Out of curiosity, why is your Fulminator Mage in the sideboard showing an altered Ghost Quarter?

This is great. I've been working on several decks built on some of the exact same principles, namely: run a bunch of card advantage creatures like Abbot (I've also paired him with Snapcaster, Witness, etc.), pack with quality tempo/control spells, and add value from Pyromancer and Mentor. I think those basic principles are incredibly good based on everything I tested. In retrospect, my Mardu version was one of the worst I did, yours works far better.

I will say generally, that apart from Mentor (because of his cost and threat level), I didn't feel in testing that I needed to protect creatures that often, though Gods Willing and Emerge Unscathed obviously work well here. Much of the time, the card advantage and tempo advantage were enough to simply trust that I could out-do the opponent with the sheer amount of activity, and I could replace creatures easily. I often won with 1 creature on the board (but I also ran Helix and more removal in those decks which kept the opponent's creatures from doing much). 20+ 1-2 mana spells meant getting a lot more out of Abbot and Pyromancer. I also ran more burn spells, so I wasn't that reliant on creature damage. But control/spell heavy vs. creature heavy might just be a matter of play style and preference.

In any case, that's just food for thought, especially if you were to build something similar outside of White (my best versions were Jund and Jeskai). In any case, you might consider some cards that really helped the tempo/control/burn aspect of some of my builds: Magma Jet, Forked Bolt, often with Dragon's Claw and Electrickery on the sideboard. Again, mind you, those did apply more to versions that weren't focused on Mentor, and didn't run Myth.

I'm really curious to see how this deck comes along - I think this basic idea has major potential. Sorry if this post was absurdly long. Cheers.

I think the deck is creative and good, it's just not my preferred playstyle. Hope you have fun with it though!

Because it was once Ghost Quarter, canterlotguardian.

Seems pretty strong but early gamne board wipes and forced sacrifice would devastate this deck.. I would look for sideboard answers just to be safe

Burrenton Forge-Tender. That and no one really runs Damnation/Wrath of God/Supreme Verdict anymore. It's all red based damage wraths. In this I can prevent it by giving one of my creatures protection from red.

Lingering Souls is perfect with Mentor and YP. Some other cards to consider: Lili, Terminate, Crackling Doom, and Kolaghan's Command, all meta dependent. I have a similar midrange Dega build here if you're interested in some ideas.

Those won't work in this deck kmcree, this is an aggro tempo deck, and I don't want to be putting any more 3 cmc spells in this deck as that prevents me from playing down Abbot of Keral Keep consistently with only 4 mana, which is a general area marker for this deck. Added to that fact that I'll be taking too much damage from Dark Confidant when my only lifegain source is Auriok Champion.

My removal needs to be 1 cmc because in each of my early turns I'm playing a creature, but since they rely on other spells, I have to make sure to be able to play them. Sure I got protection grants, but that isn't always enough to do combat tricks to remove a creature or have multiple plays a turn.

The most I would ever do in the future is drop Abbot of Keral Keep for either Terminate or Kolaghan's Command, as the abbot doesn't mesh too well with my protection grants and he doesn't do too much on his own. But that requires more testing.

i dig the abbot shenanigans!
if i were to run this, id play helix over the gods willing for the extra reach

Well, you won't be able to "dig" him anymore wolfhead, as it is going gone. If you look at my sideboard description, there are like, maybe 2 or 3 match-ups in which I don't take out Abbot of Keral Keep. He just doesn't have enough impact, a 2/1 body that has the potential to just snuff from exiling either Monastery Mentor or a protection grant just isn't good enough.

VampireArmy: I got Monastery Mentor to work effectively in a mardu shell :D Thought you might be interested in seeing it.

Sacrifice>

I think I have an appreciation for it, but have your tests shown that Lingering Souls makes for awkward curve placement decisions?

I've been playing Mentor in Dega for the better part of the last 6 months. Lingering Souls really is about the best thing you can do with Mentor on the board. I really recommend you reconsider it.

The problem you have with suggesting Lingering Souls is that you aren't explaining to me WHY I should use it. What does Lingering Souls bring to the board that I can't already do? What do I have to take out for Lingering Souls, and would Souls be better than that card for the purpose that I have that card in here? Don't get me wrong, Lingering Souls is a really good card, but the problem with it is that whatever card Souls would replace, I have in here for a reason, and whatever benefit Souls gives me, I have cards that give me a similar benefit already. I already have the ability to go really wide, I already have evasion to get by my opponent's board state, and I have enough removal to prevent flyers from doing anything funny.

It's made redundant by Monastery Mentor. You created a deck built essentially to make Lingering Souls redundant in hopes that the value of the prowess triggers outweighs the 4 tokens for one card "advantage."

It makes a lot of sense because the mentor is a token generating anthem that can also turn sideways. Unless it is dead. It's unfortunate that there's no room for even one or two copies of LS because they would e sick combined.

You want souls because it does everything you want in a Mentor deck. It gives you 4 creatures out of 1 card, plus it triggers Mentor twice, so 2 more creatures. It's the ultimate card advantage in colors that aren't normally conducive to card advantage. It's also good when Mentor or YP aren't on the board. I've won literally dozens of games just off spirit tokens. Souls is a much stronger and more impactful option than Myth Realized, which quite frankly is mediocre. I also think 4 Auriok Champions is excessive. Personally, I think Lightning Helix is stronger than auriok in the main. It's more immediate, does damage, and triggers Mentor/YP. If you want a more aggressive deck, Helix is the better option.

Lightning Helix doesn't do the same work as Auriok Champion, I'll tell you that by far. Auriok Champion completely stops Grixis decks in their tracks, and Twin game one is a near guarantee. Auriok Champion is one of the sole reasons I hold up against midrange decks, and it becomes a life saver against aggro. I can tell you from playtests with it in this deck and numerous others that it provides me a tonne of advantage. The only removal spell that can take out an Auriok Champion is either a wrath or Path to Exile. There's nothing else in modern that can kill it.

As for Myth Realized, sure I thought of that, but I need Myth Realized for situations in which a Lingering Souls can never do. These things range from one-shotting aggro decks when they have a very heavy board state (important against merfolk and tokens) and preventing midrange and control from swing in heavily with their win conditions. Finally, it is very useful against wraths, as a wrath is the number one sideboard card used against me, and they can't get Myth Realized. So even if they wrath me, I still have a creature or two to use against them, one that consistently gets stronger and stronger.

Like I said before, the things that Lingering Souls benefits me in are already accomplished by other cards, and removing cards for it means I'm weakening myself in situations that will make me quite vulnerable, just too strengthen a situation I'm already strong against.

Auriok is fine out of the sideboard against stuff like Twin and Affinity. I just don't think it does enough main board. With 20 lands, I'm assuming you're trying to be more aggressive. Auriok just plain won't do that. It makes the game longer by gaining you life and buying you a few extra turns. But in aggro, you want something like Helix that will shorten the game for your opponent. And it provides enough life gain on the back end to protect you from your Bob or give you the extra turn you need in a more grindy matchup. I just think its more consistent and dependable, whereas Auriok is great against some decks, and absolute trash against others.

As far as Myth Realized, I honestly think you're just trying to justify a mediocre card. Against midrange, you want to be using removal to deal with their threats, not blocking with MR. Against combo decks like Scapeshift or Storm, your best bet is trying to be as explosive as possible. MR doesn't do that for you at all. Against wraths, souls does just fine if you play it right. Use the first 2 spirits to beat down and force them into a wrath, then flashback Souls for 2 more spirits. Again, its the ultimate in card advantage.

At the end of the day, you can do whatever you want to do. But I can tell you after 6+ months playing Dega Mentor, that not including Souls is a mistake.

A sacrifice deck would chew this thing apart

I also think you'd benefit from tweaking your sideboard a little to better synergize with the deck. For example, Molten Rain would be a better fit than Fulminator Mage because it triggers Mentor/YP.

Have you considered Suture Priest?

Samurai of the Pale Curtain can be a great sideboard option for Living end! Ps +1 I love this deck

Inferior to Auriok Champion, borosgruul2. As for the sideboard against living end, I can just use Grafdigger's Cage since I don't need Slaughter Pact after adding in Terminate.

You have a good point about making my sideboard synergize better with my deck kmcree however, Molten Rain is much harder to successfully cast on turn 3 than Fulminator Mage, so I can't do anything there. I can however swap Kataki, War's Wage for Stony Silence, which strengthens my Tron match-up.

CanadianShinobi, because you like Monastery Mentor.