Welcome to Budget U/W Mentor!
The deck revolves around Monastery Mentor, generating plenty of tokens that grow into big boy monks and overwhelm the board. A fine legacy player once said, "sometimes all you have to do is swing with 3/3's". This deck does exactly that (but it doesn't hurt to make them bigger either ;)). Typically the game plan is to get a Monastery Mentor out as quick as possible, dump out some non-creature spells, and close out the game. We have plenty of other token producers like Gather the Townsfolk and instant-speed Raise the Alarm, which both generate chump blockers and crew members for Smuggler's Copter and monk tokens from Monastery Mentor and lore counters on Myth Realized, which we'll talk about in the next paragraph. Those token producers enable Shared Discovery, which is like out worse-Treasure Cruise but draws us a ton of cards and opportunities for more non-creature spells AND prowess triggers AND lore counters AND more monks! all for 1 mana! Entreat the Angels is kinda expensive, but even if you Opt into one and Miracle it for 2 or 3, that can be enough to close out the game. a 4/4 flier in modern is never useless. Don't forget you can crew up Smuggler's Copter to block and draw into it ;).
Now we talked about Monastery Mentor and other token producers, so let's talk about Myth Realized. Not only is it a 1 mana non-creature spell therefore a prowess trigger and another monk, but when those other non-creature spells come up, this guy turns into a nice 3/3 or 4/4 or 5/5 beater with nothing to lose. Even if it gets destroyed or something, at it's worst, it's a Smuggler's Copter crew member or a monk token and prowess trigger. I personally use it more as a blocker than attacker, but he's so versatile that it's not a big problem to have him.
Counterbalance is a 1-of, as it'll be useful at really any point in the game and acts as a non-creature spell and renewable counterspell engine, however I don't want to run too many due to not being able to fully control the top card of my library like how Miracles used to work in legacy. However, with all the <4cmc cards in the deck, Counterbalance has a good chance to counter Ancestral Vision, Wild Nacatal,
noble heirarch
, Lightning Bolt, Fatal Push, you name it.
As for the lands, I am going kinda budget until I can make some money to splash black and run Lingering Souls over Gather the Townsfolk. For now, I have 2 Fountains, a Prairie Stream, and 2 Field of Ruin. Field of Ruin is GREAT at hitting tron lands and Valakut's and such. I sideboard one in against tron because tron usually only runs 1-2 basics, if any. The only thing I don't like about Field of Ruin is that it requires me to tap out on turn 3, when I should be playing a Monastery Mentor.
In the sideboard we have Apostle's Blessing versus Burn and Naya Zoo and other removal-heavy decks. We have Echoing Truths against token decks, some counters, 3 Tormod's Crypt for dredge and other graveyard-based decks, and finally Sorcerous Spyglass against any deck. Spyglass gives a 2-mana out against Infect, Tron, Zoo, you name it. Just an all-around excellent card, however there are good sideboard cards against artifacts, which we don't worry about too much anyway.
Well that's it! hit that +1 if you enjoy the deck!
