[SCD] Nantuko Monastary vs Tower of Magistrate in GW/Maverick/BANT/Junk/etc...

[zulander]

So recently I've been going through and looking for alternative lands that would help against Stoneforge decks and came across Nantuko Monastery as an alternative to Tower of the Magistrate. It kills the germ token as opposed to making it fall. Here are some quick pro/cons for it:

Pro:
It's a creature which can kill other things too.
It can go on the offensive

Con:
If Batterskull has something else attached it will trump it
If Batterskull is quipped to a real creature it can trump it
It can be hit by removal like stp
You need threshold so it's not always turned on

Does the fact that it can help out in stalemates outweigh the cons? Seems really sweet when you have a 1v1 creature war going on, fetch it with knight their eot and then go to town attacking their planeswalker and makes it another threat they have to find an answer for.

Has anyone else tested it out?

[Finn]

Doesn't unequipping the Batterskull kill the token anyway?

[lebarion]

Doesn't unequipping the Batterskull kill the token anyway?

Also, Tower kills the token even if it is not attacking, unlike Monastery.

I like the fact that Monastery is more aggressive, but the Threshold dependence makes it bad in my opinion. I'd rather run Kor Haven, and even it doesn't made the cut.

On another topic, I don't think Maverick and Junk needs Tower to beat Batterskull.

[Hanni]

I've been running Monastery in my Aggro Bant lists for a while now, but not because of Batterskull. If you're playing Maverick or Bant and having trouble with Batterskull, you're doing something wrong.

[lordofthepit]

I would not play Monastery over Tower of the Magistrate in Maverick, Bant, or Junk. Batterskull is usually not the card that beats you; it is usually Sword of Feast and Famine, Sword of Body and Mind, or Sword of Light and Shadow which grants your opponent's creature protection from your fatties, and Nantuko Monastery does nothing to help in that regard. Occasionally, if you stumble in your early game development, an Umezawa's Jitte can dominate the board as well, and Monastery may be useful there (if your opponent doesn't have Wasteland, which blows out Monastery harder than it does Tower, which at least disequips the Jitte once).