Planning on making it down with a couple people!

I have played variations on this list for the last four months at these Xtreme Games tournaments with a good amount of success (Feb 1st place, Mar 3rd place, April 8th place, May 3rd place). When Monastery Mentor was first printed it looked like a great card to pair with Mystic Remora. Kevin Cron was the first to bring it to a tournament that I saw (which he won), but I believe his played Gush.

The list I was working on specifically didn't play Gush because it has no real synergy with Mystic Remora. One thing you do not want to be doing with Remora in play in returning lands to your hand, as paying for Remora's cumulative upkeep becomes tricky. I wouldn't really call this a "Mentor deck" because it runs very light on Monastery Mentors. It's largely a control deck that wins most often with a Tinker into Blightsteel Colossus finish. I would say 50% of wins are with BSC, 30% with Mentor, and 20% with JTMS/Snapcaster beats.

YES!!!!!!

This tournament was really fun and it was great to get 16 to come battle. I played a similar Remora/Mentor build to my last one that I won last month's tournament with.

I went down 1 Mentor, 1 Jace, 1 Mana Drain, 1 Flooded Strand in favor of Echoing Truth, Mana Crypt, Thirst for Knowledge, and an additional Dack. TFK, Dack, and ET were relevant all day. Having STP, 2 Repeal, Fire//Ice, and Echoing Truth gave me so many ways to deal with permanents. I was pretty worried for most of the day that ET was going to be terrible and get stuck in my hand constantly. Surprisingly, there were so many points where it was the card I wanted to draw.

Mana Crypt on the other hand was very unfortunate. Despite having Tinker, Echoing Truth, and 2 Repeal in the deck, in game 2 of the semifinals (after winning game 1 against Soly), I lost 5/6 Mana Crypt rolls and never found a way to remove it from play (I suppose rolls that followed the 50/50 probability would have been acceptable as well). I had a controlling position and would have won the game if I could have lived for one more turn. This was pretty disappointing, as the only other thing I did with Mana Crypt all day was pitch it TFK once.

There were some hilarious highlights to the tournament though:
Round 1 - Against Derek Wochinski playing an unknown deck (5C Stax), I mulled to 5, keeping Mox Ruby, Tolarian, Misdirection, and some other cards I can't recall (at least 1 was blue). Derek went land (either COB or Gemstone Mine) into Ancestral Recall which I Misdirected back to myself. I think that is the first time I have ever Misdirected Ancestral against 5C Stax. It was pretty incredible and very lucky. Also in this match during G2, I resolved a turn 1 Dack on the draw, stole my opponent's Mana Crypt, and during my turn off land Sol Ring and Mana Crypt, hardcasted an Ingot Chewer. During my next Turn, I +1'd Dack and found another Ingot Chewer and hardcasted that one too. The next turn I +1'd Dack again, and found Tinker and got BSC while having the 2 Ingot Chewers still in play. It was pretty savage.

Against Soly with his winning Tasigur/Mentor/Bomberman deck, Soly went infinite on me while I had only a Mox Pearl open. I also had a Mentor and a Mystic Remora in play. Because Soly had to keep on playing Lotus into Remora, we actually had to play the game out, because if I drew into my STP quickly enough, he would have been out of luck. After drawing 20+ cards, I never saw STP. The situation was pretty ridiculous, and Soly ended up beating me in the swiss.

I also ended up playing against Mono Blue Belcher piloted by Alex Franson in the swiss and in the quarter finals. This must be one of the least favorable matches for Mono Blue Belcher. Mystic Remora is just unbeatable for them. Between Remora, and post-board artifact destruction, I don't see Belcher winning easily. In the 3 times I have played this matchup between the last 2 tournaments at Xtreme, I have won every round.

Game 3 against Soly's Bomberman deck in the semifinals was also pretty crazy. I was in a commanding position with Remora in play and Jace. I didn't have any counters in hand, and Soly responded to my Jace +0 activation with his 1-of Notion Thief. This invalidated both Jace and Remora and put me in a terrible spot. Soly ended up going infinite the next turn with Lotus and Nihil Spellbomb, eventually landing Tasigur, but couldn't deck me because of his Notion Thief (infinite combo with Tasigur and Ancestral Recall recursion). Fortunately, he decided to make 1000 tokens with Monastery Mentor and he put me out of my misery with a Time Walk.

It was a real fun tournament and a great turnout, considering that Xtreme Games monthly Vintage tournaments haven't fired in months due to low turnout. We got 11 last month, and 16 this month (after a lot of hounding on Facebook). There were still more that I know of who didn't show up, so hopefully we can get even more next time.

Thanks to everyone who came. I had a great time, and congrats to Soly on the win!

Great turnout everyone, and congrats on the win, Steve. Wish I could have been there!

Wish I were still in the Bay Area for these, although I am sure that Steve would wreck me in top 8 every time. Some things never change!

Everyone have a blast. Vintage at Eudo is always a great time.

Thanks for posting!

We had 11 show up for this after wragling people using our Chicago/Milwaukee Vintage & Old School Facebook group. I'd love if we could get enough together for a top 8.

If you'd like to be added to that group, please PM me and we can make it happen: https://www.facebook.com/groups/578781682225762/

 

Thank you! "The Answer" looks like a really cool deck. I think I will have to try something like it.

I believe it was just Randy Buehler's list card-for-card. I remember Alex being unhappy with Mind's Desire.

Artifact (34)
1x Black Lotus
1x Candelabra of Tawnos
4x Chrome Mox
4x Expedition Map
4x Goblin Charbelcher
2x Grim Monolith
1x Lion's Eye Diamond
1x Lotus Petal
1x Mana Crypt
1x Mana Vault
1x Memory Jar
1x Mox Emerald
1x Mox Jet
4x Mox Opal
1x Mox Pearl
1x Mox Ruby
1x Mox Sapphire
1x Sol Ring
1x Time Vault
2x Voltaic Key

Sorcery (16)
3x Diminishing Returns
4x Gitaxian Probe
1x Mind's Desire
1x Ponder
4x Preordain
1x Timetwister
1x Tinker
1x Windfall

Instant (7)
1x Ancestral Recall
4x Force of Will
1x Mystical Tutor
1x Pact of Negation

Planeswalker (2)
2x Tezzeret the Seeker

Land (1)
1x Tolarian Academy


I have no idea what his SB was.

It's a Looter il-Kor physically fighting Jace, the Mind Sculptor back piece. I should probably get started on it.

Thanks dude!

I'm saving the Looter il-Kors for my mono blue Teferi, Temporal Archmage deck (also playing Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir). Also, did you notice Jaco's picture that had my Looter il-Kor wood burned box in the background?



And for comparison:

Jaco - Thanks for the pictures.

And John, I figured that you'd probably get me with that SFGM. That Top really saved me.

I thought that Soulfire Grand Master was amazing. When we were going back and forth, each of us waiting for a busted topdeck, if you hit anything before me, you would have been plaing it over and over again. I definitely would have lost the game if I hadn't found that Mana Drain with my Top.

The lifelink probably bought 2 or 3 turns over the course of the game. If you had happened to have a single gush, with fastbond, SFGM would have been BROKEN.With Lotus Cobra it gets even better.

We only had 11 show up for the tournament, but that being said, is one of the better attendance records in quite a while in the Chicago area. We had a few last-minute cancellations, so I hope for a better turnout next month.

The tournament was 4 rounds of swiss, cut to top 4.

The metagame breakdown was:
2 Workshop/MUD
1 Doomsday
2 Mentor Remora
1 Mentor/Lotus Cobra/Soulfire Grand Master Conrol
1 R/U/G Delver with Pyromacer
1 Mono Blue Belcher
1 U/R/B Control
1 Oath
1 R/U/G Delver with Tarmogoyf

Top 4 was:
Alex Franson w/Mono Blue Belcher vs Jason Jaco with Mentor Remora - Alex won
John Beste with Mentor/Lotus Cobra/Soulfire Grand Master Control vs Danny Friedman with Mentor Remora - I won

In the finals I played Alex in three games. Game one I believe he mulled to 4 and I won after a very slow game that ended in Alex conceding. Game two I kept a weak 7 that I should have mulled (but was on the verge of drunk and should have mulled, but didn't) and I believe I lost on the second turn. Game three Alex mulled, I believe to 5, and I won with Tinker.



This is the list I played.

Main Deck:
1 Cavern of Souls
1 Flooded Strand
1 Island
1 Library of Alexandria
4 Scalding Tarn
1 Snow-Covered Island
1 Tolarian Academy
3 Tundra
3 Volcanic Island
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Black Lotus
1 Blightsteel Colossus
1 Brainstorm
1 Dack Fayden
2 Dig Through Time
1 Fire // Ice
2 Flusterstorm
4 Force of Will
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
2 Mana Drain
3 Mental Misstep
1 Misdirection
3 Monastery Mentor
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
3 Mystic Remora
1 Pyroblast
2 Repeal
2 Sensei's Divining Top
2 Snapcaster Mage
1 Sol Ring
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Time Walk
1 Tinker

Sideboard:
3 Grafdigger's Cage
3 Ingot Chewer
3 Red Elemental Blast
2 Serenity
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Wear // Tear
1 Supreme Verdict
1 Hurkyl's Recall

Jaco's 3/4th Place list:



Business (37)
4 Force of Will
1 Misdirection
3 Mental Misstep
2 Flusterstorm
1 Pyroblast
2 Swords to Plowshares
2 Repeal
2 Sensei’s Divining Top
3 Mystic Remora
2 Preordain
1 Ponder
1 Brainstorm
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
2 Dack Fayden
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Dig Through Time
2 Snapcaster Mage
3 Monastery Mentor
1 Tinker
1 Blightsteel Colossus

Mana Sources (23)
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mana Crypt
1 Sol Ring
2 Cavern of Souls
4 Scalding Tarn
3 Flooded Straand
3 Volcanic Island
2 Tundra
1 Island
1 Snow-Covered Island
1 Plains

Sideboard (15)
1 Mountain
2 Wear//Tear
4 Ingot Chewer
3 Grafdigger’s Cage
2 Containment Priest
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Red Elemental Blast
1 Stony Silence

John Beste's 5th-8th place list:



Dudes
3 Monastery Mentor
4 Lotus Cobra
1 Soulfire Grand Master

Mana
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Flooded Strand
3 Tundra
3 Tropical Island
1 Island
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Sol Ring
1 Black Lotus

Cards that get cards
4 Gush
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Regrowth
1 Treasure Cruise
1 Dig Through Time
1 Ponder
1 Brainstorm
1 Preordain
1 Ancestral Recall
2 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Tinker

Counters
4 Force of Will
2 Mana Drain
2 Mental Misstep

Cards that do other things
1 Fastbond
1 Time Walk
1 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Time Vault
1 Voltaic Key
1 Blightsteel Colossus
1 Swords to Plowshares

SB: 2 Nature's Claim
SB: 2 Steel Sabotage
SB: 3 Rest in Peace
SB: 2 Grafdigger's Cage
SB: 1 Hurkyl's Recall
SB: 1 Rebuild
SB: 1 Forest
SB: 3 Swords to Plowshares

Explanations:
When I first saw Monastery Mentor spoiled, the first thing I thought was "Finally, a great creature to play U/W Remora with." Kevin Cron clearly thought something similar and beat me to the punch. That being said, there are some pretty major differences between my deck and his Monastery Mentor/Mystic Remora build.

Even prior to Treasure Cruise restriction, I was not playing the card because I wanted something that could be played at instant speed, specifically a draw spell/bomb that could be played the turn that Mystic Remora's upkeep could not be payed (in response to the Remora upkeep trigger). Dig Through Time seemed like a pretty obvious inclusion. I also did not want to play 4x Gush. With Remora being such a mana-hungry card to play, I wanted lots of permanent mana, and I didn't want to be returning it back to my hand. I wanted to play a single Gush for circumstantial value, but wasn't able to fit it. I also ran 2 Mana Drains, and really wanted to always have as much blue mana available at all times as possible. And for all the naysayers, Mana Drain was amazing.

This list also  plays Tinker for Blightsteel Colossus. Having that in my deck directly won me three or four games in the tournament. It is such a powerful combo, and between 2x Jace, the Mind Sculptor and Brainstorm, there are enough ways to get a drawn BSC back into the deck. I would have loved to play a Thirst for Knowledge, but there just wasn't room.

After initially testing builds of this deck as only U/W, I found myself unhappy with my sideboard against Workshops and I was aching for Pyroblast/REB. I added red so that I could add a Dack Fayden, Pyroblast, and Fire // Ice to the main deck. These were all amazing. Dack was incredible all day in the tournament. Fire // Ice was amazing in testing, but it didn't come up much in the tournament. In testing, I have killed Mentor tokens, tapped opposing BSC to live for another turn, killed planeswalkers, and many other plays. It's an extremely versatile card and I love playing it. Red gave me Ingot Chewers, Wear // Tear, and Red Elemental Blast in the board. Originally, the three REBs were Rest in Peace, but I came to the conclusion that no one was playing Dredge at the tournament, and quickly swapped them out for REB. Pyroblast would have been much better for Mentor triggers, but I didn't have them quickly available to me, so I made do with REB.

Remora was amazing all day, but anyone who has ever played it should know that. The card is bonkers.

That is about all I can think of right now. If anyone from the tournament would like to post their deck lists, I can add them to this post.

Thanks for reading this.

- Danny

Hilariously, not a typo. He had an Ancient Grudge that could only be flashed back off Lotus.

Now that is awesome. Can't wait to play some Old School!

Awesome. I'm in. I am sure that Jaco will be too.

I know I have been absent for the last couple of these, but let's try to get a good group for this one. I'll spread the word. It would be great to get enough for a top 8, but that is probably wishful thinking.


Also Jaco, Mith, Jason Hwang, John Beste, and I have started playing Old School MTG. Feel free to make a deck to play (feel free to include proxies if needed), as I know a bunch of us will have decks with us. B/R is here: http://www.eternalcentral.com/oldschool/

DEEZ NUTZ

Thanks Ben. Keeping the ICBM dream alive. I hope you're coming to Eternal Weekend!

Blaine, I was forced into a split, as my ride and Dave Carhart (the other half of ICBM - West) were threatening to leave me there. I did get Dave to play the finals out at my house last weekend. I won 2-0. We filmed it, but didn't realize there was so much glare on my board. The video is basically useless.

But here are the important points in summary.

- split the finals prize-wise
- I won the tournament with my awesome deck "Mono Red Burn"
- I won my top 4 match with a Rack and Ruin blowout hitting a Chalice at 1 and a Lodestone Golem
- I hard-casted two Ingot Chewers against Workshops during the day
- I boarded in Electrolize against Dredge which ended up winning a match by removing 3 Bridges
- in "Mono Red Burn" fashion, I did win a game with Fire to the face

This just keeps on getting better. Hope this works out! I'll be buying my plane ticket within the week.

It was an awesome tournament. Thanks to everyone came and the shop. I had a blast.

Sorry if this was already brought up (wasn't able to find a post about this, by I am looking from a smartphone).

Is there any possibility of upgrading to a larger venue? I understand that there are many costs involved from venue fee, to staffing, to providing proper play arrangement, etc. That being said, at $100 a head, if you had another 20 people that would be an extra $2000 to allow for increased expenses.

If you could take pre-registration $, it would preclude you from being burned attendees from showing up. Ideas?

Sign me up please! I'm so in. Thanks for putting together. Btw, my name is Danny Friedman. So excited.

I'll be back in town for this. Get ready!

I'll be back again!

I'll be there. Can't wait.

John - Awesome report. This honestly looks like the most fun meta I have seen in Vintage in years. Pictures of cards like Guttersnipe, Omniscience, Hymn to Tourach, Intuition/AK, etc. make Vintage look significantly more diverse and playful than your garden variety Vintage tournament.

Hats off to Richard for splitting an event playing such an awesome and different deck! Can't wait to see some of this stuff next month when I'll be playing at Xtreme.

Will be there!