Most MTG cards have obvious usages. Every card is designed to synergize well in certain formats, or with other cards. Occasionally, players will find a way to use a card for something outside its apparent purpose. These bizarre usages can give an MTG card new life, and commonly lead to a card becoming very powerful.
This seems to have happened with Monument to Endurance. A subtle self-discard theme following along with the Amonkhet representation in MTG Aetherdrift gave birth to this card. If you can consistently discard multiple cards in a turn, Monument to Endurance offers a massive windfall. While this is the best way to use it, Monument to Endurance is starting to see use in other ways.
Anti-Discard Tech
Thoughtseize is an incredibly common card to run into in older MTG formats. Capable of breaking up carefully crafted plans while unlocking tons of information, many MTG decks direly need a way to stop it. Monument to Endurance is beginning to pop up in the sideboards of strategies vulnerable to hand destruction. For example, the card appeared in a challenge-winning Lotus Field Combo decklist in the Pioneer format.
Lotus Field Combo traditionally requires players to assemble game-winning haymakers and setup pieces to win the game. This makes the deck very susceptible to discard. If your setup is slowed down, or your win conditions are stripped from your hand, midrange strategies can gain enough time to close the door before you can combo off.
Monument to Endurance significantly improves your odds of beating discard. You can replace a Thoughtseize with a new card and even turn your opponent’s discard into a ramp. Now, should you draw a win condition a few turns before you’re ready, you may be able to win the game ahead of schedule.
While Monument to Endurance showed up in a decklist utilizing the traditional Lotus Field Combo Emergent Ultimatum shell, the card synergizes incredibly well with Artist’s Talent, the centerpiece of another Lotus Field Combo shell. Monument to Endurance can play double-duty, profiting off your Rummage effects from Artist’s Talent and profiting off your opponent’s discard spells.
Despite this, I would not recommend playing Monument to Endurance outside the sideboard. Monument to Endurance can be costly to set up in a format with aggressive plans. If you board in the Monument in slower matchups, you can ensure that you will get value out of the card.
At the time of writing, Monument to Endurance is seeing most of its play in Pioneer as discard hate in the sideboard, but also sees some Duel Commander play. The card has even appeared in Vintage, but this is unusual.
Discarding Over and Over
Another deck that invites Monument to Endurance is Asmo Food. This deck creates value by using a synergy between The Underworld Cookbook and Ovalchase Daredevil to create ludicrous amounts of value. Discard the Ovalchase Daredevil to The Underworld Cookbook the Devil’s trigger will bring it back to your hand.
Monument to Endurance can take maximum advantage of this. Every time you use this synergy, the Monument can provide card advantage. Once you’re able to do this multiple times a turn, the Monument can either ramp you or start closing the door on your opponent.
Asmo, the namesake card of this strategy, also needs to be discarded to enter play, which synergizes further with Monument to Endurance. The card can grab The Underworld Cookbook after entering, improving the consistency of the Monument’s payoffs even further.
Spiking In Price
Monument to Endurance being a powerful Aetherdrift card, despite its recent discovery as anti-discard tech, is not a well-kept secret. Players know this card has been good for quite some time, and the card is beginning to get even more expensive.
Monument to Endurance’s nadir (lowest price point) has been about $8 since its release. This occurred right after the official release of MTG Aetherdrift, a common pattern seen with new cards since supply suddenly floods the market.
Instead of dropping further, Monument to Endurance started spiking rather quickly. The card is now worth about $10 according to recent sales. The market average is currently a bit higher, which does suggest a slight price drop is coming.
Monument to Endurance has a ton of supply on the secondary market right now, which indicates that supply and demand have a healthy relationship with the card. While prices have spiked mildly for the card since release, it appears that the price spike has come to an end.
Keep an Eye on This Card
Monument to Endurance is seeing a healthy amount of play, and is undeniably a fantastic payoff for decks that want to discard cards. Sadly, the Monument isn’t really seeing play in formats that affect the secondary market heavily. While the card appears to be upticking in Pioneer, in particular, it seems unlikely that this will impact the secondary market – which is a good thing.
Unfortunately, Pioneer is mostly an unserious online format at this point. There hasn’t been any competitive paper support for the format for quite a long time. There’s a good chance a future Regional Championship Qualifier series will be Pioneer, but one has not been announced for the foreseeable future.
While Monument to Endurance does see healthy Commander play thanks to being a powerful payoff, it does not see much Standard play. The card rarely appears in Modern, and Duel Commander is another format that doesn’t impact the secondary market heavily.
It will be interesting to see if Monument to Endurance ends up creating a new archetype in a more influential format. Esper Pixie, in particular, discards a ton of cards. Maybe this will start popping up in Standard sideboards as well?
