Hello everyone. With the Dominaria United release right around the corner, you might need a new deck to play at your local Friday Night Magic tournaments. If you weren't able to play in a prerelease event, you'll need to play a deck that survived rotation, utilizing cards you currently have. This week I have a few decks that are rotation proof that you can use for the first few weeks of our new Standard environment. Let's get started with our first deck.
Rotation Proof Mono-Red Artifacts
We'll get started at my favorite place to begin when rotation happens, Mono-Red. Let's take a look at the deck.
Rotation Proof Mono-Red Artifacts | DMU Standard | powrdragn, aetherhub.com user
- Creatures (20)
- 2 Goldhound
- 3 Lizard Blades
- 3 Thundering Raiju
- 4 Patchwork Automaton
- 4 Rabbit Battery
- 4 Reinforced Ronin
- Planeswalkers (2)
- 2 Chandra, Dressed to Kill
- Instants (12)
- 4 Antagonize
- 4 Kami's Flare
- 4 Voltage Surge
- Enchantments (4)
- 4 Kumano Faces Kakkazan // Etching of Kumano
- Lands (22)
- 20 Mountain
- 2 Sokenzan, Crucible of Defiance
Thundering Raiju is one of the best creatures in this deck. When it attacks, you'll put a +1/+1 counter on any creature you control, including Thundering Raiju itself. It will then deal X amount of damage directly to your opponent, where X is equal to the number of modified creatures you control other than Thundering Raiju. While this can encourage you to place those +1/+1 counters on other creatures, there are other ways to make those creatures modified.
Rabbit Battery and Lizard Blades are two great cards that allow you to make a creature modified. Early in the game, you can play these cards and attack with them for some potential damage. Later on, you can reconfigure these Creature - Equipment cards, attaching them to another creature to make it modified. Patchwork Automaton is another creature in this deck that will likely make itself modified. It gets a +1/+1 counter whenever you cast an artifact spell. With all of these ways to become modified, you should be able to deal a lot of extra damage when Thundering Raiju attacks.
Rotation Proof Selesnya Enchantments
Next, I have a Selesnya Enchantment deck that can grow threats to an immense size. Let's take a look at it.
Rotation Proof Selesnya Enchantments | DMU Standard | Ghnan, aetherhub.com user
- Creatures (18)
- 2 Kami of Transience
- 4 Generous Visitor
- 4 Jukai Naturalist
- 4 Sky-Blessed Samurai
- 4 Spirited Companion
- Sorceries (4)
- 4 Commune with Spirits
- Enchantments (16)
- 2 Hold for Ransom
- 2 Wedding Announcement // Wedding Festivity
- 4 Circle of Confinement
- 4 Michiko's Reign of Truth // Portrait of Michiko
- 4 Touch the Spirit Realm
- Lands (22)
- 8 Forest
- 10 Plains
- 4 Blossoming Sands
For a while, the dynamic duo of Generous Visitor and Kami of Transience have been punishing opponents in Standard. Each of these creatures provide +1/+1 counters when an enchantment spell is cast by you. Those counters can allow you to attack for quite a lot of damage with Kami of Transience, due to the fact that it has trample. Having all of those enchantments in play will also help you cast Sky-Blessed Samurai easier, which will also help you deal damage to your opponent thanks to the flying it has.
The enchantments in this deck primarily pull double duty by acting as creature removal. Hold for Ransom stops a creature from attacking or blocking. Circle of Confinement exiles a creature with a mana value of three or less for as long as Circle of Confinement remains in play. You might also gain a little life from it as well. Touch the Spirit Realm can exile any creature or artifact while it remains on the battlefield. This is the most flexible creature removal enchantment this deck has, so try not to use it if Circle of Confinement will do the trick.
Rotation Proof Boros Aggro
The next deck I have for you is a Boros deck that can reduce your opponent's life total very quickly. Let's check it out.
Rotation Proof Boros Aggro | DMU Standard | covertgoblue, aetherhub.com user
- Creatures (24)
- 1 Intrepid Adversary
- 1 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
- 2 Sungold Sentinel
- 4 Bloodthirsty Adversary
- 4 Brutal Cathar
- 4 Hopeful Initiate
- 4 Sunrise Cavalier
- 4 Thundering Raiju
- Instants (9)
- 1 Valorous Stance
- 4 Kami's Flare
- 4 Play with Fire
- Enchantments (4)
- 4 Kumano Faces Kakkazan // Etching of Kumano
Sunrise Cavalier makes this deck really hum. By having both trample and haste, you can wreck your opponent's plans in a hurry. It also has an ability that allows you to put a +1/+1 counter on any of your creatures whenever day becomes night or night becomes day. Those +1/+1 counters make your creatures modified, enabling Thundering Raiju to deal extra damage when it attacks.
You'll want to pay attention to the cards you have in your hand when you play Thalia, Guardian of Thraben. Her ability makes all noncreature spells cost one additional mana to cast, which includes your own spells as well as your opponents. In my experience playing this deck, if you're not careful, you can mess up your own future turns if you don't take into account this additional mana requirement.
Rotation Proof Mono-White Aggro
The final deck I have for you is a Mono-White deck that hopes to flood the battlefield with small (and some not-so-small) creatures. Let's take a look at the deck.
Rotation Proof Mono-White Aggro | DMU Standard | powrdragn, aetherhub.com user
- Creatures (29)
- 2 Ao, the Dawn Sky
- 2 Welcoming Vampire
- 3 Adeline, Resplendent Cathar
- 3 Sungold Sentinel
- 3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
- 4 Brutal Cathar // Moonrage Brute
- 4 Fleeting Spirit
- 4 Hopeful Initiate
- 4 Intrepid Adversary
- Planeswalkers (3)
- 3 The Wandering Emperor
- Instants (4)
- 4 Fateful Absence
- Lands (24)
- 21 Plains
- 1 Field of Ruin
- 2 Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire
Welcoming Vampire allows you to draw a card whenever one or more other creatures with power two or less enters the battlefield under your control, but only once per turn. This pairs nicely alongside Adeline, Resplendent Cathar. Whenever you attack while Adeline is on the battlefield, you'll create a 1/1 Human creature token that's tapped and attacking your opponent or one of their planeswalkers. That token can trigger the ability of Welcoming Vampire, plus it also boosts Adeline's power.
Fleeting Spirit is one of my favorite creatures in this deck. For only two mana, you get a 3/1 creature that is able to gain first strike. That ability will often allow this Spirit to remain 'alive' whenever it attacks, even if blocked. For the times that Fleeting Spirit would be destroyed, it has another ability that can allow you to phase from the battlefield until the beginning of the next end step. That makes Fleeting Spirit very difficult to remove from play.
Wrapping Up
Now that Dominaria United is here, it's time to build new decks. Standard rotation has also happened, making it even more difficult to find something new to play. Luckily there are a lot of decks like the ones I've shown you this week that you can play for the next couple of weeks until you're able to build new decks featuring this new expansion. Let me know in the comments below what transition deck you're planning to play.
What do you think of these decks? Do you have any suggestions for improvements? Let me know by leaving a comment below. Also, 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