That's when you'll be able to cast Nissa, Ascended Animist without the use of Phyrexian mana. She'll enter play with seven loyalty counters, so you can use her 'ultimate' ability right away. This will provide a +1/+1 bonus to each creature you control for each Forest you have in play. Those creatures will also gain trample, allowing them to potentially deal damage to your opponent even if blocked. You'll likely be able to wrap things up after this attack, finishing the game in style.

Gruul Modified

Next, I have a Green/Red deck that loves gaining +1/+1 counters. Let's take a look at it.

Gruul Modified | MAT Standard | powrdragn, aetherhub.com user

• Creatures (21)
• 2 Halana and Alena, Partners
• 2 Migloz, Maze Crusher
• 2 Shivan Devastator
• 3 Thundering Raiju
• 4 Ascendant Packleader
• 4 Bloated Contaminator
• 4 Quirion Beastcaller

• Instants (7)
• 3 Gaea's Gift
• 4 Kami's Flare

• Enchantments (6)
• 2 All Will Be One
• 4 Kumano Faces Kakkazan // Etching of Kumano

• Artifacts (3)
• 3 Ozolith, the Shattered Spire

• Lands (24)
• 5 Mountain
• 7 Forest
• 4 Copperline Gorge
• 4 Karplusan Forest
• 4 Rockfall Vale

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Once you have some +1/+1 counters in place, you'll want to cast Thundering Raiju. Whenever this Spirit attacks, you'll be able to place a +1/+1 counter on any creature you control. You'll then deal a point of damage directly to your opponent for each modified creature you control other than Thundering Raiju. This is a great way of dealing out the final points of damage you need to finish your opponent off.

Another way to deal direct damage to your opponent with your +1/+1 counters is by having a copy of All Will Be One on the battlefield. This enchantment will deal a point of damage to your opponent or one of their creatures or planeswalkers for each counter you place on a permanent or player. This includes lore counters added to sagas like Kumano Faces Kakkazan // Etching of Kumano and oil counters that are placed on Migloz, Maze Crusher. It also includes poison counters dealt to your opponent with the toxic ability of Bloated Contaminator. As you can see, a ton of damage can be dealt when you have a copy of All Will Be One in play.

Esper All-Stars Planeswalkers Control

The final deck I have for you features a bunch of planeswalkers. Let's check it out.

Esper All-Stars Planeswalkers Control | MAT Standard | SlothMtg, aetherhub.com user

• Planeswalkers (9)
• 1 Jace, the Perfected Mind
• 1 Kaya, Intangible Slayer
• 1 Teferi, Temporal Pilgrim
• 1 The Eternal Wanderer
• 1 Vraska, Betrayal's Sting
• 4 The Wandering Emperor

• Instants (14)
• 1 Rona's Vortex
• 1 Spell Pierce
• 2 Cut Down
• 2 March of Wretched Sorrow
• 2 Memory Deluge
• 3 Go for the Throat
• 3 Make Disappear

• Sorceries (6)
• 2 Farewell
• 2 Sunfall
• 2 Sunset Revelry

• Enchantments (4)
• 1 Temporary Lockdown
• 3 Wedding Announcement // Wedding Festivity

• Artifacts (1)
• 1 The Celestus

• Lands (26)
• 2 Adarkar Wastes
• 2 Caves of Koilos
• 2 Shipwreck Marsh
• 3 Deserted Beach
• 3 Seachrome Coast
• 3 Shattered Sanctum
• 3 Underground River
• 4 Darkslick Shores
• 4 Raffine's Tower

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If you're a fan of planeswalkers, you'll want to check this deck out. There are six different planeswalkers in this deck, all working together to help you achieve victory. The Wandering Emperor is the only one that there is a full playset of in this deck, and it's probably the one that sees the most play in other decks. That's largely due in part to her ability to be flashed in after your opponent has declared their attackers. This allows you to use her -2 loyalty ability to exile your opponent's biggest tapped threat and gain two points of life to boot.

The Wandering Emperor can also create a 2/2 Samurai creature token with vigilance, which can come in helpful since there are no creature spells in this deck. In addition to these 2/2 Samurai creature tokens, The Eternal Wanderer is also able to create a 2/2 Samurai creature token that has double strike. There's also 2/2 Spirit creature tokens with vigilance that grow in size whenever you draw a card that are created with Teferi, Temporal Pilgrim's -2 loyalty ability. Finally, Kaya, Intangible Slayer has a -3 loyalty ability which acts as both removal and creature token creation.

The final two planeswalkers in this deck might not be able to create creature tokens to help you win the game, but they do have abilities which you'll find helpful. Jace, the Perfected Mind can mill cards from your opponent's deck with both his -2 and -X loyalty abilities. This can help remove any chances your opponent has of winning against you from their deck. Finally, Vraska, Betrayal's Sting provides a bit of protection for this deck, with her -2 loyalty ability which turns a creature into a Treasure. She also helps support all of your planeswalkers when you use her 0 loyalty ability to draw a card, as this also allows you to proliferate.

Wrapping Up

Even though there's still two months until the next influx of cards into Standard, there are a lot of exciting decks that you can play. Each of these decks provides a different challenge for you when you play them. Each has their own strengths and weaknesses, but by trying them out, you can find out which of them suits your play style the best.

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