Pointed Discussion

Love this card.

Insect monk?
That's a first.

Needing to have Threshold , and only being able to add colorless mana hurts this card for me. I supose with enough Fog's and Day of Judgment's it could fit in a lot of decks. Now we have other options, being Stirring Wildwood. I gave this card a 4/5...

I find it hilarious that it's a transforming land with that sort of name and flavor.

Perhaps producing those insect monks would make more sense but...

XD
a land with first strike.. that has to be something to see.

@ ajpinton:

When a couple dozen utility cards in your deck have Cycling, Threshold can be reached in a matter of a couple turns. If you're GW and your deck is midrange-y enough to care about its graveyard, recurring things, and other silly archetypical nonsense, this thing is a powerhouse that wins games.

Have you heard of the Kumite? *Ah-tta!*

If you're confused by "Insect Monk" look up Nantuko on Gatherer, they're humanoid insect creatures. And yes, they're usually druids, but this is a monastery and monks live in monasteries.

Obviously, Stirring Wildwood is going to make it into more decks. But a man-land turning into a creature this big is quite rare, much less with first strike and an activation of only 2. You could hold the fort for a long time against aggro with this, and unlike with Wildwood, actually deter a lot of attacks. Threshold is a nice little contingency to balance that out.

Two words:

WTF.

DAGOBAH.

@Owls: I think the flavor is that when ordered all the monks come out of the monastery to kick some ass, and then retreat back into the monastery.

Also, it's funny that Nantuko are insects that resemble the praying mantis.

And what do monks do? They pray =D

In the right deck, this card is a powerhouse.

If you're curious, the flavor is similar to Ghitu Encampment, except even a bit deeper.

These monks live in their monasteries, somewhere peaceful. In times of war they come out (and are quite skilled at combat; think of fantasy monk archtypes.) The "times of war" vs. "times of peace" thing comes from Threshold (7 things are in your graveyard, representing dead things, war spells, whatever..) and thus when he's called upon to defend his monastery, he will.

Also note that a church is somewhat revolving around it's priest, the last bit of flavor may just be that when he dies, so does his church.



..it's not an animated church..

I know what they're doing, but cards like this just don't make sense to me unless the actual land is alive, like stalking stones. That epic insect monk lives there, and when you kill a bunch of his friends, he comes out to kick some butt. If I'm mad at someone and go outside to beat them up, that's me, not my house. I'm not also my house.
... I'd rather that these cards produced legendary tokens. It just makes more sense. :)