LoR Deck Guide: Barkeep Monastery (Meme Deck)

How to Play Barkeep Monastery

Monastery of Hirana was a card that no one quite understood why it was printed when it was previewed.

Well, I have the only answer for you – it was meant for Back Alley Barkeep memes and nothing else.

Okay, maybe not nothing else, but this concept is a lot of fun!

The idea of the deck is to get value from Sanctuary which is created by the Monastery of Hirana.

Back Alley Barkeeps creates random cards from the regions you have played during the game based on the number of Barkeeps you have already played during the game.

Deck Code: CEBQIAIEAIEBSNAEAIBACAYFAYAQGAQGAQAQCBA3AEBQEFACAIBAQCICAEBCCMQBAEAQEMI

[See Barkeep Monastery deck details]

So, the first time you play a Barkeep, you gain one new card. The next time you play a Barkeep, you create two new cards!

Sanctuary allows you to recall your Barkeeps and continue to play more of them. This generates a lot of value from Barkeeps as well as Monastery of Hirana.

This is not the only way to gain value from the Monastery of Hirana in this deck.

There are several ways in this list that benefit from the spell being played such as Lee Sin as well as summon and play effects that make it useful such as Minah Swiftfoot.

The spell also procs Puffcap Peddler to dump mushrooms into your opponent’s deck. It can also be used to recall Kinkou Wayfinder to get additional value from summoning Teemos or giving you a second chance if you missed the Allegiance.

This list is a fun deck that I would mostly recommend for normals games for people who want to see wacky things happen as well as get some occasional wins as a bonus.

Win Conditions

This deck is meant to bring you fun between the random cards it creates as well as the amount of value it creates.

It has a multitude of win conditions – one of them is through the power of the Scout’s Code of Teemo.

The package of Teemo, Puffcap Peddler, and Kinkou Wayfinder can be quite deadly if left unanswered.

When Kinkou Wayfinder is played and there is another Ionia card on the top of the deck, then it will summon two Teemos even if there is already a Teemo on the board.

In some cases, you can have three Teemos in play at the same time. If they are leveled up and attacking at the same time, each Teemo will double the number of mushrooms in the deck per each hit.

Another potential win condition is the other champion in the deck, Lee Sin. Lee Sin levels up from spells being played eight times during the game.

He can then be activated with a spell and Challenge an opponent’s creature.

When he declares his attack he makes a Dragon’s Rage Skill which does damage to the opponent’s unit and destroys if it can or makes it return to the opponent’s hand if he can’t kill it.

The damage plus destroying or recalling a unit can push games toward a conclusion.

The last win condition is the least likely one to get, but it is the most fun one. This one is by simply outvaluing your opponent by creating more resources by playing Back Alley Barkeeps over and over.

Each time these are played, they can make multiple resources including damage spells or Elusive units.

The Mulligan Phase

The mulligan generally consists of looking for Teemo and Monastery of Hirana to get the ball rolling.

Against more aggressive decks especially Fearsome or Elise lists you will want to keep Claws of the Dragon in your starting hand as a blocker.

Against decks with early interaction, such as PNZ, you might want to consider keeping Nopeify to answer Mystic Shot onto your Teemo.

Against slower decks, you will want to consider keeping more of your value-oriented cards such as Kinkou Wayfinder and Puffcap Peddler.

Good Matchups

The best matchups are against slow decks that don’t do much in the early game.

For example, games against Draven Swain do well as they aren’t doing much in the early game to pressure you, so you can pressure them with your Teemos are generated value through Puffcap Peddler or Barkeep.

Other good matchups are ones where Minah Swiftfoot can shine through a giant shift in tempo.

This is often by using Minah to throwback champions that were summoned by Feel The Rush or to kick back a Leviathan summoned in a Swain deck.

Weak Matchups

Most aggressive decks are hard for this deck to deal with.

It has multiple defensive tools, but it doesn’t have a win condition that does a great job at winning while holding the aggressive opponents off your Nexus.

The matchups are winnable, but higher tempo decks don’t allow you the time that you need to play and generate value off of Monastery of Hirana.

Tech Choices:

• Shadow Assassin: This is for slower metas where you want to gain card advantage through the draw and potential additional Sanctuary value.

• Tasty Faefolk: This is for very aggressive metas where you are relying on lifesteal to stabilize.

• Spirit’s Refuge: This card offers you a way to heal a bit as PNZ and Ionia do not have too many options for this.

• Steel Tempest: This card allows you to stall easier against more aggressive opponents.

• Additional Denys: Deny is always dependent on meta. Some metas require more Denys in an Ionia deck than others.

• Will of Ionia: This is best for metas where you need to have more ways to interact with higher cost creatures besides Minah Swiftfoot.

• Chump Whump: He allows for more mushrooms to be added to the opponent’s deck but at the price of allegiance odds going down. Originally, I had one of him in the deck, but I didn’t find him necessary for the deck to perform well.

There is the option to cut more PNZ cards in favor of Ionia cards for allegiance odds.

I know that they are a little lower than most people are comfortable with, but as this is a meme deck I was willing to roll the dice.

If you are wanting to rely on Teemo and Kinkou Wayfinder more often then I’d recommend cutting Mystic shot and adding Steel Tempest.

I’d also say if you don’t want Back Alley Barkeep you can use Shadow Assassin instead as a value generator and it will help with your Allegiance odds.

If you are looking for something a bit new and different to play in Runeterra, then I think you will enjoy this list! It is a blast to play and winning with it feels like a real pleasure.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I do! If you are looking for more decks such as this one be sure to check out my Youtube channel and Twitch streams!

Thanks for reading! If you have any questions, feel free to ask Silverfuse during her streams (usually daily from 2-6PM CST).

Catch Silverfuse live at www.twitch.tv/silverfuse