Discard was quickly thrown out and replaced with direct damage, mainly to keep purple from playing like a traditional blue-black control deck (ironically, this made it play somewhat like blue-red, the two colors that mix to create purple, but this was a coincidence)
Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite is one of the best token payoffs in White
For the most part, Vampires are either red, white, or black, letting Edgar Markov play all of the best Vampires and Vampire support cards
Lion Sash is one more tool for the already versatile white creature decks
We here at CoolStuffInc seem to have had a real interest in Yoshimaru, Ever Faithful over the past few weeks
They can draw you a lot of cards in theory, but how often is this going to be better than the identically costed Divination or Counsel of the Soratami in the abstract (which for most multiplayer deck decisions is where your deck-building must go)