The little monk that could

Monastery Mentor

This guy is one seriously powerful and underplayed monk. Everyone invites Young Pyromancer to the party but forget about Monastery Mentor because he’s a whole extra mana. Well let me tell you what that extra mana buys you…

A 2/2 body: This one is more relevant in Legacy due to sweepers like Electrickery and Golgari Charm, but can have minor relevance against Electrolyze. The ability to block or attack through 1 power creatures isn’t anything to be sniffed at either. In eternal formats this includes Deathrite Shaman, unflipped Delvers of Secrets, Young Pyromancer Tokens, and the 1 power infect and affinity guys…the list could go on.

Prowess: Now were talking! In a deck built to abuse the Mentor, he can regularly become a 5/5 beat stick smashing through Tasigur’s, Tarmogoyf’s and other blockers alike, making for an unpredictable threat that can put a fast clock on the opponent. The prowess combined with the extra point of toughness also means the mentor can survive the odd Lightning Bolt or Pyroclasm given an instant speed spell or two.

Prowess Students: The best thing about Young Pyromancer is that he can swamp the board and overwhelm opponents, our new friend Monastery Mentor is even better at this because he brings a whole team with prowess. Even if they get rid of the mentor leaving just one monk the damage can add up given a spell heavy hand, and its total carnage if mentor and a few tokens get into the red zone and pump. The prowess also means a few of the tokens can survive certain sweepers given enough spells in hand.

That’s a white mana symbol: Being in white instead of red has its advantages, Swords to Plowshares / Path to Exile are comparable to Lightning Bolt (one of the main reasons people run red) but it also gives a lot of other options. For modern, the sideboard choices in white are second to none while in legacy white brings Stoneforge Mystic, Terminus, etc. There is also Lingering Souls in white that triggers Monastery whilst also being a strong card in its own right. The fact that he only costs one white means in today’s eternal formats its super splashable and easy to play an on colour dual and fetch it up with a bevy of different fetchlands.

Don’t think of him as a turn 3 play but more of a turn 4 or 5 play with spell backup incase of removal.

Here’s a few lists to get you started brewing

LEGACY

How about the deck that won GP Lille (the 2nd place deck also had 2 copies of Mentor in its 75):

20 LANDS 6 CREATURES

4 Flooded Strand 4 Monastery Mentor

4 Island 2 Snapcaster Mage

3 Tundra

3 Scalding Tarn 8 OTHER SPELLS

3 Volcanic Island 4 Sensei’s Divining Top

2 Arid Mesa 4 Counterbalance

1 Plains