Countering a spell for 2 mana has always been a good rate, and then giving you the ability to stop a power play while effectively stealing the benefits of an opposing Dark Ritual, Black Lotus, and/or Moxen on your next turn was powerful Magic then, and it is certainly not worse now
Thor, God of Thunder I love Thor, God of Thunder as a new take on a red control creature
Rhet-Crop Spearmaster: seems like it will be great in Limited, at least for one turn
Even though the artwork has been reprinted a few times over the years, the original cards still fetch prices well into the thousands
Populate and cards like Phantom General demonstrated that we were becoming more comfortable with tokens being an evergreen part of the game
The deck could also shift plans: in sideboarded games control decks would be buried under Gargadon, Stormbind, and Storyteller, while Gargadon and Fatal Frenzy ensured the deck always had the biggest creature on board to punch through board stalls