For players who don't want to spend on Free-to-play games, farming is a must to get the resources to compete. In MTG Arena, these resources come in the form of individual card rewards (ICR) and gold. While farming is possible in other formats, Best-of-One Standard requires the least investment. Whether it's to complete your daily wins or profit from playing events, here are five decks you can play to farm towards your dream deck.
5. Mono-Green Aggro
It's always hammer time when Yorvo joins the fight.
Mono-Green Aggro hits hard and fast with creatures that have great power to cost ratio backed by creature-based removal. The deck uses color-intensive cards like Scavenging Ooze and Yorvo, Lord of Garenbrig to their full potential. This version of Mono-Green has a +1/+1 counters theme that makes the most out of Oran-Rief Ooze’s ability.
What's good about this deck:
- You have an advantage when facing other aggressive decks because your creatures are generally going to be bigger.
- It’s a competitive deck that’s simple and straightforward. You’re less likely to make mistakes when playing consecutive games in a tournament or spending hours ranking up the ladder.
- It’s much more affordable than multicolored decks because you don’t have to invest a lot of wild cards just for your mana base.
How to play this deck effectively:
- Your best hand consists of creatures that go up the mana curve plus some removal spells if you’re facing an opposing creature deck.
- Mulligan away hands that don't have early game creatures. You need to play threats going up the mana curve every turn.
- If you don’t have any other creatures you can play in your early turns, don’t hesitate to cast Stonecoil Serpent. Not utilizing your mana in the hopes of casting a bigger serpent later is a mistake.
- Always mutate Gemrazer on top when it has higher base stats than your target. Any +1/+1 counters on the original creature will still apply to it.
- When you have Scavenging Ooze, exile the most relevant cards from the graveyard first. This can be your opponent's Escape creatures or cards from your graveyard to stop Zareth San, the Trickster from stealing them.
Cards:
Deck4 Stonecoil Serpent
4 Swarm Shambler
4 Lotus Cobra
4 Scavenging Ooze
4 Lovestruck Beast
4 Oran-Rief Ooze
2 Yorvo, Lord of Garenbrig
4 Gemrazer
2 Primal Might
4 Ram Through
2 The Great Henge
2 Castle Garenbrig
20 Forest
4. Rakdos Midrange
Opponents who can’t feed Kroxa with nonland cards will pay with their life.
This deck fills the graveyard by milling and trading off resources which lets you cast Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger through Escape. It's filled with removal spells and Adventure creatures like Murderous Rider/Bonecrusher Giant. There's also plenty of modal lands to make sure you hit your land drops early and prevents you from flooding out later in the game.
What's good about this deck:
- Thanks to having Kroxa and plenty of removal spells, you have a great matchup against the popular mill rogues archetype.
- While this deck works best when you're aggressive, it can play defense if necessary. It can quickly turn things around right away once you have control of the board.
- You have ways to attack your opponent's life total outside of combat. Your opponent isn’t safe even if they manage to set up blockers.
How to play this deck effectively:
- Your best hand consists of Magmatic Channeler, Kroxa, and several removal spells. There’s no need to mulligan for early creatures if you have cheap removal.
- It's okay not to mulligan if you don't have low-cost creatures as long as your hand has cheap removal like Bloodchief’s Thirst or Heartless Act.
- Understand your role in a particular matchup and take that into account when using your cards. Against control decks, casting your Bonecrusher Giant on the curve is fine because you need to attack your opponent's life total.
- Consider your options when you damage an opponent with Rankle, Master of Pranks. There are cases where you don’t want to use the draw option because it might let your opponent draw an answer.
- Hold on to your Double-Faced Modal Lands and play other lands first if possible. This way, you’ll have something to do in case you’re flooding out.
Cards:
Deck4 Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger
3 Magmatic Channeler
4 Mire Triton
4 Bonecrusher Giant
2 Murderous Rider
3 Nighthawk Scavenger
2 Rankle, Master of Pranks
2 Liliana, Waker of the Dead
2 Bloodchief's Thirst
2 Spikefield Hazard
3 Heartless Act
2 Shatterskull Smashing
2 Agadeem's Awakening
2 Hagra Mauling
4 Tymaret Calls the Dead
1 Castle Locthwain
4 Fabled Passage
4 Temple of Malice
4 Mountain
6 Swamp
3. Dimir Mill
Playing a couple of these crabs early is a surefire way to ruin someone else’s day.
Dimir Mill pairs creatures with the Mill ability with cards that get better when your opponent's graveyard has enough cards. Ruin Crab can block small creatures while the twelve rogues can also beat down if necessary. The rest of the deck contains counterspells, creature removal, and card draw spells.
What's good about this deck:
- You have different angles of attack. In general, your goal is to Mill out your opponent but winning by damage through your rogues is also an option.
- Plenty of players find mill frustrating to play against, so you already have an advantage when it comes to the mental aspect of the game.
- Standard currently has no cards that grant protection against Mill. Gaea's Blessing is only in Historic and playing plus putting 12 counters on Midnight Clock takes a very long time.
How to play this deck effectively:
- Your best hand consists of a Ruin Crab, several rogues, counterspells or removal for interaction, and Into the Story.
- Play Thieve’s Guild Enforcer before your other rogues. This gives you the chance to Mill the most amount of cards when you cast your other rogues.
- Unless you’re ambushing an attacker, wait until the end of your opponent’s turn to cast your rogues with Flash. This lessens the chance for them to die before you're able to attack.
- Cast your Lurrus with mana left over to immediately cast a creature from your graveyard. This lets you at least get some value if they immediately kill it.
- When your opponent casts a spell, always respond as if you’re holding a counterspell by pausing for a moment before letting it resolve. Making your opponent play around cards you don’t have can make a difference in a close match.
Cards:
Companion1 Lurrus of the Dream-Den
Deck
4 Merfolk Windrobber
4 Ruin Crab
4 Thieves' Guild Enforcer
4 Soaring Thought-Thief
2 Bloodchief's Thirst
2 Cling to Dust
4 Drown in the Loch
2 Heartless Act
2 Agadeem's Awakening
2 Lullmage's Domination
3 Mystical Dispute
4 Into the Story
1 Castle Locthwain
4 Clearwater Pathway
4 Fabled Passage
4 Temple of Deceit
6 Island
4 Swamp
2. Mono-Red Aggro
Games tend to be short whenever Torbran sticks around.
Mono-Red Aggro is the ideal deck for anyone who wants to win as fast as possible. The "strategy" is to cast all your creatures and attack while getting rid of their blockers. You have board wipe insurance thanks to Anax, Hardened in the Forge, and a way to boost damage through Torbran, Thrane of Red Fell.
What's good about this deck:
- It’s a good choice for players making their first competitive deck. It’s simple and straightforward to play, so you’re less likely to make mistakes.
- You can finish most games in only a few turns. That's great if you want a quick way to finish daily quests or progress up the ranking ladder.
- It's almost always viable in any metagame. Decks in Best-of-One can't afford to dedicate too many cards against Mono-Red because it will make their deck worse in other matchups.
How to play this deck effectively:
- Your best hand consists of a one and two-mana creature, Anax, and Torbran/Embercleave.
- Lead with Akoum Hellhound over Fervent Champion. Playing your creatures in that order does more damage when you attack the following turn.
- Whenever possible, make sure you have a smaller hand size to trigger Robber of the Rich’s ability on attack. This lets you steal potentially useful cards from your opponent’s top deck.
- If you already have an Anax on the battlefield, it's okay to cast your extra copy. Before one of them dies to the legend rule, both Anax will trigger so you will get four Satyrs.
- You don't always have to equip Embercleave on your biggest creature. Equipping Kargan Intimidator lets you attack through small blockers instead of trading.
Cards:
Deck4 Akoum Hellhound
4 Fervent Champion
2 Kargan Intimidator
4 Rimrock Knight
4 Robber of the Rich
3 Anax, Hardened in the Forge
4 Bonecrusher Giant
3 Phoenix of Ash
2 Torbran, Thane of Red Fell
3 Shock
4 Shatterskull Smashing
4 Embercleave
4 Castle Embereth
15 Mountain
1. Gruul Adventures
This innkeeper reserves the best deals for his adventurer patrons.
Gruul Adventures smashes through your opponent with all the best green and red bruisers up the mana curve. You have access to Embercleave which lets you give Doublestrike and Trample to an attacker in an instant. The Adventure package gives you more gas when compared to other typical Gruul builds.
What's good about this deck:
- You get both power and card advantage from your Adventure creatures. Not only do they have excellent power to mana cost ratio, but they also draw cards thanks to Edgewall Innkeeper.
- Compared to other aggro decks, Gruul Adventures mulligans well. Your Adventure creatures have built-in two-for-ones to offset the card disadvantage.
- The threat of an Embercleave out of nowhere forces your opponent to make awkward choices when blocking.
How to play this deck effectively:
- Your best hand consists of Edgewall Innkeeper, a couple of Adventure creatures, and Embercleave.
- Mulligan away hands that don't have early game creatures. You need to play threats going up the mana curve every turn.
- Don't attack with Edgewall Innkeeper if your opponent's deck has cards that can ambush it. For example, decks like Dimir Rogue have several creatures with Flash.
- When facing creature decks, save Bonecrusher Giant and Primal Might to get rid of creatures. The exception is when you have no other plays or are going for lethal.
- When facing other creature decks, save your Fabled Passage/Evolving Wilds activation as a combat trick.
Cards:
Deck4 Stonecoil Serpent
4 Edgewall Innkeeper
4 Brushfire Elemental
2 Scavenging Ooze
4 Bonecrusher Giant
4 Kazandu Mammoth
4 Lovestruck Beast
4 Gemrazer
4 Primal Might
2 Shatterskull Smashing
4 Embercleave
4 Cragcrown Pathway
2 Evolving Wilds
4 Fabled Passage
6 Forest
4 Mountain
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