Decks that want to play counters are almost always control decks, and control decks would much prefer to gain life rather than cause opponents to lose life, so all things being equal they would have preferred to play with Absorb but there were other considerations that forced most of them down the black road instead
In the days where Boros and mono-white decks had no other options for card draw, it would do in a pinch
Scene Box The first cards revealed for MTG Spiderman were a scene box, six cards that slot together to make a complete collage
An abundance of removal spells in Constructed, and especially bounce out of the control decks, kept it down in Standard, but probably more than they should have
1 Like qwachansey September 21, 2021, 3:53pm 4 Excellent guide
Cycling through copies of the card as much as possible in a single turn is key to many of the decks plays, allowing it to bring out powerful Ritual monsters like Skull Guardian, Protector of the Voiceless Voice with ease