Stoneforge Mentor

"Kryptonite"

This week, I have a deck that you likely haven't seen before. That's because it is a new take on an established list, and it's different enough that I find it quite exciting. If Mishra's Workshop was Superman, than this deck would be kryptonite. That's a bold statement, I know, but it certainly felt that way when I took the deck out for a spin. In last weekend's Sunday night Vintage Daily, I beat up a Shops deck pretty good, and I've never won a match against a Shops deck in such a decisive fashion. So, I'm going to talk all about this list, and explain how it is that it performs this well.

In the beginning...

A friend of mine, James Cady, Niffiwan on MTGO, told me a few weeks ago about this Monastery Mentor deck that he'd been working on. His list had a notable difference from the normal versions, in that it contained the classic Stoneforge Mystic/Batterskull package. I was skeptical at first, but watching James go undefeated in the 9:30pm Daily Event Saturday night got my interest piqued.

From the start, James told me that this deck had a good matchup against Shops. In the first Daily Event that we both played, he beat me (I was on Martello) in three games, and that was the beginning of my belief in this deck. This past weekend, he took down a few Workshops decks, and ended up going 4-0. Then, Sunday night, I was convinced enough of the deck's potential that I decided to play his list as well. I'd never played with Stoneforge Mystic before, and was under-prepared, to say the least.

I played Shops round one, and smashed it to bits in two games. I'd never, ever had a match go that well, I was so excited in fact, that I messaged Niffiwan and said, "This deck is ******* KRYPTONITE!!!" I felt even more confident facing Shops, having myself piloted Martello Shops quite a bit for the last two weeks.

I ended up losing to Delver, piloted by Butakov, in round two. I know he's a good player, and he had a very strong draw both games. I felt on the verge of making a comeback on several occasions, but he always had the right answer at just the right time. For instance, I correctly deduced that I could get a Batterskull into play with my Stoneforge Mystic, as I had protection in the form of Flusterstorm and Mental Misstep. Of course, before I can get the Batterskull out, down comes a Dack on the opposite side of the battlefield, and there were several elemental tokens to protect the Planeswalker from Germ token beats. Dack's a two-of in most Delver decks, so given some quantum fluctuations, perhaps I'd have been able to safely cheat that Batterskull into play, and go to town.

In round three, I was paired against a player that I remember facing several times in the Tournament Practice room, and I knew he was on an unorthodox Shops list. I kept a hand with lands, and some early pressure, but no (counterpell)s. In my experience from both sides of the matchup, the worst thing that can happen for a Shops deck is for the other player to get a threat on board before all of the lock-pieces can stop that from happening.

My opponent played a Sensei's Divining Top, and some mana artifacts, and passed. I don't remember if he hit a land right away, but his draw was weak, as far as I could tell. I thought I was in good shape, so I played a land and passed my turn. Then my opponent manages to luck into a Tolarian Academy, and has enough mana to cast Myr Battlesphere. I guess in that one instance, playing with a Top in a Shops deck actually worked out. Unfortunately for me, I had nothing but lands in my hand, and Snapcaster Mage, I scooped to save time. The fact that I didn't draw any of the deck's Counterspells or spot removal by that time was very unlikely, but still, it happens sometimes.

In game two, I mulliganed into a mediocre hand that hinged on drawing a second land to play a sideboarded Kataki, War's Wage. My opponent got out some lock pieces and a Triskelion, I missed my land drops and conceded. That isn't the way games normally go for the deck, and I suppose that seeing a player that I'd beaten before made me over-confident. This slightly cocky attitude caused me to keep a loose hand game one, and that set me up for failure.

In the following round, Niffiwan ended up beating Butakov in two games, which I was impressed by. The matchup hadn't gone well for me, and I was worried that I didn't have the right sideboard set-up. The fact that this deck did so well in the Delver matchup was impressive, if you can consistently beat Delver and Shops, then you're deck is in good shape. Delver, Mentor, and Shops account for a huge percentage of the field. After seeing this deck go undefeated in back-to-back D.E.'s, I knew that the topic of my next article would be Stoneforge Mentor.

Before I go on any further about this list, we should probably take a look at it.

Looking at this list, you see a fairly normal Jeskai Mentor shell. The main difference, is obviously the Stoneblade package. I've written about Mentor decks before, so I'll keep the focus of this article on the card choices that make this list unique.

Dack Fayden is a known quantity. It's a great Planeswalker in Vintage, due to all the choice artifacts to steal, and the card-selection and delve-enabling push it over the top. The fact that a resolved Dack Fayden is so good against Workshops decks is the reason for having three in the list. Plus, it's pitchable to Force of Will, and triggers it Monastery Mentor. My previous Mentor decks had two Dacks, but I've been loving having the third one.

This list has more removal than my previous builds, and with all the Delvers, Pyromancers, and Lodestone Golems running around, spot removal is important. Phyrexian Revoker also can give us headaches, being able to kill a resolved Revoker is a big deal.

The split could possibly be slanted more towards Lightning Bolt, as Bolt is removal for Planeswalkers as well. If more people start playing Tinker/Blightsteel Colossus then a slant towards Swords to Plowshares is a better configuration.

Jace is a powerful Planeswalker, but it's up for debate as to if it should be a different card instead. Four mana is a lot sometimes, and the mana base is already stretched thin. When Jace is good, though, he's incredible. I did manage to resolve one against a Workshop deck before, and the -1 loyalty ability is good in that matchup. Against decks that try to cheat a huge creature into play, Jace really shines. Of course, the classic play of just Brainstorming every turn is quite good at grinding out an advantage all by itself.

Did you notice the basic plains? This is only there as a hedge against Shops, and any other deck that plays Wasteland. It's a complete nonbo with Gush, and that can be a problem sometimes, although with fetch lands, it shouldn't happen all that much. I have had at least one game where if that plains had been a Tundra, I would have been able to cast Flusterstorm and win the match, but so far it's been fine the vast majority of the time.

These three cards are what makes the deck different. The key to why they are good against Shops, is the fact that Stoneforge Mystic is a two-mana threat, and a creature. As a creature, Stoneforge doesn't get hosed by Thorn of Amethyst, so it's slightly easier to cast on average, compared to a non-creature of the same mana cost. Against Shops, Stoneforge Mystic is your turn-three Batterskull, which gives you a very strong early threat. I've been on both sides of this equation, and I assure you, it isn't easy to deal with a Batterskull when you're playing Shops, especially if there is enough mana to bounce an replay it.

For the Shops player, it's possible to deal with an early SFM, but having to stop it takes the Shops player off of their plan. It equates to one more early turn that a card like Phyrexian Revoker or Dismember is given priority over lock-pieces. The last thing a Shops player wants to have to do is hold off on casting a Lodestone or Sphere effect, and I say that from experience. If lock-pieces aren't played in the early turns, then the Shops player's opponent's countermeasures are all live, which usually ends up being a disaster for the mono-brown deck.

Previously, when I've played against Shops decks, I've been forced into playing "their game", that is to say, I've tried to counter and destroy all of their artifact threats. Playing with the SFM/Batterskull package has allowed me to play my own game, and watch my opponent try to find a way to deal with it.

U/R Delver has always had Delver of Secrets and Young Pyromancer as early threats, which gave that deck a decent matchup against shops when it was on the play. Mentor decks have traditionally lacked that kind of early pressure. Casting a three-mana creature on turn one is very possible in Vintage, but it isn't the norm. A turn-two Monastery Mentor is fairly easy to cast, except that there's a good chance that three mana isn't enough by turn two.

Oath of Druids has traditionally been strong against Workshops, because the enchantment is a two-mana threat (likely a Griselbrand). Stoneforge Mystic is the two-mana threat that's in our colors, and its efficacy isn't dependent on being able to cast spells! I've cast a handful of spells into a Chalice of the Void, just to trigger a Mentor or Pyromancer enough times to take over a game, but there are times where even that isn't possible due to all of the Sphere-effects on the battlefield. Stoneforge Mystic allows you to play Batterskull for two mana, which isn't that hard to come by (especially with up to three basic lands after sideboarding).

(pic=Tanglewire)

Something that I came to realize even before I played Martello Shops, was that cards with a converted mana cost of one are hosed more often than other converted mana costs. Shops plays, on average, exactly one one-drop, a Sol Ring. This means that the Shops player can set a Chalice of the Void at one. and have a near-zero disadvantage from it. So, setting early Chalices at one happens quite often. Chalice for Zero is also a good early play for Shops, depending on how the game has played out at that point. Chalice is set at two infrequently, especially early on in a game. All of the Thorns and Spheres are at two mana, and the deck still needs to cast those cards early, more often than not. So, Chalice is rarely (if ever) going to counter a Stoneforge Mystic.

Tangle Wire is an awesome card at slowing the game down, but with Batterskull, you can simply choose to tap the equipment, leaving the Germ token free to attack for four. Remember, casting and activating a Stoneforge Mystic puts three permanents on the battlefield, and two of those permanents can be safely tapped-down to a Tangle Wire, and the 4/4 Lifelink Germ with Vigilance is left unscathed, and it can put in a lot of work!

If they are able to deal with it, by spending a turn on the aforementioned Phyrexian Revoker, then perhaps the following turn, Dack Fayden is able to be cast unimpeded, and the Shops player might not have another Revoker handy. Remember, this list has four Stoneforge Mystics and three Dack Faydens, and that can overload the Workshops player's Revokers.

The other piece of equipment, Umezawa's Jitte, isn't as obviously powerful againt Shops as Batterskull, but I have used it to take out a (Pyrexian Revoker) that was locking down my Dack Fayden. Against other versions of the Workshop archetype, such as Terra Nova or Metalworker builds, Umezawa's Jitte can take out small creatures like Metalworker or an animated Mishra's Factory with relative ease. With enough counters built up, even something larger like a Lodestone Golem can be destroyed.

Stoneforge Versus the Rest of the Field

Although Batterskull is the flashier card, and gets more attention, Jitte is also quite strong in this deck. Umezawa's Jitte does a lot of work for two mana, and as long as you're facing a "fair" deck, it can pull its own weight. Basically, it's an all-star against creature-based strategies, and there are a lot more of this type of deck being played than in years past.

Aside from the usual two main-deck Dack Faydens and perhaps a single Trygon Predator, Delver decks (and many other decks, for that matter) have no defense against a resolved Jitte or Batterskull. As far as Delver is concerned, other than Trygon Predator, all of the creatures in the deck will die to one attack with an equipped Jitte.

The only option Delver has is to either Force of Will the Stoneforge Mystic or the equipment, or perhaps Lightning Bolt the Mystic before it loses summoning sickness. There are generally three bolts, and sometimes a (Fire//Ice) in the deck, so while it's possible for the Delver pilot to deal with the Stoneforge package, it isn't as easy as you might think.

As far as the rest of the field goes, the common Counterspells played in most decks, are Force of Will, Mental Misstep, Flusterstorm, Pyroblast, and sometimes a single Spell Pierce. Mana Drain isn't seeing much play anymore, so that leaves Force of Will as the unconditional counter of choice. Stoneforge Mystic dodges all of those Counterspells other than Force, making it a little difficult to deal with.

A non-blue creature, that doesn't cost only one mana, and replaces itself with a card is a good value in the current meta. Even if the Stoneforge Mystic does eat a Force of Will, there are three more in the deck, and three Monastery Mentors as well. Seven must-answer threats can put a strain on a deck's removal, and cause opponents to burn up all of their Force of Wills.

With seven of these threats, it's possible to bait out a counter with a Mystic, clearing the way for a Monastery Mentor. In past Mentor builds, including my own, a lack of threat-density has been a major issue at times. It's much easier to justify sandbagging Force of Wills when three or four Mentors are the only cards to worry about.

Stoneforge Mentor Sideboard

I was a little down on Kataki last week, but it is easier to cast on-curve than many anti-artifact cards due to it being a creature and unaffected by Thorn of Amethyst. There are only two in the sideboard, so it's not like all of the burden in the Shops matchup falls on Kataki anyway. Early on, it does a good job of slowing the Shops player down, and if Mishra's Workshop is the only mana-source available for the Shops player, then Kataki is even more disruptive.

Leyline of Sanctity is here as an anti-combo card. It shuts off Oath of Druids, as well as Tendrils of Agony or even Goblin Charbelcher.

In my version of the deck, Containment Priest is replacing the two copies of Rest in Peace in Niffiwan's list. The three delve spells are important enough that I would rather not be forced to play something that nukes my own graveyard, and Priest is an incredible sideboard card in Vintage. Both Dredge and Oath are hosed by this card, as is Show and Tell to a degree.

Priest is also good against Tinker, as it stops Blightsteel Colossus from being tutored for. All this, and it beats for two a turn, and has flash. What more could you ask for?

Grafdigger's Cage is good against Oath and Dredge, and shuts down Yawgmoth's Will At only one colorless mana, it's very easy to cast as well.

Ingot Chewer is standard-issue Shops hate, and every deck running red chooses to play several copies. I've gone over why it's good before, it doesn't get countered by Chalice of the Void and it is unaffected by Thorn of Amethyst.

(pic=Wear//Tear)

A versatile split-card, Wear is the usual mode that you'll be playing, but Tearing a Oath or Omniscience is possible as well.

Against a large portion of the Vintage field, the red blasts are excellent. Being a counterspell and removal spell in one card adds a lot of versatility.

The last, and most boring piece of anti-shops tech, is a basic Mountain. It's a necessary inclusion, however, as you'll need a dependable source of red mana to cast all of the Shops hate.

The True Cost of Greatness

Adding the Stoneforge Mystic package to a Jeskai Mentor shell is not without its cost. Space in any Vintage deck comes at a premium. Sacrifices had to be made in order to fit four additional creatures and two pieces of equipment. My initial skepticism at the viability of a deck such as this stemmed from the hours I spent going over my own Mentor deck lists, trying to imagine how I'd fit more counter-magic or card-draw in my builds. As I mentioned, eventually my concerns were allayed by the success the deck had, and my own experience piloting the list.

The Best Draw Engine in Vintage - of all the card advantage spells available to Vintage decks, this build only plays two Dig Through Time, two Gush, four Preordain, and one of each of the restricted draw-spells. This leaves the deck with only twelve out of the sixteen cards that make up the BDEV.

When I lost to Delver in that Daily last weekend, my initial thought was that perhaps Delver's card-drawing package would always be able to bury this deck. Niffiwan proved that to be untrue last weekend, defeating Delver and even an Esper-colored Mentor deck on the route to a 4-0 finish. It is true, however, that care must be exercised when playing the deck's draw-spells. Having less card-draw means that it's even more important that each spell resolves, and that maximizing value is a must.

There are other ways to gain card advantage besides drawing cards. In a format like Vintage, where cards like Ancestral Recall and Treasure Cruise are played, it's easy to forget that fact. Against Delver especially, a card like Umezawa's Jitte has a ton of potential to create a sizable amount of card advantage by taking out multiple threats. While this doesn't put cards directly into the hand, it does ease the burden that cards in hand have to carry. With a Jitte taking out creatures, for instance, spare Lightning Bolts can go straight to the dome, or be used to take out an opposing Planeswalker.

Control Package - I've mentioned before that Force of Will is my crutch, and by that I really mean all Counterspells. I tend to overload my decks on Counterspells, at the expense of other reactive or defensive cards. Since this Stoneforge Mentor deck contains fewer counters, it's critical to use each one in the most effective way possible.

Even though there are fewer counters, the deck contains more spot removal than I had been playing. It's important to consider this fact when deciding what spells to fight over. If bolting a Delver is possible, perhaps wasting a Mental Misstep on it is quite possibly the wrong play.

In creature matchups, Umezawa's Jitte is also a control card, keeping us ahead on the battlefield, as well as saving us from using cards in hand. As time had passed, I've considered the Stoneforge/equipment package and come to the conclusion that the list has about the same amount of control elements as other Mentor decks, but some of the control over the game is exerted in a different way.

Basic Lands - To fight against Shops more effectively, a single basic Plains is in the main deck. Having four extra white cards means that this is necessary, but it can cause other problems. It's important to only fetch a basic Plains if your lands are under threat from a Wasteland. It's painful to not be able to Gush when you need to, and there are a lot of cards in the deck that can't be cast with a Plains as well.

Prowess - With four extra creatures, this list isn't able to trigger Monastery Mentor with as much ease as other versions of the deck. There are also only two copies of Gush, and no Gitaxian Probes, so making a Monk right away is slightly harder as well.

I consider Stoneforge Mentor to be less all-in on the "go nuts with Mentor" plan. That said, it's still easy to make an army of Monks in one turn cycle and overwhelm the opposition. At least hard-casting an equipment card triggers Mentor, which means the it's possible to make a Monk token with a Stoneforge Mystic (in a round-about way at least).

Moving Forward with Stoneforge Mentor

I think that Stoneforge Mentor is a viable deck in the Vintage metagame. The current build is somewhat weak to dedicated combo decks like TPS or Belcher, but a rearranging of the sideboard could easily remedy that situation. In my opinion, this is a deck that could take some practice to get used to. Niffiwan demonstrated what the deck can do when played by a seasoned pilot when he took down the tier one decks in the Dailies last weekend.

The main draw to the deck, is that it has a better matchup against Workshop-based decks than traditional Monastery Mentor decks, and I'd not be surprised if Stoneforge Mentor has a better Shops matchup than Delver as well. Mishra's Workshop decks are very powerful and consistent, and they're still quite capable of beating this deck, but the added power of a turn-three Batterskull gives Stoneforge Mentor an edge not found in similar decks. It's still important to practice the Shops matchup, because any deck in Vintage can pull the rug out from under you with the right opening hand.

Calling the deck "Kryptonite", is just having a bit of fun. I was in a good mood that night, having avenged all of my previous losses with a clean sweep of a Martello Shops deck. The flip side to this, was that I had almost no practice with the list, and still performed fairly well. This suggests to me that this deck is legit, and a real contender in the current Vintage metagame.

I hope at least one of you out there decides to try this deck, it's fun to play, and nobody expects to see a Stoneforge Mystic in Vintage. There's a real surprise factor, and you can score some wins by blindsiding your opponents.

Leaving a Legacy...

I've neglected Legacy a little bit in the past few weeks, mostly due to being so wrapped-up in Vintage. This week, I made a new Legacy deck. and I'd like to share it with you.

I like to get the most use that I can out of the cards that I have, so I searched the web for a Legacy deck that used the Stoneforge Mystic package. I came up with Jeskai Stoneblade, and Jeskai Delver. I was closer to being able to finish Jeskai Delver, so I went with that deck. Besides, I really wanted to get some more miles out of my Wastelands, and I'm a sucker for Daze.

Once upon a time, Jeskai Delver was one of the top decks in the format. Owen Turtenwald even won GP DC 2013 with a version of the deck, and the last time I was playing a lot of Legacy, you could still find people cashing Daily Events with this archetype.

That is no longer the case, and I couldn't find any recent tournament finishes by Jeskai Delver on MTGGoldfish. I had to do an old-fashioned Google search to find a copy of the deck, and then I had to turn that list into a form MTGO would recognize on my own. To add a bit more frustration, the best-looking list I could find was so old that it had three copies of Treasure Cruise in it. It's funny, but the first thing I did was replace two Cruises with Dig Through Time, until I remembered that Legacy doesn't have a restricted list and added three Digs instead.

The list I found also had three copies of Gitaxian Probe, a card that I substituted with Spell Pierce. I wanted more Counterspells in the deck, and I didn't think I needed the slight delve-enabling that Probe offers. So far, the deck is doing well, and it's a blast to play with. I'm not sure if it's tier-one anymore, but I think it still has some gas in the tank.

Playing this deck has gotten me thinking about Monastery Mentor in a deck that plays Daze, Gitaxian Probe, Force of Will, Maybe some amount of artifact mana would push it into playability, but I'm not certain.

The other deck that I'm working on, also has the Stoneforge package:

This deck looks sweet to me! There have been versions of this deck that were referred to as "Pyroblade", and those decks contained a number of Young Pyromancers. I'd like to try both versions, myself. I also wonder if Monastery Mentor could be good in a deck like this, I'm sure that there is some potential for success with a Mentor build.

I'm a little surprised to see the Nahiri, the Lithomancer in the sideboard. I never expected any of the Commander/Walkers from C14 to be constructed-playable.

I hope to have the Stoneblade deck completed soon, so I can write more about it. Midrange/Control is right up my alley, so I'm sure that I'm goint to enjoy playing it.

Closing Thoughts...

The other day, while playing some games in the Tournament Practice room, I ended up facing a player who was playing a deck that was less-than-optimal, to say the least. His deck had all kinds of cards that aren't considered to be Vintage playable, such as Cadaverous Bloom, as well as some cards like dual lands and moxen.

Normally, as my practice time is limited, I'd have ended the match and looked for a top-tier deck to practice against. This time, instead of just quitting, I struck up a conversation with the player. I started by mentioning that I used to run Pros/Bloom back when it was a standard deck.

This player joins in the conversation, by replying that he had quit Magic a long time ago, and was just trying to get back into the game. He then told me that he didn't know if a Pros/Bloom deck would be any good anymore. I told him that it isn't likely that such a deck could be a viable tournament deck, even a fringe deck. Sensing that he truly wanted to become a competitive tournament player, I gave him some suggestions, and sent him some links.

I told him that MTGOTraders.Com is the easiest way to buy the cards he'd need for a deck, and I explained how it works with the automated delivery bot. I mentioned Puremtgo, and I told him that there is usually Vintage content on the website every Friday. I also gave him the address for The Mana Drain and MTGGoldfish, and explained to him how to use those resources to find, build, and tune a successful Vintage deck.

This guy was quite happy to receive all of this info, and thanked me for my help. In addition to all this, I offered to play-test with him once he settles on a deck. I wouldn't be surprised to see him start commenting on articles on this very website, and I'd be glad to respond.

I really love Magic, especially Vintage and Legacy. I want some new blood, and assisting prospective players is very important to growing the format. Now, I'm not looking for some kind of explosive growth, but I'd like people to feel comfortable enough to make the initial investment that it takes to play Eternal Magic on MTGO.

So, the next time a situation like I described happens to you, consider taking a player under your wing, so to speak. Share some of that knowledge you've gained, and help us all create a strong, vibrant, diverse, and most of all friendly (but super- competitive) MTGO community. This is something that benefits everyone, so let's all make it happen.

Make your Voice heard! Vote for my next deck on Twitter!

(Click on the image at the bottom to link to my Twitter page!)

So far, I haven't received many votes, so I'm not closing the polls quite yet. This will give more time for people to vote if they haven't already, plus I need the time to get all of the cards together. Landstill has received more votes than any other deck, so unless more people tweet me some suggestions, then I'm playing that deck. Luckily, I don't need much to finish that list.

That's all the time I have for this week, until next time: