­Thelonite Monk

Creature Jazz Musician?

Anyway - this became an order of druids in a later set, I think?

Anyhow; this is a fine effect - but kinda costly. I thnk I'll pump the creature a bit rather than remove the sac part.

­Thelonite Druid is probably the thing you're remembering, but it's in Fallen Empires just like this.

Sensible change: stays true to the original card while making it more useful / playable.

Oh right, Thelonite druid is ALSO in FE. Humm.

I was erroneously thinking of the race of mantis-men druids... Nantuko?

Oh yes, the Nantuko were all throughout Odyssey block. For some reason. I think because Wizards wanted to avoid using the normal tribes so as to not set up too much synergy with the tribal block coming after it, so green got Insects and Centaurs instead of Elves, red got Dwarves instead of Goblins, white got Nomads instead of Soldiers, and blue got Cephalids instead of Merfolk. Black was still allowed Zombies though.

Wizards didn't know the next block was going to be tribal. They wanted to mix things up and were then caught with their pants down. MaRo has said they regret putting the two blocks next to each other.