The only exception to this is the first entry, which is more of an ethos for beginners looking for the best MTG Arena deck to start with rather than a specific deck
For example, if you engage with a 3/3 without first strike, it'll be a 1/1 when you take damage back and you'll survive
One and Done Some extra combat spells are single use, unless you can somehow recur them
Forcing your opponents to discard cards is always nice, and then for eight mana you can also force them to sacrifice something
Still, Thoughtseize was just too efficient at letting a deck like this know everything it needed to do while giving it a level of robustness that made it nearly unassailable, no matter how hard people tried
8 Thorn of Amethyst As someone with a personal vendetta against blue, Thorn of Amethyst excites me