Monastery Mentor
Modern forum
Posted on Feb. 11, 2015, 10:28 p.m. by DarkMagician
How viable is Monastery Mentor in modern right now? I want to build either a Junk deck with him or B/W Tokens but not sure which way to go yet.
TristanTaylorsVoice says... #3
Monastery Mentor is absurdly powerful in legacy and vintage due to the fast mana (which also makes dudes after they enter play) and lack of removal (much less in vintage than legacy). Modern has both a lack of fast mana outside of Simian Spirit Guide and an overabundance of removal to deal with a 3 mana 2/2. Unfortunately I cannot recommend running this card right now, you're better off playing infect if you're looking for an aggro-combo deck.
February 11, 2015 10:37 p.m.
DarkMagician says... #4
Was thinking of more of a grindy deck than aggro if I don't go B/W Tokens TristanTaylorsVoice
February 11, 2015 10:44 p.m.
Honestly, the removal argument isn't very persuasive. Even if he's removed and you don't gain any advantage from him, you just forced the opponent to use immediate removal on a 3 drop. That just leaves them with less removal when you drop other stuff later in the game. A 1-for-1 trade isn't necessarily a bad thing, especially in a more grindy midrange or control type build.
February 11, 2015 10:47 p.m.
Mentor doesn't really belong in modern. It doesn't have a place in b/w tokens for certain.
February 11, 2015 10:48 p.m.
GlistenerAgent says... #7
Supposedly it doesn't fit well into tokens, which I agree with. It's a turn too slow for Modern, so I wouldn't play it except in small numbers in a Jeskai midrange deck.
February 11, 2015 10:48 p.m.
VampireArmy says... #8
people are testing in a grindy token mardu deck :P
February 11, 2015 10:59 p.m.
Mardu could be interesting. You've got Lingering Souls, Lightning Bolt, Lightning Helix, and all the hand disruption like Thoughtseize that all activate Monastery Mentor.
February 11, 2015 11:11 p.m.
VampireArmy says... #12
In all honesty I'd rather see Jeskai Tempo tokens with Mentor and pyromancer become a thing
February 11, 2015 11:14 p.m.
Ohthenoises says... #13
Jeskai tokens with Monastery Mentor, Young Pyromancer, and Delver of Secrets Flip as the creature core. Then lots of tempo crap thrown on top with Jeskai Charm as the finisher.
Sounds dirty.
February 11, 2015 11:21 p.m.
Ohthenoises says... #15
Oh god. Delver of Secrets Flip and Jeskai Ascendency. It's like the point in ghostbusters where they YOLO and cross the streams.
February 11, 2015 11:32 p.m.
TristanTaylorsVoice I definitely would not say Monastery Mentor is absurdly powerful or even playable in modern and is even farther from playable in legacy.
February 11, 2015 11:37 p.m.
Also The removal argument is not valid, In fact In vintage and legacy there are far more good reliable answers such as FOW, Decay as well as swords to plowshares that make the mentor easy to remove
February 11, 2015 11:40 p.m.
Also I would love too see one vintage deck running this card
February 11, 2015 11:41 p.m.
ChiefWannaHacka says... #19
Anyone else notice that Monastery Mentor makes tokens off non-creature spells as opposed to Instants/Sorceries? Like A mox triggers him, Trololololololololol
February 12, 2015 1:28 a.m.
JexInfinite says... #22
It could probably work in UWR Delver, but even then, a bit slow.
February 12, 2015 1:44 a.m.
Hjaltrohir says... #23
I am pretty safe in saying he is not 'absurd' in Legacy or Vintage and if he is played it will be fringe Tier 2/3
February 12, 2015 2:01 a.m.
VampireArmy says... #24
Because having fucktons of tokens that get bigger from everything you play isn't absurd? :P the tokens have prowess too guys. THATS the key
February 12, 2015 2:15 a.m.
VampireArmy says... #26
scrotality not sure if it's my phone or what but i can't see what you posted like at all
February 12, 2015 2:50 a.m.
He's not good in legacy/vintage or modern.
The removal argument is valid. You pay 3 mana for a dude, they pay 1 mana to remove it - they have a net advantage of 2 mana. 2 mana could translate into that Voice of Resurgence that beats you to death or those Wild Nacatls that win the game. Tempo advantage is huge in modern. I wish people udnerstood the 'dies to removal' argument more. I guess it's also why people don't understand the price tag on Goyf.
February 12, 2015 5:40 a.m.
I think he can work in some type of control deck in Modern. If it's Esper or Jeskai I don't know. But I think his role is very different to that of YP who is a good tempo play on cmc2, just because he drops in at cmc3 and that is a game winning turn in modern. So he is sadly a turn to slow for the tempo/aggro decks. But I think he could work in a control shell where you dropp him on turn 5-6 instead of a Batterskull or something and just hold up permission. If your running Esper you can set it up by removing spotremoval before droping him, and if your playing Jeskai you can probe/serumvisions/bolt to get a pair of torkens at worst if you don't want to fight over bolts.
I have been playing the Mentors a lot in standard and I found they where best used as reactive blockers to hold down the fort againt Rinos and other silly creatures untill your advantage was big enough to just attack and force chumps with said Rinos.
I'll need to try some more builds in Modern but I think he has a home, even if it's one we need to create from scratch since I don't think he fits in any of the established archetypes as they look now.
February 12, 2015 6:36 a.m.
But why would you run him over Batterskull or Keranos, God of Storms? Both of those have inbuilt evasion to removal - he doesn't. He's also not a wincon unless you invest more cards and mana - the others are. Why bother?
February 12, 2015 6:55 a.m.
Dalektable says... #30
I tried Jeskai tokens in modern with the above mentioned pieces, and heres the thing. When It works, It really works there is strong possibility for an alpha attack out of seemingly nowhere to just kill your opponent. However, it also is fairly easily disrupted. BW Tokens is just an all around better deck, and mentor doesnt belong in that shell.
February 12, 2015 8:08 a.m.
TristanTaylorsVoice says... #31
What I mean to say regarding mentor being so much better in other formats is that modern doesn't have artifact acceleration, whereas in vintage you can cast him turn 1 from various artifact sources, AND get dudes off of him. It's like getting free dudes and an overrun every time you cast your mana base, similar to how the old Jeskai Ascendency decks were treated as a one card combo because it's triggered by the rest of your deck. Legacy is tougher because you're restricted to Lotus Petal, Chrome Mox, and Lion's Eye Diamond. My point is that you simply don't have these options in modern outside of rituals, and and at that point you might as well just play storm.
Caleb Durward gives a good points of how mentor is useful in eternal formats, but he's just too slow in modern. Just use Young Pyromancer.http://www.channelfireball.com/articles/the-eternal-guide-to-fate-reforged/
February 12, 2015 10:04 a.m.
VampireArmy says... #32
ChiefBell he's better than young pyro in vintage that's for sure since ya know...millions of free spells which makes the mana argument non problematic
February 12, 2015 12:46 p.m.
PreZchoICE1 says... #33
Id personally rather see Soulfire Grand Master in Mardu tokens rather than Mentor. There is a deck out there for Mentor, and I think that deck will have something to do with storm. Just personal opinion.
February 12, 2015 12:55 p.m.
Hjaltrohir says... #34
He isn't built for control, he is tempo or aggro through and through.
kmcree says... #2
Junk doesn't seem like a great fit to me. B/W tokens could be a decent fit, and I actually think some kind of Jeskai control could be good with him. You cast almost entirely non creature spells already, might as well get a little extra value for stuff you're going to cast anyway.
February 11, 2015 10:33 p.m.