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
There are a few other wraths that are worth a look in red, with Chandras Ignition being very one sided if you can build around it
The speed of the game makes it hard to find the time for a card that doesn't directly impact the game, but the real problem was that a lot of cards started using their graveyards for fun and profit, much more so than in the past
Your progress on the Vault never "expires." Don't sweat it if you open a ton of packspoints past 1,000 will be applied to your next Vault
Even if you don't think blue is currently the most powerful colour in Magic there is no denying the power level of these cards
These lands are all quite similar and none are Modern legal