UWR Monastery Mentor

[Jeb Springfield]

I'm new to Vintage, and this is a deck which I put together and have been playing on xMage lately. One of my Doomsday opponents, username DylanZ, asked me to post the list so that he (or perhaps she) could see it. I have enjoyed playing the deck, but do believe it is far away from being refined, or even any good. Being new to Vintage, I would greatly appreciate any constructive criticism, and look forward to both learning more about Vintage and improving the deck.

Lands
3 Scalding Tarn
3 Flooded Strand
1 Island
1 Library of Alexandria
3 Volcanic Island
3 Tundra
 
Artifact Mana / Instant Mana
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Black Lotus
1 Sol Ring
 
Artifacts
None
 
Instants
4 Force of Will
2 Mana Drain
3 Mental Misstep
2 Flusterstorm
1 Pyroblast
1 Red Elemental Blast
 
1 Hurkyl's Recall
2 Lightning Bolt
1 Swords to Plowshares
 
4 Gush
1 Brainstorm
1 Ancestral Recall
2 Dig Through Time
 
Sorceries
3 Preordain
1 Ponder
1 Treasure Cruise
1 Time Walk
 
Enchainments
None
 
Planeswalkers
None
 
Creatures
4 Monastery Mentor
3 Young Pyromancer
1 Snapcaster Mage
 
Sideboard
1 Engineered Explosives
3 Grafdigger's Cage
4 Ingot Chewer
1 Mountain
2 Containment Priest
2 Tormod's Crypt
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Hurkyl's Recall

Notes: In another thread I saw about Monastery Mentor, I saw that some people were very much opposed to the idea of playing both Young Pyromancer and Monastery Mentor in the same deck. My line of thinking was basically that by playing seven of the same effect, I have a higher chance of having one in my opening hand, as well as providing the capacity to overload my opponent's removal / counters. Someone noted that both Young Pyromancer and Monastery Mentor are susceptible to the same hate, but I don't agree with that. It is true that a Cycled Slice and Dice will kill both Young Pyromancer and the Elemental tokens produced, while threatening to kill un-Prowessed Monks. However, in my experience triggering Prowess in the opponent's turn is not difficult or rare. Furthermore, the difference in casting cost ensures a diversification of threats which I have come to value. Naturally a sweeper would remove all of the threats, but I would not consider sweepers to be particularly prevalent in Vintage. I certainly agree that seven is a very high number, but some amount of my motivation to try a 4/3 split was so that I could just try them in the deck.

I readily admit that two Mana Drain may be superfluous, especially because there isn't really anything you specifically want to Drain into. However, I thought it might help with any scenario where you are taking the control role in a game which is going a bit long. I really don't have enough experience to say whether this is any good or bad, and welcome feedback regarding the counterspell selection.

Finally, I have no idea if the sideboard is any good. I just put a bunch of anti Shops and anti Dredge cards in there but it is possible I've completely stuffed up there.

Thank you in advance for your help.

Jeb

[enderfall]

Quickly looking over your list I would believe that you are running 1-2 too few lands. 14 lands plus the Artifact mana has proven to be too light to cast Mentor (and/or other spells to pump out tokens on the same turn) when I want to in my testing. Considering you have 3 YP, maybe 15 lands would be sufficient since you have a fall back at the 2 mana slot.

[benk499]

Mana Crypt?  With a Tundra it's another way to get a T1 Mentor out.  Could be a good addition to the mana package. 

I also agree that the Young Pyromancers might be too much.  3 is almost certainly too much.  You really only need one of these guys to stick, so I'd rather carry extra activation spells like another Preordain and possibly Gitaxian Probe. 

1 main deck Dack Fayden might be worth a look too.  His looting effect can help you get rid of non-triggering spells, and he's a bomb against shops (which I'd imagine can be a tough matchup for you). 

[fsecco]

There's this deck that made 4-0 on MTGO http://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/266103#online and uses 0 Pyromancers.

[Jeb Springfield]

Thank you enderfall, benk499 and fsecco for your replies. The list which 4-0'ed the Daily is very interesting, and includes two copies of Stony Silence in the 75. It has the 15th land, but including artifact mana has even fewer mana sources, which seems quite aggressive to me. I agree that the Young Pyromancers are likely unnecessary and will test without them. PeAcH suggested (on twitter) that I switch Hurkyl's Recall for Dack Fayden, though I have found Hurkyl's Recall to be very useful. Previously I have used it to bounce my own artifacts, just to replay them to trigger Prowess. Of course, it is a good one to have in the mainboard for the Workshops match up (if you can resolve it of course).

I'm going to try adding the 15th land, as well as cutting the Pyromancers for the 4th Preordain, a Dack Fayden and the 2nd Snapcaster Mage (another of PeAcH's suggestions, which makes sense when the list includes Dack Fayden). My concern is that this will make the deck very threat light, but perhaps this is just my inexperience with the format.

Once again, thank you for your help.

[WhiteLotus]

I dont understand how people can build mentor decks without Sensei's divining top, it's one of the best ways to enable lethal prowess. Planeswalkers are much better than pyromancer as additional threats. Mana drain is also quite good in this type of list to set up big mentor turns and give you something to do with your mana when in control role.

[d0rsal]

Jeb you wont be threat lite, just 1 mentor is enuff to win the game, hes a serious beating in vintage; SO many triggers.  also i know most will probably frown on this suggestion, but you mite consider rebuild in the main over hurkyl's, its just 1 more mana, lets u eot your opponent & re-run out all ur artifact mana for additional triggers & sometimes you just need to cycle it

[PeAcH]

My recommended changes via Twitter were:

Out:

-1 Hurkyl´s Recall
-1 Mentor
-1 Sol Ring

In:

+1 Preordain
+1 Snapcaster Mage
+1 Dack Fayden

Also Mystical Tutor should be added to the main, but did not know what to take out.

Sideboard:

-1 Engineered Explosives
-1 Hurkyl´s Recall
+2 Wear // Tear

This deck is a mixture of a pure UR(w) Delver deck with some additional heavy control elements (LoA, Drains, Mentor) accompanied with a colourless man abase thanks to off color moxen.

I would try a more aggroish approach with a deck like this:

http://www.tcdecks.net/deck.php?id=16032&iddeck=119788

[boggyb]

Word. I've been tinkering with this for a week or two, starting from Kevin Cron's Mentor Remora list. Have settled on something like:

3 Monastery Mentor
2 Snapcaster Mage

3 Gush
2 Dig Through Time
2 Preordain
1 Ponder
2 Gitaxian Probe
1 Brainstorm
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Treasure Cruise
2 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Time Walk
3 Mystic Remora

4 Force of Will
4 Mental Misstep
2 Flusterstorm
2 Lightning Bolt
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Hurkyl's Recall

3 Tundra
2 Volcanic Island
1 Island
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Flooded Strand
2 Cavern of Souls
1 Library of Alexandria
5 Mox
1 Sol Ring
1 Black Lotus

Sideboard:
4 Ingot Chewer
1 Hurkyl's Recall
2 Red Elemental Blast
3 Grafdigger's Cage
3 Containment Priest
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Mountain

Notes:
- Cards 58-60 are probably some combination of Digs, Preordains, Snapcasters, Flusterstorms, and Missteps. Getting the draw/disruption suite for this kind of deck is tough, I'm tinkering with it.
- Remora is a beating against about half the format right now and combos superlatively with Mentor.
- Red is worth the splash over straight UW.
- I go back and forth on running Jace; he's good and it's nice having a different angle of attack but honestly the deck looks at so many cards that Mentor is usually just good enough by himself. Harder still to justify Jace without Drains, and I just don't think this kind of main phase-oriented strategy wants to be holding up UU all the time.

As for your list, I like it a lot. Some suggestions:
- 4 Gushes is very iffy to me in a deck without Fastbond.
- Your G1 against shops looks almost unwinnable unless you have, like, Force AND early Mentor AND Lightning Bolt, or something similar.
- Drain + Pyromancer is pretty much a nonbo. Pick one or the other, unless you're doing some nutty Yawg / Bob / Snap / Jace shenanigans.
- Try Remora! I bet you will be pleased.

Thanks and party on, dude.

[benrobnu]

I played a list very similar to the Team Tusk list that was posted on eternal central last night. I went 2-2 and felt like I was on the bad side of variance.

Here's some thoughts I had:

I think this deck should be boarding disenchant.
Trinket mage played much better than I expected.
I would cut some fetchlands and play more preordains and a Snapcaster as the deck had way too much mana.

[boggyb]

I think this deck should be boarding disenchant.

Why do you like Disenchant? I see three uses for it:
1. Shops hate
2. Oath hate (with added blowout potential vs. them if they go all-in on Vault)
3. Anti-vault tech

With Red, I'd prefer Wear/Tear over Disenchant; but moreover feel that a combo of Chewers / Priests / Cages is better since it covers Dredge as well. Cavern makes Priest an even more attractive option.

[mini1337s]

Seeing as there is a lot of interest in this deck, I decided to post up my list. Please note, this list is tuned for the MTGO metagame where Shops and Fish-style aggro decks are non-existent. In the non-MTGO metagame, I would trim the black splash, replacing the Underground Seas with basic islands, though I'm unsure what I would swap in for the Tutors, Will, and Gifts (probably 2 more maindeck Bolts to start).

I'm at roughly a 65% win-rate with this list in 2 mans. Feels very strong.

Creatures: [6]
2 Snapcaster Mage
4 Monastery Mentor

Artifacts: [9]
1 Sol Ring
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
2 Sensei's Divining Top

Sorceries: [10]
1 Ponder
1 Time Walk
1 Treasure Cruise
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Demonic Tutor
2 Preordain
3 Gitaxian Probe

Instants: [18]
1 Brainstorm
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Flusterstorm
1 Gifts Ungiven
1 Mystical Tutor
2 Lightning Bolt
3 Gush
3 Mental Misstep
4 Force of Will

Planeswalkers: [2]
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

Lands: [15]
2 Volcanic Island
2 Underground Sea
3 Tundra
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Scalding Tarn

Sideboard: [15]
2 Swords to Plowshares
3 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Hurkyl's Recall
3 Containment Priest
1 Supreme Verdict
1 Rebuild
2 Wear/Tear
1 Red Elemental Blast
1 Pyroblast

[Jeb Springfield]

Thanks for all the replies everyone! Lots to think about and test, which is great. In case anyone is interested, Bob Maher, Steve Menendian and Dave Williams all played Monastery Mentor in the second trimester of season 2 (so now) of the Vintage Super League. Their decklists can be found here: http://magic.wizards.com/en/MTGO/articles/archive/vintage-super-league-season-2-decklists

Steve and Dave played similar lists, while Bob played a list more similar to Kevin Cron's recent one (adjusted for the recent Treasure Cruise restriction), and something which is quite similar to boggyb's version.

@boggyb: Mystic Remora seems really cool, and I'm keen to give it a go. You noted that Young Pyromancer and Mana Drain don't go well together, I was wondering if you could expand a bit on that? (I'm this is a silly question and it's just my inexperience with the format coming through here)

@d0rsal: I like the Rebuild idea. I had previously gone with Hurkyl's Recall because costing one less made it seem slightly more viable to actually cast in game one against Shops (a matchup which I agree is rough).

Currently, on the WotC site, Steve's decklist is incomplete. Nevertheless, I can see that he has quite a few sideboard slots dedicated to fighting Shops. Presumably this is an area I can improve on. Wear//Tear is likely a good inclusion, and Steve and Dave both played Pulverize. Any other suggestions regarding the sideboard construction would be appreciated.

Thanks for the great responses everyone!

[benrobnu]

I think this deck should be boarding disenchant.

Why do you like Disenchant? I see three uses for it:
1. Shops hate
2. Oath hate (with added blowout potential vs. them if they go all-in on Vault)
3. Anti-vault tech

With Red, I'd prefer Wear/Tear over Disenchant; but moreover feel that a combo of Chewers / Priests / Cages is better since it covers Dredge as well. Cavern makes Priest an even more attractive option.

I think chewers/Preists/Cages is ok, but the deck was pretty reliant on using artifacts. The deck folds to a resolved stony silence.

[boggyb]

@boggyb: Mystic Remora seems really cool, and I'm keen to give it a go. You noted that Young Pyromancer and Mana Drain don't go well together, I was wondering if you could expand a bit on that? (I'm this is a silly question and it's just my inexperience with the format coming through here)

Mana Drain just isn't a very good card in a tempo-oriented deck generally speaking unless you're on the slower end of the spectrum with Goyfs and Trygons and Jaces and such. It is expensive and on turn 2 you don't want to have to decide between casting a Pyromancer or holding up Drain; plus you don't have much to Drain into even if you do. Its best uses, in general, are: 1. Early ramp tempo-boost; 2. Powering out a huge "go off turn"; 3. Sealing a game when you're ahead in the control role. Your deck doesn't really need any of those uses out of its counterspells -- you mostly want your counterspells to 1. Push your opponent off balance while you beat down and/or 2. Protect your threats, which Drain is suboptimal for. I'd run another Misstep and a Misdirection in that slot instead.

[boggyb]

I think chewers/Preists/Cages is ok, but the deck was pretty reliant on using artifacts. The deck folds to a resolved stony silence.

This is true; still I like Wear/Tear better for that but, for me, I rarely see more than 1-2 Stony Silence decks (if that) at an East Coast tournament, so. Meh.

[benrobnu]

Wear/Tear is probably better

[Jeb Springfield]

I apologise for not posting sooner or more regularly on this thread, unfortunately I've been very busy with the real world (Master's degree, work etc). Here's what I've been playing online when I get a chance:

Lands
3 Scalding Tarn
3 Flooded Strand
1 Island
1 Snow-Covered Island
1 Library of Alexandria
3 Volcanic Island
3 Tundra

Artifact Mana / Instant Mana
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Black Lotus

Artifacts
None

Instants
4 Force of Will
2 Mana Drain
3 Mental Misstep
2 Flusterstorm
2 Pyroblast

1 Lightning Bolt
2 Swords to Plowshares

4 Gush
1 Brainstorm
1 Ancestral Recall
2 Dig Through Time

Sorceries
3 Preordain
1 Ponder
1 Treasure Cruise
1 Time Walk

Enchantments
None

Planeswalkers
1 Dack Fayden

Creatures
4 Monastery Mentor
2 Young Pyromancer
2 Snapcaster Mage

Sideboard
2 Engineered Explosives
3 Grafdigger's Cage
4 Ingot Chewer
1 Mountain
1 Containment Priest
2 Tormod's Crypt
2 Wear//Tear

So far, my experience with the deck has been very good and I've certainly won more games than I've lost. I don't believe that this is an optimal list, or even necessarily an optimised list. A few notes on a couple of the cards:

ON YOUNG PYROMANCER: In another thread, Steve Menendian said the following:
[/quote]
... I ultimately came to the realization that what I really wanted was some Pyromancers.  This conclusion rested largely on two key understandings.

First, I needed more permanents.  If your opponent lets all of your spells resolve, one thing that can happen with the critical Turn 3 Gush is that you draw beyond your hand size limit.  I talk about this in more detail in my Delver Primer, but the way that happens is as follows:

Turn 1:  Land (6 cards in hand on the play, 7 cards in hand on the draw)
Turn 2: Land (6 cards in hand on the play, 7 on the draw)
Turn 3: Float mana, Gush.  Replay a land.  Now you have as many as TEN or ELEVEN cards in hand. 

Even if you just have 8, you will have to discard a card.

This is a critical play for the Gush pilot.  Generating the third land drop through turn three gush is a general imperative.  Dack is a permanent, but Dack and 4 Mentor wasn't enough.  My last Delver list had 2 Trygon, 3 Delver and 4 Pyromancer - that's 9 permanents. 

I decided my deck needed more permanents.

Second, and perhaps more importantly, I found myself often wishing that times I had Mentor that it was a Pyromancer.  Not in every matchup, but in a few.

One of the reasons I play Delver as a control deck is that playing Pyromancers and Delvers don't inhibit my ability to maximize my countermagic production.  That's because, in the scenario sequenced above, I can keep a Pyroblast/Flusterstorm live AND cast Pyromancer.

T1: Land
T2: Land
T3: Gush, replay a Land, cast Pyromancer

In testing, against Grixis decks and a few other decks, I often found myself wanting a Pyromancer.
[/quote]

I found the same things, the difference being that I lacked the experience to be able to articulate my thoughts as well as Steve did. In one game against Grixis Gifts, we both started out with turn 1 Library (me on the draw), but despite drawing two cards a turn I didn't draw a lot of land / mana sources (something I believe, in this case, was simply as a result of variance). At some stage I got to a point where I had three mana sources in addition to Library, but I was able to deploy a Young Pyromancer, holding Flusterstorm / Pyroblast up, giving me an additional counterspell to help defend myself. Similar scenarios have come up where having the cheaper threat has been favourable. I haven't yet found that I would like to move the numbers to a 3/3 split, but it is entirely feasible that I'm wrong.

ON LIBRARY OF ALEXANDRIA: I agree entirely that Strip Mine has incredible value, and it is entirely plausible that I should be playing Strip Mine over Library. I don't really know which is better, but I can say that four Gush makes me more inclined towards Library. Additionally, four Mentor pushes me further towards more artifact mana, which is why I haven't been playing Strip Mine over one of the off-colour Moxen. Finally, Library is just a super fun card. I'll continue to play with it, but it's possible that I'm wrong and I'll change my mind at a later stage.

ON MANA DRAIN: I've found Mana Drain to be amazing, and part of that is because Mana Drain provides an unconditional counterspell which doesn't cost an extra card. Sure it's unimpressive early in the game, but later in the game it acts as a way to outright deny an opponent anything you choose to, without costing you a card in your hand. I've Mana Drain-ed cards like Gifts Ungiven and not had anything to spend the mana on, but the fact that I was able to answer one of my opponent's cards without costing me a second card has provided a huge amount of utility. It isn't as if I don't have things to spend the mana on either. Draining into a Treasure Cruise or a Monastery Mentor is great.

ON DACK FAYDEN: Dack has been excellent. He was suggested to me in this thread, and my experience has definitely been positive.

Overall, I've enjoyed playing this list. Any thoughts on the list, or on Mentor lists in general, would be greatly appreciated. I am very inexperienced in Vintage, so pretty much all information is valuable to me and helps me to contextualise my experiences.

[brianpk80]

Jeb, I would try:

-1 Monastery Mentor
+1 Dack Fayden

-1 Treasure Cruise
+1 Dig Through Time

-1 Snapcaster Mage
+1 Fire // Ice

-1 Swords to Plowshares
+1 Repeal

You are definitely not wrong on Library of Alexandria.  That place is heaven on earth; it should go in every deck.   

[Naixin]

Here is my current build:

Artifacts:7
1 Black Lotus
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire

Creatures: 5
4 Monastery Mentor
1 Snapcaster Mage

Instants: 20
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Brainstorm
3 Dig Through Time
1 Fire // Ice
2 Flusterstorm
4 Force of Will
3 Gush
3 Mental Misstep
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Swords to Plowshares

Lands: 15
3 Flooded Strand
2 Island
1 Library of Alexandria
2 Tundra
3 Volcanic Island
4 Scalding Tarn

Planeswalkers: 3
2 Dack Fayden
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

Sorceries: 10
3 Gitaxian Probe
1 Ponder
3 Preordain
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Time Walk
1 Treasure Cruise

SB: 4 Containment Priest
SB: 4 Ingot Chewer
SB: 1 Wear // Tear
SB: 1 Mountain
SB: 1 Tormod's Crypt
SB: 2 Shattering Spree
SB: 2 Pyroblast

I opted for 4 monks because I've lost more games due to not finding a threat than finding too many

[Islandswamp]

I've been messing around with Jeskai Mentor lists, trying to find the best version I can.

Here is the latest list, I'd really love some input. I have a Daily Event tournament that I want to play in tonight, and I'm stuck between Mentor or Delver.

2 Dack Fayden
4 Monastery Mentor
1 Young Pyromancer
4 Preordain
1 Time Walk
1 Treasure Cruise
1 Ancestral Recall
3 Dig Through Time
3 Flusterstorm
4 Force of Will
4 Gush
4 Mental Misstep
3 Swords to Plowshares
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
4 Scalding Tarn
3 Tundra
3 Volcanic Island
1 Ponder
1 Island
1 Mystical Tutor
2 Pyroblast
1 Brainstorm
1 Lotus Petal
3 Flooded Strand
1 Mana Drain

2 Containment Priest
3 Grafdigger's Cage
4 Ingot Chewer
1 Shattering Spree
1 Pyroblast
1 Plains
1 Mountain
1 Pulverize
1 Tormod's Crypt

Is two basic lands in the sideboard too much? MTGO is infested with Shops, and I want a little more Wasteland protection.

Pulverize is a card that I haven't had a chance to use yet, but the MTGO player youhavenogame seems to like it, and I think it would be good.

[msg67183]

I've been messing around with Jeskai Mentor lists, trying to find the best version I can.

Here is the latest list, I'd really love some input. I have a Daily Event tournament that I want to play in tonight, and I'm stuck between Mentor or Delver.

2 Dack Fayden
4 Monastery Mentor
1 Young Pyromancer
4 Preordain
1 Time Walk
1 Treasure Cruise
1 Ancestral Recall
3 Dig Through Time
3 Flusterstorm
4 Force of Will
4 Gush
4 Mental Misstep
3 Swords to Plowshares
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
4 Scalding Tarn
3 Tundra
3 Volcanic Island
1 Ponder
1 Island
1 Mystical Tutor
2 Pyroblast
1 Brainstorm
1 Lotus Petal
3 Flooded Strand
1 Mana Drain

2 Containment Priest
3 Grafdigger's Cage
4 Ingot Chewer
1 Shattering Spree
1 Pyroblast
1 Plains
1 Mountain
1 Pulverize
1 Tormod's Crypt

Is two basic lands in the sideboard too much? MTGO is infested with Shops, and I want a little more Wasteland protection.

Pulverize is a card that I haven't had a chance to use yet, but the MTGO player youhavenogame seems to like it, and I think it would be good.

I play Meltdown in my Sideboard after the 4 Ingot Chewers and basic Mountain in my Delver list and I've loved it. It blows up all their fast mana and Chalices for R, and if they have a Chalice at 1 then you pay 1R and might get a Mana Vault or Sol Ring as well, very strong card in my opinion.

[Chubby Rain]

I wouldn't play Meltdown. The games in which you lose to shops tend to involve getting sphered/wastelanded out, which Meltdown is pretty atrocious at dealing with. Your best strategy is probably similar to what you're doing: a combination of basics, chewers, swords, Dacks, etc. I haven't played Pulverize and it might be good, but other options are Engineered Explosives, Wear/Tear, Serenity, etc. I've never been a fan of Mystical Tutor in decks like this as the card disadvantage can be rough and you don't have Snapcaster Mages for additional value. It does have a role in fetching the Pulverize but if you decide to cut that, you might want to cut the Tutor as well. Drain is also not great as you don't have much to do with the extra mana and you have a lot of sorcery speed action, not to mention Gush setting you back on lands. A 15th land such as Strip, Library or a fourth strand might be worth it.

Good luck tonight!

[serracollector]

If I was expecting a lot of MUD I would replace the mystical tutor and drain and one pyroblast with two bolts and another land. With three dig and cruise I would either run strip or a fourth flooded. Bolts still good all around and stops Lodestone and sometimes Mentor. Funny how magic has gone back to the X bolts X swords era. This also frees up one spot in your side which you could put the second pyroblast in since you would only need one land in the side. 

[StanleyAugust]

Agree with serracollector. You're list doesn't seem to be tuned to a Mud heavy metagame. If you expect a lot of Shops, why would you have 9 dead cards against Shops in the main deck?

[Islandswamp]

I should probably have explained this, but the deck started as a list that I downloaded from MTGGoldfish. All of those lists have been reasonably successful, so many of the card choices are ones that I just haven't changed from the original list.

I made a few more adjustments, and this is the list that I've been practicing with. Unfortunately, I missed the daily event, because I fell asleep and didn't wake up in time. Hopefully, I'll be playing this deck tonight though.

Mana Drain has been pretty good as a one-of. I don't think that I've ever been upset to see it in my hand. I usually use it to pay for part of a mentor or Dig/Cruise.

Here is what I practiced with after I woke up last night. I changed the amount of fast artifact mana slightly, and added a serenity to the board.

2 Dack Fayden
4 Monastery Mentor
4 Preordain
1 Time Walk
1 Treasure Cruise
1 Ancestral Recall
3 Dig Through Time
3 Flusterstorm
4 Force of Will
3 Gush
4 Mental Misstep
2 Swords to Plowshares
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
4 Scalding Tarn
3 Tundra
3 Volcanic Island
1 Ponder
1 Island
1 Mystical Tutor
2 Pyroblast
1 Brainstorm
1 Lotus Petal
3 Flooded Strand
1 Mana Drain
1 Fire/Ice
1 Mana Crypt
1 Snapcaster Mage

2 Containment Priest
3 Grafdigger's Cage
4 Ingot Chewer
1 Pyroblast
1 Plains
1 Mountain
1 Pulverize
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Serenity

Snapcaster is something that I wanted to try out, I'm not sure how it will go. I dropped the Young Pyromancer, which I haven't missed so far.

I'll probably replace the tutor with something tonight, to see how it goes. Top-deck tutors are a little counterproductive to this style of deck, as someone had mentioned.

EDIT: I just played a guy who was playing a workshop deck. I don't think he was very experienced, because he seemed to quit in frustration pretty badly. Game one, he could have still won if he had tried, in my opinion. Game two, I got abundant hate cards and did my thing.

Even with Shops being so popular, there are still more blue decks out there online, so the Pyroblasts are almost always great. Blast and Flusterstorm are the cards that help me resolve a Mentor more than anything else.

[Islandswamp]

If I was expecting a lot of MUD I would replace the mystical tutor and drain and one pyroblast with two bolts and another land. With three dig and cruise I would either run strip or a fourth flooded. Bolts still good all around and stops Lodestone and sometimes Mentor. Funny how magic has gone back to the X bolts X swords era. This also frees up one spot in your side which you could put the second pyroblast in since you would only need one land in the side. 

Having one Mana Drain has been pretty good. Force of Will is the only unconditional counterspell in the deck otherwise.

I usually use mana drain later in a game, once I have my Mentor out and I just need to protect it. However, sometimes when I get to fire one off early, I can cast a mentor earlier with the extra generic mana. The thing that stops you from playing early Monastery Mentors is the need for extra mana for protection. And by protection, I mean both counters to force the Mentor through, and at least one (hopefully more) spells to cast to get some Monk Tokens right away. I'm sure it's obvious that the goal is to make sure your opponent can't one-for-one your mentor. If you can get even just one token, you can still go a long way with it. I know it doesn't seem that way, but I've made it happen.

The other thing, I've added one mana crypt. I almost added a Sol Ring too, but I'm just going to see how it goes. With mentor, you want to play lots of Moxen and the other (0)-(1) cmc artifacts. The thing that I noticed is this: Too many artifacts dilute the deck, and lower your density of counterspells. Not enough of these "mana rocks", and casting Mentor can take longer, plus there ends up being a slightly lower amount of spells that can be cast proactively.

I had a match once where I resolved a Mentor with no extra mana available. My plan was, that the Mental Misstep and Force of Will in my hand would at least make me one or two tokens, if not just plain save the mentor altogether. Well, my opponent cast Sudden Shock as soon as he could, and I now make it a point to save some proactive spells to make sure that scenario doesn't happen again.

[StanleyAugust]

You definitely need at least one Top in there somewhere.

[msg67183]

I wouldn't play Meltdown. The games in which you lose to shops tend to involve getting sphered/wastelanded out, which Meltdown is pretty atrocious at dealing with. Your best strategy is probably similar to what you're doing: a combination of basics, chewers, swords, Dacks, etc. I haven't played Pulverize and it might be good, but other options are Engineered Explosives, Wear/Tear, Serenity, etc. I've never been a fan of Mystical Tutor in decks like this as the card disadvantage can be rough and you don't have Snapcaster Mages for additional value. It does have a role in fetching the Pulverize but if you decide to cut that, you might want to cut the Tutor as well. Drain is also not great as you don't have much to do with the extra mana and you have a lot of sorcery speed action, not to mention Gush setting you back on lands. A 15th land such as Strip, Library or a fourth strand might be worth it.

Good luck tonight!

Actually the games you lose to Shops are the ones where they have a Chalice at 1 and you can cast any spells, making Meltdown insane, since it can blow up all the Chalice at 1s that they play

[msg67183]

Obviously Meltdown is worse in Mentor decks if they play more Moxen. I said that I play it in Delver to great success.