Hello everyone. Now that Bloomburrow has been released, I fully expect to see tons of decks filled with cute critters. However, it's very possible to build decks that aren't focused on anthropomorphic animal cards. This week I have a few decks for you that all feature some new cards, but don't go all in on a kindred-based strategy. Let's get started.

Golgari Landfall

We'll start things off this week with a deck that benefits from having a lot of land on the battlefield. Let's take a look at the deck.

Golgari Landfall | BLB Standard | MtgMalone, aetherhub.com user

• Creatures (23)
• 3 Aftermath Analyst
• 3 Darkstar Augur
• 3 Deep-Cavern Bat
• 3 Fecund Greenshell
• 3 Lumra, Bellow of the Woods
• 4 Blossoming Tortoise
• 4 Iridescent Vinelasher

• Instants (6)
• 2 Peerless Recycling
• 4 Go for the Throat

• Sorceries (2)
• 2 Pillage the Bog

• Enchantments (4)
• 4 Virtue of Persistence

• Lands (25)
• 4 Swamp
• 6 Forest
• 2 Demolition Field
• 2 Underground Mortuary
• 3 Festering Gulch
• 4 Fabled Passage
• 4 Restless Cottage

Buy This Deck Export text Export Arena

Once you've softened up your opponent with a bit of landfall damage, you can bring in your heavy hitters, Lumra, Bellow of the Woods and Fecund Greenshell. Lumra can become massive as the game progresses, having a power and toughness equal to the number of lands you control. Fecund Greenshell provides a +2/+2 bonus to your entire team of creatures as long as you control ten or more lands. Both of these creatures have reach, enabling you to be safe from attackers in the sky, as well as the means of putting extra lands onto the battlefield (for extra landfall damage).

Azorius Control

The next deck I have for you is a Blue/White control deck that benefits from a pair of Bloomburrow's new modular spells. Let's take a look at the deck.

Azorius Control | BLB Standard | SlothMtg, aetherhub.com user

• Creatures (9)
• 2 Aven Interrupter
• 3 Stoic Sphinx
• 4 Beza, the Bounding Spring

• Instants (14)
• 2 Get Lost
• 2 Long River's Pull
• 2 Quick Study
• 4 Parting Gust
• 4 Three Steps Ahead

• Sorceries (7)
• 2 Season of the Burrow
• 2 Season of Weaving
• 3 Starfall Invocation

• Enchantments (4)
• 4 Temporary Lockdown

• Lands (26)
• 4 Plains
• 5 Island
• 2 Demolition Field
• 2 Restless Anchorage
• 3 Adarkar Wastes
• 3 Fountainport
• 3 Meticulous Archive
• 4 Seachrome Coast

Buy This Deck Export text Export Arena

Both Season of the Burrow and Season of Weaving allow you to choose five paw points worth of modes, with each mode on the card costing one, two, or three paw points. These modes range from creating a 1/1 Rabbit creature token or drawing a card for one paw point, all the way to returning a permanent from your graveyard to the battlefield with an indestructible counter on it or returning each nonland, nontoken permanent to their owner's hand. These two Season cards synergize well with each other, since the tokens you create with Season of the Burrow won't cease to exist when you choose the three paw point value mode on Season of Weaving.

Beza, the Bounding Spring is a great card to cast that helps catch you up if your opponent is ahead of you in some aspect. If you're behind on lands, you'll get a Treasure token. You can gain life if your opponent has more than you. You'll create a pair of 1/1 Fish creature tokens if your opponent has more creatures than you. If your opponent has more cards in their hand than you do, you'll get to draw a card. Not only does it help catch you up, but you also get a 4/5 creature to boot.

Izzet Storm

Storm is back in Standard, but is it any good? Check out this deck and find out.

Izzet Storm | BLB Standard | Bobi, aetherhub.com user

• Creatures (8)
• 2 Grabby Giant
• 2 Thundertrap Trainer
• 4 Stormcatch Mentor

• Planeswalkers (4)
• 4 Ral, Crackling Wit

• Instants (11)
• 1 Volt Charge
• 2 Flick a Coin
• 4 Experimental Augury
• 4 Lightning Strike

• Sorceries (6)
• 1 Season of the Bold
• 1 Season of Weaving
• 4 Ill-Timed Explosion

• Enchantments (5)
• 1 Stormchaser's Talent
• 2 Artist's Talent
• 2 Festival of Embers

• Artifacts (2)
• 2 Mindsplice Apparatus

• Lands (24)
• 7 Island
• 7 Mountain
• 2 Restless Spire
• 2 Spirebluff Canal
• 2 Thundering Falls
• 4 Shivan Reef

Buy This Deck Export text Export Arena

To be able to cast as many spells each turn as possible, thus maximizing the storm potential Ral provides, you'll want to be able to reduce the mana value of your spells. You can do this with the help of a few different enchantments, creatures, and artifact spells. At level 2, Artist's Talent reduces the cost of noncreature spells you cast by one mana. Similarly, while you have Stormcatch Mentor on the battlefield, your instant and sorcery spells will also cost one less mana to cast. Finally, Mindsplice Apparatus offers the biggest discount for your instant and sorcery spells. Take advantage of this and cast as many spells as possible during the two turns you're able to maximize the three pay point value mode of Season of the Bold or simply make as many copies of Lightning Strike as you can via the storm ability.

Orzhov Discard

The final deck I have for you this week wants to get rid of all of the cards in your opponent's hand, which will allow you to cruise to victory. Let's check out the deck.

Orzhov Discard | BLB Standard | Sonio, aetherhub.com user

• Creatures (13)
• 1 Hostile Investigator
• 1 Rottenmouth Viper
• 1 Serra Paragon
• 1 Sheoldred, the Apocalypse
• 2 Aclazotz, Deepest Betrayal // Temple of the Dead
• 3 Braids, Arisen Nightmare
• 4 Nurturing Pixie

• Planeswalkers (4)
• 1 Archangel Elspeth
• 3 Liliana of the Veil

• Instants (4)
• 4 Go for the Throat

• Sorceries (1)
• 1 Legions to Ashes

• Enchantments (12)
• 1 Tinybones Joins Up
• 1 Virtue of Persistence
• 3 Bandit's Talent
• 3 Temporary Lockdown
• 4 Hopeless Nightmare

• Artifacts (1)
• 1 Tithing Blade

• Lands (25)
• 2 Plains
• 4 Swamp
• 3 Restless Fortress
• 4 Caves of Koilos
• 4 Concealed Courtyard
• 4 Mirrex
• 4 Shadowy Backstreet

• Sideboard (4)
• 1 Gisa, the Hellraiser
• 1 Harvester of Misery
• 1 Zoraline, Cosmos Caller
• 1 Treacherous Greed

Buy This Deck Export text Export Arena

By casting spells such as Bandit's Talent and Hopeless Nightmare, you'll force your opponent to discard cards from their hand. By doing this, you reduce the number of options they have available, hopefully also reducing their answers to your threats. Having a copy of Aclazotz, Deepest Betrayal // Temple of the Dead on the battlefield can certainly give you some additional benefits when they discard, but the main thing is to reduce the number of cards in their hand.

Once you've caused them to discard a majority of their hand, you can go on the offensive. Rottenmouth Viper isn't the only threat in this deck, but it is a new card that I want to talk about. When it enters the battlefield or attacks, it will gain a blight counter. Then, your opponent will need to sacrifice a nonland permanent or lose four points of life for each blight counter on Rottenmouth Viper. By reducing the number of cards in their hand, you reduce the chance that they'll have a way to counter Rottenmouth Viper, helping to ensure your victory.

Wrapping Up

While there are a ton of new cute creatures in Bloomburrow, there are also a lot of great spells to be had. That means that Bloomburrow is not just a one-trick pony, a variety of decks are viable with it, ranging from kindred decks to decks without a creature theme.

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