Mana (25)
Utility (15)
Draw (10)
- 1x Ancestral Recall
- 1x Brainstorm
- 1x Narset, Parter of Veils
- 4x Paradoxical Outcome
- 1x Ponder
- 2x Sensei's Divining Top
Responses (8)
Win Condition (2)
Sideboard
Other (15)
Introduction
Monastery Mentor: Un-playable in Modern, yet here we are. In Vintage.
I love this deck. It plays as a combo deck that centralizes around the Monastery Mentor + Paradoxical Outcome combo, but it is disruptive and robust enough to protect itself. There is lots of draw and disruption, as well as a few quirky combos to make the opponent lose their mind. The deck is very flexible, allowing it to maneuver to battle any deck it faces.
Please look through all the sections to see how this deck works.
This deck uses a combination of powerful spells and permanents to draw and filter tons of cards to build a continuously greater advantage over your opponent.
Spells
Ancestral Recall: duh. Brainstorm is a classic and paired with all our fetch lands it becomes a card to draw three and get rid of whatever we don't need at the moment. Ponder is among the best cantrips in the format. Manipulating the top deck is super important to smooth our draws. Repeal on the surface is just a one mana cycler, but it has so many more uses as we will see in the utility section. Paradoxical Outcome is an all star in the deck. Considering all the fast mana we run, we can usually cast it for basically , and draw a ton of cards. More on this later.
Permanents
Narset, Parter of Veils. She is a perfect combination of being able to draw and stopping our opponent from doing so. She digs for her own protection, or for whatever we are missing to combo off. Everyone knows that Sensei's Divining Top is unreal. Top-deck manipulation and extra draw is unbeatable in a deck like this. Dress Down is an interesting pick. For draw purposes its just a two mana cantrip, but it is so much more than that. More to come...
Being a blue-based deck, we need to interact with the opponent. We do this by countering their spells and removing their threats.
Counter Package
This suite of counters was pretty simple to put together. Force of Will and Mental Misstep are two of the best counters in the format, both possibly casted for . Flusterstorm is there to win counter wars, as well as to beat storm.
Removal Package
This deck is light on removal, especially in the mainboard, but it doesn't really require a lot. Hurkyl's Recall is a versatile removal spell, it can get rid of an entire board including this thing, this thing or this thing. It also serves a utility purpose as we will see later. Balance is our hate for hatebears. Its basically a board wipe against them. It is also incredibly useful in the shops matchup.
The mana base in this deck isn't all that complicated. It runs a balance of normal lands, utility lands, and artifact fast mana.
Normal Lands
You may have noticed that all the dual lands are Islands. All the fetch lands can grab these, making fixing easy. The basic Islands are in there to prevent Shops from wasting us to death.
Artifact Mana
- Black Lotus
- Mox Sapphire
- Mox Ruby
- Mox Pearl
- Mox Jet
- Mox Emerald
- Mox Opal
- Mana Crypt
- Mana Vault
- Sol Ring
Artifact mana is really important in this deck. We run want to be able to power out something big like Narset as soon as possible, and ahead of curve. Artifact mana helps us do that. Not to mention they trigger Monastery Mentor's ability for free. Artifact mana also plays a vital role in this deck going off like a rocket, more on that later.
The Best Land
Tolarian Academy is our bread and butter. We run so many artifacts, so this land is indispensable. Whether powering out an early Narset or just letting us combo off turn one, it is so explosive. Definitely a key card in this deck. It fuels so many explosive starts.
These are the spells that don't fall under any specific category, but are really important to the overall function of the deck.
High Value Spells
These are just high value spells that will lead us to victory. Time Walk is a back breaker in this deck because it allows us to make a ton of tokens, and then pump and attack with all of them in the next turn. Yawgmoth's Will lets us cast all the cheap spells to trigger Monastery Mentor TWICE. No brainer there. Demonic Tutor and Vampiric Tutor are always useful. They can find a draw spell, a counter, or anything you need at the time. They also offer us a way to guarantee we get Monastery Mentor to the field once we are firmly in control. Bolas's Citadel. This card is an absolute ENGINE in this deck. Life is a resource, and with the amount of draw/topdeck manipulation spells we run, we can keep casting for life until we can combo off. It also acts as a secondary win condition. Tinker serves no other purpose than to get our Bolas's Citadel...or ya know...this guy.
Situational Spells
These are the spells that can be used in multiple situations, depending on the matter at hand. Snapcaster Mage lets us get value out of our used spells by letting us play them again. Being able to do that at a moments notice is amazing whether you need to play offence or defense. Specifically nice to have an extra copy of Time Walk or Ancestral Recall. Merchant Scroll again is a card that can be used for offence or defense, getting counters or draw. Same goes Mystical Tutor. Gitaxian Probe is simply a free card to get perfect information about an opponent so we know what to play around. Hurkyl's Recall shows up here, because in addition to ruining a shops player's day, it can return our mana rocks to hand to be replayed, netting mana and triggering the Mentor a billion times. Repeal is an excellent card for smoothing out our draws, as it can cycle for free with a mana rock, but it can also bounce a token or a lock piece to give us room to get through our combo. It can even bounce a Snappy for a second use. So much versatility there.
What I really like about this deck is that it is very adaptable. Game one, it doesn't have any extremely GREAT match-ups, nor does it have any HORRIBLE match-ups. It is fairly close against all decks (except Dredge).
The other great thing is that we have a lot of options post-board, so we become a lot more favorable as we can adjust to our opponents decks. That being said, here is our tentative sideboard plan against most decks of the format. I will provide cards that go in, but not specific cards that come out, as that varies on the specific deck.
Dredge
We, like most decks, don't have a great game one against Dredge. If we can go off, we are faster, but we don't have the consistency that they do. We only need enough hate to buy us a turn or two so we can go off.
IN:
OUT:
- Counters that don't affect our opponent like Flusterstorm, and Mental Misstep come out due to their lack of targets.
- Hurkyl's Recall comes out due to lack of targets.
- Library of Alexandria since it is too slow.
Tormod's Crypt simply shuts their deck down. Once it hits the field, they can't really go off because as soon as they do, we clean out their graveyard. We can also sacrifice it in response to any artifact removal, so we get value either way. We use Crypt over something like Rest in Peace because it is a cheap artifact to bounce. Grafdigger's Cage, along with being a cheap artifact, also shuts down their ability to have creatures enter from the library (Narcomoeba) or from the graveyard (Prized Amalgam). The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale is a way to shut them off since they don't have many mana sources.
Shops
Shops doesn't play fair. Making absurd amounts of mana to cast artifacts that lock you out of the game and then beat you to death. Here is how we deal with it.
IN:
OUT:
- Countermagic that doesn't do anything against their deck like Mental Misstep and Flusterstorm.
- Narset, Parter of Veils as they don't draw enough extra cards to make her worthwhile.
- Library of Alexandria to make room for The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale.
Hurkyl's Recall gives us an opportunity to boardwipe on end step and be able to go off. Fragmentize is a great option that takes out their lock pieces, and it doesn't let them play that artifact again. Swords to Plowshares is great spot removal against things like Lodestone Golem or Wurmcoil Engine. The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale is a way to limit their board to give us just enough time to go off before we are locked out. The extra Plains is there to make sure we can cast all our hate without getting wasted.
Hatebears/Midrange
The fair decks of vintage. (Those exist?) Yes, and they are actually quite common in the format right now. They operate similarly to shops decks in the sense that they try to lock you out and beat you with creatures, but its more about taking away your abilities to do things like draw and activate abilities as opposed to casting your spells in the first place.
IN
OUT
- Flusterstorm as we aren't likely to get in a counter-war.
- Narset, Parter of Veils since she falls easily to Pithing Needle.
Swords to Plowshares takes care of any threat, big or small. Fragmentize is there to take out Stony Silence, Null Rod or any other hateful artifact/enchantment. This deck is so common that we already run a fair amount of hate in the mainboard.
Oath
Oath decks rely on Oath of Druids and Forbidden Orchard to cheat out a win condition, generally Griselbrand. We pack a bit of sideboard hate for this matchup.
IN:
OUT:
- A counterspell or draw spell just to make room for the hate cards.
Grafdigger's Cage simply doesn't let them go off. Fragmentize is there to take care of Oath of Druids before they have a chance to go off in the first place.
Storm
Vintage storm decks used to be extremely linear and easy to disrupt. These days, almost all storm decks run the same engine we do (Paradoxical Outcome and Bolas's Citadel). They don't have as much disruption as us though, so we can often stop enough key plays to go off ourselves a turn later. In MTG, you often want to be either way faster or slightly slower than the opponent. For this reason we are well setup against the mirror. We do bring in a few cards.
IN:
OUT:
- Narset, Parter of Veils as she is a bit slow for what we are trying to accomplish in this match-up.
- Library of Alexandria as it is bit too slow.
- Balance and Swords to Plowshares as they aren't relying on creatures to win.
The Hurkyl's Recall's are huge in this match. In response to their PO it is backbreaking, and they also help us because we can replay all our artifacts. Flusterstorm is also very important. They often only run Tendrils of Agony as a win-condition, so countering that is basically a win. Opposition Agent is helpful here to block them being able to tutor up their win-con once they have enough storm. Lavinia, Azorius Renegade is a HOSER against storm because she shuts down their protection and artifact mana (just like us).
Big Blue and Other Strategies
Definitely one of the more common decks we will come up against, but it shows up in many different flavors. They will either run some combination of the tinker-bot combo, or more of a tempo style deck with Delver , Mentor and Young Peezey. A more combo heavy variant that falls under this category is Doomsday combo. All are decks that do lots of drawing and responding until they can assemble their win condition.
IN:
OUT:
- Very match-up dependent. They may run different counters, draw spells, and win conditions. We need to base our decisions off of that. Some cards may be more useful than others.
Just like storm, Lavinia, Azorius Renegade shuts them down as well. Flusterstorm is there to win counter-wars, and works incredibly well. Finally, Opposition Agent comes in again to stifle them tutoring up their win condition.
Overall, as you can see, side-boarding with this deck can be complicated. However, we have plenty of options against a lot of decks, so we often improve our chances a lot going into game two.
I have always liked decks that are synergy based, rather than "Good Stuff" decks. This deck is no different. The obvious synergy is the idea that you can play defensively with spells while advancing your own board with Monastery Mentor. There are however, other key synergies.
There are two types of synergy in the deck:
- Combo Synergy
- Multiple Uses
The first type of synergy is Combo Synergy, or synergy between cards. Often, combining the effects of cards can mitigate their own disadvantages. Here are a few examples:
- Bolas's Citadel + Sensei's Divining Top . Ever heard of Yawgmoth's Bargain? We just made a better version, because in addition to drawing a card for one life, we can also cast cards for life, and we can arrange to get cheap spells on top. Again this nearly guarantees victory.
- Sensei's Divining Top also has awesome synergy with Paradoxical Outcome. For each Top we have out when we Outcome, we draw two cards, because we can tap to draw and put it on top and cast PO returning it to our hand. We then get the card for returning it and the card for putting it on top of our library.
- Yawgmoth's Will and Snapcaster Mage are the ultimate examples here, as they combine with all of our spells to get double value, because they let us cast them again.
The second type of synergy is that of Multiple Uses. Flexibility is key in a deck like this, because we want to be able to play offence or defense at a moments notice, and be able to always have an answer to our opponent. That said here are a few examples in the deck:
- Dress Down. Finally! We talk about this mystery card. In most situations it is a cantrip to cycle. But in matchups like shops or hatebears, this card is soooo valuable. Being able to remove abilities from creatures for just the turn you need to go off is unreal.
- Snappy and Yawgmoth's Will are examples of this as they can combine with any card(s) to get what we need in the moment.
- Narset, Parter of Veils ability to play offence and defense at the same time is amazing, digging for what we need and preventing our opponent from doing the same, simultaneously.
- Repeal as mentioned before has so many uses. Destroying tokens, bouncing lock pieces, reusing Snappy or just cycling for free, this card does it all.
Paradoxical Outcome is the definition of synergy.
- Quote from Reid Duke: "Some of Magic's most powerful cards are the ones that generate fast mana. Some of Magic's most powerful cards are the ones that allow you to draw extra cards. But what are truly special are the ones that can do both at the same time, representing the entirety of an unstoppable engine, all rolled into a single card."
- Paradoxical Outcome has the ability to return all of your cost artifacts to your hand, and draw you a ton of cards at the same time. This basically means you cast it for free, and it sometimes even NETS you mana. Along with that you just likely drew into a ton of gas, AND, you get to replay all of your fast mana triggering Monastery Mentor like a billion times. This card is the definition of what we want to do in this deck.
As you can see, there are endless examples of synergy in this deck, and there are many more I did not mention. That is one of the great things about this deck. All the parts work together perfectly.
Although this deck is disruptive, it has the potential to win on the very first turn. Imagine you have the following opening hand:
You cast Black Lotus, sacrifice it for , and cast Monastery Mentor. You cast Mana Crypt, Mox Sapphire and Mox Jet. You tap the two Moxen to cast Time Walk, creating a total of four Monk tokens for the turn. On the extra turn, you tap all of your mana to cast Paradoxical Outcome, returning Mana Crypt, Mox Sapphire, and Mox Jet to your hand. You draw three cards and replay all of your fast mana. Your Monastery Mentor and Monks all have +4/+4 so you swing for lethal.
- 6 with Monastery Mentor
- 5 with each of the Monk tokens
Total of 26 damage on turn one!
Also, don't get me started on what would happen if you happened to draw a Yawgmoth's Will off of Paradoxical Outcome...
Summary
Overall this deck is really fun to play, and can be competitive as well. It can win in the early, mid, or late game; and disrupts the opponent fairly well while advancing its own board presence at the same time.
That's It!
I hope you guys like the deck. If you have any suggestions, by all means post them. I am always open to constructive criticism.
If you enjoyed the deck please give it a +1 as they are greatly appreciated!
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Casual
93% Competitive
| Top Ranked |
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| Date added | 7 years |
| Last updated | 1 year |
| Key combos | |
| Legality | This deck is Vintage legal. |
| Rarity (main - side) | 13 - 1 Mythic Rares 35 - 10 Rares 5 - 4 Uncommons 5 - 0 Commons |
| Cards | 60 |
| Avg. CMC | 1.89 |
| Tokens | Monk 1/1 W |
| Folders | Favorites, Vintage, TOPDECKS, Interesting Decks |
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