So why is Fallen Shinobi such an afterthought, then and now
Every Equipment costs mana to actually equip to your creatures, but the deck has plenty of ways to cheat around equip costs by making them either discounted or completely free, depending on what your board state is
I also reached day two of a Grand Prix in the format, so it wasnt all bad
(You may put the top card of your library into your graveyard.) Once Patchwork Beastie is attacking or blocking, reducing the number of card types among cards in your graveyard won't remove Patchwork Beastie from combat
It's one of the most popular creature types in MTG history as a squirrel, and it's also powerful in its own right, with baked-in mana ramp on top of token duplication that can create some absurd boardstates quickly
Thats also the reason why theyll probably never be removed from the Reserved List