Crossovers like Lord of the Rings and Dungeons & Dragons, both of which feel like strong thematic fits for Magic, have attracted far less criticism
White has always struggled to draw extra cards, but WotC is making a serious effort to fix that with strong White cards
Flourishing Defenses creates a 1/1 green elf warrior token whenever a -1/-1 counter is put on a creature
The first legendary creatures and the first multicolored cards were being explored
Once you have a big enough storm count, typically around six, you can flip Ral into his planeswalker side, which then lets you activate Ral's final ability on the same turn, giving you access to a bunch more spells for free, until you find your copy of Grapeshot
The taxing mostly means the creature is effectively answered until the mid- to late game