Hello everyone. I'm back for the final time in 2020 with more fun and interesting decks that you can use when battling your friends and family. While none of these decks have been tournament tested, they all look well built and offer some innovative game play. Let's get started.

Bant Constellations

We start this week with a Bant deck that reaps the benefits of playing a lot of enchantment cards. Let's take a look at the deck.

Bant Constellations | ZNR Standard | absurd_heroine, aetherhub.com user

• Creatures (11)
• 2 Archon of Sun's Grace
• 2 Faeburrow Elder
• 2 Protean Thaumaturge
• 2 Shimmerwing Chimera
• 3 Setessan Champion

• Instants (4)
• 4 Flicker of Fate

• Sorceries (4)
• 2 Dance of the Manse
• 2 Shatter the Sky

• Enchantments (17)
• 2 Enigmatic Incarnation
• 2 Kiora Bests the Sea God
• 2 Primal Empathy
• 3 Elspeth Conquers Death
• 4 Omen of the Sea
• 4 Omen of the Sun

• Lands (24)
• 4 Forest
• 4 Island
• 4 Plains
• 2 Branchloft Pathway
• 2 Temple of Enlightenment
• 2 Temple of Mystery
• 2 Temple of Plenty
• 4 Fabled Passage

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Setessan Champion gets a +1/+1 counter and you draw a card whenever an enchantment enters the battlefield under your control. In a deck like this, you can get an awful lot of +1/+1 counters. By combining this ability with the ability of Shimmerwing Chimera, you'll have a continuous stream of +1/+1 counters. Shimmerwing Chimera allows you to return up to one other enchantment to your hand at the beginning of your upkeep. By doing this, you'll be able to cast it later in the turn, and return it to your hand on the following turn, keeping the pattern going. Combine this with Omen of the Sun and you have a way of creating 1/1 Human Soldier tokens turn after turn.

Protean Thaumaturge is another creature of your that wants you to cast enchantments. With its constellation ability, Protean Thaumaturge will become a copy of a target creature when an enchantment enters the battlefield under your control. By targeting your opponent's largest creature, you'll always be able to ensure you can block their biggest threat.

Another payoff for casting a bunch of enchantments is Archon of Sun's Grace. Whenever you have an enchantment enter the battlefield under your control while you have Archon of Sun's Grace in play, you'll create a 2/2 Pegasus creature token that has flying. The Archon provides all of your Pegasus creatures with lifelink, which allows you to extend the game further if needed.

Cats 'N Hammers

This next deck has a very interesting name. At its heart, it's a beatdown deck that takes advantage of landfall to get the job done. Let's take a look at the deck.

Cats 'N Hammers | ZNR Standard | MtgMalone, aetherhub.com user

• Creatures (22)
• 2 Akoum Hellhound
• 2 Phoenix of Ash
• 3 Bonecrusher Giant
• 3 Moraug, Fury of Akoum
• 3 Relic Robber
• 3 Robber of the Rich
• 3 Skyclave Apparition
• 3 Wayward Guide-Beast

• Instants (3)
• 3 Scorching Dragonfire

• Sorceries (3)
• 3 Shatterskull Smashing

• Enchantments (7)
• 3 Banishing Light
• 4 Felidar Retreat

• Artifacts (2)
• 2 Maul of the Skyclaves

• Lands (23)
• 7 Mountain
• 8 Plains
• 4 Fabled Passage
• 4 Needleverge Pathway

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The 'Cats' portion of this deck comes from the enchantment, Felidar Retreat. With Felidar Retreat, whenever landfall happens for you, you'll be able to either create a 2/2 Cat creature token or put a +1/+1 counter on each creature you control and provide those creatures with vigilance for the turn. Initially, you'll want to create a Cat token with this ability, but once you have some other creatures on the battlefield, you'll want to switch gears and start pumping up your forces.

The 'Hammers' portion of this deck comes from the equipment, Maul of the Skyclaves. When Maul of the Skyclaves is equipped to a creature, that creature gets a +2/+2 bonus, as well as flying and first strike. This can turn an ordinary 2/2 Cat token into a 4/4 flier that is great on either offense or defense. Another benefit of Maul of the Skyclaves is that when it is first cast, it will auto-equip to a creature you control when it enters the battlefield. This allows you to turn an otherwise mediocre creature into an immediate threat.

With all of your Cats and Hammers in play, you'll want to get a copy of Moraug, Fury of Akoum onto the battlefield. This Legendary Minotaur Warrior has a landfall ability that provides you an additional combat phase, and untaps all of your creatures during this additional combat phase. Use this bonus combat phase as a way of pushing through extra damage on an otherwise tapped out opponent, or choose not to attack and leave your creatures untapped and ready for defense. Either choice provides you an advantage you can take advantage of.

Orzhov Lifedrain

The final deck I have for you this week features numerous ways to gain life, causing doom and gloom for your opponent. Let's check it out.

Orzhov Lifedrain | ZNR Standard | Proximus, aetherhub.com user

• Creatures (31)
• 2 Daxos, Blessed by the Sun
• 2 Heliod, Sun-Crowned
• 2 Kitesail Freebooter
• 2 Luminous Broodmoth
• 2 Lurrus of the Dream-Den
• 2 Marauding Blight-Priest
• 2 Skyclave Apparition
• 3 Impassioned Orator
• 3 Lampad of Death's Vigil
• 3 Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose
• 4 Acquisitions Expert
• 4 Charming Prince

• Sorceries (4)
• 2 Bloodchief's Thirst
• 2 Call of the Death-Dweller

• Enchantments (2)
• 2 Revenge of Ravens

• Lands (23)
• 5 Plains
• 5 Swamp
• 1 Castle Ardenvale
• 1 Castle Locthwain
• 1 Temple of Silence
• 2 Temple of Silence
• 4 Brightclimb Pathway
• 4 Fabled Passage

• Sideboard (10)
• 1 Karametra's Blessing
• 3 Disenchant
• 4 Divine Arrow
• 2 Alseid of Life's Bounty

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This deck provides you with a lot of small things that you can use to get a big advantage. Impassioned Orator gives you a point of life whenever another creature enters the battlefield under your control. Daxos, Blessed by the Sun provides the same benefit, but also gives you a point of life when another creature dies. Lampad of Death's Vigil allows you to sacrifice a creature in order to drain your opponent of one point of life.

This deck also provides you with numerous creatures that have lifelink. You can utilize all of these ways of gaining additional life a couple of different ways. The first is by having a copy of Marauding Blight-Priest in play. This Vampire Cleric forces an opponent to lose one point of life whenever you gain life. So, if you were to gain three points of life by attacking with Lurrus of the Dream-Den, your opponent would lose one point of life. Alternatively, Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose forces your opponent to lose life equal to the amount of life you gain when gaining life. This would mean that you would gain three life when Lurrus attacks, and your opponent would lose three points of life (in addition to any they lose as a result of taking damage).

One very nice creature to get into play is Luminous Broodmoth. Not only is this Insect a great threat in and of itself, but it also most other creatures you have in play to become an even bigger threats. With Luminous Broodmoth on the battlefield, whenever another creature you control that doesn't have flying dies, it will be returned to the battlefield with a flying counter on it. Turn those land-based threats into much more dangerous evasive threats.

Wrapping Up

While 2020 has been a dumpster fire of a year, Magic has remained as the premier trading card game to play. I'm looking forward to seeing what 2021 has in store for us once sets like Kaldheim, Strixhaven, Dungeons & Dragons - Adventures in the Forgotten Realms, and our return to Innistrad arrive.

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