Foreboding Statue // Forsaken Thresher

A mana rock built with a self-destruct timer that pays out instead of expiring. The front face carries a small 1/2 body, but its purpose is acceleration: tap it for a color of your choosing, and every activation stacks an omen counter toward the three that flip it. The counter clock is the whole design, and crucially it advances only when you use the mana ability, so the transformation is something you spend toward rather than something that happens to you. That gives the card a deliberate rhythm: three separate taps plus an end-step check to convert. How quickly you reach the flip depends entirely on how often you can tap it, so a fast start (or an untap effect) accelerates the payoff, while a passive rock that just sits there never gets there. The reward is a larger creature that keeps producing a color of mana on your first main phase, folding the ramp function forward instead of retiring it.

It answers the problem that haunts every accelerant: a mana source curves out of relevance the moment your deck stops wanting more mana. Rather than attach a clumsy activated sink or a sacrifice clause, this one converts by counting, turning its own overuse into an upgrade. What keeps it fair is that the count advances only through active use and the payoff side is a functional body rather than a bomb, so the flip arrives as earned interest on the taps you have already spent, not as a windfall.