Monastery Mentor in Vintage

[deadlock]

Besides the smaller formats isn't Vintage the most promising home for Monastery Mentor? It rivals with Young Pyromancer, which is cheaper and in a stronger splash color, but MM allows one to run the full artifact acceleration suite as an big upside. It looks promising to dig for Vault / Key, while pumping out Tokens or setup a Time Walk / Will kill. The question is if the token generation / pump translates into a faster kill warranting the splash of a weak color? Are there other cards offered by white?

[Kyle]

I've been playtesting "UW Mentor Gush" in Vintage, and to put it simply, it's insane.

Probably the the funniest thing is that I'm running only 6 white cards in the entire MD: 4 Mentors and 2 Path to Exiles, and 4 in the SB: Containment Priest. It is mostly a blue deck, but with insane draw capabilities and a (potentially) ridiculously fast clock thanks to the white elements.

And I have found that because this thing generates so many tokens (I had 10 on board one game, for example), it's quite often you don't even need the TW or TV, even though I run it, of course.

[.Ix]

Swords to Plowshares, Rest In Peace and Stoneforge seem really good right now, so i wouldn't call white weak.

[Pastorofmuppets]

Mentor, YP, and Delver are all humans. Seems good with Cavern of Souls.

[apple713]

i don't know vintage very well but it seems intuitive to main deck something like hurkyl's recall and not only get some help / removal against stax variants but also create an army and pump what you have.

[slayjay]

I've been playtesting "UW Mentor Gush" in Vintage, and to put it simply, it's insane.

Probably the the funniest thing is that I'm running only 6 white cards in the entire MD: 4 Mentors and 2 Path to Exiles, and 4 in the SB: Containment Priest. It is mostly a blue deck, but with insane draw capabilities and a (potentially) ridiculously fast clock thanks to the white elements.

And I have found that because this thing generates so many tokens (I had 10 on board one game, for example), it's quite often you don't even need the TW or TV, even though I run it, of course.

Sounds great. Would you like to share your list?

[Quasim0ff]

I think MM is pretty insane in a deck focused on just ending the game.*

It can basically function as a tinker (for BSC) in that it just wins.

Also, it is completly busted in two with time walk.

*This might seem obvious, but I mean it much more aggressive, and not like the YP approach, where you can basically play the control all the game with a large amount of counters.
This approach isn't, I feel, as strong with MM, due to it just hitting like a bus going rampant after a spell or two.

[Kyle]

Here's the list I've been rocking. I can't claim complete originality, as I received it from a Cockatrice player, but it's been sweet.

4 Monastery Mentor

1 Black Lotus
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
3 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Sol Ring

1 Ancestral Recall
1 Brainstorm
2 Dig Through Time
2 Flusterstorm
4 Force of Will
3 Gush
1 Hurkyl's Recall
2 Mana Drain
3 Mental Misstep
1 Misdirection
2 Path to Exile
2 Repeal

4 Flooded Strand
4 Island
1 Library of Alexandria
1 Plains
2 Scalding Tarn
1 Tolarian Academy
3 Tundra

2 Gitaxian Probe
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Time Walk
1 Treasure Cruise

SB: 3 Hurkyl's Recall
SB: 2 Ancient Tomb
SB: 4 Containment Priest
SB: 1 Rebuild
SB: 2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
SB: 1 Mindbreak Trap
SB: 2 Grafdigger's Cage

[Quizzlemanizzle]

I don't see how that deck is better than Pyromancer/Gush since you don't have haste on the tokens.

[spg]

I don't see how that deck is better than Pyromancer/Gush since you don't have haste on the tokens.

I'm not sure what you're saying here, Young Pyromancer tokens don't have haste either. The prowess on the Mentor tokens is extremely powerful and makes attacking or blocking very difficult for the Pyromancer player without often getting blown out. The Mentor tokens are also surprisingly powerful - it only takes a few of them to win the game once you get prowess going. Additionally the Mentor can trigger off of Moxen, which gives you a whole new line of token generation and pump compared to Pyromancer. You can do things like: Hurkyl's Recall, replay a sol ring and a few moxen, Snapcaster Mage the Recall and do it again. This damage adds up super fast.

I wouldn't say which deck is "better" - but both strategies have different strengths and weaknesses. The Mentor strategy is an exciting one, I think it's going to be a real viable option.

[Phoenix Ignition]

You guys really need to be playing 4x Gitaxian Probe in all of your YP/ Mentor lists. It makes your draws more consistent and explosive. Who wouldn't want to play 56 cards instead of 60 when you're playing restricted cards? Also, obviously, cantripping for free is good with token generators.

Monastery Mentor also lets you play maindeck Balance instead of red cards, which given enough tutors is absolutely devastating. After a lot of games on MTGO I'm fairly sure you don't want to be playing many if any Gush in your deck. Gush is only good when things are going right and dropping 2 lands against a fellow blue deck / shops you better be winning the game with it.

[KevinTrudeau]

I've tested the archetype extensively on Cockatrice (using my real name, Jack Johnson), and have no professional-level critical analysis to provide.

[mini1337s]

Gotta love the 0 zero Wasteland meta known as Magic Online.

[mini1337s]

Very happy with this build. Very stable and strong.