Their pitfalls before Akiri were protection against removal and lack of card draw
Decks that want to play counters are almost always control decks, and control decks would much prefer to gain life rather than cause opponents to lose life, so all things being equal they would have preferred to play with Absorb but there were other considerations that forced most of them down the black road instead
Cheap equipment are great in this build, especially ones with a high power boost and a low equip cost
There are 12 Enchanted cards in the Rise of the Floodborn set, and some are already hitting high prices on resell markets
Players then draw cards equal to the number of votes they receive, and if no one votes for them, they get to put a permanent card from their hand into play
I mentioned Tesak, Judiths HellhoundTesak, Judiths Hellhound earlier