Oh, and one reference for the conspiracy theories: "All of the wizards who could not escape in time were burnt in the holocaust of colorless fire"
Invest enough mana and time into this land, which can't tap for mana on its own right, and your reward is a massive world-devouring 20/20 to gobble up opponents
Combine this with the relatively weak instant removal and some of the Ninjutsu incentives (getting to that later) and you get a format where blocking and not blocking are both bad
Evendo Brushrazer is an incredible sacrifice payoff that produces mana and draws cardsthe formula for a card thats at least a staple, if not broken
Filigree Familiar is an entirely reasonable card to play that fits on the curve, gives you a bit of life, replaces itself when it dies, and looks incredible while doing these things
Instead, I tried Colossal Skyturtle because 1) it's more flexible: you can bounce a creature with it and 2) it's harder to interact with: opponents can't usually counter Channel abilities