MTG Salvation

Like most of the sieges Monastery Siege offers two modes of operation, neither of which would be good enough if they were the only text on the card. The Khans mode is good but not great at fixing clunky hands, digging for land drops and the like. What about the Dragons mode? It obviously provides some measure of protection, but is it effective? In terms of mana I'd say not since EDH games will very often get to the point to where people can just pay 2 more for that Vindicate, but what about in terms of tempo? Having to pay 2 more is non-trivial and can effect an opponent's ability to both remove your stuff and play to the board. So what do you all think? I'm especially looking for the experiences of people who have used Monastery Siege to try and protect something like combo pieces or a Voltron commander; i.e. things where protection is critical.

A topic popped up like this a few months ago. Brago loves the card because filter early then blink into protect mode.

I have never played it aside from in Khans mode. The other mode seems like a Mana leak people can see coming. Might slow them down a little and buy you a couple turns though, which might be enough. Just hasn't been relevant in the games I play.

I wonder if the Dragons mode on Monastery Siege would have any synergy with Leovold, Emissary of Trest? Double reason not to target your stuff?

I've long thought about using it this way in a dedicated mana-denial deck (Numot, the Devastator). I don't know that I'll ever actually build it.

I run a reanimation Oloro deck and I use both modes, the looting mode is great to get fatties in the graveyard while I dig for reanimation spells, mid to late game it offers psuedo protection. Great card that can be brought back with Sun Titan too!

Quote from Outcryqq »

I wonder if the Dragons mode on Monastery Siege would have any synergy with Leovold, Emissary of Trest? Double reason not to target your stuff?

Ooh, nice. My Leovold deck already has Spellskite, Kira, Great Glass-Spinner, Willbender, and Rayne, Academy Chancellor (with a few useful auras in the deck). I should see if I can find a slot for Monastery Siege.

Quote from MRdown2urth »

A topic popped up like this a few months ago. Brago loves the card because filter early then blink into protect mode.

This may be the key. The card is a lot better if you have some way, not necessarily blink, to change modes on it.

You could bounce with Words of Wind, Umbilicus, Blood Clock to change modes.

I mean in a Stax deck this card seem like it adds value to your plan if you choose Dragons.

Maybe in conjunction with In the Eye of Chaos it might legitimately put most instant spot removal beyond reach?

I run it in protection mode in Narset, more for synergy with Stax + one more enchantment for Sphere of Safety than anything else. I also tend to run it in Vorel and Brago just because every deterrent helps. Yes, Stax effects aren't as effective late game, but the point is to protect your board so that there won't BE a late game...

I think the khans mode is preferred because in decks that want a full graveyard (e.g., reanimator, dredge), it's usually about the same as Ceta Sanctuary, and you have the dragons mode if you need it.

The dragons mode is nice, though. I know I often play "removal spell and something else". It does have one downside, though: Triggered and activated abilities of permanents just don't care. You make spells targeting permanents you control cost more, and they're like this

People often forget that ETB triggers of creatures, and things like Oblivion Ring and Aura Shards, don't target until after the spell is cast, so in those cases, the dragons ability is irrelevant. So it's really a meta call.

I posted an SCD thread on it a while ago, and ended up trying it in a GAAIV tax deck. It was really good there, seldom cast it for the other mode. Most of the time the deck saw it, it was off of some mass draw effect like Time Spiral. The effect is very good in that stage of the game, because you don't mind going down the card, and very few things accomplish what it does. It is great to be able to resolve a high impact commander or a combo piece and be able to count on it not getting interfered with. And if you do get it in your opener instead, you're not too disappointed with it because it at least does the job of keeping your land drops going.

I ended up putting away the deck for a bit, because it was another one of those that was not good enough against BGx graveyard combo, but too good against everything else. It didn't help that the tax effects tended to enable gy combo against other control. Maybe a version could be "competitive" with more draw and graveyard hate, but I got tired of pulling the deck in too many directions.

So for games that tend to be very interactive and happen quickly at least, I can say the card is well worth the slot. For the BUG goodstuff games where people do nothing for 6 turns before resolving Boundless Realms though, I can't really give an opinion.