With the release of Fate Reforged, Magic: the Gathering’s latest Expert-level expansion, it is Christmas time once again for Magic players of both the casual and competitive variety.

The release of a new batch of content is always the most exciting time in any gamer’s life. New expansions mean new areas to explore, strategies to formulate and a brand new competitive environment that’s about to be shaken up by the next new hotness.

First, a short introduction: While readers of the site know me as the Managing Editor, I also moonlight as a fairly competitive Magic: the Gathering player based in Cebu and a Level 1 DCI judge. Although I have taken a break from traveling to Magic events (indeed, taken an extended break from playing Magic altogether), I have some small successes playing in local events in the Philippines and a Limited Grand Prix Day 2 finish. I don’t put these credentials here to brag, it’s just to show that I’m an avid card player that’s raring to play with the latest set.

But enough about me. What you’re really here for is the cards.

I’m always at my giddiest at the beginning of the format when I am given new cards to attack established metagames for my Constructed format of choice — Standard. For the uninitiated, Standard is a format that allows players to compete by putting together a deck of cards from the most recently released sets in Magic.

One of the cards that caught my attention was this gem:

People have the misconception that the best cards in a new set are always the expensive, mythic cards. As a competitive player and deck builder, I often try and take a different approach and look for the cheapest, most efficient cards that can help propel a strategy. Valorous Stance is a two mana card that offers options — something that most players tend to incorrectly evaluate.

On its face, it’s a cheap instant spell that allows us to save one of our key creatures or efficiently remove a large threat from the board. Many other more reputable figures in the Magic community have posited that it is best placed in the UW Heroic deck where it serves both as a protection spell for your massive yet fragile Heroic creatures and as a way of combating said giant battlecruisers in the mirror match.

But I am a simple man. The first thing I thought when I saw this card was to protect the other Standard-format bruiser: Goblin Rabblemaster.

Goblin Rabblemaster is a card that, on its own, generates a ton of pressure against opposing strategies but is quite often neutered either by beefier roadblocks or removal spells. It can put away whole games by itself, needing only support from a specially tuned spell suite to protect it from removal or to shove things out of the way.

I first tested out copies of Valorous Stance and Goblin Rabblemaster alongside Josh Utter-Leyton’s most recent Jeskai (UWR) Midrange deck. Here’s his list for reference:

Jeskai Midrange

Lands
2 x Mana Confluence
4 x Mystic Monastery
4 x Evolving Wilds
4 x Flooded Strand
7 x Mountain
1 x Island
2 x Plains

Creatures
4 x Seeker of the Way
3 x Heliod’s Pilgrim
2 x Wingmate Roc

Noncreature Spells
4 x Chained to the Rocks
3 x Lightning Strike
4 x Raise the Alarm
4 x Hordeling Outburst
4 x Jeskai Ascendancy
4 x Stoke the Flames
4 x Treasure Cruise

I simply took out the four Chained to the Rocks and replaced them with Valorous Stance. While Chained to the Rocks is an efficient answer, they both hit similar targets with Valorous Stance.

That left me with three copies of Heliod’s Pilgrim that I needed to take out. While looking for a suitable replacement, I turned to one of the most hyped cards of the set and the true star of today’s list: Monastery Mentor.

Much has been said of this 3-drop, with comparisons being drawn to Young Pyromancer. While costing one mana more is certainly a point against it, it does generate a ton of pressure with just a few spells thanks to the tokens it produces hitting harder than 1/1 elemental tokens.

After testing out some hands and board states with the two, it became apparent to me that Monastery Mentor wasn’t reaching its full potential in the list. With Monastery Mentor, you want your mana to always be untapped. Likewise, you want access to way more instants in the deck.

After a bit of tuning, I decided to drop the blue splash altogether and reached this list:

RW Teacher

Lands
3x Mana Confluence
4 x Temple of Triumph
4 x Battlefield Forge
7 x Mountain
5 x Plains

Creature Spells
4 x Seeker of the Way
2 x Soulfire Grand Master
4 x Goblin Rabblemaster
4 x Monastery Mentor
2 x Wingmate Roc

Noncreature Spells
4 x Raise the Alarm
3 x Lightning Strike
3 x Hordeling Outburst
4 x Valorous Stance
4 x Stoke the Flames
1 x Collateral Damage

2x Chained to the Rocks

The main difference in play between the Jeskai list and this one is that while both decks are content with creating a wide board state to overwhelm the opponents, this list has the ability to close out the games a step earlier than Jeskai for two reason: First, our mana is much better at creating quick starts that can overwhelm the opponent. Being able to play a threat and a cheaper removal without having to worry about awkward mana requirements and taplands allows us to get past early stumbling blocks popularly played in the format, such as Fleecemane Lion and Courser of Kruphix.

Secondly, because the Jeskai lists have to run the more powerful Jeskai Ascendancy in the three-drop slot, it simply becomes too clunky to run Monastery Mentor alongside Goblin Rabblemaster, Hordeling outburst and the Ascendancy. By sticking to RW, we are much more poised to craft a dominating board state earlier thanks to our army-in-a-can options in Goblin Rabblemaster and Monastery Mentor.

I feel that this is the list where Monastery Mentor shines the most because all of our spells are either cheap or play at instant speed. Valorous Stance is a great way to ensure that the teacher will be living through removal to dominate the board slowly but surely, while the rest of the burn package in the deck act as removal spells or late-game gap closers for those final points of damage.

While the Jeskai list is capable of more explosive turns, they do have a significant set-up cost that could open up a hole with which other strategies can exploit. Generally, the turn where you’re casting Jeskai Ascendancy opens you up to aggression, especially on the draw. The same is not true for the most part with Monastery Mentor. At the very least, Mentor blocks against aggressive openings.

If Monastery Mentor is the star of the list, then Soulfire Grand Master is the director that subtly guides how the movie will end.

When placed beside powerful token makers and high-impact Convoke spells, Soulfire Grand Master becomes a late-game engine that is almost impossible to race. Cards like Hordeling Outburst, Goblin Rabblemaster and Monastery Mentor allow us to cheat on the mana needed to play the awesome Stoke the Flames, letting us repeatedly buyback our spells as early as turn four.

This is especially relevant in current Standard where board states tend to get clogged fairly quickly thanks to a bunch of Rhinos and Goblins running around. With this interaction, a stalled board state is virtually useless against us since we can safely sit behind a growing wall of tokens as we sling fire to the opponent’s face.

Cons

That said however, what are the cons of Monastery Mentor and friends? On further testing, Monastery Mentor is not more powerful than Goblin Rabblemaster, at least where Standard is concerned. Sure, the ceiling on the Mentor is much higher as he can lay down the damage in greater amounts the later the game goes as well as play defense when needed.

Where he falls off is in the fact that he does require other cards before becoming relevant on the board — something that Goblin Rabblemaster doesn’t necessarily need. On an empty field, right after a board clear, a Goblin Rabblemaster will shutdown a game quicker than Monastery Mentor without requiring additional resources to be invested.

Soulfire Grand Master has its own limitations as well. A common comment I get for this list is that I should field four Soulfires. My problem with that approach is that multiple copies are redundant and that the 2/2 body is poorly positioned in the format.

The best thing about the list is truly its mana base and its cheap spells. The Standard format is quickly becoming a place where the first player to fall behind without putting down a haymaker threat often loses. By ensuring that our mana base is smooth and minimizes unnecessary taplands, we can play more of our spells on the turns where they make the most impact. Opponents who stumble with their lands will quickly fall behind, allowing us to easily overwhelm them with a bunch of kung fu tokens.

And just to wrap it up neatly in a bow, we go back to Valorous Stance. While I did draw comparisons to Chained to the Rocks, the one drawback to relying heavily on stance is that it doesn’t hit 3/3s coming out of Standard’s best deck: Abzan Aggro. If you’re a deck that can support white and red, running a mix of Stance and Lightning Strike is highly recommended so as not to get run over by all manner of cats, rhinos and giant birds.

Conclusion

Monastery Mentor, together with Valorous Stance and Soulfire Grand Master, is poised to make waves in Standard. A suite of burn spells, efficient protection/removal and stable mana seems like the best choice to start within the new format.

While splashing an additional color unlocks more explosive options for the interactions above (Jeskai Ascendancy untapping your creatures after they Convoke out a Stoke the Flames with buyback then recasting it? Sign me up!), I’ve always been a student of taking the quickest route to victory. Look to the Mentor handing out lessons at an FNM near you!

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