Its nothing that exploratory for a merfolk deck, and I wish theyd leaned just a little more into the explore ability here
And to be clear, it can in decks that want to abuse the untap and want to go aggro
This card can be worked around with cards like Boss's Orders and Prime Catcher, but if an opponent is forced to use crucial cards to work around a bench lock, Glimmora ex is worth playing
As Kaladesh became Avishkar, aether finally started flowing freely to all
Merlin Shapeshifter can gain additional questing power whenever Illusions are bounced to our hand, thanks to Jafar
While WotC may have seen the set as an early failure in design and production strategy, we should think of it as a microcosm of what early Magic was: a weird fantasy world where mechanics were built around the flavor and the power level between sets swung wildly back and forth, where every new set was full of new concepts as the design team fleshed out how the game would look for years to come