Even my grandfather, who lost most of his fingers in a tragic chainsaw accident, can count the number of legacy playable planeswalkers on one hand (pretty much just Jace, the Mind Sculptor, Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas, and Liliana of the Veil, with apologies to Elspeth, Knight Errant and Tezzeret, the Seeker)
This lets you use mana extremely efficiently
In hindsight, Arabian Nights was a flawed but brave attempt at "top-down" set design, where flavor comes first and the lore dictates card design rather than the other way around
Plus, when it ETBs, you get to exile the top half of someones library
But here you have to spend the mana on your own turn, but in return you get a passable body
Two life per card is a lot, but this ones worth it