Hello everyone. As we enter the holiday season, you might find that you don't have as much free time to play Magic. If that's not the case for you, I have a few decks that you can try out these next few weeks. Let's get started.

Azorius Aggro

The first deck I have for you takes to the skies and rains down death upon your opponent. Let's take a look at it.

Azorius Aggro | VOW Standard | MTGArenaOriginalDecks, aetherhub.com user

• Creatures (28)
• 4 Battlefield Raptor
• 4 Clarion Spirit
• 4 Intrepid Adversary
• 4 Linvala, Shield of Sea Gate
• 4 Luminarch Aspirant
• 4 Merfolk Windrobber
• 4 Silver Raven

• Instants (2)
• 2 Winged Portent

• Enchantments (8)
• 4 Paladin Class
• 4 Sparring Regimen

• Lands (22)
• 6 Island
• 6 Plains
• 2 Cave of the Frost Dragon
• 4 Deserted Beach
• 4 Hengegate Pathway // Mistgate Pathway

• Sideboard (7)
• 1 Environmental Sciences
• 1 Mascot Exhibition
• 1 Reduce to Memory
• 1 Teachings of the Archaics
• 3 Inkling Summoning

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Luminarch Aspirant helps your plan by giving a creature you control a +1/+1 counter at the beginning of combat on your turn. These +1/+1 counters work especially well on Battlefield Raptor, making it adept at blocking effectively. Intrepid Adversary provides a +1/+1 bonus to each of your creatures for every valor counter you're able to place on it when it enters the battlefield. It also has lifelink which can provide you with the extra life you need to outlast your opponent. Clarion Spirit allows you to create a 1/1 Spirit creature token with flying whenever you cast your second spell each turn. Since your threats will often cost a single mana, you should have plenty of leftover mana to use on another spell, increasing your forces.

Linvala, Shield of Sea Gate is the most costly flier on your team, but can also often be the most important. Since there are no Warriors in this deck, you'll never be able to utilize Linvala's ability to neuter one of your opponent's creatures for the turn, but that's not why she is included in this deck. By sacrificing Linvala, you can give all of your other creatures either hexproof or indestructible for the rest of the turn. This allows you to avoid any board sweepers and continue to press the attack. You can also sacrifice Linvala in response to your opponent targeting her with a removal spell. After all, if she's already going to die, why not make her death have meaning, right?

Rakdos Control

Next, I have a Rakdos deck that knows how to keep the battlefield clear of threats. Let's take a look at the deck.

Rakdos Control | VOW Standard | Sonio, aetherhub.com user

• Creatures (2)
• 2 Valki, God of Lies // Tibalt, Cosmic Impostor

• Planeswalkers (7)
• 3 Sorin the Mirthless
• 4 Lolth, Spider Queen

• Instants (10)
• 2 Bloodline Culling
• 2 Cinderclasm
• 2 Hagra Mauling // Hagra Broodpit
• 2 Infernal Grasp
• 2 Soul Shatter

• Sorceries (8)
• 4 Bloodchief's Thirst
• 4 Reckless Impulse

• Enchantments (6)
• 2 Stensia Uprising
• 4 The Meathook Massacre

• Artifacts (3)
• 3 The Celestus

• Lands (24)
• 5 Mountain
• 5 Swamp
• 2 Crawling Barrens
• 4 Blightstep Pathway // Searstep Pathway
• 4 Field of Ruin
• 4 Haunted Ridge

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With the battlefield free of opposing creatures, you'll need some way to defeat your opponent. One great way is with Stensia Uprising. This enchantment will create a 1/1 Human creature token for you at the beginning of your end step. These creatures are nice and small, and very great to block with while you have a copy of The Meathook Massacre on the battlefield. If you ever find yourself with thirteen permanents in play, you can sacrifice Stensia Uprising if you wish. Doing this will deal seven damage to any target, which might be enough to finish off your opponent's life total.

In addition to the tokens created with Stensia Uprising, you have a pair of powerful Planeswalkers that can create their own creature tokens. Lolth, Spider Queen can create two 2/1 Spider creature tokens that have menace and reach. She also has an ability you can use to keep additional cards coming into your hand each turn. Sorin the Mirthless has a -2 loyalty ability that creates a 2/3 Vampire creature token with flying and lifelink. He also has an ability that can allow you to draw additional cards, which might necessitate the need for having creatures with lifelink.

Selesnya Magecraft and Lifegain

My final deck this week features a pair of abilities that work well with each other, magecraft and lifegain. Let's take a look at the deck.

Selesnya Magecraft and Lifegain | VOW Standard | Arena_Hacks, aetherhub.com user

• Creatures (16)
• 4 Dragonsguard Elite
• 4 Leonin Lightscribe
• 4 Professor of Symbology
• 4 Voice of the Blessed

• Instants (14)
• 2 Show of Confidence
• 4 Revitalize
• 4 Snakeskin Veil
• 4 Wild Shape

• Sorceries (8)
• 4 Guiding Voice
• 4 Homestead Courage

• Lands (22)
• 6 Forest
• 8 Plains
• 2 Arctic Treeline
• 2 Overgrown Farmland
• 4 Branchloft Pathway // Boulderloft Pathway

• Sideboard (7)
• 1 Academic Probation
• 1 Containment Breach
• 1 Expanded Anatomy
• 1 Introduction to Prophecy
• 1 Reduce to Memory
• 2 Environmental Sciences

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Voice of the Blessed is the secret tech in this deck that people might not expect. Whenever you gain life, you'll put a +1/+1 counter on Voice of the Blessed. Once it has four +1/+1 counters, it gains flying and vigilance. If you manage to get ten or more +1/+1 counters on it, it will gain indestructible. There are a lot of ways in this deck to gain +1/+1 counters, but only a couple of ways to gain life. One way to gain life is by creating a Pest creature token with Containment Breach. A more reliable way to gain life is by casting Revitalize.

+1/+1 counters are plentiful in this deck. You can get a +1/+1 counter (or more) by casting the following spells: Show of Confidence, Snakeskin Veil, Guiding Voice, Homestead Courage, and Expanded Anatomy. All of these spells require relatively little mana to cast, and can often trigger your magecraft abilities multiple times in a turn. Show of Confidence copies itself based on the number of other instant and sorcery spells you've cast this turn. Homestead Courage can be cast from your graveyard thanks to having flashback. You also have Professor of Symbology and Guiding Voice that allow you to learn when they resolve, which gives you additional fuel to use for your magecraft abilities.

Wrapping Up

Aggro, Control, and Midrange. No matter what your play style is, you might enjoy at least one of these decks. While Aggro is my favorite, I'm interested in trying out all of these on Magic Arena.

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